Isolation of mutant alleles of the U6 snRNA m  6  A methyltransferase Mtl16 and characterization of their genetic interactions with splicing mutants in  Schizosaccharomyces pombe .
 Schizosaccharomyces pombe  Dim1 is a conserved essential component of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP complex essential for pre-mRNA splicing. In a synthetic lethal screen with the temperature-sensitive  dim1-35  mutant, we isolated multiple alleles of non-essential  mtl16  that encodes the U6 snRNA m  6  A methyltransferase. Further genetic analysis revealed strong and specific negative genetic interactions between  mtl16  and a mutation in the Dim1 binding partner, Prp31, and between  dim1-35  and a mutation in the Prp31 binding partner, Prp6. Our work provides additional tools to study pre-mRNA splicing in  S. pombe  and biological confirmation of the importance of the Prp6-Prp31-Dim1-U6 snRNA interactions for pre-mRNA splicing.
Willet AH, Ren L, Turner LA, Gould KL