Deletion of sf3b4 causes splicing defects and gene dysregulation that disrupt craniofacial development and survival

Nager and Rodriguez syndromes are rare craniofacial and limb disorders characterized by midface retrusion, micrognathia, absent thumbs and radial hypoplasia. These disorders result from haploinsufficiency of SF3B4 (splicing factor 3b, subunit 4), a component of the pre-mRNA spliceosomal machinery. Although the spliceosome is present and functions in all cells of the body, most spliceosomopathies - including Nager and Rodriguez syndromes - are cell- or tissue-specific in their pathology. To understand the pathomechanism underlying these conditions, we generated a Xenopus tropicalis sf3b4 mutant line using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology. Homozygous deletion of sf3b4 is detrimental to the development of cranial neural crest (NC)-derived cartilage progenitors. Temporal RNA-sequencing analyses of mutant embryos identified an increase in exon-skipping events, followed by important transcriptional changes associated with an enrichment for terms consistent with defects in NC cell migration and survival. We propose that disruption of these processes may underly the pathogenesis of Nager and Rodriguez syndromes.