Dataset Information

Satellite DNA Modulates Gene Expression in the Beetle Tribolium castaneum after Heat Stress.

ABSTRACT: Non-coding repetitive DNAs have been proposed to perform a gene regulatory role, however for tandemly repeated satellite DNA no such role was defined until now. Here we provide the first evidence for a role of satellite DNA in the modulation of gene expression under specific environmental conditions. The major satellite DNA TCAST1 in the beetle Tribolium castaneum is preferentially located within pericentromeric heterochromatin but is also dispersed as single repeats or short arrays in the vicinity of protein-coding genes within euchromatin. Our results show enhanced suppression of activity of TCAST1-associated genes and slower recovery of their activity after long-term heat stress relative to the same genes without associated TCAST1 satellite DNA elements. The level of gene suppression is not influenced by the distance of TCAST1 elements from the associated genes up to 40 kb from the genes' transcription start sites, but it does depend on the copy number of TCAST1 repeats within an element, being stronger for the higher number of copies. The enhanced gene suppression correlates with the enrichment of the repressive histone marks H3K9me2/3 at dispersed TCAST1 elements and their flanking regions as well as with increased expression of TCAST1 satellite DNA. The results reveal transient, RNAi based heterochromatin formation at dispersed TCAST1 repeats and their proximal regions as a mechanism responsible for enhanced silencing of TCAST1-associated genes. Differences in the pattern of distribution of TCAST1 elements contribute to gene expression diversity among T. castaneum strains after long-term heat stress and might have an impact on adaptation to different environmental conditions.

SUBMITTER: Feliciello I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4537270 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Satellite DNA Modulates Gene Expression in the Beetle Tribolium castaneum after Heat Stress.

Feliciello Isidoro I Akrap Ivana I Ugarković Đurđica Đ

PLoS genetics 20150814 8

Non-coding repetitive DNAs have been proposed to perform a gene regulatory role, however for tandemly repeated satellite DNA no such role was defined until now. Here we provide the first evidence for a role of satellite DNA in the modulation of gene expression under specific environmental conditions. The major satellite DNA TCAST1 in the beetle Tribolium castaneum is preferentially located within pericentromeric heterochromatin but is also dispersed as single repeats or short arrays in the vicin ...[more]

PMID: 26275223

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Project description:The beetle Tribolium castaneum has increasingly become a powerful model for comparative research on insect development. One recent resource is a collection of piggyBac transposon-based enhancer trap lines. Here, we provide a detailed analysis of three selected lines and demonstrate their value for investigations in the second half of embryogenesis, which has thus far lagged behind research on early stages. Two lines, G12424 and KT650, show enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression throughout the extraembryonic serosal tissue and in a few discrete embryonic domains. Intriguingly, both lines show for the first time a degree of regionalization within the mature serosa. However, their expression profiles illuminate distinct aspects of serosal biology: G12424 tracks the tissue's rapid maturation while KT650 expression likely reflects ongoing physiological processes. The third line, G04609, is stably expressed in mesodermal domains, including segmental muscles and the heart. Genomic mapping followed by in situ hybridization for genes near to the G04609 insertion site suggests that the transposon has trapped enhancer information for the Tribolium orthologue of midline (Tc-mid). Altogether, our analyses provide the first live imaging, long-term characterizations of enhancer traps from this collection. We show that EGFP expression is readily detected, including in heterozygote crosses that permit the simultaneous visualization of multiple tissue types. The tissue specificity provides live, endogenous marker gene expression at key developmental stages that are inaccessible for whole mount staining. Furthermore, the nonlocalized EGFP in these lines illuminates both the nucleus and cytoplasm, providing cellular resolution for morphogenesis research on processes such as dorsal closure and heart formation. In future work, identification of regulatory regions driving these enhancer traps will deepen our understanding of late developmental control, including in the extraembryonic domain, which is a hallmark of insect development but which is not yet well understood.

Dataset Information

Satellite DNA Modulates Gene Expression in the Beetle Tribolium castaneum after Heat Stress.

Publications

Satellite DNA Modulates Gene Expression in the Beetle Tribolium castaneum after Heat Stress.

Similar Datasets

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