scholarly journals Regulatory RNAs in Planarians

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamila Pawlicka ◽  
Patrick McDevitt Perrigue ◽  
Jan Barciszewski

The full scope of regulatory RNA evolution and function in epigenetic processes is still not well understood. The development of planarian flatworms to be used as a simple model organism for research has shown great potential to address gaps in knowledge in this field of study. The genomes of planarians encode a wide array of regulatory RNAs that function in gene regulation. Here we review planarians as a suitable model organism for the identification and function of regulatory RNAs.

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Stephen M Kwong ◽  
Neville Firth

Numerous examples of antisense RNA-mediated gene regulation have been found in bacteria. Such regulatory systems were first identified on accessory genetic elements such as plasmids, transposons and phages, and it is from these that most of our current knowledge of regulatory RNAs is drawn.


mBio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel G. Mediati ◽  
David Lalaouna ◽  
Jai J. Tree

Regulatory RNAs have emerged as ubiquitous gene regulators in all bacterial species studied to date. The combination of sequence-specific RNA interactions and malleable RNA structure has allowed regulatory RNA to adopt different mechanisms of gene regulation in a diversity of genetic backgrounds.


Author(s):  
Bilitis Désirée Vanicela ◽  
Martin Nebel ◽  
Marielle Stephan ◽  
Christoph Riethmüller ◽  
Götz Theo Gresser

AbstractThe identification of a model organism for investigations of fine dust deposits on moss leaflets was presented. An optical method with SEM enabled the quantitative detection of fine dust particles in two orders of magnitude. Selection criteria were developed with which further moss species can be identified in order to quantify the number of fine dust particles on moss surfaces using the presented method. Among the five moss species examined, B. rutabulum had proven to be the most suitable model organism for the method presented here. The number of fine dust particles on the moss surface of B. rutabulum was documented during 4 weeks of cultivation in the laboratory using SEM images and a counting method. The fine dust particles were recorded in the order of 10 μm–0.3 μm, divided into two size classes and counted. Under laboratory conditions, the number of particles of the fine fraction 2.4 μm–0.3 μm decreased significantly.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Arsala Ali ◽  
Kyudong Han ◽  
Ping Liang

Transposable elements (TEs), also known as mobile elements (MEs), are interspersed repeats that constitute a major fraction of the genomes of higher organisms. As one of their important functional impacts on gene function and genome evolution, TEs participate in regulating the expression of genes nearby and even far away at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. There are two known principal ways by which TEs regulate the expression of genes. First, TEs provide cis-regulatory sequences in the genome with their intrinsic regulatory properties for their own expression, making them potential factors for regulating the expression of the host genes. TE-derived cis-regulatory sites are found in promoter and enhancer elements, providing binding sites for a wide range of trans-acting factors. Second, TEs encode for regulatory RNAs with their sequences showed to be present in a substantial fraction of miRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), indicating the TE origin of these RNAs. Furthermore, TEs sequences were found to be critical for regulatory functions of these RNAs, including binding to the target mRNA. TEs thus provide crucial regulatory roles by being part of cis-regulatory and regulatory RNA sequences. Moreover, both TE-derived cis-regulatory sequences and TE-derived regulatory RNAs have been implicated in providing evolutionary novelty to gene regulation. These TE-derived regulatory mechanisms also tend to function in a tissue-specific fashion. In this review, we aim to comprehensively cover the studies regarding these two aspects of TE-mediated gene regulation, mainly focusing on the mechanisms, contribution of different types of TEs, differential roles among tissue types, and lineage-specificity, based on data mostly in humans.


Immunity ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Chen Dong ◽  
Shomyseh Sanjabi ◽  
Elizabeth Eynon
Keyword(s):  

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori A. McEachern

Non-model organisms are generally more difficult and/or time consuming to work with than model organisms. In addition, epigenetic analysis of model organisms is facilitated by well-established protocols, and commercially-available reagents and kits that may not be available for, or previously tested on, non-model organisms. Given the evolutionary conservation and widespread nature of many epigenetic mechanisms, a powerful method to analyze epigenetic phenomena from non-model organisms would be to use transgenic model organisms containing an epigenetic region of interest from the non-model. Interestingly, while transgenic Drosophila and mice have provided significant insight into the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary conservation of the epigenetic processes that target epigenetic control regions in other model organisms, this method has so far been under-exploited for non-model organism epigenetic analysis. This paper details several experiments that have examined the epigenetic processes of genomic imprinting and paramutation, by transferring an epigenetic control region from one model organism to another. These cross-species experiments demonstrate that valuable insight into both the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary conservation of epigenetic processes may be obtained via transgenic experiments, which can then be used to guide further investigations and experiments in the species of interest.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1421
Author(s):  
Valentina S. Evsiukova ◽  
Elizabeth A. Kulikova ◽  
Alexander V. Kulikov

Short-lived turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) have become a popular model organism for neuroscience. In the present paper we study for the first time their behavior in the novel tank diving test and the levels of mRNA of various 5-HT-related genes in brains of 2-, 4- and 6-month-old males and females of N. furzeri. The marked effect of age on body mass, locomotor activity and the mRNA level of Tph1b, Tph2, Slc6a4b, Mao, Htr1aa, Htr2a, Htr3a, Htr3b, Htr4, Htr6 genes in the brains of N. furzeri males was shown. Locomotor activity and expression of the Mao gene increased, while expression of Tph1b, Tph2, Slc6a4b, Htr1aa, Htr2a, Htr3a, Htr3b, Htr4, Htr6 genes decreased in 6-month-old killifish. Significant effects of sex on body mass as well as on mRNA level of Tph1a, Tph1b, Tph2, Slc6a4b, Htr1aa, 5-HT2a, Htr3a, Htr3b, Htr4, and Htr6 genes were revealed: in general both the body mass and the expression of these genes were higher in males. N. furzeri is a suitable model with which to study the fundamental problems of age-related alterations in various mRNA levels related with the brains 5-HT system.


Author(s):  
Steven E. Hyman ◽  
Doug McConnell

‘Mental illness: the collision of meaning with mechanism’ is based on the views of psychiatry that Steven Hyman articulated in his Loebel Lectures—mental illness results from the disordered functioning of the human brain and effective treatment repairs or mitigates those malfunctions. This view is not intended as reductionist as causes of mental illness and contributions to their repair may come from any source that affects the structure and function of the brain. These might include social interactions and other sources of lived experience, ideas (such as those learned in cognitive therapy), gene sequences and gene regulation, metabolic factors, drugs, electrodes, and so on. This, however, is not the whole story for psychiatry on Hyman’s view; interpersonal interactions between clinicians and patients, intuitively understood in such folk psychological terms as selfhood, intention, and agency are also critical for successful practice. As human beings who are suffering, patients seek to make sense of their lives and benefit from the empathy, respect, and a sense of being understood not only as the objects of a clinical encounter, but also as subjects. Hyman’s argument, however, is that the mechanisms by which human brains function and malfunction to produce the symptoms and impairments of mental illness are opaque to introspection and that the mechanistic understandings necessary for diagnosis and treatment are incommensurate with intuitive (folk psychological) human self-understanding. Thus, psychiatry does best when skillful clinicians switch between an objectifying medical and neurobiological stance and the interpersonal stance in which the clinician engages the patients as a subject. Attempts to integrate these incommensurate views of patients and their predicaments have historically produced incoherent explanations of psychopathology and have often led treatment astray. For example, privileging of folk psychological testimony, even when filtered through sophisticated theories has historically led psychiatry into intellectually blind and clinically ineffective cul-de-sacs such as psychoanalysis.


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