Project description:Cohesin-mediated loop extrusion folds interphase chromosomes at the ten to hundreds kilobases scale. This process produces structural features such as loops and topologically associating domains. We identify three types of cis-elements that define the chromatin folding landscape generated by loop extrusion. First, CTCF sites form boundaries by stalling extruding cohesin, as shown before. Second, transcription termination sites form boundaries by acting as cohesin unloading sites. RNA polymerase II contributes to boundary formation at transcription termination sites. Third, transcription start sites form boundaries that are mostly independent of cohesin, but are sites where cohesin can pause. Together with cohesin loading at enhancers, and possibly other cis-elements, these loci create a dynamic pattern of cohesin traffic along the genome that guides enhancer-promoter interactions. Disturbing this traffic pattern, by removing CTCF barriers, makes cells sensitive to deletion of genes involved in transcription initiation, such as the SAGA and TFIID complexes, and RNA processing such DEAD-Box RNA helicases. In the absence of CTCF, several of these factors fail to be efficiently recruited to active promoters. We propose that the complex pattern of cohesin movement along chromatin contributes to appropriate promoter-enhancer interactions and localization of transcription and RNA processing factors to active genes.
Project description:Cohesin-mediated loop extrusion is blocked at specific cis-elements, including CTCF sites, producing patterns of loops and domain boundaries along chromosomes. Here, we explore such cis-elements, and their role in gene regulation. We find that transcription termination sites of active genes form cohesin- and RNA polymerase II-dependent domain boundaries that do not accumulate cohesin. At these sites, cohesin is first stalled and then rapidly unloaded. Start sites of transcriptionally active genes form cohesin-bound boundaries, as shown before, but are cohesin-independent. Together with cohesin loading possibly at enhancers, these sites create a pattern of cohesin traffic that guides enhancer-promoter interactions. Disturbing this traffic pattern, by removing CTCF, renders cells sensitive to knock-out of genes involved in transcription initiation, such as the SAGA complexes, and RNA processing such DEAD/H-Box RNA helicases. Without CTCF, these factors are less efficiently recruited to active promoters.
Project description:Cohesin-mediated loop extrusion folds interphase chromosomes at the ten to hundreds kilobases scale. This process produces structural features such as loops and topologically associating domains. We identify three types of cis-elements that define the chromatin folding landscape generated by loop extrusion. First, CTCF sites form boundaries by stalling extruding cohesin, as shown before. Second, transcription termination sites form boundaries by acting as cohesin unloading sites. RNA polymerase II contributes to boundary formation at transcription termination sites. Third, transcription start sites form boundaries that are mostly independent of cohesin, but are sites where cohesin can pause. Together with cohesin loading at enhancers, and possibly other cis-elements, these loci create a dynamic pattern of cohesin traffic along the genome that guides enhancer-promoter interactions. Disturbing this traffic pattern, by removing CTCF barriers, makes cells sensitive to deletion of genes involved in transcription initiation, such as the SAGA and TFIID complexes, and RNA processing such DEAD-Box RNA helicases. In the absence of CTCF, several of these factors fail to be efficiently recruited to active promoters. We propose that the complex pattern of cohesin movement along chromatin contributes to appropriate promoter-enhancer interactions and localization of transcription and RNA processing factors to active genes.
Project description:Cohesin-mediated loop extrusion folds interphase chromosomes at the ten to hundreds kilobases scale. This process produces structural features such as loops and topologically associating domains. We identify three types of cis-elements that define the chromatin folding landscape generated by loop extrusion. First, CTCF sites form boundaries by stalling extruding cohesin, as shown before. Second, transcription termination sites form boundaries by acting as cohesin unloading sites. RNA polymerase II contributes to boundary formation at transcription termination sites. Third, transcription start sites form boundaries that are mostly independent of cohesin, but are sites where cohesin can pause. Together with cohesin loading at enhancers, and possibly other cis-elements, these loci create a dynamic pattern of cohesin traffic along the genome that guides enhancer-promoter interactions. Disturbing this traffic pattern, by removing CTCF barriers, makes cells sensitive to deletion of genes involved in transcription initiation, such as the SAGA and TFIID complexes, and RNA processing such DEAD-Box RNA helicases. In the absence of CTCF, several of these factors fail to be efficiently recruited to active promoters. We propose that the complex pattern of cohesin movement along chromatin contributes to appropriate promoter-enhancer interactions and localization of transcription and RNA processing factors to active genes.
Project description:Translational control is a widespread mode of gene regulation in organisms ranging from bacteria to mammals. Computational models posit that translational control of protein expression during elongation is exerted through a traffic jam of multiple ribosomes at ribosome pause sites on mRNAs. Yet neither the in vivo frequency of ribosome traffic jams nor the contribution of such traffic jams to protein expression has been measured in any organism. Here we show that upon starvation for single amino acids in the bacterium Escherichia coli, ribosome traffic jams are pervasive across the transcriptome, but they occur at only a subset of codons cognate to the limiting amino acid, and their severity is determined by the translation efficiency of mRNAs. Surprisingly, a computational model based on the observed traffic jams at ribosome pause sites is quantitatively inconsistent with measured protein synthesis rates. By comparison, a model incorporating abortion of protein synthesis at ribosome pause sites in addition to ribosome traffic jams predicts protein synthesis rate with higher accuracy. Consistent with the latter model, a significant fraction of the nascent polypeptides at ribosome pause sites is degraded through the activity of the transfer-messenger RNA during amino acid starvation in E. coli. Our work provides a minimal, experimentally-constrained model for predicting protein expression from ribosome dynamics, and it suggests the existence of a trade-off between the cellular translational capacity and the processivity of protein synthesis in vivo. 6 samples for ribosome profiling and 5 samples for total mRNA profiling