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Coregulation of ribosomal RNA with hundreds of genes contributes to phenotypic variation.

ABSTRACT: Ribosomal repeats occupy 5% of a plant genome, yet there has been little study of their diversity in the modern age of genomics. Ribosomal copy number and expression variation present an opportunity to tap a novel source of diversity. In the present study, we estimated the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) copy number and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) expression for a population of maize inbred lines and investigated the potential role of rDNA and rRNA dosage in regulating global gene expression. Extensive variation was found in both ribosomal DNA copy number and ribosomal RNA expression among maize inbred lines. However, rRNA abundance was not consistent with the copy number of the rDNA. We have not found that the rDNA gene dosage has a regulatory role in gene expression; however, thousands of genes are identified to be coregulated with rRNA expression, including genes participating in ribosome biogenesis and other functionally relevant pathways. We further investigated the potential roles of copy number and the expression level of rDNA on agronomic traits and found that both correlated with flowering time but through different regulatory mechanisms. This comprehensive analysis suggested that rRNA expression variation is a valuable source of functional diversity that affects gene expression variation and field-based phenotypic changes.

SUBMITTER: Li B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6169892 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Coregulation of ribosomal RNA with hundreds of genes contributes to phenotypic variation.

Li Bo B Kremling Karl A G KAG Wu Penghao P Bukowski Robert R Romay Maria C MC Xie En E Buckler Edward S ES Chen Mingsheng M

Genome research 20180830 10

Ribosomal repeats occupy 5% of a plant genome, yet there has been little study of their diversity in the modern age of genomics. Ribosomal copy number and expression variation present an opportunity to tap a novel source of diversity. In the present study, we estimated the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) copy number and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) expression for a population of maize inbred lines and investigated the potential role of rDNA and rRNA dosage in regulating global gene expression. Extensive variation ...[more]

PMID: 30166407

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Gene coregulation across a population is an important aspect of the considerable variability of the human immune response to virus infection. Methodology to investigate it must rely on a number of ingredients ranging from gene clustering to transcription factor enrichment analysis. RESULTS:We have developed a methodology to investigate the gene to gene correlations for the expression of 34 genes linked to the immune response of Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) infected conventional dendritic cells (DCs) from 145 human donors. The levels of gene expression showed a large variation across individuals. We generated a map of gene co-expression using pairwise correlation and multidimensional scaling (MDS). The analysis of these data showed that among the 13 genes left after filtering for statistically significant variations, two clusters are formed. We investigated to what extent the observed correlation patterns can be explained by the sharing of transcription factors (TFs) controlling these genes. Our analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between MDS distances and TF sharing across all pairs of genes. We applied enrichment analysis to the TFs having binding sites in the promoter regions of those genes. This analysis, after Gene Ontology filtering, indicated the existence of two clusters of genes (CCL5, IFNA1, IFNA2, IFNB1) and (IKBKE, IL6, IRF7, MX1) that were transcriptionally co-regulated. In order to facilitate the use of our methodology by other researchers, we have also developed an interactive coregulation explorer web-based tool called CorEx. It permits the study of MDS and hierarchical clustering of data combined with TF enrichment analysis. We also offer web services that provide programmatic access to MDS, hierarchical clustering and TF enrichment analysis. CONCLUSIONS:MDS mapping based on correlation in conjunction with TF enrichment analysis represents a useful computational method to generate predictions underlying gene coregulation across a population.

Project description:BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is an important biochemical mark that silences repetitive sequences, such as transposons, and reinforces epigenetic gene expression states. An important class of repetitive genes under epigenetic control in eukaryotic genomes encodes ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transcripts. The ribosomal genes coding for the 45S rRNA precursor of the three largest eukaryotic ribosomal RNAs (18S, 5.8S, and 25-28S) are found in nucleolus organizer regions (NORs), comprised of hundreds to thousands of repeats, only some of which are expressed in any given cell. An epigenetic switch, mediated by DNA methylation and histone modification, turns rRNA genes on and off. However, little is known about the mechanisms that specify and maintain the patterns of NOR DNA methylation. RESULTS: Here, we explored the extent of naturally-occurring variation in NOR DNA methylation among accessions of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. DNA methylation in coding regions of rRNA genes was positively correlated with copy number of 45S rRNA gene and DNA methylation in the intergenic spacer regions. We investigated the inheritance of NOR DNA methylation patterns in natural accessions with hypomethylated NORs in inter-strain crosses and defined three different categories of inheritance in F1 hybrids. In addition, subsequent analysis of F2 segregation for NOR DNA methylation patterns uncovered different patterns of inheritance. We also revealed that NOR DNA methylation in the Arabidopsis accession Bor-4 is influenced by the vim1-1 (variant in methylation 1-1) mutation, but the primary effect is specified by the NORs themselves. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the NORs themselves are the most significant determinants of natural variation in NOR DNA methylation. However, the inheritance of NOR DNA methylation suggests the operation of a diverse set of mechanisms, including inheritance of parental methylation patterns, reconfiguration of parental NOR DNA methylation, and the involvement of trans-acting modifiers.

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Coregulation of ribosomal RNA with hundreds of genes contributes to phenotypic variation.

Publications

Coregulation of ribosomal RNA with hundreds of genes contributes to phenotypic variation.

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