Project description:Both upregulation and downregulation by cis-regulatory elements help establish precise gene expression. Our understanding of how elements repress transcriptional activity is far more limited than activating elements. To address this gap, we characterized RE1, a group of transcriptional silencers bound by REST, on a genome-wide scale using an optimized massively parallel reporter assay (MPRAduo). MPRAduo empirically defined a minimal binding strength of REST required by silencer (REST m-value), above which multiple cofactors colocalize and act to directly silence transcription. We identified 1,500 human variants that alter RE1 silencing and found their effect sizes are predictable when they overlap with REST binding sites above the m-value. In addition, we demonstrate that non-canonical REST binding motifs exhibit silencer function only if they precisely align two half sites with specific spacer length. Our results show mechanistic insights into RE1 silencer which allows us to predict its activity and effect of variants on RE1, providing a paradigm for performing genome-wide functional characterization transcription factors binding sites.
Project description:Both upregulation and downregulation by cis-regulatory elements help establish precise gene expression. Our understanding of how elements repress transcriptional activity is far more limited than activating elements. To address this gap, we characterized RE1, a group of transcriptional silencers bound by REST, on a genome-wide scale using an optimized massively parallel reporter assay (MPRAduo). MPRAduo empirically defined a minimal binding strength of REST required by silencer (REST m-value), above which multiple cofactors colocalize and act to directly silence transcription. We identified 1,500 human variants that alter RE1 silencing and found their effect sizes are predictable when they overlap with REST binding sites above the m-value. In addition, we demonstrate that non-canonical REST binding motifs exhibit silencer function only if they precisely align two half sites with specific spacer length. Our results show mechanistic insights into RE1 silencer which allows us to predict its activity and effect of variants on RE1, providing a paradigm for performing genome-wide functional characterization transcription factors binding sites.
Project description:Genome annotation of the chelicerate Tetranychus urticae revealed the absence of many canonical immunity genes. T. urticae either does not mount an immune response or it induces uncharacterized immune pathways. To disentangle these two hypotheses, we performed transcriptomic analysis of mites injected with bacteria vs mites injected with LB-buffer. Two types of bacteria were injected: E. coli and B. megaterium and transcriptomes were sampled 3, 6 and 12 hrs after injection. We found no consistent differential expression after bacterial infection, supporting the hypothesis that spider mites do not mount an immune response. We hypothesize that the apparent absence of inducable immunity pathways in T. urticae is a result of relaxed selective pressure due to ecological factors.
Project description:The delineation of genes in bacteria has remained an important challenge because prokaryotic genomes are often tightly packed frequently resulting in overlapping genes. We hereby present a de novo approach called REPARATION (RibosomeE Profiling Assisted (Re-)AnnotaTION) to delineate translated open reading frames (ORFs) in bacteria independent of (available) genome annotation. By deep sequencing of ribosome protected mRNA fragments (RPF) to map translating ribosomes across the entire genome, REPARATION takes advantage of the recently developed ribosome profiling (Ribo-seq) technique. REPARATION starts by traversing the entire genome to generate all possible ORFs and then collects their corresponding RPF signal information. Based on a growth curve model to estimate minimum ORF read density and Ribo-seq RPF coverage, thresholds indicative of translation is estimated. Finally, our algorithm applies a random forest model to build a classifier to classify putative protein coding ORFs. We evaluated the performance of REPARATION on 3 annotated bacterial species using in-house generated Ribo-seq data and matching N-terminal and shotgun proteomics data next to publically available Ribo-seq data. In all cases, about 80% of the ORFs predicted by REPARATION were previously annotated as protein coding. While 13-20% were variants of previously annotated ORFs and about 3-4% point to novel translated ORFs within intergenic or other regions previously annotated as non-coding. Without stringent length restrictions REPARATION was able to identify several small ORFs (sORFs). Multiple supportive evidence from matching MS data and sequence conservation analysis was obtained to validate predicted ORFs.
Project description:Syntrophic acetate-oxidizing bacteria (SAOB) have been identified as key organisms for efficient biogas production from protein-rich materials. Tepidanaerobacter acetatoxydans is the first reported SAOB for which the genome has been sequenced. Genome analysis will aid us in understanding the mechanisms regulating syntrophy, particularly energy-conserving and electron transfer mechanisms.
