Project description:Sirtuins (Sirt) are a family of enzymes that modify chromatin and other proteins to affect gene activity. Loss of Sirt6 leads to a progeria-like phenotype in mice, but the target of SIRT6 action has been elusive. Here we show that Sirt6 binds to thousands of gene promoters in a stress-inducible fashion, guided by the stress-responsive transcription factor NF-κB. Chromatin profiling by ChIP-chip analysis of Sirt6 and NF-KB component RelA combined with expression array data of wildtype, Sirt6 knockout and Sirt6 RelA double knockout cells demonstrates that RelA recruits Sirt6 to NF-KB targets in response to TNF-a induction and that many of these targets are important for senescence and aging. comparison of wild type, Sirt6-/- and Sirt6-/- RelA-/- MEF cells
Project description:Sirtuins (Sirt) are a family of enzymes that modify chromatin and other proteins to affect gene activity. Loss of Sirt6 leads to a progeria-like phenotype in mice, but the target of SIRT6 action has been elusive. Here we show that Sirt6 binds to thousands of gene promoters in a stress-inducible fashion, guided by the stress-responsive transcription factor NF-?B. Chromatin profiling by ChIP-chip analysis of Sirt6 and NF-KB component RelA combined with expression array data of wildtype, Sirt6 knockout and Sirt6 RelA double knockout cells demonstrates that RelA recruits Sirt6 to NF-KB targets in response to TNF-a induction and that many of these targets are important for senescence and aging. comparison of wild type, RelA -/- and Sirt6-/- MEF cells
Project description:Sirtuins (Sirt) are a family of enzymes that modify chromatin and other proteins to affect gene activity. Loss of Sirt6 leads to a progeria-like phenotype in mice, but the target of SIRT6 action has been elusive. Here we show that Sirt6 binds to thousands of gene promoters in a stress-inducible fashion, guided by the stress-responsive transcription factor NF-κB. Chromatin profiling by ChIP-chip analysis of Sirt6 and NF-KB component RelA combined with expression array data of wildtype, Sirt6 knockout and Sirt6 RelA double knockout cells demonstrates that RelA recruits Sirt6 to NF-KB targets in response to TNF-a induction and that many of these targets are important for senescence and aging.
Project description:Sirtuins (Sirt) are a family of enzymes that modify chromatin and other proteins to affect gene activity. Loss of Sirt6 leads to a progeria-like phenotype in mice, but the target of SIRT6 action has been elusive. Here we show that Sirt6 binds to thousands of gene promoters in a stress-inducible fashion, guided by the stress-responsive transcription factor NF-κB. Chromatin profiling by ChIP-chip analysis of Sirt6 and NF-KB component RelA combined with expression array data of wildtype, Sirt6 knockout and Sirt6 RelA double knockout cells demonstrates that RelA recruits Sirt6 to NF-KB targets in response to TNF-a induction and that many of these targets are important for senescence and aging.
Project description:Pericentric heterochromatin silencing at mammalian centromeres is essential for mitotic fidelity and genomic stability. Defective pericentric silencing is observed in senescent cells, aging tissues, and mammalian tumors, but the underlying mechanisms and functional consequences of these defects are unclear. Here, we uncover a pivotal role of the human SIRT6 enzyme in pericentric transcriptional silencing, and this function protects against mitotic defects, genomic instability, and cellular senescence. At pericentric heterochromatin, SIRT6 promotes deacetylation of a new substrate, histone H3 lysine K18 (H3K18), and inactivation of SIRT6 in cells leads to H3K18 hyperacetylation and aberrant accumulation of pericentric transcripts. Strikingly, RNAi-depletion of these transcripts rescues the mitotic and senescence phenotypes of SIRT6-deficient cells. Together, our findings reveal a new function for SIRT6 and H3K18Ac regulation at heterochromatin, and demonstrate the pathogenic role of de-regulated pericentric transcription in aging- and cancer- related cellular dysfunction. H3K18ac, H3K9ac, H3K9me3, H3K56ac and Input ChIP-seq for U2OS cell
Project description:Brain-specific SIRT6-KO mice present increased DNA damage, learning impairments, and neurodegenerative phenotypes, placing SIRT6 as a key protein in preventing neurodegeneration. In the aging brain, SIRT6 levels/activity decline, which is accentuated in Alzheimer's patients. To understand SIRT6 roles in transcript pattern changes, we analyzed transcriptomes of young WT, old WT and young SIRT6-KO mice brains, and found changes in gene expression related to healthy and pathological aging. In addition, we traced these differences in human and mouse samples of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, healthy aging and calorie restriction (CR). Our results define four gene expression categories that change with age in a pathological or non-pathological manner, which are either reversed or not by CR. We found that each of these gene expression categories is associated with specific transcription factors, thus serving as potential candidates for their category-specific regulation. One of these candidates is YY1, which we found to act together with SIRT6 regulating specific processes. We thus argue that SIRT6 has a pivotal role in preventing age-related transcriptional changes in brains. Therefore, reduced SIRT6 activity may drive pathological age-related gene expression signatures in the brain.
Project description:Pericentric heterochromatin silencing at mammalian centromeres is essential for mitotic fidelity and genomic stability. Defective pericentric silencing is observed in senescent cells, aging tissues, and mammalian tumors, but the underlying mechanisms and functional consequences of these defects are unclear. Here, we uncover a pivotal role of the human SIRT6 enzyme in pericentric transcriptional silencing, and this function protects against mitotic defects, genomic instability, and cellular senescence. At pericentric heterochromatin, SIRT6 promotes deacetylation of a new substrate, histone H3 lysine K18 (H3K18), and inactivation of SIRT6 in cells leads to H3K18 hyperacetylation and aberrant accumulation of pericentric transcripts. Strikingly, RNAi-depletion of these transcripts rescues the mitotic and senescence phenotypes of SIRT6-deficient cells. Together, our findings reveal a new function for SIRT6 and H3K18Ac regulation at heterochromatin, and demonstrate the pathogenic role of de-regulated pericentric transcription in aging- and cancer- related cellular dysfunction.
Project description:Proteostasis collapse, the diminished ability to maintain protein homeostasis, has been established as a hallmark of nematode aging. However, whether proteostasis collapse occurs in humans has remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that proteostasis decline is intrinsic to human senescence. Using transcriptome-wide characterization of gene expression, splicing, and translation, we found a significant deterioration in the transcriptional activation of the heat shock response in stressed senescent cells. Furthermore, phosphorylated HSF1 nuclear localization and distribution were impaired in senescence. Interestingly, alternative splicing regulation was also dampened. Surprisingly, we found a decoupling between different unfolded protein response (UPR) branches in stressed senescent cells. While young cells initiated UPR-related translational and transcriptional regulatory responses, senescent cells showed enhanced translational regulation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensing; however, they were unable to trigger UPR-related transcriptional responses. This was accompanied by diminished ATF6 nuclear localization in stressed senescent cells. Finally, we found that proteasome function was impaired following heat stress in senescent cells, and did not recover upon return to normal temperature. Together, our data unraveled a deterioration in the ability to mount dynamic stress transcriptional programs upon human senescence with broad implications on proteostasis control and connected proteostasis decline to human aging.