Project description:RNA structure-based gene regulation remains under-explored in eukaryotes. While RNA can form different conformations in solution, the extent to which it folds into structure ensembles and how the different conformations regulate gene expression still needs to be fully understood. We coupled the SHAPE compound NAI-N3 with direct RNA sequencing to identify structure modifications along a single RNA molecule (sm-PORE-cupine). Using a combination of base mapping and direct signal alignment, we boosted the percentage of mappable RNA molecules from direct RNA sequencing. Using Bernoulli Mixture Model (BMM) clustering, we show that we can separate RNA structure ensembles from ligand-bound and unbound riboswitches accurately, identify isoform-specific structure ensembles along the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and determine RNA structure ensembles in the transcriptome of a eukaryote, C. albicans, at yeast (30°C) and hyphae (37°C) states. We observed that RNAs are more structurally homogenous at 37°C compared to 30°C, are more variable in vivo than in vitro, and show higher homogeneity in 3’UTRs than in the coding region. We also identified structure ensembles that are associated with changes in translation efficiency and decay in C. albicans at 30°C and 37°C and validated translational changes using reporter assays. Our work shows that single-molecule RNA structure probing using direct RNA sequencing can be applied to diverse transcriptomes to study the complexity and function of RNA structures.
Project description:RNA structure-based gene regulation remains under-explored in eukaryotes. While RNA can form different conformations in solution, the extent to which it folds into structure ensembles and how the different conformations regulate gene expression still needs to be fully understood. We coupled the SHAPE compound NAI-N3 with direct RNA sequencing to identify structure modifications along a single RNA molecule (sm-PORE-cupine). Using a combination of base mapping and direct signal alignment, we boosted the percentage of mappable RNA molecules from direct RNA sequencing. Using Bernoulli Mixture Model (BMM) clustering, we show that we can separate RNA structure ensembles from ligand-bound and unbound riboswitches accurately, identify isoform-specific structure ensembles along the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and determine RNA structure ensembles in the transcriptome of a eukaryote, C. albicans, at yeast (30°C) and hyphae (37°C) states. We observed that RNAs are more structurally homogenous at 37°C compared to 30°C, are more variable in vivo than in vitro, and show higher homogeneity in 3’UTRs than in the coding region. We also identified structure ensembles that are associated with changes in translation efficiency and decay in C. albicans at 30°C and 37°C and validated translational changes using reporter assays. Our work shows that single-molecule RNA structure probing using direct RNA sequencing can be applied to diverse transcriptomes to study the complexity and function of RNA structures.
Project description:RNA structure-based gene regulation remains under-explored in eukaryotes. While RNA can form different conformations in solution, the extent to which it folds into structure ensembles and how the different conformations regulate gene expression still needs to be fully understood. We coupled the SHAPE compound NAI-N3 with direct RNA sequencing to identify structure modifications along a single RNA molecule (sm-PORE-cupine). Using a combination of base mapping and direct signal alignment, we boosted the percentage of mappable RNA molecules from direct RNA sequencing. Using Bernoulli Mixture Model (BMM) clustering, we show that we can separate RNA structure ensembles from ligand-bound and unbound riboswitches accurately, identify isoform-specific structure ensembles along the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and determine RNA structure ensembles in the transcriptome of a eukaryote, C. albicans, at yeast (30°C) and hyphae (37°C) states. We observed that RNAs are more structurally homogenous at 37°C compared to 30°C, are more variable in vivo than in vitro, and show higher homogeneity in 3’UTRs than in the coding region. We also identified structure ensembles that are associated with changes in translation efficiency and decay in C. albicans at 30°C and 37°C and validated translational changes using reporter assays. Our work shows that single-molecule RNA structure probing using direct RNA sequencing can be applied to diverse transcriptomes to study the complexity and function of RNA structures.
Project description:RNA structure-based gene regulation remains under-explored in eukaryotes. While RNA can form different conformations in solution, the extent to which it folds into structure ensembles and how the different conformations regulate gene expression still needs to be fully understood. We coupled the SHAPE compound NAI-N3 with direct RNA sequencing to identify structure modifications along a single RNA molecule (sm-PORE-cupine). Using a combination of base mapping and direct signal alignment, we boosted the percentage of mappable RNA molecules from direct RNA sequencing. Using Bernoulli Mixture Model (BMM) clustering, we show that we can separate RNA structure ensembles from ligand-bound and unbound riboswitches accurately, identify isoform-specific structure ensembles along the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and determine RNA structure ensembles in the transcriptome of a eukaryote, C. albicans, at yeast (30°C) and hyphae (37°C) states. We observed that RNAs are more structurally homogenous at 37°C compared to 30°C, are more variable in vivo than in vitro, and show higher homogeneity in 3’UTRs than in the coding region. We also identified structure ensembles that are associated with changes in translation efficiency and decay in C. albicans at 30°C and 37°C and validated translational changes using reporter assays. Our work shows that single-molecule RNA structure probing using direct RNA sequencing can be applied to diverse transcriptomes to study the complexity and function of RNA structures.
Project description:Single-molecule correlated chemical probing (smCCP) is an experimentally concise strategy for characterizing higher-order structural interactions in RNA. smCCP data yield rich, but complex, structural information on base pairing, conformational ensembles, and tertiary interactions. To date, through-space communication specifically measuring RNA tertiary structure has been difficult to isolate from structural communication reflective of other interactions. Here we introduce mutual information as a filtering metric to isolate tertiary structure communication contained within smCCP data and use this strategy to characterize the structural ensemble of the SAM-III riboswitch. We identified a smCCP fingerprint that is selective for states containing tertiary structure that forms concurrently with cognate ligand binding. We then successfully applied mutual information filters to independent RNAs and isolated through-space tertiary interactions in riboswitches and large RNAs with complex structures. smCCP, coupled with mutual information criteria, can now be used as a tertiary structure discovery tool, including to identify specific states in an ensemble that have higher-order structure. These studies pave the way for use of the straightforward smCCP experiment for discovery and characterization of tertiary structure motifs in complex RNAs.
Project description:RNA molecules can populate ensembles of alternative structural conformations; however, comprehensively mapping RNA conformational landscapes within living cells presents notable challenges and has, as such, so far remained elusive. Here, we generate transcriptome-scale maps of RNA secondary structure ensembles in both Escherichia coli and human cells, uncovering features of structurally heterogeneous regions. By combining ensemble deconvolution and covariation analyses, we report the discovery of several bacterial RNA thermometers in the 5′ untranslated regions (UTRs) of the cspG, cspI, cpxP and lpxP mRNAs of Escherichia coli. We mechanistically characterize how these thermometers switch structure in response to cold shock and reveal the CspE chaperone-mediated regulation of lpxP. Furthermore, we introduce a method for the transcriptome-scale mapping of 5′ UTR structures in eukaryotes and leverage it to uncover RNA structural switches regulating the differential usage of open reading frames in the 5′ UTRs of the CKS2 and TXNL4A mRNAs in HEK293 cells. Collectively, this work reveals the complexity of RNA structural dynamics in living cells and provides a resource to accelerate the discovery of regulatory RNA switches.
Project description:We show that DANCE-MaP permits measurement of state-specific per-nucleotide reactivities, direct secondary structure PAIRs, and tertiary RINGs for RNA structural ensembles. Here, we demonstrate DANCE-MaP on the V. vulnificus add riboswitch.
Project description:By applying MC EMiNEM (a novel method based on the concept of Nested Effects Models (NEMs) for the retrieval of functional dependencies between proteins that have pleiotropic effects on mRNA transcription) to the expression data from four gene perturbation studies (three of them unpublished) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we hope to derive new insight into the Mediator signaling network and specific transcription factor - Mediator subunit interactions. The structure of the resulting regulatory networks allows us to hypothesize on possible structural changes of the Mediator upon binding of activators or repressors.