scholarly journals Overexpression of the RNA-binding protein NrdA affects global gene expression and secondary metabolism inAspergillusspecies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chihiro Kadooka ◽  
Kosuke Izumitsu ◽  
Teigo Asai ◽  
Kazuki Mori ◽  
Kayu Okutsu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTRNA-binding protein Nrd1 plays a role in RNA polymerase II transcription termination. In this study, we showed that the orthologous NrdA is important in global mRNA expression and secondary metabolism inAspergillusspecies. We constructed annrdAconditional expression strain using the Tet-On system inAspergillus luchuenesismut.kawachii. Downregulation ofnrdAcaused a severe growth defect, indicating that NrdA is essential for the proliferation ofA. kawachii. Parallel RNA-sequencing and RNA immunoprecipitation-sequencing analysis identified potential NrdA-interacting transcripts, corresponding to 32% of the predicted protein coding genes ofA. kawachii. Subsequent gene ontology analysis suggested that overexpression of NrdA affects the production of secondary metabolites. To clarify this, we constructed NrdA-overexpressing strains ofAspergillus nidulans,Aspergillus fumigatus, andAspergillus oryzae. Overexpression of NrdA reduced the production of sterigmatocystin and penicillin inA. nidulans, as well as that of helvolic acid and pyripyropene A inA. fumigatus. Moreover, it increased the production of kojic acid and reduced production of penicillin inA. oryzae. These effects were accompanied by almost consistent transcriptional changes in the relevant genes. Collectively, these results suggest that NrdA is the essential RNA-binding protein, which plays a significant role in global gene expression and secondary metabolism inAspergillusspecies.IMPORTANCENrd1, a component of the Nrd1–Nab3–Sen1 complex, is an essential RNA-binding protein involved in transcriptional termination in yeast. However, its role in filamentous fungi has not been studied. In this study, we characterized an orthologous NrdA in theAspergillusspecies, identified potential NrdA-interacting mRNA, and investigated the effect of overexpression of NrdA on mRNA expression inAspergillus luchuensismut.kawachii. The results indicated that NrdA controls global gene expression involved in versatile metabolic pathways, including the secondary metabolic process. We demonstrated that NrdA overexpression significantly affected the production of secondary metabolites inAspergillus nidulans,Aspergillus oryzae, andAspergillus fumigatus. Our findings are of importance to the fungal research community because the secondary metabolism is an industrially and clinically important aspect for theAspergillusspecies.

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.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 361
Author(s):  
Myeongwoo Jung ◽  
Eun-Kyung Lee

HuD (also known as ELAVL4) is an RNA–binding protein belonging to the human antigen (Hu) family that regulates stability, translation, splicing, and adenylation of target mRNAs. Unlike ubiquitously distributed HuR, HuD is only expressed in certain types of tissues, mainly in neuronal systems. Numerous studies have shown that HuD plays essential roles in neuronal development, differentiation, neurogenesis, dendritic maturation, neural plasticity, and synaptic transmission by regulating the metabolism of target mRNAs. However, growing evidence suggests that HuD also functions as a pivotal regulator of gene expression in non–neuronal systems and its malfunction is implicated in disease pathogenesis. Comprehensive knowledge of HuD expression, abundance, molecular targets, and regulatory mechanisms will broaden our understanding of its role as a versatile regulator of gene expression, thus enabling novel treatments for diseases with aberrant HuD expression. This review focuses on recent advances investigating the emerging role of HuD, its molecular mechanisms of target gene regulation, and its disease relevance in both neuronal and non–neuronal systems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 154 (6) ◽  
pp. S-585
Author(s):  
Sarah F. Andres ◽  
Kathy N. Williams ◽  
Kathryn E. Hamilton ◽  
Rei Mizuno ◽  
Jeff Headd ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (42) ◽  
pp. 14291-14304
Author(s):  
Kathrin Bajak ◽  
Kevin Leiss ◽  
Christine Clayton ◽  
Esteban Erben

In Trypanosoma brucei and related kinetoplastids, gene expression regulation occurs mostly posttranscriptionally. Consequently, RNA-binding proteins play a critical role in the regulation of mRNA and protein abundance. Yet, the roles of many RNA-binding proteins are not understood. Our previous research identified the RNA-binding protein ZC3H5 as possibly involved in gene repression, but its role in controlling gene expression was unknown. We here show that ZC3H5 is an essential cytoplasmic RNA-binding protein. RNAi targeting ZC3H5 causes accumulation of precytokinetic cells followed by rapid cell death. Affinity purification and pairwise yeast two-hybrid analysis suggest that ZC3H5 forms a complex with three other proteins, encoded by genes Tb927.11.4900, Tb927.8.1500, and Tb927.7.3040. RNA immunoprecipitation revealed that ZC3H5 is preferentially associated with poorly translated, low-stability mRNAs, the 5′-untranslated regions and coding regions of which are enriched in the motif (U/A)UAG(U/A). As previously found in high-throughput analyses, artificial tethering of ZC3H5 to a reporter mRNA or other complex components repressed reporter expression. However, depletion of ZC3H5 in vivo caused only very minor decreases in a few targets, marked increases in the abundances of very stable mRNAs, an increase in monosomes at the expense of large polysomes, and appearance of “halfmer” disomes containing two 80S subunits and one 40S subunit. We speculate that the ZC3H5 complex might be implicated in quality control during the translation of suboptimal open reading frames.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (18) ◽  
pp. 1357
Author(s):  
Chengcheng Xu ◽  
Dandan Ke ◽  
Liping Zou ◽  
Nianyu Li ◽  
Yingying Wang ◽  
...  

In this study, the ability of cold-induced RNA-binding protein (CIRBP) to regulate the expression of Src-associated during mitosis of 68 kDa (Sam68) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) in the mouse testis and mouse primary spermatocytes (GC-2spd cell line) before and after heat stress was examined to explore the molecular mechanism by which CIRBP decreases testicular injury. A mouse testicular hyperthermia model, a mouse primary spermatocyte hyperthermia model and a low CIRBP gene-expression cell model were constructed and their relevant parameters were analysed. The mRNA and protein levels of CIRBP and Sam68 were significantly decreased in the 3-h and 12-h testicular heat-stress groups, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) protein expression was not significantly affected but phospho-ERK1/2 protein levels were significantly decreased. GC-2spd cellular heat-stress results showed that the mRNA and protein concentrations of CIRBP and Sam68 were reduced 48h after heat stress. In the low CIRBP gene-expression cell model, CIRBP protein expression was significantly decreased. Sam68 mRNA expression was significantly decreased only at the maximum transfection concentration of 50nM and Sam68 protein expression was not significantly affected. These findings suggest that CIRBP may regulate the expression of Sam68 at the transcriptional level and the expression of phospho-ERK1/2 protein, both of which protect against heat-stress-induced testicular injury in mice.


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