Project description:Many unannotated microproteins and alternative proteins (alt-proteins) have recently been found to be co-encoded with canonical proteins, but few of their functions are known. Motivated by the hypothesis that alt-proteins undergoing regulated synthesis could play important cellular roles, we developed a chemoproteomic pipeline to identify nascent alt-proteins in human cells. We identified 22 actively translated alt-proteins or N-terminal extensions, one of which is post-transcriptionally upregulated by DNA damage stress. We further defined cell cycle-regulated MINAS-60 (MIcroprotein that Negatively regulates ASsembly of the pre-60S ribosomal subunit), a nucleolar alt-protein co-encoded with human RBM10. Depletion of MINAS-60 increases the amount of cytoplasmic 60S ribosomal subunit, upregulating global protein synthesis and cell proliferation. Mechanistically, MINAS-60 represses the rate of late-stage pre-60S assembly and export to the cytoplasm. Together, these results implicate MINAS-60 as a repressor of pre-60S maturation, and demonstrate that chemoproteomics can enable functional hypothesis generation for uncharacterized alt-proteins.
Project description:Most sarcomas have complex karyotype and are characterized by multiple chromosomal rearrangements. Moreover, sarcomas very frequently maintain their telomeres by recombination in the process called Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) which enables their continuous growth and immortalization. Previously our group showed that orphan receptors bind specifically to the ALT telomeres and that their presence is important for the ALT mechanism. In these studies we focus on the function of orphan receptors at the telomeres and their contribution to telomeric recombination. We demonstrate that orphan receptors induce proximity of their binding sites in telomeric and genomic context and reveal novel aspects of ALT which are telomere-genome rearrangements which can underlie complexity of sarcomas. Our data perturb the dogma of telomere function in protecting the genome integrity. Here we show that in some cases telomeres may in fact drive genomic instability and chromosomal rearrangements by recombination with genomic sites. Characterization of TRF2 and orphan receptor NR2F/C2 binding sites in ALT (-) and ALT (+) cells.
Project description:The Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) facilitates telomere lengthening by a DNA strand invasion and copying mechanism. The nuclear receptor NR2F2 can bind to (TCAGGG)n variant repeats within telomeres and it has been proposed that this facilitates telomere interactions in ALT+ cells. However, the role NR2F2 in regulation the gene expression in ALT+ cell lines is unclear. Here, using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), we characterised the changes in expression profile of three ALT+ cell lines (W-V, WI38VA13/2RA, U2OS) upon transient siRNA mediated downregulation of NR2F2 compared to cells treated with a control siRNA . Among 86 ALT-associated genes, only MND1 showed consistent down-regulation across the three NR2F2-depleted ALT+ cell lines. Altogether our data indicate that NR2F2 it does not play a direct role in the ALT mechanism.
Project description:Most sarcomas have complex karyotype and are characterized by multiple chromosomal rearrangements. Moreover, sarcomas very frequently maintain their telomeres by recombination in the process called Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) which enables their continuous growth and immortalization. Previously our group showed that orphan receptors bind specifically to the ALT telomeres and that their presence is important for the ALT mechanism. In these studies we focus on the function of orphan receptors at the telomeres and their contribution to telomeric recombination. We demonstrate that orphan receptors induce proximity of their binding sites in telomeric and genomic context and reveal novel aspects of ALT which are telomere-genome rearrangements which can underlie complexity of sarcomas. Our data perturb the dogma of telomere function in protecting the genome integrity. Here we show that in some cases telomeres may in fact drive genomic instability and chromosomal rearrangements by recombination with genomic sites.
Project description:The synthesis of poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) reconfigures the local environment and recruits repair complexes to damaged chromatin. The degradation of PAR by PARG is essential for progression and completion of DNA repair. Here, we show that inhibition of PARG disrupts homology-directed repair (HDR) mechanisms that underpin alternative telomere lengthening (ALT). By proteomics, we uncovered a novel role for PARylation in regulating the chromatin assembly factor, HIRA in ALT cancer cells. We show that HIRA is enriched at telomeres during G2 phase and is indispensable for histone H3.3 deposition and telomere DNA synthesis. Depletion of HIRA elicits systemic death of ALT cancer cells was mitigated by re-expression of ATRX protein that is frequently inactivated in ALT tumors. We propose that PARylation enables HIRA to fulfill its essential role in the adaptive response due to ATRX deficiency that pervades ALT cancers.
Project description:<p>Many tumors maintain chromosome ends through a telomerase-independent, homologous recombination based mechanism called alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). While ALT occurs in only a subset of tumors, it is strongly associated with mutations in the genes encoding components of the histone H3.3 chaperone complex, ATRX and DAXX. To date the mechanistic role of ATRX and particularly DAXX mutations in potentiating ALT remains poorly understood. We identify an osteosarcoma cell line, G292, with a unique chromosomal translocation resulting in loss of DAXX function, while retaining functional ATRX. Using this distinctive resource, we demonstrate that introduction of wild type DAXX suppresses the ALT phenotype and restores localization of the ATRX/DAXX complex to PML bodies. This provides the first direct molecular evidence that ongoing DAXX deficiency is essential for maintenance of the ALT phenotype and highlights the potential for therapeutic targeting of this oncogenic pathway.</p>
Project description:A gene expression signature classifying telomerase and ALT immortalisation reveals an hTERT regulatory network and suggests a mesenchymal stem cell origin for ALT Telomere length is maintained by 2 known mechanisms, activation of telomerase or alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). The molecular mechanisms regulating the ALT phenotype are poorly understood and it is unknown how the decision of which pathway to activate is made at the cellular level. We have shown previously that active repression of telomerase gene expression by chromatin remodelling of the promoters is one mechanism of regulation, however other genes and signalling networks are likely to be required to regulate telomerase and maintain the ALT phenotype. Using gene expression profiling we have uncovered a signature of 1305 genes to distinguish telomerase positive and ALT cell lines. By combining this with gene expression profiles of liposarcoma tissue samples we refined this signature to 297 genes significantly associated with telomere maintenance mechanism. Network analysis of known direct interactions between genes within this signature revealed a regulatory signalling network consistent with a model of hTERT repression in ALT cell lines and liposarcomas. This network expands on our existing knowledge of hTERT regulation and provides a platform to understand differential regulation of hTERT in different tumour types and normal tissues. In addition we show evidence to suggest a novel mesenchymal stem cell origin for ALT immortalisation in cell lines and mesenchymal tissues. Keywords: cell type comparison, gene expression
Project description:A gene expression signature classifying telomerase and ALT immortalisation reveals an hTERT regulatory network and suggests a mesenchymal stem cell origin for ALT Telomere length is maintained by 2 known mechanisms, activation of telomerase or alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). The molecular mechanisms regulating the ALT phenotype are poorly understood and it is unknown how the decision of which pathway to activate is made at the cellular level. We have shown previously that active repression of telomerase gene expression by chromatin remodelling of the promoters is one mechanism of regulation, however other genes and signalling networks are likely to be required to regulate telomerase and maintain the ALT phenotype. Using gene expression profiling we have uncovered a signature of 1305 genes to distinguish telomerase positive and ALT cell lines. By combining this with gene expression profiles of liposarcoma tissue samples we refined this signature to 297 genes significantly associated with telomere maintenance mechanism. Network analysis of known direct interactions between genes within this signature revealed a regulatory signalling network consistent with a model of hTERT repression in ALT cell lines and liposarcomas. This network expands on our existing knowledge of hTERT regulation and provides a platform to understand differential regulation of hTERT in different tumour types and normal tissues. In addition we show evidence to suggest a novel mesenchymal stem cell origin for ALT immortalisation in cell lines and mesenchymal tissues. Keywords: cell type comparison, gene expression
Project description:Alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) is a homology-directed repair (HDR) mechanism of telomere elongation that controls proliferation in subsets of highly aggressive cancer. Recent studies have revealed that TERRA (telomere repeat-containing RNA) acts to initiate ALT-associated HDR (ALT-HDR). Here we report that RAD51AP1, a crucial ALT factor, interacts with TERRA and utilizes it to generate D- and R- loop HR intermediates. We also show that RAD51AP1 binds to and may generate and potentially stabilize TERRA-containing R-loops as RAD51AP1 depletion reduces R-loop formation at telomere DNA breaks. Proteomic analyses uncover a new role for RAD51AP1 mediated TERRA R-loop homeostasis in a mechanism of chromatin-directed suppression of TERRA and prevention of transcription-replication collisions during ALT-HDR. Intriguingly, we find that both TERRA binding and this non-canonical function of RAD51AP1 require its intrinsic SUMO-SIM regulatory axis. These findings provide new insights into the multi-contextual functions of RAD51AP1 within the ALT mechanism and regulation of TERRA.