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Real-time transposable element activity in individual live cells.

ABSTRACT: The excision and reintegration of transposable elements (TEs) restructure their host genomes, generating cellular diversity involved in evolution, development, and the etiology of human diseases. Our current knowledge of TE behavior primarily results from bulk techniques that generate time and cell ensemble averages, but cannot capture cell-to-cell variation or local environmental and temporal variability. We have developed an experimental system based on the bacterial TE IS608 that uses fluorescent reporters to directly observe single TE excision events in individual cells in real time. We find that TE activity depends upon the TE's orientation in the genome and the amount of transposase protein in the cell. We also find that TE activity is highly variable throughout the lifetime of the cell. Upon entering stationary phase, TE activity increases in cells hereditarily predisposed to TE activity. These direct observations demonstrate that real-time live-cell imaging of evolution at the molecular and individual event level is a powerful tool for the exploration of genome plasticity in stressed cells.

SUBMITTER: Kim NH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4932956 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Real-time transposable element activity in individual live cells.

Kim Neil H NH Lee Gloria G Sherer Nicholas A NA Martini K Michael KM Goldenfeld Nigel N Kuhlman Thomas E TE

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20160613 26

The excision and reintegration of transposable elements (TEs) restructure their host genomes, generating cellular diversity involved in evolution, development, and the etiology of human diseases. Our current knowledge of TE behavior primarily results from bulk techniques that generate time and cell ensemble averages, but cannot capture cell-to-cell variation or local environmental and temporal variability. We have developed an experimental system based on the bacterial TE IS608 that uses fluores ...[more]

PMID: 27298350

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Project description:Cell-surface glycans are attractive targets for molecule imaging due to their reflection of cellular processes associated with development and disease progression. In this paper, we describe the design, synthesis, and biological application of a new phosphine probe for real-time imaging of cell-surface glycans using bioluminescence. To accomplish this goal, we took advantage of the bioorthogonal chemical reporter technique. This strategy uses a two-step labeling procedure in which an unnatural sugar analogue containing a functional handle is (1) incorporated into sugar-bearing proteins via the cell's own biosynthetic machinery and then (2) detected with an exogenously added probe. We designed phosphine-luciferin reagent 1 to activate bioluminescence in response to Staudinger ligation with azide-labeled glycans. We chose to use a phosphine probe because, despite their slow reaction kinetics, they remain the best-performing reagents for tagging azidosugars in mice. Given the sensitivity and negligible background provided by bioluminescence imaging (BLI), we reasoned that 1 might be able to overcome some of the limitations encountered with fluorescent phosphine probes. In this work, we synthesized the first phosphine-luciferin probe for use in real-time BLI and demonstrated that azide-labeled cell-surface glycans can be imaged with 1 using concentrations as low as single digit nanomolar and times as little as 5 min, a feat that cannot be matched by any previous fluorescent phosphine probes. Even though we have only demonstrated its use in visualizing glycans, it can be envisioned that this probe could also be used for bioluminescence imaging of any azide-containing biomolecule, such as proteins and lipids, since azides have been previously incorporated into these molecules. The phosphine-luciferin probe is therefore poised for many applications in real-time imaging in cells and whole animals. These studies are currently in progress in our laboratory.

Dataset Information

Real-time transposable element activity in individual live cells.

Publications

Real-time transposable element activity in individual live cells.

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