A splicing variant of TFEB negatively regulates the TFEB-autophagy pathway

Transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master regulator of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway (ALP). Here, we cloned a novel splicing variant of TFEB, comprising 281 amino acids (hereafter referred to as small TFEB), and lacking the helix-loop-helix (HLH) and leucine zipper (LZ) motifs present in the full-length TFEB (TFEB-L). The TFEB variant is widely expressed in several tissues, including the brain, although its expression level is considerably lower than that of TFEB-L. Intriguingly, in cells stably expressing small TFEB, the expression profile of genes was inverted compared to that in cells ectopically expressing TFEB-L. In addition, fisetin-induced luciferase activity of promoter containing either coordinated lysosomal expression and regulation (CLEAR) element or antioxidant response element (ARE) was significantly repressed by co-transfection with small TFEB. Moreover, fisetin-mediated clearance of phosphorylated tau or α-synuclein was attenuated in the presence of small TFEB. Taken together, the results suggest that small TFEB is a novel splicing variant of TFEB that might act as a negative regulator of TFEB-L, thus fine tuning the activity of ALP during cellular stress.