Project description:Germline nuclear RNAi in C. elegans is a transgenerational gene-silencing pathway that leads to the H3K9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) response and transcriptional repression of target genes. The H3K9me3 response induced either by exogenous dsRNA or endogenous siRNA (endo-siRNA) is highly specific to the target loci and transgenerationally heritable. Despite these features, the role of H3K9me3 in transcriptional repression and heritable gene silencing at native target genes has not been tested. To resolve this gap, we first determined that the combined activities of three H3K9 histone methyltransferases (HMTs), MET-2, SET-25, and SET-32, are responsible for virtually all of the detectable level of germline nuclear RNAi-dependent H3K9me3 at native genes, triggered either by exogenous dsRNA or endo-siRNAs. By performing RNA Polymerase II ChIP-seq and pre-mRNA-seq analyses, we found that the loss of the H3K9me3 response at germline nuclear RNAi targets in the met-2;set-25;set-32 mutant does not lead to any defect in transcriptional repression or heritable RNAi. Therefore, H3K9me3 is not required for exogenous dsRNA-induced heritable RNAi or the maintenance of endo siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing in C. elegans germline. This study provides a unique paradigm in which transcriptional silencing and heterochromatin, triggered by the same upstream pathway, can be decoupled.
Project description:Germline nuclear RNAi in C. elegans is a transgenerational gene-silencing pathway that leads to the H3K9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) response and transcriptional repression of target genes. The H3K9me3 response induced either by exogenous dsRNA or endogenous siRNA (endo-siRNA) is highly specific to the target loci and transgenerationally heritable. Despite these features, the role of H3K9me3 in transcriptional repression and heritable gene silencing at native target genes has not been tested. To resolve this gap, we first determined that the combined activities of three H3K9 histone methyltransferases (HMTs), MET-2, SET-25, and SET-32, are responsible for virtually all of the detectable level of germline nuclear RNAi-dependent H3K9me3 at native genes, triggered either by exogenous dsRNA or endo-siRNAs. By performing RNA Polymerase II ChIP-seq and pre-mRNA-seq analyses, we found that the loss of the H3K9me3 response at germline nuclear RNAi targets in the met-2;set-25;set-32 mutant does not lead to any defect in transcriptional repression or heritable RNAi. Therefore, H3K9me3 is not required for exogenous dsRNA-induced heritable RNAi or the maintenance of endo siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing in C. elegans germline. This study provides a unique paradigm in which transcriptional silencing and heterochromatin, triggered by the same upstream pathway, can be decoupled.
Project description:Germline nuclear RNAi in C. elegans is a transgenerational gene-silencing pathway that leads to the H3K9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) response and transcriptional repression of target genes. The H3K9me3 response induced either by exogenous dsRNA or endogenous siRNA (endo-siRNA) is highly specific to the target loci and transgenerationally heritable. Despite these features, the role of H3K9me3 in transcriptional repression and heritable gene silencing at native target genes has not been tested. To resolve this gap, we first determined that the combined activities of three H3K9 histone methyltransferases (HMTs), MET-2, SET-25, and SET-32, are responsible for virtually all of the detectable level of germline nuclear RNAi-dependent H3K9me3 at native genes, triggered either by exogenous dsRNA or endo-siRNAs. By performing RNA Polymerase II ChIP-seq and pre-mRNA-seq analyses, we found that the loss of the H3K9me3 response at germline nuclear RNAi targets in the met-2;set-25;set-32 mutant does not lead to any defect in transcriptional repression or heritable RNAi. Therefore, H3K9me3 is not required for exogenous dsRNA-induced heritable RNAi or the maintenance of endo siRNA-mediated transcriptional silencing in C. elegans germline. This study provides a unique paradigm in which transcriptional silencing and heterochromatin, triggered by the same upstream pathway, can be decoupled.
Project description:RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are crucial factors of post-transcriptional gene regulation and their modes of action are intensely investigated. At the center of attention are RNA motifs that guide where RBPs bind. However, sequence motifs recognized by RBPs are typically a poor predictor of RBP-RNA interactions in vivo. It is hence believed that many RBPs recognize RNAs as complexes, to increase specificity and regulatory potential. To probe the potential for RBP–RBP complex formation, we assembled a library of 978 mammalian RBPs and used rec-Y2H screening to detect direct interactions between RBPs, sampling >1M possible interactions. We discovered 1994 new interactions and demonstrate that our interaction screening discovers RBP pairs that bind RNAs adjacently. We further find that the mRNA binding region preferences of an RBP can deviate, depending on its adjacently binding interaction partner. Finally, we reveal novel RBP–RBP interaction networks among major RNA processing steps and show that RBP mutations observed in cancer rewire spliceosomal interaction networks.
Project description:Here, we used axonal RNA localization motifs as baits coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) to identify the RNA binding proteins that bind to Nrn1 (also called Cortical Plasticity Gene 15), Hmgb1 (also called Amphoterin), Actb, and Gap43 mRNA localization motifs.
Project description:RUNX1 and ETV6-RUNX1 possess the same DNA-binding runt domain and are therefore expected to bind to canonical RUNX motifs. As the ETV6-RUNX1 fusion arises in the context of native RUNX1 expression, and since RUNX1 is retained or amplified in B-ALL, the two proteins are likely to compete for the same target sites. To assess this, we performed RUNX1 ChIP-seq in the presence of exogenous ETV6-RUNX1 (or non DNA binding ETV6-RUNX1-R139G) and the reciprocal experiment: ETV6-RUNX1 ChIP (using a V5 tag) in the presence of exogenous RUNX1 or vector control.
Project description:Post-transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes requires cis- and trans-acting features and factors including RNA secondary structure, and RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). However, a comprehensive view of the structural and RBP interaction landscape of RNAs in the nucleus has yet to be compiled for any organism. Here, we use our ribonuclease-mediated structure and RBP binding site mapping approach on Arabidopsis seedling nuclei in vivo to globally profile these features within the nuclear compartment. We reveal opposing patterns of secondary structure and RBP binding levels throughout native messenger RNAs that demarcate alternative splicing and polyadenylation. We also uncover a collection of protein bound sequence motifs, and identify their structural contexts, co-occurrences in transcripts encoding functionally related proteins, and interactions with putative RBPs. Finally, we identify a nuclear role for the chloroplast RBP, CP29A. In total, we provide the first simultaneous view of the RNA secondary structure and RBP interaction landscapes in a eukaryotic nucleus. Protein interaction profile sequencing (PIP-seq) in Arabidopsis seedling nuclei. These are crosslinked with formaldehyde and treated with two RNases (ssRNase and dsRNase) with two replicates
Project description:The cellular function of RNA is intimately linked to its structure. The 3D structure of RNA is intricate and compact, and is often complexed with other macromolecules for regulatory interaction. These interactions frequently lead to occluded environments that block structure probing by current reagents. Our RNA infrastructure profiling method (RISP) quantitatively compares standard acylation probes to new small-sized probes, and reveals ca. 80% more structural data for intracellular RNAs underlying protein contacts. Comparative analysis also reveals information about close contacts in ribonucleoprotein complexes such as small nuclear RNAs in the spliceosome. In addition, RISP analysis with small agent AcIm reveals pronounced signals for m6A methylation sites of RNAs in their native cellular setting, even in crowded environments.
Project description:Base-pair level resolution of DNase susceptibility of the native chromatin state. These maps represent and are dependent upon the nature and the specificity of interaction of the DNA with the regulatory/modulatory proteins binding at specific loci in the genome; thus they represent the native chromatin state of the genome under investigation. The deep sequencing approach has been used to define the footprint landscape of the genome by identifying DNA motifs that interact with known or novel DNA-binding proteins 2 replicates of the erythroid cells were generated and profiled by Dnase I.
Project description:Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) direct RNA interference (RNAi) in eukaryotes. In flies, somatic cells produce siRNAs from exogenous double-stranded RNA as a defense against viral infection. Here, we identify 21-nt long, endogenous siRNAs (endo-siRNAs) corresponding to transposons and heterochromatic sequences in the somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster. We also detected endo-siRNAs complementary to mRNAs: these siRNAs disproportionately mapped to the complementary regions of overlapping mRNAs predicted to form dsRNA in vivo. Normal accumulation of somatic endo-siRNAs requires the siRNA-generating ribonuclease, Dicer-2, and the RNAi effector protein, Ago2. We propose that endo-siRNAs generated by the fly RNAi pathway silence selfish genetic elements in the soma much as piRNAs do in the germ line. Keywords: Small RNA detection and quantification.