Novel, abundant Drosha isoforms are deficient in miRNA processing in cancer cells
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ABSTRACT: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs about 22-nucleotide (nt) in length that collectively regulate more than 60% of coding genes. Aberrant miRNA expression is associated with numerous diseases, including cancer. miRNA biogenesis is licensed by the ribonuclease (RNase) III enzyme Drosha, the regulation of which is critical in determining miRNA levels. We and others have previously revealed that alternative splicing regulates the subcellular localization of Drosha. To further investigate the alternative splicing landscape of Drosha transcripts, we performed PacBio sequencing in different human cell lines. We identified two novel isoforms resulting from partial intron-retention in the region encoding the Drosha catalytic domain. One isoform (AS27a) generates a truncated protein that is unstable in cells. The other (AS32a) produces a full-length Drosha with a 14 amino acid insertion in the RIIID domain. By taking advantage of Drosha knockout cells in combination with a previously established reporter assay, we demonstrated that Drosha-AS32a lacks cleavage activity. Furthermore, neither Drosha-27a nor Drosha-32a were able to rescue miRNA expression in the Drosha knockout cells. Interestingly, both isoforms were abundantly detected in a wide range of cancer cell lines (up to 15% of all Drosha isoforms). Analysis of the RNA-seq data from over 1000 breast cancer patient samples revealed that the AS32a is relatively more abundant in tumors than in normal tissue, suggesting that AS32a may play a role in cancer development.
Project description:MicroRNA (miRNA) maturation is initiated by DROSHA, a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-specific RNase III enzyme. By cleaving primary miRNAs (pri-miRNAs) at specific positions, DROSHA serves as a main determinant of miRNA sequences and a highly selective gate-keeper for the canonical miRNA pathway. However, the sites of DROSHA-mediated processing have not been annotated on a genomic scale, and it remains unclear to what extent DROSHA functions outside the miRNA pathway. Here we establish a protocol termed ‘formaldehyde crosslinking and immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (fCLIP-seq)’ that allows identification of DROSHA cleavage sites at single nucleotide resolution. fCLIP identifies numerous cleavage sites that do not match the ends of annotated mature miRNAs, particularly at the 3′ termini, suggesting widespread end modifications during miRNA maturation such as trimming and tailing. fCLIP also finds many pri-miRNAs undergoing alternative processing, yielding multiple miRNA isoforms. Moreover, we discover dozens of novel substrates that are bound and cleaved by DROSHA. These substrates are processed less efficiently than canonical pri-miRNAs, and produce only minute amounts of small RNAs. Depletion of DROSHA results in an increase of the hairpin-containing transcripts. Thus, the hairpins may serve mainly as cis-elements for DROSHA-mediated gene regulation rather than as miRNA genes. fCLIP-seq not only accurately maps the cleavage sites of DROSHA and suggests noncanonical functions of DROSHA, but also could be a general tool for investigating interactions between dsRNA binding proteins and structured RNAs.
Project description:MicroRNA (miRNA) maturation is initiated by DROSHA, a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-specific RNase III enzyme. By cleaving primary miRNAs (pri-miRNAs) at specific positions, DROSHA serves as a main determinant of miRNA sequences and a highly selective gate-keeper for the canonical miRNA pathway. However, the sites of DROSHA-mediated processing have not been annotated on a genomic scale, and it remains unclear to what extent DROSHA functions outside the miRNA pathway. Here we establish a protocol termed ‘formaldehyde crosslinking and immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (fCLIP-seq)’ that allows identification of DROSHA cleavage sites at single nucleotide resolution. fCLIP identifies numerous cleavage sites that do not match the ends of annotated mature miRNAs, particularly at the 3′ termini, suggesting widespread end modifications during miRNA maturation such as trimming and tailing. fCLIP also finds many pri-miRNAs undergoing alternative processing, yielding multiple miRNA isoforms. Moreover, we discover dozens of novel substrates that are bound and cleaved by DROSHA. These substrates are processed less efficiently than canonical pri-miRNAs, and produce only minute amounts of small RNAs. Depletion of DROSHA results in an increase of the hairpin-containing transcripts. Thus, the hairpins may serve mainly as cis-elements for DROSHA-mediated gene regulation rather than as miRNA genes. fCLIP-seq not only accurately maps the cleavage sites of DROSHA and suggests noncanonical functions of DROSHA, but also could be a general tool for investigating interactions between dsRNA binding proteins and structured RNAs.
Project description:DROSHA serves as a gatekeeper of the microRNA (miRNA) pathway by processing primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs). While the functions of structured domains of DROSHA have been well-documented, the contribution of N-terminal proline-rich disordered domain (PRD) remains elusive. Here we show that the PRD promotes the processing of miRNA hairpins located within introns. We identified a DROSHA isoform (p140) lacking the PRD, which is produced by proteolytic cleavage. Small RNA sequencing revealed that p140 is significantly impaired in the maturation of intronic miRNAs. Consistently, our minigene constructs demonstrated that PRD enhances the processing of intronic hairpins, but not those in exons. Splice site mutations did not affect the PRD’s enhancing effect on intronic constructs, suggesting that the PRD acts independently of splicing reaction by interacting with sequences residing within introns. The N-terminal regions from zebrafish and Xenopus DROSHA can replace the human counterpart, indicating functional conservation despite poor sequence alignment. Moreover, we found that rapidly evolving intronic miRNAs are generally more dependent on PRD than conserved ones, suggesting a role of PRD in miRNA evolution. Our study reveals a new layer of miRNA regulation mediated by a low-complexity disordered domain that senses the genomic contexts of miRNA loci.
Project description:Neural stem cell regulation is essential for the formation of the central nervous system and homeostatic neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain. The RNAseIII Drosha, a key component of the miRNA microprocessor, plays a central role in regulating NSC maintenance partially through a miRNA-independent mechanism. Drosha controls mRNA expression levels by targeting and cleaving evolutionary conserved stem-loop hairpins located in the mRNAs of stem cell-related transcription factors. However, it is unknown how the Drosha-mediated endonucleolytic cleavage of mRNA is regulated. Here, we identify novel Drosha and NFIB interactors in hippocampal NSCs by in vitro pull-down assays followed by Mass Spectrometry. We unravel the RNA binding proteins implicated in Drosha-mediated regulation of neurogenesis and we find Scaffold Attachment Factor B1 to play a novel and essential role in NFIB mRNA regulation during neural stem cell differentiation.
Project description:Biogenesis of canonical microRNAs (miRNAs) involves multiple steps: nuclear processing of primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) by DROSHA, nuclear export of precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA) by Exportin 5 (XPO5), and cytoplasmic processing of pre-miRNA by DICER. To gain a deeper understanding of the contribution of each of these maturation steps, we deleted DROSHA, XPO5, and DICER in the same human cell line, and analyzed their effects on miRNA biogenesis. Canonical miRNA production was completely abolished in DROSHA-deleted cells while we detected a few DROSHA-independent miRNAs including three previously unidentified noncanonical miRNAs (miR-7706, miR-3615, and miR-1254). In contrast to DROSHA knockout, many canonical miRNAs were still detected without DICER albeit at markedly reduced levels. In the absence of DICER, pre-miRNAs are loaded directly onto AGO and trimmed at the 3â² end, yielding miRNAs from the 5â² strand (5p miRNAs). Interestingly, in XPO5 knockout cells, most miRNAs are affected only modestly, suggesting that XPO5 is necessary but not critical for miRNA maturation. Our study demonstrates an essential role of DROSHA and an important contribution of DICER in the canonical miRNA pathway, and reveals that the function of XPO5 can be complemented by alternative mechanisms. Thus, this study allows us to understand differential contributions of key biogenesis factors, and provides with valuable resources for miRNA research. Two independent sequencing experiments (set 1 and set 2, respectively) were performed using 9 samples.
Project description:Biogenesis of canonical microRNAs (miRNAs) involves multiple steps: nuclear processing of primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) by DROSHA, nuclear export of precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA) by Exportin 5 (XPO5), and cytoplasmic processing of pre-miRNA by DICER. To gain a deeper understanding of the contribution of each of these maturation steps, we deleted DROSHA, XPO5, and DICER in the same human cell line, and analyzed their effects on miRNA biogenesis. Canonical miRNA production was completely abolished in DROSHA-deleted cells while we detected a few DROSHA-independent miRNAs including three previously unidentified noncanonical miRNAs (miR-7706, miR-3615, and miR-1254). In contrast to DROSHA knockout, many canonical miRNAs were still detected without DICER albeit at markedly reduced levels. In the absence of DICER, pre-miRNAs are loaded directly onto AGO and trimmed at the 3′ end, yielding miRNAs from the 5′ strand (5p miRNAs). Interestingly, in XPO5 knockout cells, most miRNAs are affected only modestly, suggesting that XPO5 is necessary but not critical for miRNA maturation. Our study demonstrates an essential role of DROSHA and an important contribution of DICER in the canonical miRNA pathway, and reveals that the function of XPO5 can be complemented by alternative mechanisms. Thus, this study allows us to understand differential contributions of key biogenesis factors, and provides with valuable resources for miRNA research.
Project description:Deregulated gene expression is a hallmark of cancer, however most studies to date have analyzed short-read RNA-sequencing data with inherent limitations. Here, we combine PacBio long-read isoform sequencing (Iso-Seq) and Illumina paired-end short read RNA sequencing to comprehensively survey the transcriptome of gastric cancer (GC), a leading cause of global cancer mortality. We performed full-length transcriptome analysis across 10 GC cell lines covering four major GC molecular subtypes (chromosomal unstable, Epstein-Barr positive, genome stable and microsatellite unstable). We identify 60,239 non-redundant full-length transcripts, of which >66% are novel compared to current transcriptome databases. Novel isoforms are more likely to be cell-line and subtype specific, expressed at lower levels with larger number of exons, with longer isoform/coding sequence lengths. Most novel isoforms utilize an alternate first exon, and compared to other alternative splicing categories are expressed at higher levels and exhibit higher variability. Collectively, we observe alternate promoter usage in 25% of detected genes, with the majority (84.2%) of known/novel promoter pairs exhibiting potential changes in their coding sequences. Mapping these alternate promoters to TCGA GC samples, we identify several cancer-associated isoforms, including novel variants of oncogenes. Tumor-specific transcript isoforms tend to alter protein coding sequences to a larger extent than other isoforms. Analysis of outcome data suggests that novel isoforms may impart additional prognostic information. Our results provide a rich resource of full-length transcriptome data for deeper studies of GC and other gastrointestinal malignancies.
Project description:Maturation of canonical microRNA (miRNA) is initiated by DROSHA that cleaves the primary transcript (pri-miRNA). Over 1,800 miRNA loci are annotated in humans, but it remains largely unknown if and at which sites the pri-miRNAs are cleaved by DROSHA. Here we performed in vitro processing on a full set of human pri-miRNAs (miRBase v21) followed by sequencing. This comprehensive profiling enabled us to classify miRNAs based on DROSHA-dependence and map their cleavage sites with respective processing efficiency measures. Only 758 pri-miRNAs are confidently processed by DROSHA, while the majority may be non-canonical or false entries. Analyses of the DROSHA-dependent pri-miRNAs show key cis-elements for processing. We observe widespread alternative processing as well as unproductive cleavage events such as “nick” or “inverse” processing. SRSF3 is a broad-acting auxiliary factor modulating alternative processing and suppressing unproductive processing. The profiling data and methods developed in this study will allow systematic analyses of miRNA regulation.
Project description:RNAi-mediated knockdown of DICER1 and DROSHA, enzymes critically involved in miRNA biogenesis, has been postulated to affect the homeostasis and the angiogenic capacity of human endothelial cells. To re-evaluate this issue, we reduced the expression of DICER1 or DROSHA by RNAi-mediated knockdown and subsequently investigated the effect of these interventions on the angiogenic capacity of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro (proliferation, migration, tube formation, endothelial cell spheroid sprouting) and in a HUVEC xenograft assay in immune incompetent NSGTM mice in vivo. In contrast to previous reports, neither knockdown of DICER1 nor knockdown of DROSHA profoundly affected migration or tube formation of HUVEC or the angiogenic capacity of HUVEC in vivo. Furthermore, knockdown of DICER1 and the combined knockdown of DICER1 and DROSHA tended to increase VEGF-induced BrdU incorporation and induced angiogenic sprouting from HUVEC spheroids. Consistent with these observations, global proteomic analyses showed that knockdown of DICER1 or DROSHA only moderately altered HUVEC protein expression profiles but additively reduced, for example, expression of the angiogenesis inhibitor thrombospondin-1. In conclusion, global reduction of miRNA biogenesis by knockdown of DICER1 or DROSHA does not inhibit the angiogenic capacity of HUVEC. Further studies are therefore needed to elucidate the influence of these enzymes in the context of human endothelial cell-related angiogenesis.