scholarly journals Topoisomerase IIβ targets DNA crossovers formed between distant homologous sites to modulate chromatin structure and gene expression

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Miyaji ◽  
Ryohei Furuta ◽  
Osamu Hosoya ◽  
Kuniaki Sano ◽  
Norikazu Hara ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundType II DNA topoisomerases (topo II) flip the spatial positions of two DNA duplexes, called G- and T-segments, by a cleavage-passage-resealing mechanism. In living cells, these DNA segments can be placed far from each other on the same chromosome. However, no direct evidence for this to occur has been described so far due to lack of proper methodology.ResultsThe beta isoform of topo II (topo IIβ) is essential for transcriptional regulation of genes expressed in the final stage of neuronal differentiation. To elucidate the enzyme’s role in the process, here we devise a genome-wide mapping technique for topo IIβ target sites that can measure the genomic distance between G- and T-segments. It became clear that the enzyme operates in two distinctive modes, termed proximal strand passage (PSP) and distal strand passage (DSP). PSP sites are concentrated around transcription start sites, whereas DSP sites are heavily clustered in small number of hotspots. While PSP represent the conventional topo II targets that remove local torsional stresses, DSP sites have not been described previously. Most remarkably, DSP is driven by the pairing between homologous sequences or repeats located in a large distance. A model-building approach suggested that the DSP sites are intertwined or knotted and topo IIβ is engaged in unknotting reaction that leads to chromatin decondensation and gene regulation.ConclusionsWhen combined with categorized gene expression analysis, the model-based prediction of DSP sites reveals that DSP is one of the key factors for topo IIβ-dependency of neuronal gene regulation.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Miyaji ◽  
Ryohei Furuta ◽  
Osamu Hosoya ◽  
Kuniaki Sano ◽  
Norikazu Hara ◽  
...  

Abstract Type II DNA topoisomerases (topo II) flip the spatial positions of two DNA duplexes, called G- and T- segments, by a cleavage-passage-resealing mechanism. In living cells, these DNA segments can be derived from distant sites on the same chromosome. Due to lack of proper methodology, however, no direct evidence has been described so far. The beta isoform of topo II (topo IIβ) is essential for transcriptional regulation of genes expressed in the final stage of neuronal differentiation. Here we devise a genome-wide mapping technique (eTIP-seq) for topo IIβ target sites that can measure the genomic distance between G- and T-segments. It revealed that the enzyme operates in two distinctive modes, termed proximal strand passage (PSP) and distal strand passage (DSP). PSP sites are concentrated around transcription start sites, whereas DSP sites are heavily clustered in small number of hotspots. While PSP represent the conventional topo II targets that remove local torsional stresses, DSP sites have not been described previously. Most remarkably, DSP is driven by the pairing between homologous sequences or repeats located in a large distance. A model-building approach suggested that topo IIβ acts on crossovers to unknot the intertwined DSP sites, leading to chromatin decondensation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Zeng ◽  
Stephen M. Pederson ◽  
Danfeng Cao ◽  
Zhipeng Qu ◽  
Zhiqiang Hu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTNearly half of the human genome is made up of transposable elements (TEs) and there is evidence that TEs are involved in gene regulation. Here, we have integrated publicly available genomic, epigenetic and transcriptomic data to investigate this in a genome-wide manner. A bootstrapping statistical method was applied to minimize the confounder effects from different repeat types. Our results show that although most TE classes are primarily associated with reduced gene expression, Alu elements are associated with up regulated gene expression. Furthermore, Alu elements had the highest probability of any TE class of contributing to regulatory regions of any type defined by chromatin state. This suggests a general model where clade specific SINEs may contribute more to gene regulation than ancient/ancestral TEs. Finally, non-coding regions were found to have a high probability of TE content within regulatory sequences, most notably in repressors. Our exhaustive analysis has extended and updated our understanding of TEs in terms of their global impact on gene regulation, and suggests that the most recently derived types of TEs, i.e. clade or species specific SINES, have the greatest overall impact on gene regulation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dicle Yalcin ◽  
Hasan H. Otu

Background: Epigenetic repression mechanisms play an important role in gene regulation, specifically in cancer development. In many cases, a CpG island’s (CGI) susceptibility or resistance to methylation are shown to be contributed by local DNA sequence features. Objective: To develop unbiased machine learning models–individually and combined for different biological features–that predict the methylation propensity of a CGI. Methods: We developed our model consisting of CGI sequence features on a dataset of 75 sequences (28 prone, 47 resistant) representing a genome-wide methylation structure. We tested our model on two independent datasets that are chromosome (132 sequences) and disease (70 sequences) specific. Results: We provided improvements in prediction accuracy over previous models. Our results indicate that combined features better predict the methylation propensity of a CGI (area under the curve (AUC) ~0.81). Our global methylation classifier performs well on independent datasets reaching an AUC of ~0.82 for the complete model and an AUC of ~0.88 for the model using select sequences that better represent their classes in the training set. We report certain de novo motifs and transcription factor binding site (TFBS) motifs that are consistently better in separating prone and resistant CGIs. Conclusion: Predictive models for the methylation propensity of CGIs lead to a better understanding of disease mechanisms and can be used to classify genes based on their tendency to contain methylation prone CGIs, which may lead to preventative treatment strategies. MATLAB and Python™ scripts used for model building, prediction, and downstream analyses are available at https://github.com/dicleyalcin/methylProp_predictor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Divya Mehta ◽  
Karen Grewen ◽  
Brenda Pearson ◽  
Shivangi Wani ◽  
Leanne Wallace ◽  
...  

AbstractMaternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant public health concern due to the severe negative impact on maternal and child health and well-being. In this study, we aimed to identify genes associated with PPD. To do this, we investigated genome-wide gene expression profiles of pregnant women during their third trimester of pregnancy and tested the association of gene expression with perinatal depressive symptoms. A total of 137 women from a cohort from the University of North Carolina, USA were assessed. The main phenotypes analysed were Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores at 2 months postpartum and PPD (binary yes/no) based on an EPDS cutoff of 10. Illumina NextSeq500/550 transcriptomic sequencing from whole blood was analysed using the edgeR package. We identified 71 genes significantly associated with postpartum depression scores at 2 months, after correction for multiple testing at 5% FDR. These included several interesting candidates including TNFRSF17, previously reported to be significantly upregulated in women with PPD and MMP8, a matrix metalloproteinase gene, associated with depression in a genome-wide association study. Functional annotation of differentially expressed genes revealed an enrichment of immune response-related biological processes. Additional analysis of genes associated with changes in depressive symptoms from recruitment to 2 months postpartum identified 66 genes significant at an FDR of 5%. Of these genes, 33 genes were also associated with depressive symptoms at 2 months postpartum. Comparing the results with previous studies, we observed that 15.4% of genes associated with PPD in this study overlapped with 700 core maternal genes that showed significant gene expression changes across multiple brain regions (P = 7.9e-05) and 29–53% of the genes were also associated with estradiol changes in a pharmacological model of depression (P values range = 1.2e-4–2.1e-14). In conclusion, we identified novel genes and validated genes previously associated with oestrogen sensitivity in PPD. These results point towards the role of an altered immune transcriptomic landscape as a vulnerability factor for PPD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii343-iii343
Author(s):  
Aaron M Taylor ◽  
Jianhe Shen ◽  
Lingzhao Ren ◽  
Keita Terashima ◽  
Lei Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Intracranial germ cell tumors (IGCTs) account for 3% of CNS tumors in children in the U.S. and 11% in Japan and East Asian countries. IGCTs are separated into two distinct subtypes based on histology: germinomas and non-germinomatous germ cell tumors (NGGCTs). The deep central location of IGCTs makes surgical resection and therefore molecular subtype classification difficult, and previous gene expression studies are limited. We performed mRNA expression profiling (Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0) and microRNA expression profiling (ABI TaqMan) with 36 and 49 IGCTs, respectively. Sample stratification using non-negative matrix factorization clustering of gene expression revealed two distinct subgroups that delineated germinomas from NGGCTs. Employing stepwise model building in each data set separately, we were able to separate these groups using only mRNA probes for the LIN28B and L1TD1 genes, and two microRNA, microRNA-26a and microRNA-373. MicroRNA26a suppresses the LIN28B gene and is down-regulated in germinoma. LIN28B directly binds and suppresses the let-7 microRNA family, which suppress the KRAS oncogene, previously found to be mutated in ~19% of IGCTs. L1TD1 is required for human stem cell renewal and directly interacts with LIN28B for its RNA binding function. LIN28B and L1TD1 are both known to be upregulated in other systemic germ cell tumors, but this has not yet been documented in IGCTs. In conclusion, these results show that intracranial germinomas have similar gene expression compared to systemic seminoma, and suggest a mechanism by which activation of LIN28B and L1TD1 downregulates the let-7 microRNA and subsequently upregulates KRAS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Yang ◽  
Geng-Xi Cai ◽  
Bo-Wei Han ◽  
Zhi-Wei Guo ◽  
Ying-Song Wu ◽  
...  

AbstractGene expression signatures have been used to predict the outcome of chemotherapy for breast cancer. The nucleosome footprint of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) carries gene expression information of the original tissues and thus may be used to predict the response to chemotherapy. Here we carried out the nucleosome positioning on cfDNA from 85 breast cancer patients and 85 healthy individuals and two cancer cell lines T-47D and MDA-MB-231 using low-coverage whole-genome sequencing (LCWGS) method. The patients showed distinct nucleosome footprints at Transcription Start Sites (TSSs) compared with normal donors. In order to identify the footprints of cfDNA corresponding with the responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients, we mapped on nucleosome positions on cfDNA of patients with different responses: responders (pretreatment, n = 28; post-1 cycle, post-3/4 cycles, and post-8 cycles of treatment, n = 12) and nonresponders (pretreatment, n = 10; post-1 cycle, post-3/4 cycles, and post-8 cycles of treatment, n = 10). The coverage depth near TSSs in plasma cfDNA differed significantly between responders and nonresponders at pretreatment, and also after neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment cycles. We identified 232 TSSs with differential footprints at pretreatment and 321 after treatment and found enrichment in Gene Ontology terms such as cell growth inhibition, tumor suppressor, necrotic cell death, acute inflammatory response, T cell receptor signaling pathway, and positive regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor production. These results suggest that cfDNA nucleosome footprints may be used to predict the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer patients and thus may provide help in decision making for individual patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 3234
Author(s):  
Juhyun Lee ◽  
Si-Eun Sung ◽  
Janghyun Lee ◽  
Jin Young Kang ◽  
Joon-Hwa Lee ◽  
...  

Riboswitches are segments of noncoding RNA that bind with metabolites, resulting in a change in gene expression. To understand the molecular mechanism of gene regulation in a fluoride riboswitch, a base-pair opening dynamics study was performed with and without ligands using the Bacillus cereus fluoride riboswitch. We demonstrate that the structural stability of the fluoride riboswitch is caused by two steps depending on ligands. Upon binding of a magnesium ion, significant changes in a conformation of the riboswitch occur, resulting in the greatest increase in their stability and changes in dynamics by a fluoride ion. Examining hydrogen exchange dynamics through NMR spectroscopy, we reveal that the stabilization of the U45·A37 base-pair due to the binding of the fluoride ion, by changing the dynamics while maintaining the structure, results in transcription regulation. Our results demonstrate that the opening dynamics and stabilities of a fluoride riboswitch in different ion states are essential for the genetic switching mechanism.


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