scholarly journals The search for RNA-binding proteins: a technical and interdisciplinary challenge

Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Smith ◽  
Jarrod J. Sandow ◽  
Andrew I. Webb

RNA-binding proteins are customarily regarded as important facilitators of gene expression. In recent years, RNA–protein interactions have also emerged as a pervasive force in the regulation of homeostasis. The compendium of proteins with provable RNA-binding function has swelled from the hundreds to the thousands astride the partnership of mass spectrometry-based proteomics and RNA sequencing. At the foundation of these advances is the adaptation of RNA-centric capture methods that can extract bound protein that has been cross-linked in its native environment. These methods reveal snapshots in time displaying an extensive network of regulation and a wealth of data that can be used for both the discovery of RNA-binding function and the molecular interfaces at which these interactions occur. This review will focus on the impact of these developments on our broader perception of post-transcriptional regulation, and how the technical features of current capture methods, as applied in mammalian systems, create a challenging medium for interpretation by systems biologists and target validation by experimental researchers.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 6835
Author(s):  
Jonas Weiße ◽  
Julia Rosemann ◽  
Vanessa Krauspe ◽  
Matthias Kappler ◽  
Alexander W. Eckert ◽  
...  

Nearly 7.5% of all human protein-coding genes have been assigned to the class of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), and over the past decade, RBPs have been increasingly recognized as important regulators of molecular and cellular homeostasis. RBPs regulate the post-transcriptional processing of their target RNAs, i.e., alternative splicing, polyadenylation, stability and turnover, localization, or translation as well as editing and chemical modification, thereby tuning gene expression programs of diverse cellular processes such as cell survival and malignant spread. Importantly, metastases are the major cause of cancer-associated deaths in general, and particularly in oral cancers, which account for 2% of the global cancer mortality. However, the roles and architecture of RBPs and RBP-controlled expression networks during the diverse steps of the metastatic cascade are only incompletely understood. In this review, we will offer a brief overview about RBPs and their general contribution to post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Subsequently, we will highlight selected examples of RBPs that have been shown to play a role in oral cancer cell migration, invasion, and metastasis. Last but not least, we will present targeting strategies that have been developed to interfere with the function of some of these RBPs.


Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogesh Saini ◽  
Jian Chen ◽  
Sonika Patial

Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression plays a key role in cellular proliferation, differentiation, migration, and apoptosis. Increasing evidence suggests dysregulated post-transcriptional gene expression as an important mechanism in the pathogenesis of cancer. The tristetraprolin family of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), which include Zinc Finger Protein 36 (ZFP36; commonly referred to as tristetraprolin (TTP)), Zinc Finger Protein 36 like 1 (ZFP36L1), and Zinc Finger Protein 36 like 2 (ZFP36L2), play key roles in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Mechanistically, these proteins function by binding to the AU-rich elements within the 3′-untranslated regions of their target mRNAs and, in turn, increasing mRNA turnover. The TTP family RBPs are emerging as key regulators of multiple biological processes relevant to cancer and are aberrantly expressed in numerous human cancers. The TTP family RBPs have tumor-suppressive properties and are also associated with cancer prognosis, metastasis, and resistance to chemotherapy. Herein, we summarize the various hallmark molecular traits of cancers that are reported to be regulated by the TTP family RBPs. We emphasize the role of the TTP family RBPs in the regulation of trait-associated mRNA targets in relevant cancer types/cell lines. Finally, we highlight the potential of the TTP family RBPs as prognostic indicators and discuss the possibility of targeting these TTP family RBPs for therapeutic benefits.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 621-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youhuang Bai ◽  
Xiaozhuan Dai ◽  
Tiantian Ye ◽  
Peijing Zhang ◽  
Xu Yan ◽  
...  

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are endogenous noncoding RNAs, arbitrarily longer than 200 nucleotides, that play critical roles in diverse biological processes. LncRNAs exist in different genomes ranging from animals to plants. Objective: PlncRNADB is a searchable database of lncRNA sequences and annotation in plants. Methods: We built a pipeline for lncRNA prediction in plants, providing a convenient utility for users to quickly distinguish potential noncoding RNAs from protein-coding transcripts. Results: More than five thousand lncRNAs are collected from four plant species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Arabidopsis lyrata, Populus trichocarpa and Zea mays) in PlncRNADB. Moreover, our database provides the relationship between lncRNAs and various RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), which can be displayed through a user-friendly web interface. Conclusion: PlncRNADB can serve as a reference database to investigate the lncRNAs and their interaction with RNA-binding proteins in plants. The PlncRNADB is freely available at http://bis.zju.edu.cn/PlncRNADB/.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Mrinmoyee Majumder ◽  
Viswanathan Palanisamy

Control of gene expression is critical in shaping the pro-and eukaryotic organisms’ genotype and phenotype. The gene expression regulatory pathways solely rely on protein–protein and protein–nucleic acid interactions, which determine the fate of the nucleic acids. RNA–protein interactions play a significant role in co- and post-transcriptional regulation to control gene expression. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are a diverse group of macromolecules that bind to RNA and play an essential role in RNA biology by regulating pre-mRNA processing, maturation, nuclear transport, stability, and translation. Hence, the studies aimed at investigating RNA–protein interactions are essential to advance our knowledge in gene expression patterns associated with health and disease. Here we discuss the long-established and current technologies that are widely used to study RNA–protein interactions in vivo. We also present the advantages and disadvantages of each method discussed in the review.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 552
Author(s):  
Jasmine Harley ◽  
Benjamin E. Clarke ◽  
Rickie Patani

RNA binding proteins fulfil a wide number of roles in gene expression. Multiple mechanisms of RNA binding protein dysregulation have been implicated in the pathomechanisms of several neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction also play important roles in these diseases. In this review, we highlight the mechanistic interplay between RNA binding protein dysregulation, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in ALS. We also discuss different potential therapeutic strategies targeting these pathways.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Forman ◽  
Brenna J. C. Dennison ◽  
Katherine A. Fantauzzo

Cranial neural crest (NC) cells delaminate from the neural folds in the forebrain to the hindbrain during mammalian embryogenesis and migrate into the frontonasal prominence and pharyngeal arches. These cells generate the bone and cartilage of the frontonasal skeleton, among other diverse derivatives. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have emerged as critical regulators of NC and craniofacial development in mammals. Conventional RBPs bind to specific sequence and/or structural motifs in a target RNA via one or more RNA-binding domains to regulate multiple aspects of RNA metabolism and ultimately affect gene expression. In this review, we discuss the roles of RBPs other than core spliceosome components during human and mouse NC and craniofacial development. Where applicable, we review data on these same RBPs from additional vertebrate species, including chicken, Xenopus and zebrafish models. Knockdown or ablation of several RBPs discussed here results in altered expression of transcripts encoding components of developmental signaling pathways, as well as reduced cell proliferation and/or increased cell death, indicating that these are common mechanisms contributing to the observed phenotypes. The study of these proteins offers a relatively untapped opportunity to provide significant insight into the mechanisms underlying gene expression regulation during craniofacial morphogenesis.


eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling-Yu Liu ◽  
Xi Long ◽  
Ching-Po Yang ◽  
Rosa L Miyares ◽  
Ken Sugino ◽  
...  

Temporal patterning is a seminal method of expanding neuronal diversity. Here we unravel a mechanism decoding neural stem cell temporal gene expression and transforming it into discrete neuronal fates. This mechanism is characterized by hierarchical gene expression. First, Drosophila neuroblasts express opposing temporal gradients of RNA-binding proteins, Imp and Syp. These proteins promote or inhibit chinmo translation, yielding a descending neuronal gradient. Together, first and second-layer temporal factors define a temporal expression window of BTB-zinc finger nuclear protein, Mamo. The precise temporal induction of Mamo is achieved via both transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. Finally, Mamo is essential for the temporally defined, terminal identity of α’/β’ mushroom body neurons and identity maintenance. We describe a straightforward paradigm of temporal fate specification where diverse neuronal fates are defined via integrating multiple layers of gene regulation. The neurodevelopmental roles of orthologous/related mammalian genes suggest a fundamental conservation of this mechanism in brain development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Fu ◽  
Kimberly Wellman ◽  
Amber Baldwin ◽  
Juilee Rege ◽  
Kathryn Walters ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAngiotensin II (AngII) binds to the type I angiotensin receptor in the adrenal cortex to initiate a cascade of events leading to the production of aldosterone, a master regulator of blood pressure. Despite extensive characterization of the transcriptional and enzymatic control of adrenocortical steroidogenesis, there are still major gaps in our knowledge related to precise regulation of AII-induced gene expression kinetics. Specifically, we do not know the regulatory contribution of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and RNA decay, which can control the timing of stimulus-induced gene expression. To investigate this question, we performed a high-resolution RNA-seq time course of the AngII stimulation response and 4-thiouridine pulse labeling in a steroidogenic human cell line (H295R). We identified twelve temporally distinct gene expression responses that contained mRNA encoding proteins known to be important for various steps of aldosterone production, such as cAMP signaling components and steroidogenic enzymes. AngII response kinetics for many of these mRNAs revealed a coordinated increase in both synthesis and decay. These findings were validated in primary human adrenocortical cells stimulated ex vivo with AngII. Using a candidate siRNA screen, we identified a subset of RNA-binding protein and RNA decay factors that activate or repress AngII-stimulated aldosterone production. Among the repressors of aldosterone were BTG2, which promotes deadenylation and global RNA decay. BTG2 was induced in response to AngII stimulation and promoted the repression of mRNAs encoding pro-steroidogenic factors indicating the existence of an incoherent feedforward loop controlling aldosterone homeostasis. Together, these data support a model in which coordinated increases in transcription and regulated RNA decay facilitates the major transcriptomic changes required to implement a pro-steroidogenic gene expression program that is temporally restricted to prevent aldosterone overproduction.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document