scholarly journals Building accurate sequence-to-affinity models from high-throughput in vitro protein-DNA binding data using FeatureREDUCE

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd R Riley ◽  
Allan Lazarovici ◽  
Richard S Mann ◽  
Harmen J Bussemaker

Transcription factors are crucial regulators of gene expression. Accurate quantitative definition of their intrinsic DNA binding preferences is critical to understanding their biological function. High-throughput in vitro technology has recently been used to deeply probe the DNA binding specificity of hundreds of eukaryotic transcription factors, yet algorithms for analyzing such data have not yet fully matured. Here, we present a general framework (FeatureREDUCE) for building sequence-to-affinity models based on a biophysically interpretable and extensible model of protein-DNA interaction that can account for dependencies between nucleotides within the binding interface or multiple modes of binding. When training on protein binding microarray (PBM) data, we use robust regression and modeling of technology-specific biases to infer specificity models of unprecedented accuracy and precision. We provide quantitative validation of our results by comparing to gold-standard data when available.

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Li ◽  
Kyle W Muir ◽  
Matthew W Bowler ◽  
Jutta Metz ◽  
Christian H Haering ◽  
...  

The cohesin ring complex is required for numerous chromosomal transactions including sister chromatid cohesion, DNA damage repair and transcriptional regulation. How cohesin engages its chromatin substrate has remained an unresolved question. We show here, by determining a crystal structure of the budding yeast cohesin HEAT-repeat subunit Scc3 bound to a fragment of the Scc1 kleisin subunit and DNA, that Scc3 and Scc1 form a composite DNA interaction module. The Scc3-Scc1 subcomplex engages double-stranded DNA through a conserved, positively charged surface. We demonstrate that this conserved domain is required for DNA binding by Scc3-Scc1 in vitro, as well as for the enrichment of cohesin on chromosomes and for cell viability. These findings suggest that the Scc3-Scc1 DNA-binding interface plays a central role in the recruitment of cohesin complexes to chromosomes and therefore for cohesin to faithfully execute its functions during cell division.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Locke ◽  
Alexandre V Morozov

Sequence-specific interactions between proteins and DNA play a central role in DNA replication, repair, recombination, and control of gene expression. These interactions can be studied in vitro using microfluidics, protein-binding microarrays (PBMs), and other high-throughput techniques. Here we develop a biophysical approach to predicting protein-DNA binding specificities from high-throughput in vitro data. Our algorithm, called BindSter, accommodates multiple protein species competing for access to DNA and alternative binding modes of the same protein, while rigorously taking into account all sterically allowed configurations of DNA-bound particles. BindSter can be used with a hierarchy of protein-DNA interaction models of increasing complexity. We observe that the quality of BindSter predictions does not change significantly as some of the energy parameters vary over a sizable range. To take this degeneracy into account, we have developed a graphical representation of parameter uncertainties, called IntervalLogo. We find that our simplest model, in which each nucleotide in the binding site is treated independently, performs better than previous biophysical approaches. The extensions of this model, in which contributions of longer words are also considered, result in further improvements, underscoring the importance of higher-order effects in protein-DNA energetics. In contrast, we find little evidence for multiple binding modes for the transcription factors (TFs) in our dataset. Furthermore, there is limited consistency in predictions for the same TF utilizing microfluidics and PBM experimental platforms.


1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1686-1695 ◽  
Author(s):  
M K Shivji ◽  
N B La Thangue

Murine F9 embryonal carcinoma (F9 EC) stem cells have an E1a-like transcription activity that is down-regulated as these cells differentiate to parietal endoderm. For the adenovirus E2A promoter, this activity requires at least two sequence-specific transcription factors, one that binds the cyclic AMP-responsive element (CRE) and the other, DRTF1, the DNA-binding activity of which is down-regulated as F9 EC cells differentiate. Here we report the characterization of several binding activities in F9 EC cell extracts, referred to as DRTF 1a, 1b and 1c, that recognize the DRTF1 cis-regulatory sequence (-70 to -50 region). These activities can be chromatographically separated but are not distinguishable by DNA sequence specificity. Activity 1a is a detergent-sensitive complex in which DNA binding is regulated by phosphorylation. In contrast, activities 1b and 1c are unaffected by these treatments but exist as multicomponent protein complexes even before DNA binding. Two sets of DNA-binding polypeptides, p50DR and p30DR, affinity purified from F9 EC cell extracts produce complexes 1b and 1c. Both polypeptides appear to be present in the same DNA-bound protein complex and both directly contact DNA. These affinity-purified polypeptides activate transcription in vitro in a binding-site-dependent manner. These data indicate the in F9 EC stem cells, multicomponent differentiation-regulated transcription factors contribute to the cellular E1a-like activity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Hudson ◽  
Bradley R. Kossmann ◽  
Ian Mitchelle S. de Vera ◽  
Shih-Wei Chuo ◽  
Emily R. Weikum ◽  
...  

Many genomes contain families of paralogs—proteins with divergent function that evolved from a common ancestral gene after a duplication event. To understand how paralogous transcription factors evolve divergent DNA specificities, we examined how the glucocorticoid receptor and its paralogs evolved to bind activating response elements [(+)GREs] and negative glucocorticoid response elements (nGREs). We show that binding to nGREs is a property of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) DNA-binding domain (DBD) not shared by other members of the steroid receptor family. Using phylogenetic, structural, biochemical, and molecular dynamics techniques, we show that the ancestral DBD from which GR and its paralogs evolved was capable of binding both nGRE and (+)GRE sequences because of the ancestral DBD’s ability to assume multiple DNA-bound conformations. Subsequent amino acid substitutions in duplicated daughter genes selectively restricted protein conformational space, causing this dual DNA-binding specificity to be selectively enhanced in the GR lineage and lost in all others. Key substitutions that determined the receptors’ response element-binding specificity were far from the proteins’ DNA-binding interface and interacted epistatically to change the DBD’s function through DNA-induced allosteric mechanisms. These amino acid substitutions subdivided both the conformational and functional space of the ancestral DBD among the present-day receptors, allowing a paralogous family of transcription factors to control disparate transcriptional programs despite high sequence identity.


1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2464-2476
Author(s):  
M Cockell ◽  
B J Stevenson ◽  
M Strubin ◽  
O Hagenbüchle ◽  
P K Wellauer

Footprint analysis of the 5'-flanking regions of the alpha-amylase 2, elastase 2, and trypsina genes, which are expressed in the acinar pancreas, showed multiple sites of protein-DNA interaction for each gene. Competition experiments demonstrated that a region from each 5'-flanking region interacted with the same cell-specific DNA-binding activity. We show by in vitro binding assays that this DNA-binding activity also recognizes a sequence within the 5'-flanking regions of elastase 1, chymotrypsinogen B, carboxypeptidase A, and trypsind genes. Methylation interference and protection studies showed that the DNA-binding activity recognized a bipartite motif, the subelements of which were separated by integral helical turns of DNA. The alpha-amylase 2 cognate sequence was found to enhance in vivo transcription of its own promoter in a cell-specific manner, which identified the DNA-binding activity as a transcription factor (PTF 1). The observation that PTF 1 bound to DNA sequences that have been defined as transcriptional enhancers by others suggests that this factor is involved in the coordinate expression of genes transcribed in the acinar pancreas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (24) ◽  
pp. 9401
Author(s):  
Antonio Bouthelier ◽  
Florinda Meléndez-Rodríguez ◽  
Andrés A. Urrutia ◽  
Julián Aragonés

Cellular response to hypoxia is controlled by the hypoxia-inducible transcription factors HIF1α and HIF2α. Some genes are preferentially induced by HIF1α or HIF2α, as has been explored in some cell models and for particular sets of genes. Here we have extended this analysis to other HIF-dependent genes using in vitro WT8 renal carcinoma cells and in vivo conditional Vhl-deficient mice models. Moreover, we generated chimeric HIF1/2 transcription factors to study the contribution of the HIF1α and HIF2α DNA binding/heterodimerization and transactivation domains to HIF target specificity. We show that the induction of HIF1α-dependent genes in WT8 cells, such as CAIX (CAR9) and BNIP3, requires both halves of HIF, whereas the HIF2α transactivation domain is more relevant for the induction of HIF2 target genes like the amino acid carrier SLC7A5. The HIF selectivity for some genes in WT8 cells is conserved in Vhl-deficient lung and liver tissue, whereas other genes like Glut1 (Slc2a1) behave distinctly in these tissues. Therefore the relative contribution of the DNA binding/heterodimerization and transactivation domains for HIF target selectivity can be different when comparing HIF1α or HIF2α isoforms, and that HIF target gene specificity is conserved in human and mouse cells for some of the genes analyzed.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 1405-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
C C Adams ◽  
J L Workman

To investigate mechanisms by which multiple transcription factors access complex promoters and enhancers within cellular chromatin, we have analyzed the binding of disparate factors to nucleosome cores. We used a purified in vitro system to analyze binding of four activator proteins, two GAL4 derivatives, USF, and NF-kappa B (KBF1), to reconstituted nucleosome cores containing different combinations of binding sites. Here we show that binding of any two or all three of these factors to nucleosomal DNA is inherently cooperative. Thus, the binuclear Zn clusters of GAL4, the helix-loop-helix/basic domains of USF, and the rel domain of NF-kappa B all participated in cooperative nucleosome binding, illustrating that this effect is not restricted to a particular DNA-binding domain. Simultaneous binding by two factors increased the affinity of individual factors for nucleosomal DNA by up to 2 orders of magnitude. Importantly, cooperative binding resulted in efficient nucleosome binding by factors (USF and NF-kappa B) which independently possess little nucleosome-binding ability. The participation of GAL4 derivatives in cooperative nucleosome binding required only DNA-binding and dimerization domains, indicating that disruption of histone-DNA contacts by factor binding was responsible for the increased affinity of additional factors. Cooperative nucleosome binding required sequence-specific binding of all transcription factors, appeared to have spatial constraints, and was independent of the orientation of the binding sites on the nucleosome. These results indicate that cooperative nucleosome binding is a general mechanism that may play a significant role in loading complex enhancer and promoter elements with multiple diverse factors in chromatin and contribute to the generation of threshold responses and transcriptional synergy by multiple activator sites in vivo.


2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 (369) ◽  
pp. tw24-tw24
Author(s):  
Valda Vinson

Quantifying the affinities of interactions in biological networks, particularly transient ones, remains a challenge. Maerkl and Quake describe a high-throughput microfluidic platform that allows the measurement of transient and low-affinity interactions and characterize the DNA binding energy landscapes for four eukaryotic transcription factors. In two cases, the binding specificities were used to predict which genes the transcription factors would bind and likely regulate.S. J. Maerkl, S. R. Quake, A systems approach to measuring the binding energy landscapes of transcription factors. Science315, 233-237 (2007). [Abstract][Full Text]


1997 ◽  
Vol 272 (3) ◽  
pp. L504-L511 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Jaspers ◽  
E. Flescher ◽  
L. C. Chen

Ozone, one of the most reactive oxidant gases to which humans are routinely exposed, induces inflammation in the lower airways. The airway epithelium is one of the first targets that inhaled ozone will encounter, but its role in airway inflammation is not well understood. Expression of inducible genes involved in the inflammatory response, such as interleukin (IL)-8, is controlled by transcription factors. Expression of the IL-8 gene is regulated by the transcription factors nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB, NF-IL-6, and possibly activator protein-1 (AP-1). Type II-like epithelial cells (A549) were grown on a collagen-coated membrane and exposed in vitro to 0.1 ppm ozone or air. Exposure to ozone induced DNA-binding activity of NF-kappaB, NF-IL-6, and AP-1. IL-8 mRNA and IL-8 protein levels were also increased after ozone exposure. These results link ozone-induced DNA-binding activity of transcription factors and the production of IL-8 by epithelial cells thus demonstrating a potential cellular cascade resulting in the recruitment of inflammatory cells into the airway lumen.


1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2464-2476 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Cockell ◽  
B J Stevenson ◽  
M Strubin ◽  
O Hagenbüchle ◽  
P K Wellauer

Footprint analysis of the 5'-flanking regions of the alpha-amylase 2, elastase 2, and trypsina genes, which are expressed in the acinar pancreas, showed multiple sites of protein-DNA interaction for each gene. Competition experiments demonstrated that a region from each 5'-flanking region interacted with the same cell-specific DNA-binding activity. We show by in vitro binding assays that this DNA-binding activity also recognizes a sequence within the 5'-flanking regions of elastase 1, chymotrypsinogen B, carboxypeptidase A, and trypsind genes. Methylation interference and protection studies showed that the DNA-binding activity recognized a bipartite motif, the subelements of which were separated by integral helical turns of DNA. The alpha-amylase 2 cognate sequence was found to enhance in vivo transcription of its own promoter in a cell-specific manner, which identified the DNA-binding activity as a transcription factor (PTF 1). The observation that PTF 1 bound to DNA sequences that have been defined as transcriptional enhancers by others suggests that this factor is involved in the coordinate expression of genes transcribed in the acinar pancreas.


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