MicroRNA Dynamics and Functions During Arabidopsis Embryogenesis
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that mediate the repression of target transcripts in plants and animals. Although miRNAs are required throughout plant development, relatively little is known regarding their embryonic functions. To systematically characterize embryonic miRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana, we developed or applied high-throughput sequencing based methods to profile hundreds of miRNAs and associated targets throughout embryogenesis. We discovered dozens of miRNAs that dynamically cleave and repress target transcripts including 30 that encode transcription factors. Transcriptome analyses indicated that these miRNA:target interactions have a profound impact on embryonic gene expression programs, and we further demonstrated that the miRNA-mediated repression of six transcription factors were individually required for embryo morphogenesis. These data indicate that the miRNA-directed repression of multiple transcription factors is critically important for the establishment of the plant body plan, and provide a foundation to further investigate how miRNAs contribute to these initial cellular differentiation events.
Project description:Schmitz2014 - RNA triplex formation
The model is parameterized using the
parameters for gene CCDC3 from Supplementary Table S1. The two
miRNAs which form the triplex together with CCDC3 are miR-551b and
miR-138.
This model is described in the article:
Cooperative gene regulation
by microRNA pairs and their identification using a
computational workflow.
Schmitz U, Lai X, Winter F,
Wolkenhauer O, Vera J, Gupta SK.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2014 Jul; 42(12):
7539-7552
Abstract:
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an integral part of gene regulation
at the post-transcriptional level. Recently, it has been shown
that pairs of miRNAs can repress the translation of a target
mRNA in a cooperative manner, which leads to an enhanced
effectiveness and specificity in target repression. However, it
remains unclear which miRNA pairs can synergize and which genes
are target of cooperative miRNA regulation. In this paper, we
present a computational workflow for the prediction and
analysis of cooperating miRNAs and their mutual target genes,
which we refer to as RNA triplexes. The workflow integrates
methods of miRNA target prediction; triplex structure analysis;
molecular dynamics simulations and mathematical modeling for a
reliable prediction of functional RNA triplexes and target
repression efficiency. In a case study we analyzed the human
genome and identified several thousand targets of cooperative
gene regulation. Our results suggest that miRNA cooperativity
is a frequent mechanism for an enhanced target repression by
pairs of miRNAs facilitating distinctive and fine-tuned target
gene expression patterns. Human RNA triplexes predicted and
characterized in this study are organized in a web resource at
www.sbi.uni-rostock.de/triplexrna/.
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Project description:As the fetal heart develops, cardiomyocyte proliferation potential decreases while fatty acid oxidative capacity increases, a highly regulated transition known as cardiac maturation. Small noncoding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), contribute to the establishment and control of tissue-specific transcriptional programs. However, small RNA expression dynamics and genome wide miRNA regulatory networks controlling maturation of the human fetal heart remain poorly understood. Transcriptome profiling of small RNAs revealed the temporal expression patterns of miRNA, piRNA, circRNA, snoRNA, snRNA and tRNA in the developing human heart between 8 and 19 weeks of gestation. Our analysis revealed that miRNAs were the most dynamically expressed small RNA species throughout mid-gestation. Cross-referencing differentially expressed miRNAs and mRNAs predicted 6,200 mRNA targets, 2134 of which were upregulated and 4066 downregulated as gestation progresses. Moreover, we found that downregulated targets of upregulated miRNAs predominantly control cell cycle progression, while upregulated targets of downregulated miRNAs are linked to energy sensing and oxidative metabolism. Furthermore, integration of miRNA and mRNA profiles with proteomes and reporter metabolites revealed that proteins encoded in mRNA targets, and their associated metabolites, mediate fatty acid oxidation and are enriched as the heart develops.This study revealed the small RNAome of the maturing human fetal heart. Furthermore, our findings suggest that coordinated activation and repression of miRNA expression throughout mid-gestation is essential to establish a dynamic miRNA-mRNA-protein network that decreases cardiomyocyte proliferation potential while increasing the oxidative capacity of the maturing human fetal heart.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are essential regulators involved in multiple biological processes. To achieve their gene repression function, they are loaded in miRNA-specific Argonautes to form the miRNA-induced silencing complex (miRISC). Mammals and C. elegans possess more than one paralog of miRNA-specific Argonautes but the dynamic between them remains unclear. Here, we report the conserved dipeptidyl peptidase DPF-3 as a new interactor of the miRNA-specific Argonautes ALG-1 and ALG-2 in C. elegans. Knockout of dpf-3 increases ALG-2 levels and miRISC formation in alg-1 null animals, thereby compensating for ALG-1 loss and rescuing miRNA-related defects observed. DPF-3 can cleave an ALG-2 N-terminal peptide in vitro but does not appear to rely on this catalytic activity to regulate ALG-2 in vivo. This study uncovers the importance of DPF-3 in the miRNA pathway and provides insights on how multiple miRNA Argonautes contribute to achieve proper miRNA-mediated gene regulation in animals.
Project description:miRNAs are short regulatory single stranded RNA sequences that upon complementary binding to mRNAs lead to the inhibition or degradation of their targets. This regulatory mechanisms has been shown to play crucial roles throughout the whole life cycle of animals and plants as well as in disease. While a plethora of methods exist to predict targets of miRNA, which suggest that up to 80% of the genome is miRNA regulated, it has recently been reported that many of these predictions are false positives, cell type specific or represent non-functional binding. In order to identify the subset of real functional miRNAs and their targets, we established miRNA pathway mutants in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC), allowing the dissection of canonical and non-canonical functions of pathway members. Additional data integration of downstream regulatory layers (CLIP-seq, ribosome profiling and MS) enabled us to follow and track down real functional miRNA-gene interactions, which reduced the miRNA genome regulation to approximately 1%.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in post-transcriptional regulation as short non-coding RNAs together with the transcription factors (TFs) and other regulatory factors such as alternative splicing (AS), which constitute complex gene regulatory networks. Following stimulation with ABA in Arabidopsis, we performed RNA-seq and small RNA-seq simultaneously at consecutive time points, and found that miRNAs respond rapidly under stress condition. Further functional analyses revealed that miRNAs classified according to different response time points play a role by binding different target genes. Systematic analysis including the static network of TF-target, TF-miRNA, miRNA-target and the time series DEGs and DE-miRNAs revealed a miRNA-mRNA dynamic regulatory network. We found that miRNAs in miRNA-containing feed-forward loops (M-FFLs) could enhance co-expression and crosstalks between different FFLs of network. Additionally, the differential transcript usage (DTU) and differential alternative splicing (DAS) analysis increased regulatory diversity between miRNA and its target genes. Collectively, our findings highlighted the systematical and precise post-transcriptional regulation of miRNAs in plant.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in post-transcriptional regulation as short non-coding RNAs together with the transcription factors (TFs) and other regulatory factors such as alternative splicing (AS), which constitute complex gene regulatory networks. Following stimulation with ABA in Arabidopsis, we performed RNA-seq and small RNA-seq simultaneously at consecutive time points, and found that miRNAs respond rapidly under stress condition. Further functional analyses revealed that miRNAs classified according to different response time points play a role by binding different target genes. Systematic analysis including the static network of TF-target, TF-miRNA, miRNA-target and the time series DEGs and DE-miRNAs revealed a miRNA-mRNA dynamic regulatory network. We found that miRNAs in miRNA-containing feed-forward loops (M-FFLs) could enhance co-expression and crosstalks between different FFLs of network. Additionally, the differential transcript usage (DTU) and differential alternative splicing (DAS) analysis increased regulatory diversity between miRNA and its target genes. Collectively, our findings highlighted the systematical and precise post-transcriptional regulation of miRNAs in plant.
Project description:Unlike short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which are commonly designed to repress a single messenger RNA (mRNA) target through perfect base pairing, microRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs that have evolved to concurrently repress multiple mRNA targets through imperfect complementarity. MicroRNA target recognition is primarily determined by pairing of the miRNA seed sequence (nucleotides 2–8) to complementary match sites in each mRNA target. Whereas siRNA technology is well established for single target knockdown, the design of artificial miRNAs for multi-target repression is largely unexplored. We designed and functionally analysed over 200 artificial miRNAs for simultaneous repression of pyruvate carboxylase and glutaminase by selecting all seed matches shared by their 3′ untranslated regions. Although we identified multiple miRNAs that repressed endogenous protein expression of both genes, seed-based artificial miRNA design was highly inefficient, as the majority of miRNAs with even perfect seed matches did not repress either target. Moreover, commonly used target prediction programs did not substantially discriminate effective artificial miRNAs from ineffective ones, indicating that current algorithms do not fully capture the features important for artificial miRNA targeting and are not yet sufficient for designing artificial miRNAs. Our analysis suggests that additional factors are strong determinants of the efficacy of miRNA-mediated target repression and remain to be discovered.
Project description:Unlike short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which are commonly designed to repress a single messenger RNA (mRNA) target through perfect base pairing, microRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs that have evolved to concurrently repress multiple mRNA targets through imperfect complementarity. MicroRNA target recognition is primarily determined by pairing of the miRNA seed sequence (nucleotides 2–8) to complementary match sites in each mRNA target. Whereas siRNA technology is well established for single target knockdown, the design of artificial miRNAs for multi-target repression is largely unexplored. We designed and functionally analysed over 200 artificial miRNAs for simultaneous repression of pyruvate carboxylase and glutaminase by selecting all seed matches shared by their 3′ untranslated regions. Although we identified multiple miRNAs that repressed endogenous protein expression of both genes, seed-based artificial miRNA design was highly inefficient, as the majority of miRNAs with even perfect seed matches did not repress either target. Moreover, commonly used target prediction programs did not substantially discriminate effective artificial miRNAs from ineffective ones, indicating that current algorithms do not fully capture the features important for artificial miRNA targeting and are not yet sufficient for designing artificial miRNAs. Our analysis suggests that additional factors are strong determinants of the efficacy of miRNA-mediated target repression and remain to be discovered. 293T cells were transiently transfected with artificial miRNAs or non-targeting control (Allstars siRNA, Qiagen). Three replicate transfections were performed for each miRNA or control. Total RNA was extracted 48 hours after transfection.
Project description:DEAD-box RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) play a significant role in RNA metabolism to achieve cellular homeostasis, including miRNA biogenesis and transcription. Hypoxia induces stemness cell-like characteristics in cancer cells and promotes malignant progression. Despite the fact that hypoxia can induce the changes in protein and RNA modification, thereby regulating downstream gene expressions, how modifications at different molecular layers interplay with each other are poorly understood. Here we show that hypoxia induces HectH9-mediated K63-linked polyubiquitination of the DEAD-box protein DDX17 as well as reduces N6-methyladenosine (m6A) marks in pri-miRNAs. While m6A potentiates DDX17 binding to pri-miRNAs, decreased m6A modifications of pri-miRNAs and increased polyubiquitination of DDX17 under hypoxia lead to decreased DDX17 binding to pri-miRNAs binding. These events enhance the association of DDX17 with the ubiquitin receptor p300 and lead to a decrease in miRNA biogenesis, especially for miRNAs regulating stemness and stemness-related genes. In addition, polyubiquitinated DDX17 together with p300 upregulates H3K56Ac levels on the stemness and stemness-related genes, resulting in enhancement of tumor initiating ability. Post-transcriptionally, decreased miRNA production, including those targeting stemness genes or stemness-related genes, also facilitates tumor initiation. Together, hypoxia triggers DDX17 poly-ubiquitination, which orchestrates dual mechanisms to increase tumor initiating ability and promote tumor progression.
Project description:Background: The halophyte Mesembryanthemum crystallinum (ice plant) is a model for studying salt tolerance. The morphology, physiology, metabolism, and gene expression of ice plant have been studied for over 40 years. Although the complete genome sequence has not been revealed, large-scale analyses of gene expression profiling have drawn an outline of salt tolerance in ice plant. Despite ample information in the transcriptome, miRNA information has not been documented. Results: We examined responses to a sudden increase in salinity in ice plant seedlings. Using a fluorescent dye to detect Na+, we found that ice plant roots respond to an increased flux of Na+ by either secreting or storing Na+ in specialized cells. High-throughput sequencing was used to identify small RNA profiles in three-day-old seedlings treated with or without 200 mM NaCl. Totally 132 conserved miRNAs belonging to 22 families were found. The hairpin precursor of 19 conserved mcr-miRNAs and 12 novel mcr-miRNAs were identified. Target genes are involved in a broad range of biological processes: transcription factors that regulate growth and development, enzymes that catalyze miRNA biogenesis for the most conserved mcr-miRNA, and proteins that are involved in ion homeostasis and drought-stress responses for some novel mcr-miRNAs. After 6 h of salt stress, the expressions of most mcr-miRNAs were down-regulated, whereas the expressions of their corresponding target genes were up-regulated. Analyses of the functions of target genes revealed that cellular processes, including growth and development, metabolism, and ion transport activity were up-regulated in roots under salt stress. Conclusions: Analyses of small RNA profile of ice plant seedlings identified many conserved miRNA families and several novel miRNAs. The expression of ten conserved miRNAs and three novel miRNAs were reciprocally correlated to predicted targets hourly after salt stress. Based on the expression pattern of miRNA and target genes in combination with the observation of Na+ distribution, we suggest that ice plant roots respond effectively to increased salinity by using Na+ as an osmoticum for cell expansion and guard cell opening. Excessive Na+ could either be secreted through root epidermis or stored in specialized leaf epidermal cells. These responses are partially regulated at the miRNA-mediated post-transcriptional level.