Project description:The goals of this study to find the differential expressed genes in epidermal growth factor (EGF) treated Stylonychia lemnae cells.
Project description:Ciliated protists are model organisms for a number of molecular phenomena including telomerase function, self-splicing introns, and an RNA interference-related mechanism in programmed DNA elimination. Despite this relevance, our knowledge about promoters and transcriptional regulation in these organisms is very limited. The macronuclear genome of stichotrichous ciliates consists of minichromosomes which typically encode a single gene. The 5' nontranscribed spacers are usually no longer than 400 bp and highly suitable for promoter characterizations. We used microinjection of two artificial and differently tagged alpha1 tubulin minichromosomes into the macronucleus of Stylonychia lemnae as a means to characterize in detail the corresponding promoter. Clonal cell lines that stably maintained both minichromosomes were generated, enabling comparative expression analysis by primer extension assays. Deletion and block substitution mutations of one of the minichromosomes revealed a TATA-like element, a putative initiator element, and two distinct upstream sequence elements (USEs). Determination of transcription initiation sites and a sequence alignment indicated that both TATA-like and initiator elements are conserved components of S. lemnae minichromosomes, whereas the USEs appear to be specific for the alpha1 tubulin minichromosome. The alpha2 tubulin minichromosome promoter is very short, comprising the two proximal elements but not the USEs. Despite the latter finding, up-regulation of alpha-tubulin expression in cells treated with concanavalin A activated the alpha2 but not the alpha1 tubulin promoter. These results therefore show that gene expression regulation in S. lemnae occurs at the level of transcription initiation on the basis of structurally different promoters.
Project description:Stylonychia lemnae is a classical model single-celled eukaryote, and a quintessential ciliate typified by dimorphic nuclei: A small, germline micronucleus and a massive, vegetative macronucleus. The genome within Stylonychia's macronucleus has a very unusual architecture, comprised variably and highly amplified "nanochromosomes," each usually encoding a single gene with a minimal amount of surrounding noncoding DNA. As only a tiny fraction of the Stylonychia genes has been sequenced, and to promote research using this organism, we sequenced its macronuclear genome. We report the analysis of the 50.2-Mb draft S. lemnae macronuclear genome assembly, containing in excess of 16,000 complete nanochromosomes, assembled as less than 20,000 contigs. We found considerable conservation of fundamental genomic properties between S. lemnae and its close relative, Oxytricha trifallax, including nanochromosomal gene synteny, alternative fragmentation, and copy number. Protein domain searches in Stylonychia revealed two new telomere-binding protein homologs and the presence of linker histones. Among the diverse histone variants of S. lemnae and O. trifallax, we found divergent, coexpressed variants corresponding to four of the five core nucleosomal proteins (H1.2, H2A.6, H2B.4, and H3.7) suggesting that these ciliates may possess specialized nucleosomes involved in genome processing during nuclear differentiation. The assembly of the S. lemnae macronuclear genome demonstrates that largely complete, well-assembled highly fragmented genomes of similar size and complexity may be produced from one library and lane of Illumina HiSeq 2000 shotgun sequencing. The provision of the S. lemnae macronuclear genome sets the stage for future detailed experimental studies of chromatin-mediated, RNA-guided developmental genome rearrangements.