scholarly journals Enhancer and promoter usage in the normal and failed human heart

Author(s):  
Anthony M. Gacita ◽  
Lisa Dellefave-Castillo ◽  
Patrick G. T. Page ◽  
David Y. Barefield ◽  
J. Andrew Waserstrom ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe failed heart is characterized by re-expression of a fetal gene program, which contributes to adaptation and maladaptation in heart failure. To define genomewide enhancer and promoter use in heart failure, Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE-seq) was applied to healthy and failed human left ventricles to define short RNAs associated with both promoters and enhancers. Integration of CAGE-seq data with RNA sequencing identified a combined ∼17,000 promoters and ∼1,500 enhancers active in healthy and failed human left ventricles. Comparing promoter usage between healthy and failed hearts highlighted promoter shifts which altered amino-terminal protein sequences. Comparing enhancer usage between healthy and failed hearts revealed a majority of differentially utilized heart failure enhancers were intronic and primarily localized within the first intron, identifying this position as a common feature associated with tissue-specific gene expression changes in the heart. This dataset defines the dynamic genomic regulatory landscape underlying heart failure and serves as an important resource for understanding genetic contributions to cardiac dysfunction.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony M. Gacita ◽  
Lisa Dellefave-Castillo ◽  
Patrick G.T. Page ◽  
David Y. Barefield ◽  
J. Andrew Wasserstrom ◽  
...  

Background: The failing heart is characterized by changes in gene expression. However, the regulatory regions of the genome that drive these gene expression changes have not been well defined in human hearts. Methods: To define genome-wide enhancer and promoter use in heart failure, cap analysis of gene expression sequencing was applied to 3 healthy and 4 failed human hearts to identify promoter and enhancer regions used in left ventricles. Healthy hearts were derived from donors unused for transplantation and failed hearts were obtained as discarded tissue after transplantation. Results: Cap analysis of gene expression sequencing identified a combined potential for ≈23 000 promoters and ≈5000 enhancers active in human left ventricles. Of these, 17 000 promoters and 1800 enhancers had additional support for their regulatory function. Comparing promoter usage between healthy and failed hearts highlighted promoter shifts which altered aminoterminal protein sequences. Enhancer usage between healthy and failed hearts identified a majority of differentially used heart failure enhancers were intronic and primarily localized within the first intron, revealing this position as a common feature associated with tissue-specific gene expression changes in the heart. Conclusions: This data set defines the dynamic genomic regulatory landscape underlying heart failure and serves as an important resource for understanding genetic contributions to cardiac dysfunction. Additionally, regulatory changes contributing to heart failure are attractive therapeutic targets for controlling ventricular remodeling and clinical progression.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonal Dahale ◽  
Jorge Ruiz-Orera ◽  
Jan Silhavy ◽  
Norbert Hubner ◽  
Sebastiaan van Heesch ◽  
...  

The role of alternative promoter usage in tissue specific gene expression has been well established, however, its role in complex diseases is poorly understood. We performed cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) tag sequencing from the left ventricle (LV) of a rat model of hypertension, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), and a normotensive strain, the Brown Norway (BN) to understand role of alternative promoter usage in complex disease. We identified 26,560 CAGE-defined transcription start sites (TSS) in the rat LV, including 1,970 novel cardiac TSS resulting in new transcripts. We identified 27 genes with alternative promoter usage between SHR and BN which could lead to protein isoforms differing at the amino terminus between two strains. Additionally, we identified 475 promoter switching events where a shift in TSS usage was within 100bp between SHR and BN, altering length of the 5 prime UTR. Genomic variants located in the shifting promoter regions showed significant allelic imbalance in F1 crosses, confirming promoter shift. We found that the insulin receptor gene (Insr) showed a switch in promoter usage between SHR and BN in heart and liver. The Insr promoter shift was significantly associated with insulin levels and blood pressure within a panel of BXH/HXB recombinant inbred (RI) rat strains. This suggests that the hyperinsulinemia due to insulin resistance might lead to hypertension in SHR. Our study provides a preliminary evidence of alternative promoter usage in complex diseases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 129 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Lahue ◽  
Douglas Chapski ◽  
Manuel Rosa Garrido ◽  
Shuxun Ren ◽  
Thomas M Vondriska ◽  
...  

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a highly heterogeneous disorder characterized by the interactions of multiple genetic and environmental factors as well as the interaction of different cell types in the heart. Although reductionistic approaches have successfully identified many genes involved in HF, heritability studies suggest that many genes have resisted discovery through these approaches. By utilizing cell-type-specific gene expression paired with transcriptomic data from a large cohort of mice, we sought to identify important drivers of HF using a systems genetics approach. Methods and Results: Mice from 93 unique inbred lines of the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel were given 30 ug/g/day of isoproterenol for three weeks via osmotic minipump to induce heart failure. Transcriptomes were generated from these mice and the weighted Maximal Information Component Analysis (wMICA) algorithm was applied to generate transcriptomic gene networks. Cardiomyocytes and Fibroblasts were isolated from both control and isoproterenol-treated adult C57BL/6J hearts using a Langendorff apparatus (n=3 per sex/treatment) and transcriptomes were generated. Significantly differentially expressed genes were identified using DESEQ2 and used to query the wMICA-derived network, identifying the gene Adamts2 as a potential regulator of cardiac hypertrophy. Follow-up in vitro and in vivo work has demonstrated that Adamts2 knockdown significantly blunts the hypertrophic effect of isoproterenol on cardiomyocytes while simultaneously reducing fibroblast proliferation and increasing apoptosis as measured by TUNEL staining. Careful examination of the gene network reveals evidence of paracrine signaling between cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts and suggests a key trans-cell-type role of Adamts2 in the regulation of HF after catecholamine stimulation. Conclusion: Co-expression network algorithms combined with cell-type-specific transcriptomics identified Adamts2 as a driver of HF. Adamts2 plays an important role via paracrine signaling in the proliferative response of fibroblasts and the hypertrophic response of cardiomyocytes to catecholamines. Further mechanistic analysis of Adamts2 will further reveal its role in the progression of heart failure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (676) ◽  
pp. eabb5968
Author(s):  
Ryan C. Coleman ◽  
Akito Eguchi ◽  
Melissa Lieu ◽  
Rajika Roy ◽  
Eric W. Barr ◽  
...  

Aberrant changes in gene expression underlie the pathogenesis and progression of pressure-overload heart failure, leading to maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy, ventricular remodeling, and contractile dysfunction. Signaling through the G protein Gq triggers maladaptation and heart failure, in part through the activation of G protein–coupled receptor kinase 5 (GRK5). Hypertrophic stimuli induce the accumulation of GRK5 in the nuclei of cardiomyocytes, where it regulates pathological gene expression through multiple transcription factors including NFAT. The nuclear targeting of GRK5 is mediated by an amino-terminal (NT) domain that binds to calmodulin (CaM). Here, we sought to prevent GRK5-mediated pathology in pressure-overload maladaptation and heart failure by expressing in cardiomyocytes a peptide encoding the GRK5 NT (GRK5nt) that encompasses the CaM binding domain. In cultured cardiomyocytes, GRK5nt expression abrogated Gq-coupled receptor–mediated hypertrophy, including attenuation of pathological gene expression and the transcriptional activity of NFAT and NF-κB. We confirmed that GRK5nt bound to and blocked Ca2+-CaM from associating with endogenous GRK5, thereby preventing GRK5 nuclear accumulation after pressure overload. We generated mice that expressed GRKnt in a cardiac-specific fashion (TgGRK5nt mice), which exhibited reduced cardiac hypertrophy, ventricular dysfunction, pulmonary congestion, and cardiac fibrosis after chronic transverse aortic constriction. Together, our data support a role for GRK5nt as an inhibitor of pathological GRK5 signaling that prevents heart failure.


2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 1209-1228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shen Liang Chen ◽  
Dennis H. Dowhan ◽  
Brett M. Hosking ◽  
George E.O. Muscat

Nuclear receptor-mediated activation of transcription involves coactivation by cofactors collectively denoted the steroid receptor coactivators (SRCs). The process also involves the subsequent recruitment of p300/CBP and PCAF to a complex that synergistically regulates transcription and remodels the chromatin. PCAF and p300 have also been demonstrated to function as critical coactivators for the muscle-specific basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) protein MyoD during myogenic commitment. Skeletal muscle differentiation and the activation of muscle-specific gene expression is dependent on the concerted action of another bHLH factor, myogenin, and the MADS protein, MEF-2, which function in a cooperative manner. We examined the functional role of one SRC, GRIP-1, in muscle differentiation, an ideal paradigm for the analysis of the determinative events that govern the cell's decision to divide or differentiate. We observed that the mRNA encoding GRIP-1 is expressed in proliferating myoblasts and post-mitotic differentiated myotubes, and that protein levels increase during differentiation. Exogenous/ectopic expression studies with GRIP-1 sense and antisense vectors in myogenic C2C12 cells demonstrated that this SRC is necessary for (1) induction/activation of myogenin, MEF-2, and the crucial cell cycle regulator, p21, and (2) contractile protein expression and myotube formation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the SRC GRIP-1 coactivates MEF-2C-mediated transcription. GRIP-1 also coactivates the synergistic transactivation of E box-dependent transcription by myogenin and MEF-2C. GST-pulldowns, mammalian two-hybrid analysis, and immunoprecipitation demonstrate that the mechanism involves direct interactions between MEF-2C and GRIP-1 and is associated with the ability of the SRC to interact with the MADS domain of MEF-2C. The HLH region of myogenin mediates the direct interaction of myogenin and GRIP-1. Interestingly, interaction with myogenic factors is mediated by two regions of GRIP-1, an amino-terminal bHLH–PAS region and the carboxy-terminal region between amino acids 1158 and 1423 (which encodes an activation domain, has HAT activity, and interacts with the coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase). This work demonstrates that GRIP-1 potentiates skeletal muscle differentiation by acting as a critical coactivator for MEF-2C-mediated transactivation and is the first study to ascribe a function to the amino-terminal bHLH–PAS region of SRCs.


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