RBM20 and RBM24 cooperatively promote the expression of short enh splice variants

PDZ-LIM protein ENH1 is a scaffold protein for protein kinases and transcriptional regulators. While ENH1 promotes the hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes, its short splice variant (ENH3) prevents the hypertrophic growth. The mechanism underlying the alternative splicing of enh mRNA between ENH short and long isoforms has remained unknown. Here, we found that two splicing factors, RNA-binding motif 20 (RBM20) and RNA-binding motif 24 (RBM24) together promoted the expression of short enh splice variants and bound the 5' intronic region of exon 11 containing an in-phase stop codon. In addition, expression of both RBMs is repressed by hypertrophic stimulations. Collectively, our results suggest that, in healthy conditions, RBM20 and RBM24 cooperate to promote the expression of short ENH isoforms.