scholarly journals A shared cis-regulatory module activates transcription in the suspensor of plant embryos

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (25) ◽  
pp. E5824-E5833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelli F. Henry ◽  
Anhthu Q. Bui ◽  
Tomokazu Kawashima ◽  
Robert B. Goldberg

The mechanisms controlling the transcription of gene sets in specific regions of a plant embryo shortly after fertilization remain unknown. Previously, we showed that G564 mRNA, encoding a protein of unknown function, accumulates to high levels in the giant suspensor of both Scarlet Runner Bean (SRB) and Common Bean embryos, and a cis-regulatory module containing three unique DNA sequences, designated as the 10-bp, Region 2, and Fifth motifs, is required for G564 suspensor-specific transcription [Henry KF, et al. (2015) Plant Mol Biol 88:207–217; Kawashima T, et al. (2009) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:3627–3632]. We tested the hypothesis that these motifs are also required for transcription of the SRB GA 20-oxidase gene, which encodes a gibberellic acid hormone biosynthesis enzyme and is coexpressed with G564 at a high level in giant bean suspensors. We used deletion and gain-of-function experiments in transgenic tobacco embryos to show that two GA 20-oxidase DNA regions are required for suspensor-specific transcription, one in the 5′ UTR (+119 to +205) and another in the 5′ upstream region (−341 to −316). Mutagenesis of sequences in these two regions determined that the cis-regulatory motifs required for G564 suspensor transcription are also required for GA 20-oxidase transcription within the suspensor, although the motif arrangement differs. Our results demonstrate the flexibility of motif positioning within a cis-regulatory module that activates gene transcription within giant bean suspensors and suggest that G564 and GA 20-oxidase comprise part of a suspensor gene regulatory network.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelli F. Henry ◽  
Anhthu Q. Bui ◽  
Tomokazu Kawashima ◽  
Robert B. Goldberg

AbstractThe mechanisms controlling the transcription of gene sets in specific regions of a plant embryo shortly after fertilization remain unknown. Previously, we showed that G564 mRNA, encoding a protein of unknown function, accumulates to high levels in the giant suspensor of both Scarlet Runner Bean (SRB) and Common Bean embryos, and a cis-regulatory module containing three unique DNA sequences, designated as the 10-bp, Region 2, and Fifth motifs, is required for G564 suspensor-specific transcription [Henry, K. F. et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 88(3):207-217 (2015); Kawashima, T. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 106(9):3627-3632 (2009)]. We tested the hypothesis that these motifs are also required for transcription of the SRB GA 20-oxidase gene, which encodes a gibberellic acid hormone biosynthesis enzyme and is co-expressed with G564 at a high level in giant bean suspensors. We used deletion and gain-of-function experiments in transgenic tobacco embryos to show that two GA 20-oxidase DNA regions are required for suspensor-specific transcription – one in the 5’ untranslated region (UTR) (+119 to +205) and another in the 5’ upstream region (−341 to −316). Mutagenesis of sequences in these two regions determined that the cis-regulatory motifs required for G564 suspensor transcription are also required for GA 20-oxidase transcription within the suspensor, although the motif arrangement differs. Our results demonstrate the flexibility of motif positioning within a cis-regulatory module that activates gene transcription within giant bean suspensors, and suggest that G564 and GA 20-oxidase comprise part of a suspensor gene regulatory network.SignificanceLittle is known about how genes are expressed in different plant embryo regions. We tested the hypothesis that shared cis-regulatory motifs control the transcription of genes specifically in the suspensor. We carried out functional studies with the Scarlet Runner Bean (SRB) GA 20-oxidase gene that encodes a gibberellic acid (GA) hormone biosynthesis enzyme, and is expressed specifically within the suspensor. We show that cis-regulatory motifs required for GA 20-oxidase transcription within the suspensor are the same as those required for suspensor-specific transcription of the SRB G564 gene, although motif number, spacing and order differ. These cis-elements constitute a control module that is required to activate genes in the SRB suspensor and may form part of a suspensor regulatory network.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Zorro-Aranda ◽  
Juan Miguel Escorcia-Rodriguez ◽  
Jose Kenyi Gonzalez-Kise ◽  
Julio Augusto Freyre-Gonzalez

Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) is a model microorganism for the study of Streptomycetes, antibiotic production, and secondary metabolism in general. However, little effort to globally study its transcription has been made even though S. coelicolor has an outstanding variety of regulators among bacteria. We manually curated 29 years of literature and databases to assemble a meta-curated experimentally-validated gene regulatory network (GRN) with 5386 genes and 9707 regulatory interactions (~41% of the total expected interactions). This provides the most extensive and up-to-date reconstruction available for the regulatory circuitry of this organism. We found a low level of direct experimental validation for the regulatory interactions reported in the literature and curated in this work. Only ~6% (533/9687) are supported by experiments confirming the binding of the transcription factor to the upstream region of the target gene, the so-called "strong" evidence. To tackle network incompleteness, we performed network inference using several methods (including two proposed here) for motif detection in DNA sequences and GRN inference from transcriptomics. Further, we contrasted the structural properties and functional architecture of the networks to assess the predictions' reliability, finding the inference from DNA sequence data to be the most trustworthy. Finally, we show two possible applications of the inferred and the curated network. The inferred one allowed us to identify putative novel transcription factors for the key Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory proteins (SARPs). The curated one allows us to study the conservation of the system-level components between S. coelicolor and Corynebacterium glutamicum. There we identified the basal machinery as the common signature between the two organisms. The curated networks were deposited in Abasy Atlas (https://abasy.ccg.unam.mx/) while the inferences are available as Supplementary Material.


Author(s):  
David P. Bazett-Jones ◽  
Mark L. Brown

A multisubunit RNA polymerase enzyme is ultimately responsible for transcription initiation and elongation of RNA, but recognition of the proper start site by the enzyme is regulated by general, temporal and gene-specific trans-factors interacting at promoter and enhancer DNA sequences. To understand the molecular mechanisms which precisely regulate the transcription initiation event, it is crucial to elucidate the structure of the transcription factor/DNA complexes involved. Electron spectroscopic imaging (ESI) provides the opportunity to visualize individual DNA molecules. Enhancement of DNA contrast with ESI is accomplished by imaging with electrons that have interacted with inner shell electrons of phosphorus in the DNA backbone. Phosphorus detection at this intermediately high level of resolution (≈lnm) permits selective imaging of the DNA, to determine whether the protein factors compact, bend or wrap the DNA. Simultaneously, mass analysis and phosphorus content can be measured quantitatively, using adjacent DNA or tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) as mass and phosphorus standards. These two parameters provide stoichiometric information relating the ratios of protein:DNA content.


2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Bellora ◽  
Domènec Farré ◽  
M. Mar Albà

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1022
Author(s):  
Gianluca D’Addese ◽  
Martina Casari ◽  
Roberto Serra ◽  
Marco Villani

In many complex systems one observes the formation of medium-level structures, whose detection could allow a high-level description of the dynamical organization of the system itself, and thus to its better understanding. We have developed in the past a powerful method to achieve this goal, which however requires a heavy computational cost in several real-world cases. In this work we introduce a modified version of our approach, which reduces the computational burden. The design of the new algorithm allowed the realization of an original suite of methods able to work simultaneously at the micro level (that of the binary relationships of the single variables) and at meso level (the identification of dynamically relevant groups). We apply this suite to a particularly relevant case, in which we look for the dynamic organization of a gene regulatory network when it is subject to knock-outs. The approach combines information theory, graph analysis, and an iterated sieving algorithm in order to describe rather complex situations. Its application allowed to derive some general observations on the dynamical organization of gene regulatory networks, and to observe interesting characteristics in an experimental case.


1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 2324-2333
Author(s):  
L Sarokin ◽  
M Carlson

Expression of secreted invertase from the SUC2 gene is regulated by carbon catabolite repression. Previously, an upstream regulatory region that is required for derepression of secreted invertase was identified and shown to confer glucose-repressible expression to the heterologous promoter of a LEU2-lacZ fusion. In this paper we show that tandem copies of a 32-base pair (bp) sequence from the upstream regulatory region activate expression of the same LEU2-lacZ fusion. The level of expression increased with the number of copies of the element, but was independent of their orientation; the expression from constructions containing four copies of the sequence was only twofold lower than that when the entire SUC2 upstream regulatory region was present. This activation was not significantly glucose repressible. The 32-bp sequence includes a 7-bp motif with the consensus sequence (A/C)(A/G)GAAAT that is repeated at five sites within the upstream regulatory region. Genetic evidence supporting the functional significance of this repeated motif was obtained by pseudoreversion of a SUC2 deletion mutant lacking part of the upstream region, including two copies of the 7-bp element. In three of five pseudorevertants, the mutations that restored high-level SUC2 expression altered one of the remaining copies of the 7-bp element.


1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 2380-2386 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Everett ◽  
Y F Jin ◽  
V Ricci ◽  
L J Piddock

Twenty-eight human isolates of Escherichia coli from Argentina and Spain and eight veterinary isolates received from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods in the United Kingdom required 2 to > 128 micrograms of ciprofloxacin per ml for inhibition. Fragments of gyrA and parC encompassing the quinolone resistance-determining region were amplified by PCR, and the DNA sequences of the fragments were determined. All isolates contained a mutation in gyrA of a serine at position 83 (Ser83) to an Leu, and 26 isolates also contained a mutation of Asp87 to one of four amino acids: Asn (n = 14), Tyr (n = 6), Gly (n = 5), or His (n = 1). Twenty-four isolates contained a single mutation in parC, either a Ser80 to Ile (n = 17) or Arg (n = 2) or a Glu84 to Lys (n = 3). The role of a mutation in gyrB was investigated by introducing wild-type gyrB (pBP548) into all isolates; for three transformants MICs of ciprofloxacin were reduced; however, sequencing of PCR-derived fragments containing the gyrB quinolone resistance-determining region revealed no changes. The analogous region of parE was analyzed in 34 of 36 isolates by single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis and sequencing; however, no amino acid substitutions were discovered. The outer membrane protein and lipopolysaccharide profiles of all isolates were compared with those of reference strains, and the concentration of ciprofloxacin accumulated (with or without 100 microM carbony cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone [CCCP] was determined. Twenty-two isolates accumulated significantly lower concentrations of ciprofloxacin than the wild-type E. coli isolate; nine isolates accumulated less then half the concentration. The addition of CCCP increased the concentration of ciprofloxacin accumulated, and in all but one isolate the percent increase was greater than that in the control strains. The data indicate that high-level fluoroquinolone resistance in E. coli involves the acquisition of mutations at multiple loci.


Genome ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 647-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Maughan ◽  
T. B. Turner ◽  
C. E. Coleman ◽  
D. B. Elzinga ◽  
E. N. Jellen ◽  
...  

Salt tolerance is an agronomically important trait that affects plant species around the globe. The Salt Overly Sensitive 1 (SOS1) gene encodes a plasma membrane Na+/H+ antiporter that plays an important role in germination and growth of plants in saline environments. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a halophytic, allotetraploid grain crop of the family Amaranthaceae with impressive nutritional content and an increasing worldwide market. Many quinoa varieties have considerable salt tolerance, and research suggests quinoa may utilize novel mechanisms to confer salt tolerance. Here we report the cloning and characterization of two homoeologous SOS1 loci (cqSOS1A and cqSOS1B) from C. quinoa, including full-length cDNA sequences, genomic sequences, relative expression levels, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis, and a phylogenetic analysis of SOS1 genes from 13 plant taxa. The cqSOS1A and cqSOS1B genes each span 23 exons spread over 3477 bp and 3486 bp of coding sequence, respectively. These sequences share a high level of similarity with SOS1 homologs of other species and contain two conserved domains, a Nhap cation-antiporter domain and a cyclic-nucleotide binding domain. Genomic sequence analysis of two BAC clones (98 357 bp and 132 770 bp) containing the homoeologous SOS1 genes suggests possible conservation of synteny across the C. quinoa sub-genomes. This report represents the first molecular characterization of salt-tolerance genes in a halophytic species in the Amaranthaceae as well as the first comparative analysis of coding and non-coding DNA sequences of the two homoeologous genomes of C. quinoa.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 1341001 ◽  
Author(s):  
SPENCER ANGUS THOMAS ◽  
YAOCHU JIN

Although hypothesised there has been little investigation into how complex gene regulatory networks can evolve from simple regulatory motifs through modularisation, duplication and specialisation processes. In order to simulate natural evolution in a computational environment we evolve the connection between a genetic oscillator and a toggle switch motif using an evolutionary algorithm. We observe a connectivity preference between the motifs that is dependent on the coupling arrangement rather than on objective set-up. In addition, our results indicate the existence of a threshold in the connection parameters for the resulting dynamics for a specific coupling arrangement and objective set-up. We demonstrate that simple motifs can successfully be coupled through artificial evolution to form more complex, modular regulatory networks. These findings support, in principle, the above-mentioned hypothesis on evolutionary mechanisms in biological systems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Bragança ◽  
Jeronimo Penha ◽  
Michael Canesche ◽  
Dener Ribeiro ◽  
José Augusto M. Nacif ◽  
...  

FPGAs are suitable to speed up gene regulatory network (GRN) algorithms with high throughput and energy efficiency. In addition, virtualizing FPGA using hardware generators and cloud resources increases the computing ability to achieve on-demand accelerations across multiple users. Recently, Amazon AWS provides high-performance Cloud's FPGAs. This work proposes an open source accelerator generator for Boolean gene regulatory networks. The generator automatically creates all hardware and software pieces from a high-level GRN description. We evaluate the accelerator performance and cost for CPU, GPU, and Cloud FPGA implementations by considering six GRN models proposed in the literature. As a result, the FPGA accelerator is at least 12x faster than the best GPU accelerator. Furthermore, the FPGA reaches the best performance per dollar in cloud services, at least 5x better than the best GPU accelerator.


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