Project description:While liganded nuclear receptors are well established to regulate Pol II protein-coding transcription units, their role in regulation of DNA repeats remains largely unknown. Here, we report that ~2-3% of the ~1-200,000 human DR2 Alu repeats, particularly those in proximity to retinoic acid-activated Pol II transcription units, are bound and activated by retinoic acid receptor in human embryonic stem cells, triggering their Pol III-dependent transcription. The non-coding DR2 Alu transcripts are processed in a Dicer-dependent fashion into a series of small RNA products with sizes ranging ~28-65nt and exhibit substantial co-localization with P bodies. These small RNAs cause degradation of a subset of mRNAs critical for the "stem cell" state, which harbor complimentary sequences in their 3' untranslated regions. This regulation requires Ago3- dependent stabilization of full-length and processed DR2 Alu transcripts, and recruitment of Ago3-associated decapping complexes to the target mRNAs. Thus, the RAR/Pol III-dependent DR2 Alu transcriptional program in stem cells serves as a functional complement to the RAR/Pol II-dependent counterpart. ChIP-seq of H3K36me3 samples before and after RA (retinoic acid) treatments.
Project description:While liganded nuclear receptors are well established to regulate Pol II protein-coding transcription units, their role in regulation of DNA repeats remains largely unknown. Here, we report that ~2-3% of the ~1-200,000 human DR2 Alu repeats, particularly those in proximity to retinoic acid-activated Pol II transcription units, are bound and activated by retinoic acid receptor in human embryonic stem cells, triggering their Pol III-dependent transcription. The non-coding DR2 Alu transcripts are processed in a Dicer-dependent fashion into a series of small RNA products with sizes ranging ~28-65nt and exhibit substantial co-localization with P bodies. These small RNAs cause degradation of a subset of mRNAs critical for the "stem cell" state, which harbor complimentary sequences in their 3' untranslated regions. This regulation requires Ago3- dependent stabilization of full-length and processed DR2 Alu transcripts, and recruitment of Ago3-associated decapping complexes to the target mRNAs. Thus, the RAR/Pol III-dependent DR2 Alu transcriptional program in stem cells serves as a functional complement to the RAR/Pol II-dependent counterpart.
Project description:Although liganded nuclear receptors have been established to regulate RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-dependent transcription units, their role in regulating Pol III-transcribed DNA repeats remains largely unknown. Here we report that ~2-3% of the ~100,000-200,000 total human DR2 Alu repeats located in proximity to activated Pol II transcription units are activated by the retinoic acid receptor (RAR) in human embryonic stem cells to generate Pol III-dependent RNAs. These transcripts are processed, initially in aM-BM- DICER-dependent fashion, into small RNAs (~28-65 nt) referred to as repeat-induced RNAs that cause the degradation of a subset of crucial stem-cell mRNAs, includingM-BM- NanogM-BM- mRNA, which modulate exit from the proliferative stem-cell state. This regulation requiresM-BM- AGO3-dependent accumulation of processed DR2 Alu transcripts and the subsequent recruitment ofM-BM- AGO3-associated decapping complexes to the target mRNA. In this way, the RAR-dependent and Pol III-dependent DR2 Alu transcriptional events in stem cells functionally complement the Pol II-dependent neuronal transcriptional program. RNA-sequencing of polyA selected RNA molecules in NTera2/D1 cells and Global Run On (GRO) assay followed by high throughput sequencing (GRO-seq).
Project description:Although liganded nuclear receptors have been established to regulate RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-dependent transcription units, their role in regulating Pol III-transcribed DNA repeats remains largely unknown. Here we report that ~2-3% of the ~100,000-200,000 total human DR2 Alu repeats located in proximity to activated Pol II transcription units are activated by the retinoic acid receptor (RAR) in human embryonic stem cells to generate Pol III-dependent RNAs. These transcripts are processed, initially in a DICER-dependent fashion, into small RNAs (~28-65 nt) referred to as repeat-induced RNAs that cause the degradation of a subset of crucial stem-cell mRNAs, including Nanog mRNA, which modulate exit from the proliferative stem-cell state. This regulation requires AGO3-dependent accumulation of processed DR2 Alu transcripts and the subsequent recruitment of AGO3-associated decapping complexes to the target mRNA. In this way, the RAR-dependent and Pol III-dependent DR2 Alu transcriptional events in stem cells functionally complement the Pol II-dependent neuronal transcriptional program.
Project description:Bats harbor highly virulent viruses that can infect other mammals, including humans, posing questions about their immune tolerance mechanisms. Bat cells employ multiple strategies to limit virus replication and virus-induced immunopathology, but the coexistence of bats and fatal viruses remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the antiviral RNA interference (RNAi) pathway in bat cells and discovered that they have an enhanced antiviral RNAi response, producing canonical viral small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) upon Sindbis virus (SINV) infection that were missing in human cells. Disruption of Dicer function resulted in increased viral load for three different RNA viruses in bat cells, indicating an interferon-independent antiviral pathway. Furthermore, our findings reveal the simultaneous engagement of Dicer and pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs), such as retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I), with double-stranded RNA, suggesting that Dicer attenuates the interferon response initiation in bat cells. These insights advance our comprehension of the distinctive strategies bats employ to coexist with viruses.
Project description:piRNAs function in silencing retrotransposons by associating with the PIWI proteins, AGO3, Aub, and Piwi, in Drosophila germlines. Bioinformatics analyses of piRNAs in Drosophila ovaries suggested that piRNAs are produced by two systems, the primary processing pathway and the amplification loop, from repetitive genes and piRNA clusters in the genome. The amplification loop occurs in a Dicer-independent, PIWI-Slicer-dependent manner. However, the primary processing pathway remains largely conceptual. Here we show that in ovarian somatic cells, which lack Aub and AGO3 but express Piwi, the primary processing pathway for piRNAs indeed exists. Keywords: Small RNA profiling by high throughput sequencing Piwi-associated small RNAs were extracted from Drosophila ovarian somatic cells and their deep sequencing was carried out.
Project description:piRNAs function in silencing retrotransposons by associating with the PIWI proteins, AGO3, Aub, and Piwi, in Drosophila germlines. Bioinformatics analyses of piRNAs in Drosophila ovaries suggested that piRNAs are produced by two systems, the primary processing pathway and the amplification loop, from repetitive genes and piRNA clusters in the genome. The amplification loop occurs in a Dicer-independent, PIWI-Slicer-dependent manner. However, the primary processing pathway remains largely conceptual. Here we show that in ovarian somatic cells, which lack Aub and AGO3 but express Piwi, the primary processing pathway for piRNAs indeed exists. Keywords: Small RNA profiling by high throughput sequencing
Project description:The four mammalian Argonaute family members are thought to share redundant functions in the microRNA pathway, yet only AGO2 possesses the catalytic "slicer" function required for RNA interference. Whether AGO1, AGO3, or AGO4 possess specialized functions remains unclear. Here, we Series_summary = show that AGO4 localizes to spermatocyte nuclei during meiotic prophase I, specifically at sites of asynapsis and in the transcriptionally silenced XY sub-domain, the sex body. We generated Ago4 knockout mice and show that Ago4-/- spermatogonia initiate meiosis early, resulting from premature induction of retinoic acid-response genes. During prophase I, the sex body assembles incorrectly in Ago4-/- mice, leading to disrupted meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). This is associated with a dramatic loss of microRNAs, >20% of which arise from the X chromosome. Loss of AGO4 results in increased AGO3 in spermatocytes, indicating some degree of redundancy. Thus, AGO4 regulates meiotic entry and MSCI in mammalian germ cells, implicating small RNA pathways in these processes.
Project description:The assembly of fission yeast pericentromeric heterochromatin and generation of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) from noncoding centromeric transcripts are mutually dependent processes. How this interdependent positive feedback loop is first triggered is a fundamental unanswered question. Here we show that two distinct Argonaute (Ago1)-dependent pathways mediate small RNA generation. RNA-dependent RNA polymerase complex (RDRC) and Dicer act on specific noncoding RNAs to generate siRNAs by a mechanism that requires the slicer activity of Ago1 but is independent of pre-existing heterochromatin. In the absence of RDRC or Dicer, a distinct class of small RNAs, called primal small RNAs (priRNAs), associate with Ago1. priRNAs are degradation products of abundant transcripts, which bind to Ago1 and target antisense transcripts that result from bidirectional transcription of DNA repeats. Our results suggest that a transcriptome surveillance mechanism based on the random association of RNA degradation products with Argonaute triggers siRNA amplification and heterochromatin assembly within DNA repeats. small RNA profiling in wild type S. pombe cells and in 12 mutant cells