Live-cell imaging of microRNA expression with post-transcriptional feedback control.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sano M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8479275 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Chloroplasts contain their own genome, organized as operons, which are generally transcribed as polycistronic transcriptional units. These primary transcripts are processed into smaller RNAs, which are further modified to produce functional RNAs. The RNA processing mechanisms remain largely unknown and represent an important step in the control of chloroplast gene expression. Such mechanisms include RNA cleavage of pre-existing RNAs, RNA stabilization, intron splicing, and RNA editing. Recently, several nuclear-encoded proteins that participate in diverse plastid RNA processing events have been characterised. Many of them seem to belong to the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein family that is implicated in many crucial functions including organelle biogenesis and plant development. This review will provide an overview of current knowledge of the post-transcriptional processing in chloroplasts.
| S-EPMC2758277 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Pathogenic fungi hide from their hosts by camouflage, obscuring immunogenic cell wall components such as beta-glucan with innocuous coverings such as mannoproteins and alpha-glucan that are less readily recognised by the host. Attempts to understand how such processes are regulated have met with varying success. Typically studies focus on understanding the transcriptional response of fungi to either their reservoir environment or the host. However, such approaches do not fully address this research question, due to the layers of post-transcriptional and post-translational regulation that occur within a cell. Although in animals the impact of post-transcriptional and post-translational regulation has been well characterised, our knowledge of these processes in the fungal kingdom is more limited. Mutations in RNA-binding proteins, like Ssd1 and Candida albicans Slr1, affect cell wall composition and fungal virulence indicating that post-transcriptional regulation plays a key role in these processes. Here, we review the current state of knowledge of fungal post-transcriptional regulation, and link this to potential mechanisms of immune evasion by drawing on studies from model yeast and plant pathogenic fungi. We highlight several RNA-binding proteins that regulate cell wall synthesis and could be involved in local translation of cell wall components. Expanding our knowledge on post-transcriptional regulation in human fungal pathogens is essential to fully comprehend fungal virulence strategies and for the design of novel antifungal therapies.
| S-EPMC8783092 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The D1 dopamine receptor subtype is expressed in the brain, kidney and lymphocytes. D1 receptor function has been extensively studied and the receptor has been shown to modulate a wide range of physiological functions and behaviors. The expression of D1 receptor is known to change during development, disease states and chronic treatment; however, the molecular mechanisms that mediate the changes in D1 receptor expression under these circumstances are not well understood. While previous studies have identified extracellular factors and signaling mechanisms regulating the transcription of D1 receptor gene, very little is known about other regulatory mechanisms that modulate the expression of the D1 receptor gene. Here we report that the D1 receptor is post-transcriptionally regulated during postnatal mouse brain development and in the mouse CAD catecholaminergic neuronal cell line. We demonstrate that this post-transcriptional regulation is mediated by a molecular mechanism involving noncoding RNA. We show that the 1277 bp 3'untranslated region of D1 receptor mRNA is necessary and sufficient for mediating the post-transcriptional regulation. Using deletion and site-directed mutagenesis approaches, we show that the D1 receptor post-transcriptional regulation is specifically mediated by microRNA miR-142-3p interacting with a single consensus binding site in the 1277 bp 3'untranslated region of D1 receptor mRNA. Inhibiting endogenous miR-142-3p in CAD cells increased endogenous D1 receptor protein expression levels. The increase in D1 receptor protein levels was biologically significant as it resulted in enhanced D1 receptor-mediated signaling, determined by measuring the activation of both, adenylate cyclase and, the dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein, DARPP-32. We also show that there is an inverse correlation between miR-142-3p levels and D1 receptor protein expression in the mouse brain during postnatal development. This is the first study to demonstrate that the post-transcriptional regulation of D1 receptor expression is mediated by microRNA-induced translational suppression.
| S-EPMC3495858 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Until recently, engineering strategies for altering gene expression have focused on transcription control using strong inducible promoters or one of several methods to knock down wasteful genes. Recently, synthetic riboregulators have been developed for translational regulation of gene expression. Here, we report a new modular synthetic riboregulator class that has the potential to finely tune protein expression and independently control the concentration of each enzyme in an engineered metabolic pathway. This development is important because the most straightforward approach to altering the flux through a particular metabolic step is to increase or decrease the concentration of the enzyme. Our design includes a cis-repressor at the 5' end of the mRNA that forms a stem-loop helix, occluding the ribosomal binding sequence and blocking translation. A trans-expressed activating-RNA frees the ribosomal-binding sequence, which turns on translation. The overall architecture of the riboregulators is designed using Watson-Crick base-pairing stability. We describe here a cis-repressor that can completely shut off translation of antibiotic-resistance reporters and a trans-activator that restores translation. We have established that it is possible to use these riboregulators to achieve translational control of gene expression over a wide dynamic range. We have also found that a targeting sequence can be modified to develop riboregulators that can, in principle, independently regulate translation of many genes. In a selection experiment, we demonstrated that by subtly altering the sequence of the trans-activator it is possible to alter the ratio of the repressed and activated states and to achieve intermediate translational control.
| S-EPMC6849397 | biostudies-literature
Project description:RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) facilitate post-transcriptional control of eukaryotic gene expression at multiple levels. The RBP tristetraprolin (TTP/Zfp36) is a signal-induced phosphorylated anti-inflammatory protein guiding unstable mRNAs of pro-inflammatory proteins for degradation and preventing translation. Using iCLIP, we have identified numerous mRNA targets bound by wild-type TTP and by a non-MK2-phosphorylatable TTP mutant (TTP-AA) in 1 h LPS-stimulated macrophages and correlated their interaction with TTP to changes at the level of mRNA abundance and translation in a transcriptome-wide manner. The close similarity of the transcriptomes of TTP-deficient and TTP-expressing macrophages upon short LPS stimulation suggested an effective inactivation of TTP by MK2, whereas retained RNA-binding capacity of TTP-AA to 3'UTRs caused profound changes in the transcriptome and translatome, altered NF-κB-activation and induced cell death. Increased TTP binding to the 3'UTR of feedback inhibitor mRNAs, such as Ier3, Dusp1 or Tnfaip3, in the absence of MK2-dependent TTP neutralization resulted in a strong reduction of their protein synthesis contributing to the deregulation of the NF-κB-signaling pathway. Taken together, our study uncovers a role of TTP as a suppressor of feedback inhibitors of inflammation and highlights the importance of fine-tuned TTP activity-regulation by MK2 in order to control the pro-inflammatory response.
| S-EPMC5009735 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The pluripotent transcription factor NANOG is essential for maintaining embryonic stem cells and driving tumorigenesis. We previously showed that PKC activity is involved in the regulation of NANOG expression. To explore the possible involvement of microRNAs in regulating the expression of key pluripotency factors, we performed a genome-wide analysis of microRNA expression in the embryonal carcinoma cell line NT2/D1 in the presence of the PKC activator, PMA. We found that MIR630 was significantly upregulated in PMA-treated cells. Experimentally, we showed that transfection of MIR630 mimic into embryonal carcinoma cell lines directly targeted the 3'UTR of OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG and markedly suppressed their expression. RNAhybrid and RNA22 algorithms were used to predict miRNA target sites in the NANOG 3'UTR, four possible target sites of MIR630 were identified. To examine the functional interaction between MIR630 and NANOG mRNA, the predicted MIR630 target sites in the NANOG 3'UTR were deleted and the activity of the reporters were compared. After targeted mutation of the predicted MIR630 target sites, the MIR630 mimic inhibited NANOG significantly less than the wild-type reporters. It is worth noting that mutation of a single putative binding site in the 3'UTR of NANOG did not completely abolish MIR630-mediated suppression, suggesting that MIR630 in the NANOG 3'UTR may have multiple binding sites and act together to maximally repress NANOG expression. Interestingly, MIR630 mimics significantly downregulated NANOG gene transcription. Exogenous expression of OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG lacking the 3'UTR almost completely rescued the reduced transcriptional activity of MIR630. MIR630 mediated the expression of differentiation markers in NT2/D1 cells, suggesting that MIR630 leads to the differentiation of NT2/D1 cell. Our findings show that MIR630 represses NANOG through transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, suggesting a direct link between core pluripotency factors and MIR630.
| S-EPMC8744645 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Regulation of biological processes typically incorporates mechanisms that initiate and terminate the process and, where understood, these mechanisms often involve feedback control. Regulation of transcription is a fundamental cellular process where the mechanisms involved in initiation have been studied extensively, but those involved in arresting the process are poorly understood. Modeling of the potential roles of RNA in transcriptional control suggested a non-equilibrium feedback control mechanism where low levels of RNA promote condensates formed by electrostatic interactions whereas relatively high levels promote dissolution of these condensates. Evidence from in vitro and in vivo experiments support a model where RNAs produced during early steps in transcription initiation stimulate condensate formation, whereas the burst of RNAs produced during elongation stimulate condensate dissolution. We propose that transcriptional regulation incorporates a feedback mechanism whereby transcribed RNAs initially stimulate but then ultimately arrest the process.
| S-EPMC8128340 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) is well documented to possess general cytoprotective properties in protecting the cell against stressful and noxious stimuli. We have recently shown that expression of the stress-inducible Hsp70.3 gene in the myocardium in response to ischemic preconditioning is NF-?B-dependent and necessary for the resulting late phase cardioprotection against a subsequent ischemia/reperfusion injury. Here we show that the Hsp70.3 gene product is subject to post-transcriptional regulation through parallel regulatory processes involving microRNAs and alternative polyadenylation of the mRNA transcript. First, we show that cardiac ischemic preconditioning of the in vivo mouse heart results in decreased levels of two Hsp70.3-targeting microRNAs: miR-378* and miR-711. Furthermore, an ischemic or heat shock stimulus induces alternative polyadenylation of the expressed Hsp70.3 transcript that results in the accumulation of transcripts with a shortened 3'-UTR. This shortening of the 3'-UTR results in the loss of the binding site for the suppressive miR-378* and thus renders the alternatively polyadenylated transcript insusceptible to miR-378*-mediated suppression. Results also suggest that the alternative polyadenylation-mediated shortening of the Hsp70.3 3'-UTR relieves translational suppression observed in the long 3'-UTR variant, allowing for a more robust increase in protein expression. These results demonstrate alternative polyadenylation of Hsp70.3 in parallel with ischemic or heat shock-induced up-regulation of mRNA levels and implicate the importance of this process in post-transcriptional control of Hsp70.3 expression.
| S-EPMC3191024 | biostudies-literature
Project description:MicroRNAs and Argonaute form the microRNA induced silencing complex or miRISC that recruits GW182, causing mRNA degradation and/or translational repression. Despite the clear conservation and molecular significance, it is unknown if miRISC-GW182 interaction is essential for gene silencing during animal development. Using Caenorhabditis elegans to explore this question, we examined the relationship and effect on gene silencing between the GW182 orthologs, AIN-1 and AIN-2, and the microRNA-specific Argonaute, ALG-1. Homology modeling based on human Argonaute structures indicated that ALG-1 possesses conserved Tryptophan-binding Pockets required for GW182 binding. We show in vitro and in vivo that their mutations severely altered the association with AIN-1 and AIN-2. ALG-1 tryptophan-binding pockets mutant animals retained microRNA-binding and processing ability, but were deficient in reporter silencing activity. Interestingly, the ALG-1 tryptophan-binding pockets mutant phenocopied the loss of alg-1 in worms during larval stages, yet was sufficient to rescue embryonic lethality, indicating the dispensability of AINs association with the miRISC at this developmental stage. The dispensability of AINs in miRNA regulation is further demonstrated by the capacity of ALG-1 tryptophan-binding pockets mutant to regulate a target of the embryonic mir-35 microRNA family. Thus, our results demonstrate that the microRNA pathway can act independently of GW182 proteins during C. elegans embryogenesis.
| S-EPMC5147811 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by abnormalities in reciprocal social interactions and language development and/or usage, and by restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. Differential gene expression of neurologically relevant genes in lymphoblastoid cell lines from monozygotic twins discordant in diagnosis or severity of autism suggested that epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation or microRNAs (miRNAs) may be involved in ASD.MethodsGlobal miRNA expression profiling using lymphoblasts derived from these autistic twins and unaffected sibling controls was therefore performed using high-throughput miRNA microarray analysis. Selected differentially expressed miRNAs were confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis, and the putative target genes of two of the confirmed miRNA were validated by knockdown and overexpression of the respective miRNAs.ResultsDifferentially expressed miRNAs were found to target genes highly involved in neurological functions and disorders in addition to genes involved in gastrointestinal diseases, circadian rhythm signaling, as well as steroid hormone metabolism and receptor signaling. Novel network analyses of the putative target genes that were inversely expressed relative to the relevant miRNA in these same samples further revealed an association with ASD and other co-morbid disorders, including muscle and gastrointestinal diseases, as well as with biological functions implicated in ASD, such as memory and synaptic plasticity. Putative gene targets (ID3 and PLK2) of two RT-PCR-confirmed brain-specific miRNAs (hsa-miR-29b and hsa-miR-219-5p) were validated by miRNA overexpression or knockdown assays, respectively. Comparisons of these mRNA and miRNA expression levels between discordant twins and between case-control sib pairs show an inverse relationship, further suggesting that ID3 and PLK2 are in vivo targets of the respective miRNA. Interestingly, the up-regulation of miR-23a and down-regulation of miR-106b in this study reflected miRNA changes previously reported in post-mortem autistic cerebellum by Abu-Elneel et al. in 2008. This finding validates these differentially expressed miRNAs in neurological tissue from a different cohort as well as supports the use of the lymphoblasts as a surrogate to study miRNA expression in ASD.ConclusionsFindings from this study strongly suggest that dysregulation of miRNA expression contributes to the observed alterations in gene expression and, in turn, may lead to the pathophysiological conditions underlying autism.
| S-EPMC2873801 | biostudies-literature