scholarly journals sRNA/L1 retrotransposition: using siRNAs and miRNAs to expand the applications of the cell culture-based LINE-1 retrotransposition assay

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1795) ◽  
pp. 20190346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Tristan-Ramos ◽  
Santiago Morell ◽  
Laura Sanchez ◽  
Belen Toledo ◽  
Jose L. Garcia-Perez ◽  
...  

The cell culture-based retrotransposition reporter assay has been (and is) an essential tool for the study of vertebrate Long INterspersed Elements (LINEs). Developed more than 20 years ago, this assay has been instrumental in characterizing the role of LINE-encoded proteins in retrotransposition, understanding how ribonucleoprotein particles are formed, how host factors regulate LINE mobilization, etc. Moreover, variations of the conventional assay have been developed to investigate the biology of other currently active human retrotransposons, such as Alu and SVA. Here, we describe a protocol that allows combination of the conventional cell culture-based LINE-1 retrotransposition reporter assay with short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNA (miRNAs) mimics or inhibitors, which has allowed us to uncover specific miRNAs and host factors that regulate retrotransposition. The protocol described here is highly reproducible, quantitative, robust and flexible, and allows the study of several small RNA classes and various retrotransposons. To illustrate its utility, here we show that siRNAs to Fanconi anaemia proteins (FANC-A and FANC-C) and an inhibitor of miRNA-20 upregulate and downregulate human L1 retrotransposition, respectively. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Crossroads between transposons and gene regulation’.

Author(s):  
Diego Calderon ◽  
Andria Ellis ◽  
Riza M. Daza ◽  
Beth Martin ◽  
Jacob M. Tome ◽  
...  

AbstractGene regulation occurs through trans-acting factors (e.g. transcription factors) acting on cis-regulatory elements (e.g. enhancers). Massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) functionally survey large numbers of cis-regulatory elements for regulatory potential, but do not identify the trans-acting factors that mediate any observed effects. Here we describe transMPRA — a reporter assay that efficiently combines multiplex CRISPR-mediated perturbation and MPRAs to identify trans-acting factors that modulate the regulatory activity of specific enhancers.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (S 2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Funke ◽  
J Hübener ◽  
H Wolburg ◽  
T Schmidt ◽  
H Toresson ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 119-129
Author(s):  
Gabriel R Cavalheiro ◽  
Tim Pollex ◽  
Eileen EM Furlong

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2547
Author(s):  
Keunsoo Kang ◽  
Yoonjung Choi ◽  
Hyeonjin Moon ◽  
Chaelin You ◽  
Minjin Seo ◽  
...  

RAD51 is a recombinase that plays a pivotal role in homologous recombination. Although the role of RAD51 in homologous recombination has been extensively studied, it is unclear whether RAD51 can be involved in gene regulation as a co-factor. In this study, we found evidence that RAD51 may contribute to the regulation of genes involved in the autophagy pathway with E-box proteins such as USF1, USF2, and/or MITF in GM12878, HepG2, K562, and MCF-7 cell lines. The canonical USF binding motif (CACGTG) was significantly identified at RAD51-bound cis-regulatory elements in all four cell lines. In addition, genome-wide USF1, USF2, and/or MITF-binding regions significantly coincided with the RAD51-associated cis-regulatory elements in the same cell line. Interestingly, the promoters of genes associated with the autophagy pathway, such as ATG3 and ATG5, were significantly occupied by RAD51 and regulated by RAD51 in HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines. Taken together, these results unveiled a novel role of RAD51 and provided evidence that RAD51-associated cis-regulatory elements could possibly be involved in regulating autophagy-related genes with E-box binding proteins.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Carmeli ◽  
Zoltán Kutalik ◽  
Pashupati P. Mishra ◽  
Eleonora Porcu ◽  
Cyrille Delpierre ◽  
...  

AbstractIndividuals experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood have a higher rate of inflammation-related diseases decades later. Little is known about the mechanisms linking early life experiences to the functioning of the immune system in adulthood. To address this, we explore the relationship across social-to-biological layers of early life social exposures on levels of adulthood inflammation and the mediating role of gene regulatory mechanisms, epigenetic and transcriptomic profiling from blood, in 2,329 individuals from two European cohort studies. Consistently across both studies, we find transcriptional activity explains a substantive proportion (78% and 26%) of the estimated effect of early life disadvantaged social exposures on levels of adulthood inflammation. Furthermore, we show that mechanisms other than cis DNA methylation may regulate those transcriptional fingerprints. These results further our understanding of social-to-biological transitions by pinpointing the role of gene regulation that cannot fully be explained by differential cis DNA methylation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
Selvakumar Subbian

The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has claimed 1.2 million people globally since December 2019. Although the host factors underpinning COVID-19 pathology are not fully understood, type I interferon (IFN-I) response is considered crucial for SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Perturbations in IFN-I signaling and associated interferon-inducible genes (ISG) are among the primary disease severity indicators in COVID-19. Consequently, IFN-I therapy, either alone or in- combination with existing antiviral or anti-inflammatory drugs, is tested in many ongoing clinical trials to reduce COVID-19 mortality. Since signaling by the IFN-I family of molecules regulates host immune response to other infectious and non-infectious diseases, any imbalance in this family of cytokines would impact the clinical outcome of COVID-19, as well as other co-existing diseases. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate the beneficial-versus-detrimental effects of IFN-I immunotherapy for COVID-19 patients with divergent disease severity and other co-existing conditions. This review article summarizes the role of IFN-I signaling in infectious and non-infectious diseases of humans. It highlights the precautionary measures to be considered before administering IFN-I to COVID-19 patients having other co-existing disorders. Finally, suggestions are proposed to improve IFN-I immunotherapy to COVID-19.


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