Systemic Steroid Exposure Is Associated with Differential Methylation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Systemic Steroid Exposure Is Associated with Differential Methylation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Systemic Steroid Exposure Is Associated with Differential Methylation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Emily S. Wan1,2, Weiliang Qiu1, Andrea Baccarelli3, Vincent J. Carey1, Helene Bacherman1, Stephen I. Rennard4, Alvar Agustı´5, Wayne H. Anderson6, David A. Lomas7, and Dawn L. DeMeo1,2 1Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; 2Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; 3Exposure Epidemiology and Risk Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; 4Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska; 5Thorax Institute, Hospital Clinic, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona and CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias, FISIB, Mallorca, Spain; 6Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and 7Department of Medicine, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom Rationale: Systemic glucocorticoids are used therapeutically to treat a variety of medical conditions. Epigenetic processes such as DNA AT A GLANCE COMMENTARY methylation may reflect exposure to glucocorticoids and may be involved in mediating the responses and side effects associated Scientific Knowledge on the Subject with these medications. Systemic corticosteroids are associated with a wide range of Objectives: To test the hypothesis that differences in DNA methyla- therapeutic responses and side effects that may persist after tion are associated with current systemic steroid use. drug withdrawal. These characteristics suggest a possible Methods: We obtained DNA methylation data at 27,578 CpG sites in role for epigenetic modifications. Previous epigenetic studies 14,475 genes throughout the genome in two large, independent ¼ on steroid exposure have examined histone modifications or cohorts: the International COPD Genetics Network (ndiscovery ¼ DNA methylation of candidate genes involved in steroid 1,085) and the Boston Early Onset COPD study (nreplication 369). Sites were tested for association with current systemic steroid use biosynthesis, metabolism, or receptors. using generalized linear mixed models. Measurements and Main Results: A total of 511 sites demonstrated What This Study Adds to the Field significant differential methylation by systemic corticosteroid use in all three of our primary models. Pyrosequencing validation con- Our study explores the association of differential DNA firmed robust differential methylation at CpG sites annotated to methylation at sites throughout the entire genome. We genes such as SLC22A18, LRP3, HIPK3, SCNN1A, FXYD1, IRF7, AZU1, report robustly associated sites in biologically plausible and SIT1, GPR97, ABHD16B, and RABGEF1. Functional annotation cluster- previously unsuspected pathways. ing demonstrated significant enrichment in intrinsic membrane components, hemostasis and coagulation, cellular ion homeostasis, leukocyte and lymphocyte activation and chemotaxis, protein trans- Keywords: DNA methylation; glucocorticoids; chronic obstructive pul- port, and responses to nutrients. monary disease Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that systemic steroid use is associ- ated with site-specific differential methylation throughout the ge- Systemic glucocorticoids possess potent antiinflammatory, im- nome. Differentially methylated CpG sites were found in biologically munomodulatory, and antineoplastic properties and are integral plausible and previously unsuspected pathways; these genes and in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathways may be relevant in the development of novel targeted and asthma exacerbations, autoimmune diseases, allergic reac- therapies. tions, and certain malignancies. However, despite their clinical utility, systemic glucocorticoid use is often complicated by mul- tiple side effects, including weight gain and redistribution of (Received in original form July 23, 2012; accepted in final form September 27, 2012) body fat, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, impaired im- Supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01HL089438, T32 HL007427, mune response and wound healing, and alterations in glucose and K12HL089990; by the Doris Duke Foundation Clinician Scientist Develop- and lipid metabolism. The responses and side effects experienced ment Award (D.L.D.); and by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences- by individuals exposed to glucocorticoids are highly variable and Harvard School of Public Health New Investigator Fund grant ES00002 (A.B.). may persist for extended periods after drug withdrawal; these phe- Author Contributions: E.S.W. and W.Q. contributed to the concept and design, nomena may be mediated through epigenetic processes. statistical support, data analysis, and interpretation of the data. A.B. contributed Epigenetic changes, such as histone modifications (1, 2), to the concept of the study and the interpretation of the data. V.J.C. contributed DNA methylation, and alterations in chromatin structure, vary to the statistical support and analysis of the data. H.B. participated in the design between individuals (3) and can affect glucocorticoid receptor and performance of the experiments. S.I.R., A.A., W.H.A., and D.A.L. contributed to the concept of the study and to the acquisition of the data. D.L.D. contributed expression and binding (3, 4) as well as the subsequent re- to the funding, concept and design, data collection, statistical support, analysis, sponses to endogenous (5) or exogenously administered (1, 2, and interpretation of the data. All authors contributed substantially to drafting 6) steroids. Conversely, glucocorticoid exposure can cause epi- and editing the manuscript. genetic changes and may be mediated in part through changes Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Emily S. Wan, in the expression or activity of DNA methyltransferases (7–9). M.D., M.P.H., 181 Longwood Ave, 4th floor, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: Dynamic, site-specific changes in DNA methylation have been [email protected] observed after glucocorticoid exposure in vitro (4) and in vivo This article has an online supplement, which is accessible from this issue’s table of (10). However, investigations into the associations between glu- contents at www.atsjournals.org cocorticoids and DNA methylation remain limited to a small Am J Respir Crit Care Med Vol 186, Iss. 12, pp 1248–1255, Dec 15, 2012 number of CpG sites within selected candidate genes (10–13). Copyright ª 2012 by the American Thoracic Society Originally Published in Press as DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201207-1280OC on October 11, 2012 We hypothesized that, given the extensive systemic effects of Internet address: www.atsjournals.org therapeutic glucocorticoids, exposure to these medications would Wan, Qiu, Baccarelli, et al.: DNA Methylation and Systemic Steroids in COPD 1249 be associated with differential methylation in peripheral blood Statistical Analysis DNA at multiple sites throughout the genome. Some of these results The ComBat (19) function as implemented in the sva package (20, 21) have been previously reported in the form of an abstract (14). in R (release 2.12) was used to account for batch effects. To account for familial correlations in the data, generalized linear mixed models (22) were used to analyze the methylation data. The Illumina “b” value was METHODS modeled as the dependent variable, with oral steroid use included as the independent variable. Models were adjusted for age, sex, and FEV1 Subjects and Cohorts % predicted (Model 1); pack-years of smoking (Model 2); and current The discovery cohort consisted of 1,085 subjects participating in the In- smoking status (Model 3). CpG sites with a P value below the 2 ternational COPD Genetics Network (15, 16) (ICGN), a family-based Bonferroni-adjusted threshold for significance (,1.89 3 10 6)in study with probands between the ages of 45 and 65 years, 5 or more ICGN and a P value of less than 0.05 with the same direction of effect pack-years of cigarette smoking, FEV1 less than 60% predicted, and in EOCOPD were considered significant. a FEV1/FVC ratio of less than 90% predicted. Siblings of probands with at least 5 pack-years of cigarette smoking were also enrolled. The replication cohort consisted of 369 subjects from the Boston Severe Subgroup Analysis: Matched Cohort Early-Onset COPD Study (17) (EOCOPD), a family-based study Subjects in ICGN who reported current systemic steroid use were where probands have an FEV1 less than 40% predicted by age 53 in matched (1:1) by sex, age (62 yr), and FEV1 % predicted (610%) with a the absence of severe -1 antitrypsin deficiency. Although extended subjects who did not report current systemic steroid use (ntotal ¼ 160). pedigrees were recruited, DNA methylation data were obtained only Differences in the mean Illumina b values were tested using an unpaired on probands and their siblings. The protocols were approved by the Student’s t test. appropriate Internal Review Boards; all subjects provided written in- formed consent. RESULTS The characteristics of the subjects in each cohort are listed in Variable Definitions Table 1, and the ranges for continuous variables by current Subjects in ICGN were asked to list all current medications. Current systemic steroid use are shown in Table E1 in the online sup- systemic steroid use was present if they answered affirmatively to the plement.
Recommended publications
  • FIST/HIPK3: a Fas/FADD-Interacting Serine/Threonine Kinase That Induces FADD Phosphorylation and Inhibits Fas-Mediated Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase Activation
    FIST/HIPK3: a Fas/FADD-interacting Serine/Threonine Kinase that Induces FADD Phosphorylation and Inhibits Fas-mediated Jun NH2-terminal Kinase Activation By Véronique Rochat-Steiner, Karin Becker, Olivier Micheau, Pascal Schneider, Kim Burns, and Jürg Tschopp From the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Lausanne, BIL Biomedical Research Center, CH- 1066 Epalinges, Switzerland Abstract Fas is a cell surface death receptor that signals apoptosis. Several proteins have been identified that bind to the cytoplasmic death domain of Fas. Fas-associated death domain (FADD), which couples Fas to procaspase-8, and Daxx, which couples Fas to the Jun NH2-terminal kinase pathway, bind independently to the Fas death domain. We have identified a 130-kD ki- nase designated Fas-interacting serine/threonine kinase/homeodomain-interacting protein ki- nase (FIST/HIPK3) as a novel Fas-interacting protein. Binding to Fas is mediated by a con- served sequence in the COOH terminus of the protein. FIST/HIPK3 is widely expressed in mammalian tissues and is localized both in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm. In transfected cell lines, FIST/HIPK3 causes FADD phosphorylation, thereby promoting FIST/HIPK3–FADD– Fas interaction. Although Fas ligand–induced activation of Jun NH2-terminal kinase is im- paired by overexpressed active FIST/HIPK3, cell death is not affected. These results suggest that Fas-associated FIST/HIPK3 modulates one of the two major signaling pathways of Fas. Key words: Fas/CD95 • apoptosis • kinase • Jun NH2-terminal kinase • signal transduction Introduction Fas (APO-1/CD95) is a member of the TNFR family and tiate apoptosis by subsequent cleavage of downstream ef- induces apoptosis when cross-linked with Fas ligand (FasL)1 fector caspases (caspase-3, -6, and -7).
    [Show full text]
  • Preferentially Paternal Origin of De Novo 11P13 Chromosome Deletions Revealed in Patients with Congenital Aniridia and WAGR Syndrome
    G C A T T A C G G C A T genes Communication Preferentially Paternal Origin of De Novo 11p13 Chromosome Deletions Revealed in Patients with Congenital Aniridia and WAGR Syndrome Tatyana A. Vasilyeva 1, Andrey V. Marakhonov 1,* , Natella V. Sukhanova 2, Sergey I. Kutsev 1 and Rena A. Zinchenko 1 1 Research Centre for Medical Genetics, 115522 Moscow, Russia; [email protected] (T.A.V.); [email protected] (S.I.K.); [email protected] (R.A.Z.) 2 Central Clinical Hospital of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119333 Moscow, Russia; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 16 June 2020; Accepted: 14 July 2020; Published: 17 July 2020 Abstract: The frequency of pathogenic large chromosome rearrangements detected in patients with different Mendelian diseases is truly diverse and can be remarkably high. Chromosome breaks could arise through different known mechanisms. Congenital PAX6-associated aniridia is a hereditary eye disorder caused by mutations or chromosome rearrangements involving the PAX6 gene. In our recent study, we identified 11p13 chromosome deletions in 30 out of 91 probands with congenital aniridia or WAGR syndrome (characterized by Wilms’ tumor, Aniridia, and Genitourinary abnormalities as well as mental Retardation). The loss of heterozygosity analysis (LOH) was performed in 10 families with de novo chromosome deletion in proband. In 7 out of 8 informative families, the analysis revealed that deletions occurred at the paternal allele. If paternal origin is not random, chromosome breaks could arise either (i) during spermiogenesis, which is possible due to specific male chromatin epigenetic program and its vulnerability to the breakage-causing factors, or (ii) in early zygotes at a time when chromosomes transmitted from different parents still carry epigenetic marks of the origin, which is also possible due to diverse and asymmetric epigenetic reprogramming occurring in male and female pronuclei.
    [Show full text]
  • Microarray Comparative Genomic Hybridization Analysis of 59 Patients with Schizophrenia
    J Hum Genet (2008) 53:914–919 DOI 10.1007/s10038-008-0327-6 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Microarray comparative genomic hybridization analysis of 59 patients with schizophrenia Takeshi Mizuguchi Æ Ryota Hashimoto Æ Masanari Itokawa Æ Akira Sano Æ Osamu Shimokawa Æ Yukiko Yoshimura Æ Naoki Harada Æ Noriko Miyake Æ Akira Nishimura Æ Hirotomo Saitsu Æ Nadiya Sosonkina Æ Norio Niikawa Æ Hiroshi Kunugi Æ Naomichi Matsumoto Received: 18 April 2008 / Accepted: 8 July 2008 / Published online: 7 August 2008 Ó The Japan Society of Human Genetics and Springer 2008 Abstract Schizophrenia is a common psychiatric disor- that genome-wide copy number survey should be consid- der with a strong genetic contribution. Disease-associated ered in genetic studies of schizophrenia. chromosomal abnormalities in this condition may provide important clues, such as DISC1. In this study, 59 schizo- Keywords Schizophrenia Á Chromosomal abnormality Á phrenia patients were analyzed by microarray comparative Array comparative genomic hybridization Á genomic hybridization (CGH) using custom bacterial arti- Copy number variation ficial chromosome (BAC) microarray (4,219 BACs with 0.7-Mb resolution). Chromosomal abnormalities were found in six patients (10%): 46,XY,der(13)t(12;13)(p12.1; Introduction p11).ish del(5)(p11p12); 46,XY, ish del(17)(p12p12); 46,XX.ish dup(11)(p13p13); and 46,X,idic(Y)(q11.2); and Schizophrenia is a common psychiatric disorder involving in two cases, mos 45,X/46XX. Autosomal abnormalities in approximately 1% of the population worldwide. Family, three cases are likely to be pathogenic, and sex chromo- twin, and adoption studies suggest genetic factors con- some abnormalities in three follow previous findings.
    [Show full text]
  • Powerful Gene-Based Testing by Integrating Long-Range Chromatin Interactions and Knockoff Genotypes
    medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.14.21260405; this version posted July 18, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license . Powerful gene-based testing by integrating long-range chromatin interactions and knockoff genotypes Shiyang Ma1, James L. Dalgleish1, Justin Lee2, Chen Wang1, Linxi Liu3, Richard Gill4;5, Joseph D. Buxbaum6, Wendy Chung7, Hugues Aschard8, Edwin K. Silverman9, Michael H. Cho9, Zihuai He2;10, Iuliana Ionita-Laza1;# 1 Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA 2 Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA 3 Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA 4 Department of Human Genetics, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, 94080, USA 5 Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA 6 Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA 7 Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia Uni- versity Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA 8 Department of Computational Biology, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France 9 Channing Division of Network Medicine and Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA 10 Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA # e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Gene-based tests are valuable techniques for identifying genetic factors in complex traits.
    [Show full text]
  • Expression Profile and Bioinformatics Analysis of Circular Rnas in Acute
    www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Expression profle and bioinformatics analysis of circular RNAs in acute ischemic stroke in a South Chinese Han population Shenghua Li1, Lan Chen2, Chen Xu1, Xiang Qu1, Zhenxiu Qin1, Jinggui Gao1, Jinpin Li1 & Jingli Liu1 ✉ Recent studies have found that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play crucial roles not only in the normal growth and the development of diferent tissues and organs but also in the pathogenesis and progression of various disorders. However, the expression patterns and the function of circRNAs in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in the South Chinese Han population are unclear. In the present study, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data was generated from 3 AIS patients and 3 healthy controls. The circRNAs were detected and identifed by CIRI2 and Find_circ software. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses were used to detect the expression of circRNAs. Meanwhile, the potential diagnostic value of the selected circRNAs for AIS was assessed by generating receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with area under curve (AUC). The bioinformatic analysis of the host genes of diferentially expressed (DE) circRNAs was performed by gene ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, KOBAS for pathway analysis and regulatory network analysis. miRNA-circRNA and miRNA-mRNA interactions were predicted by using TargetScan, miRanda and starBase. CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction networks were created with Cytoscape. Our result showed that there were 2270 DE circRNAs between AIS patients and healthy controls. Among them, 659 were found upregulated and 1611 were downregulated. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the DE circRNAs were related to the following biological processes: endocytosis, energy metabolism, apoptosis, FoxO signaling pathway, platelet activation, neurotrophin signaling pathway and VEGF signaling pathway, which may be associated with the pathological of AIS.
    [Show full text]
  • A Resource for Exploring the Understudied Human Kinome for Research and Therapeutic
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.02.022277; this version posted March 11, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. A resource for exploring the understudied human kinome for research and therapeutic opportunities Nienke Moret1,2,*, Changchang Liu1,2,*, Benjamin M. Gyori2, John A. Bachman,2, Albert Steppi2, Clemens Hug2, Rahil Taujale3, Liang-Chin Huang3, Matthew E. Berginski1,4,5, Shawn M. Gomez1,4,5, Natarajan Kannan,1,3 and Peter K. Sorger1,2,† *These authors contributed equally † Corresponding author 1The NIH Understudied Kinome Consortium 2Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA 3 Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602 USA 4 Department of Pharmacology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA 5 Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA † Peter Sorger Warren Alpert 432 200 Longwood Avenue Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115 [email protected] cc: [email protected] 617-432-6901 ORCID Numbers Peter K. Sorger 0000-0002-3364-1838 Nienke Moret 0000-0001-6038-6863 Changchang Liu 0000-0003-4594-4577 Benjamin M. Gyori 0000-0001-9439-5346 John A. Bachman 0000-0001-6095-2466 Albert Steppi 0000-0001-5871-6245 Shawn M.
    [Show full text]
  • Circular Rnas Are Abundant, Conserved, and Associated with ALU Repeats
    Downloaded from rnajournal.cshlp.org on October 4, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Circular RNAs are abundant, conserved, and associated with ALU repeats WILLIAM R. JECK,1,2 JESSICA A. SORRENTINO,3 KAI WANG,4 MICHAEL K. SLEVIN,5 CHRISTIN E. BURD,1 JINZE LIU,4 WILLIAM F. MARZLUFF,5,6 and NORMAN E. SHARPLESS1,2,3,7,8 1Department of Genetics, 2Department of Medicine, 3Curriculum in Toxicology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7295, USA 4Department of Computer Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0633, USA 5Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7295, USA 6Program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7295, USA 7The Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599–7295, USA ABSTRACT Circular RNAs composed of exonic sequence have been described in a small number of genes. Thought to result from splicing errors, circular RNA species possess no known function. To delineate the universe of endogenous circular RNAs, we performed high-throughput sequencing (RNA-seq) of libraries prepared from ribosome-depleted RNA with or without digestion with the RNA exonuclease, RNase R. We identified >25,000 distinct RNA species in human fibroblasts that contained non- colinear exons (a “backsplice”) and were reproducibly enriched by exonuclease degradation of linear RNA. These RNAs were validated as circular RNA (ecircRNA), rather than linear RNA, and were more stable than associated linear mRNAs in vivo.
    [Show full text]
  • Effect of Tyrosine Autophosphorylation on Catalytic Activity and Subcellular
    van der Laden et al. Cell Communication and Signaling (2015) 13:3 DOI 10.1186/s12964-014-0082-6 RESEARCH Open Access Effect of tyrosine autophosphorylation on catalytic activity and subcellular localisation of homeodomain-interacting protein kinases (HIPK) Jan van der Laden, Ulf Soppa and Walter Becker* Abstract Background: Homeodomain interacting protein kinases (HIPKs) function as modulators of cellular stress responses and regulate cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. The HIPK family includes HIPK1, HIPK2 and HIPK3, which share a similar domain structure, and the more distantly related HIPK4. Although HIPKs phosphorylate their substrates on serine or threonine residues, it was recently reported that HIPK2 depends on the autophosphorylation of a conserved tyrosine in the activation loop to acquire full catalytic activity and correct subcellular localization. In this study we addressed the question whether tyrosine autophosphorylation in the activation loop has a similar function in the other members of the HIPK family. Results: All HIPKs contained phosphotyrosine when expressed in HeLa cells. Catalytically inactive point mutants were not tyrosine-phosphorylated, indicating that HIPKs are dual-specificity protein kinases that autophosphorylate on tyrosine residues. HIPK point mutants lacking the conserved tyrosine residue in the activation loop showed reduced catalytic activity towards peptide and protein substrates. Analysis of these mutants revealed that HIPK1, HIPK2 and HIPK3 but not HIPK4 are capable of autophosphorylating on other tyrosines. Inhibition of tyrosine phosphatase activity by treatment with vanadate enhanced global phosphotyrosine content of HIPK1, HIPK2 and HIPK3 but did not affect tyrosine phosphorylation in the activation loop. Mutation of the activation-loop tyrosines resulted in a redistribution of HIPK1 and HIPK2 from a speckle-like subnuclear compartment to the cytoplasm, whereas catalytically inactive point mutants showed the same pattern of cellular distribution as the wild type proteins.
    [Show full text]
  • Short Intronic Repeat Sequences Facilitate Circular RNA Production
    Downloaded from genesdev.cshlp.org on October 7, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Short intronic repeat sequences facilitate circular RNA production Dongming Liang and Jeremy E. Wilusz Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA Recent deep sequencing studies have revealed thousands of circular noncoding RNAs generated from protein- coding genes. These RNAs are produced when the precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) splicing machinery ‘‘backsplices’’ and covalently joins, for example, the two ends of a single exon. However, the mechanism by which the spliceosome selects only certain exons to circularize is largely unknown. Using extensive mutagenesis of expression plasmids, we show that miniature introns containing the splice sites along with short (~30- to 40- nucleotide) inverted repeats, such as Alu elements, are sufficient to allow the intervening exons to circularize in cells. The intronic repeats must base-pair to one another, thereby bringing the splice sites into close proximity to each other. More than simple thermodynamics is clearly at play, however, as not all repeats support circularization, and increasing the stability of the hairpin between the repeats can sometimes inhibit circular RNA biogenesis. The intronic repeats and exonic sequences must collaborate with one another, and a functional 39 end processing signal is required, suggesting that circularization may occur post-transcriptionally. These results suggest detailed and generalizable models that explain how the splicing machinery determines whether to produce a circular noncoding RNA or a linear mRNA. [Keywords: ZKSCAN1; HIPK3; EPHB4; splicing; noncoding RNA; Alu; circRNA] Supplemental material is available for this article.
    [Show full text]
  • BMC Medical Genomics Biomed Central
    BMC Medical Genomics BioMed Central Research article Open Access MLL rearrangements in pediatric acute lymphoblastic and myeloblastic leukemias: MLL specific and lineage specific signatures Andrea Zangrando*, Marta Campo Dell'Orto, Geertruy te Kronnie† and Giuseppe Basso† Address: Laboratory of HematoOncology, Department of Pediatrics "Salus Pueri", University of Padova, Padova, Italy Email: Andrea Zangrando* - [email protected]; Marta Campo Dell'Orto - [email protected]; Geertruy te Kronnie - [email protected]; Giuseppe Basso - [email protected] * Corresponding author †Equal contributors Published: 23 June 2009 Received: 14 January 2009 Accepted: 23 June 2009 BMC Medical Genomics 2009, 2:36 doi:10.1186/1755-8794-2-36 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1755-8794/2/36 © 2009 Zangrando et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: The presence of MLL rearrangements in acute leukemia results in a complex number of biological modifications that still remain largely unexplained. Armstrong et al. proposed MLL rearrangement positive ALL as a distinct subgroup, separated from acute lymphoblastic (ALL) and myeloblastic leukemia (AML), with a specific gene expression profile. Here we show that MLL, from both ALL and AML origin, share a signature identified by a small set of genes suggesting a common genetic disregulation that could be at the basis of mixed lineage leukemia in both phenotypes. Methods: Using Affymetrix® HG-U133 Plus 2.0 platform, gene expression data from 140 (training set) + 78 (test set) ALL and AML patients with (24+13) and without (116+65) MLL rearrangements have been investigated performing class comparison (SAM) and class prediction (PAM) analyses.
    [Show full text]
  • Widespread Changes in Transcriptome Profile of Human Mesenchymal
    Widespread changes in transcriptome profile of PNAS PLUS human mesenchymal stem cells induced by two-dimensional nanosilicates James K. Carrowa,1, Lauren M. Crossa,1, Robert W. Reesea, Manish K. Jaiswala, Carl A. Gregoryb, Roland Kaunasa, Irtisha Singhc,d,2, and Akhilesh K. Gaharwara,e,f,2 aDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843; bDepartment of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, TX 77843; cComputational Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065; dTri-I Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, Weill Cornell Graduate College, New York, NY 10065; eDepartment of Material Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843; and fCenter for Remote Health Technologies and Systems, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 Edited by Catherine J. Murphy, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved February 27, 2018 (received for review September 20, 2017) Two-dimensional nanomaterials, an ultrathin class of materials such view of the cellular activity with pivotal insights about the af- as graphene, nanoclays, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), fected cellular pathways. Based on these results, a range of and transition metal oxides (TMOs), have emerged as a new nanotechnology-based platforms have been developed for mo- generation of materials due to their unique properties relative to lecular diagnostics and genome-wide analysis (10). We propose to macroscale counterparts. However, little is known about the tran- utilize transcriptomics, high-throughput sequencing of expressed scriptome dynamics following exposure to these nanomaterials. transcripts (RNA-seq), to provide a holistic view of nanomaterial Here, we investigate the interactions of 2D nanosilicates, a layered interactions with the cellular machinery.
    [Show full text]
  • The JAX Synteny Browser for Mouse-Human Comparative Genomics
    Mammalian Genome (2019) 30:353–361 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-019-09821-4 The JAX Synteny Browser for mouse‑human comparative genomics Georgi Kolishovski1 · Anna Lamoureux1 · Paul Hale1 · Joel E. Richardson1 · Jill M. Recla1 · Omoluyi Adesanya1,3 · Al Simons1 · Govindarajan Kunde‑Ramamoorthy2 · Carol J. Bult1 Received: 8 October 2019 / Accepted: 20 November 2019 / Published online: 27 November 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 Abstract Visualizing regions of conserved synteny between two genomes is supported by numerous software applications. However, none of the current applications allow researchers to select genome features to display or highlight in blocks of synteny based on the annotated biological properties of the features (e.g., type, function, and/or phenotype association). To address this usability gap, we developed an interactive web-based conserved synteny browser, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) Synteny Browser. The browser allows researchers to highlight or selectively display genome features in the reference and/or the comparison genome according to the biological attributes of the features. Although the current implementation for the browser is limited to the refer- ence genomes for the laboratory mouse and human, the software platform is intentionally genome agnostic. The JAX Synteny Browser software can be deployed for any two genomes where genome coordinates for syntenic blocks are defned and for which biological attributes of the features in one or both genomes are available in widely used standard bioinformatics fle formats. The JAX Synteny Browser is available at: http://syntenybro wser.jax.org/ . The code base is available from GitHub: https://githu b.com/TheJa ckson Labor atory /synte nybro wser and is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).
    [Show full text]