Project description:In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, transcription factors (TFs) regulate the periodic expression of many genes during the cell cycle, including gene products required for progression through cell-cycle events. Experimental evidence coupled with quantitative models suggest that a network of interconnected TFs is capable of regulating periodic genes over the cell cycle. Importantly, these dynamical models were built on transcriptomics data and assumed that TF protein levels and activity are directly correlated with mRNA abundance. To ask whether TF transcripts match protein expression levels as cells progress through the cell cycle, we applied a multiplexed targeted mass spectrometry approach (parallel reaction monitoring) on synchronized populations of cells. We found that protein expression of many TFs and cell-cycle regulators closely followed their respective mRNA transcript dynamics in cycling wild-type cells. Discordant mRNA/protein expression dynamics were also observed for a subset of cell-cycle TFs and for proteins targeted for degradation by E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes such as SCF (Skp1/Cul1/F-box) and APC/C (anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome). We further profiled mutant cells lacking B-type cyclin/CDK activity (clb1-6), where oscillations in ubiquitin ligase activity, cyclin/CDKs, and cell-cycle progression are halted. We found that a number of proteins were no longer periodically degraded in clb1-6 mutants compared to wild type, highlighting the importance of post-transcriptional regulation. Finally, the TF complexes responsible for activating G1/S transcription (SBF and MBF) were more constitutively expressed at the protein level than their periodic mRNA expression levels in both wild-type and mutant cells. This comprehensive investigation of cell-cycle regulators reveals that multiple layers of regulation (transcription, protein stability, and proteasome targeting) affect protein expression dynamics during the cell cycle.
Project description:Deciphering gene regulatory mechanisms through the analysis of high-throughput expression data is a challenging computational problem. Previous computational studies have used large expression datasets in order to resolve fine patterns of coexpression, producing clusters or modules of potentially coregulated genes. These methods typically examine promoter sequence information, such as DNA motifs or transcription factor occupancy data, in a separate step after clustering. We needed an alternative and more integrative approach to study the oxygen regulatory network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a small dataset of perturbation experiments. Mechanisms of oxygen sensing and regulation underlie many physiological and pathological processes, and only a handful of oxygen regulators have been identified in previous studies. We used a new machine learning algorithm called MEDUSA to uncover detailed information about the oxygen regulatory network using genome-wide expression changes in response to perturbations in the levels of oxygen, heme, Hap1, and Co2+. MEDUSA integrates mRNA expression, promoter sequence, and ChIP-chip occupancy data to learn a model that accurately predicts the differential expression of target genes in held-out data. We used a novel margin-based score to extract significant condition-specific regulators and assemble a global map of the oxygen sensing and regulatory network. This network includes both known oxygen and heme regulators, such as Hap1, Mga2, Hap4, and Upc2, as well as many new candidate regulators. MEDUSA also identified many DNA motifs that are consistent with previous experimentally identified transcription factor binding sites. Because MEDUSA's regulatory program associates regulators to target genes through their promoter sequences, we directly tested the predicted regulators for OLE1, a gene specifically induced under hypoxia, by experimental analysis of the activity of its promoter. In each case, deletion of the candidate regulator resulted in the predicted effect on promoter activity, confirming that several novel regulators identified by MEDUSA are indeed involved in oxygen regulation. MEDUSA can reveal important information from a small dataset and generate testable hypotheses for further experimental analysis.
Project description:Yeast cell cycle transcription dynamics in two S. cerevisae strains: BF264-15DU (MATa ade1 his2 leu2-3, 112 trp1-1 ura3Dns, bar1) [referred to as wild type] and a mutant of the wild type strain, clb1,2,3,4,5,6 GAL1-CLB1, [referred to as cyclin mutant] that does not express S-phase and mitotic cyclins. Both strains were synchronized by elutriation and released into YEP 2% dextrose/1M sorbitol at 30c. 15 samples were taken at 16 min intervals covering ~2 cycles in wild-type and ~1.5 cycles for the mutants. A significant fraction of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome is transcribed periodically during the cell division cycle, suggesting that properly timed gene expression is important for regulating cell cycle events. Genomic analyses of transcription factor localization and expression dynamics suggest that a network of sequentially expressed transcription factors could control the temporal program of transcription during the cell cycle. However, directed studies interrogating small numbers of genes indicate that their periodic transcription is governed by the activity of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). To determine the extent to which the global cell cycle transcription program is controlled by cyclin/CDK complexes, we compared genome-wide transcription dynamics in wild type budding yeast to mutants that do not express S-phase and mitotic cyclins. Experiment Overall Design: Cell cycle synchrony/time series experiments. G1 cells collected by elutriation was examined over time for 2 cell cycles. Strains compared: wild type vs cyclin mutants. 15 samples per time course at 16 min resolution. 2 biological replicates per strain.
Project description:DNA damage results in the activation of checkpoint kinases, which phosphorylate downstream effectors that inhibit the cell cycle, activate DNA repair, and cause widespread changes in transcription. However, the specific connections between the checkpoint kinases and downstream transcription factors (TFs) are not well understood. Here, we introduce a strategy for mapping regulatory networks between kinases and TFs involving integration of kinase mutant expression profiles, transcriptional regulatory interactions, and phosphoproteomics. We use this approach to investigate the role of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae checkpoint kinases (Mec1, Tel1, Chk1, Rad53, and Dun1) in the transcriptional response to DNA damage caused by methyl methanesulfonate (MMS). The result is a global kinase-TF regulatory network in which Mec1 and Tel1 signal through Rad53 to synergistically regulate the expression of more than 600 genes. This network implicates at least nine TFs, including Msn4, Gcn4, SBF (Swi4/Swi6), MBF (Swi6/Mbp1), and Fkh2/Ndd1/Mcm1, nearly all of which have sites of Rad53-dependent phosphorylation, as downstream regulators of checkpoint kinase-dependent genes. We also identify a major DNA damage-induced transcriptional network acting independently of Rad53 and other checkpoint kinases to regulate expression of genes involved in general and oxidative stress responses. Expression was profiled with and without MMS treatment in several genetic backgrounds (gene deletion strains).
Project description:In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the kinase Rio1 regulates rDNA transcription and segregation, pre-rRNA cleavage, and 40S ribosomal subunit maturation. Other roles are unknown. Human orthologue RIOK1; which is frequently overexpressed in malignancies, drives tumor growth and metastasis. Again, also RIOK1 biology is poorly understood. In this study, we charted the global activity of Rio1 in budding yeast. By producing and systems-integrating its protein-interaction, gene-transcription, and chromatin-binding maps we generated Rio1's multi-layered activity network, which controls protein synthesis and turnover, metabolism, growth, proliferation, and genetic stability. Rio1 regulates itself at the transcriptional level, and manages its network both directly and indirectly, via a battery of regulators and transcription factors, including Gcn4. We experimentally confirmed the network and show that Rio1 commands its downstream circuit depending on the growth conditions encountered. We also find that Rio1 and RIOK1 activities are functionally equivalent. Our data suggest that pathological RIOK1 expression may deregulate its network and fuel promiscuous transcription and ribosome production, uncontrolled metabolism, growth, proliferation, and chromosomal instability; well-known contributors to cancer initiation, maintenance and metastasis.