Unique Archaeal Small RNAs

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 465-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Vicente Gomes-Filho ◽  
Michael Daume ◽  
Lennart Randau

Advances in genome-wide sequence technologies allow for detailed insights into the complexity of RNA landscapes of organisms from all three domains of life. Recent analyses of archaeal transcriptomes identified interaction and regulation networks of noncoding RNAs in this understudied domain. Here, we review current knowledge of small, noncoding RNAs with important functions for the archaeal lifestyle, which often requires adaptation to extreme environments. One focus is RNA metabolism at elevated temperatures in hyperthermophilic archaea, which reveals elevated amounts of RNA-guided RNA modification and virus defense strategies. Genome rearrangement events result in unique fragmentation patterns of noncoding RNA genes that require elaborate maturation pathways to yield functional transcripts. RNA-binding proteins, e.g., L7Ae and LSm, are important for many posttranscriptional control functions of RNA molecules in archaeal cells. We also discuss recent insights into the regulatory potential of their noncoding RNA partners.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Boskovic ◽  
Xin Yang Bing ◽  
Ebru Kaymak ◽  
Oliver J Rando

Small RNAs derived from mature tRNAs, referred to as tRNA fragments or "tRFs", are an emerging class of regulatory RNAs with poorly understood functions in cellular regulation. We recently identified a role for one specific tRF - 5′ tRF-Gly-GCC, or tRF-GG - in repression of genes associated with the endogenous retroelement MERVL, but the mechanistic basis for this regulation was unknown. Here, we show that tRF-GG plays a role in production of a wide variety of noncoding RNAs normally synthesized in Cajal bodies. Among these noncoding RNAs, tRF-GG regulation of the U7 snRNA modulates heterochromatin-mediated transcriptional repression of MERVL elements by supporting an adequate supply of histone proteins. Importantly, the effects of inhibiting tRF-GG on histone mRNA levels, activity of a histone 3′ UTR reporter, and ultimately on MERVL regulation could all be suppressed by the U7 RNA. We show that the related RNA-binding proteins hnRNPF and H bind directly to tRF-GG, and are required for Cajal body biogenesis. Together, our data reveal a conserved mechanism for 5′ tRNA fragment control of noncoding RNA biogenesis and, consequently, in global chromatin organization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuangang Wu ◽  
Xiaoxi Lu ◽  
Bin Shen ◽  
Yi Zeng

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease characterized by progressive degeneration, joint hyperplasia, narrowing of joint spaces, and extracellular matrix metabolism. Recent studies have shown that the pathogenesis of OA may be related to non-coding RNA, and its pathological mechanism may be an effective way to reduce OA. Objective: The purpose of this review was to investigate the recent progress of miRNA, long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and circular RNA (circRNA) in gene therapy of OA, discussing the effects of this RNA on gene expression, inflammatory reaction, apoptosis and extracellular matrix in OA. Methods: The following electronic databases were searched, including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library, for published studies involving the miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA in OA. The outcomes included the gene expression, inflammatory reaction, apoptosis, and extracellular matrix. Results and Discussion: With the development of technology, miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA have been found in many diseases. More importantly, recent studies have found that RNA interacts with RNA-binding proteins to regulate gene transcription and protein translation, and is involved in various pathological processes of OA, thus becoming a potential therapy for OA. Conclusion: In this paper, we briefly introduced the role of miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA in the occurrence and development of OA and as a new target for gene therapy.


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 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichao Zhang ◽  
Zihong Huang ◽  
Liang Kong

Background: RNA-binding proteins establish posttranscriptional gene regulation by coordinating the maturation, editing, transport, stability, and translation of cellular RNAs. The immunoprecipitation experiments could identify interaction between RNA and proteins, but they are limited due to the experimental environment and material. Therefore, it is essential to construct computational models to identify the function sites. Objective: Although some computational methods have been proposed to predict RNA binding sites, the accuracy could be further improved. Moreover, it is necessary to construct a dataset with more samples to design a reliable model. Here we present a computational model based on multi-information sources to identify RNA binding sites. Method: We construct an accurate computational model named CSBPI_Site, based on xtreme gradient boosting. The specifically designed 15-dimensional feature vector captures four types of information (chemical shift, chemical bond, chemical properties and position information). Results: The satisfied accuracy of 0.86 and AUC of 0.89 were obtained by leave-one-out cross validation. Meanwhile, the accuracies were slightly different (range from 0.83 to 0.85) among three classifiers algorithm, which showed the novel features are stable and fit to multiple classifiers. These results showed that the proposed method is effective and robust for noncoding RNA binding sites identification. Conclusion: Our method based on multi-information sources is effective to represent the binding sites information among ncRNAs. The satisfied prediction results of Diels-Alder riboz-yme based on CSBPI_Site indicates that our model is valuable to identify the function site.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuechai Chen ◽  
Jianan Wang ◽  
Muhammad Tahir ◽  
Fangfang Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan Ran ◽  
...  

AbstractAutophagy is a conserved degradation process crucial to maintaining the primary function of cellular and organismal metabolism. Impaired autophagy could develop numerous diseases, including cancer, cardiomyopathy, neurodegenerative disorders, and aging. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most common RNA modification in eukaryotic cells, and the fate of m6A modified transcripts is controlled by m6A RNA binding proteins. m6A modification influences mRNA alternative splicing, stability, translation, and subcellular localization. Intriguingly, recent studies show that m6A RNA methylation could alter the expression of essential autophagy-related (ATG) genes and influence the autophagy function. Thus, both m6A modification and autophagy could play a crucial role in the onset and progression of various human diseases. In this review, we summarize the latest studies describing the impact of m6A modification in autophagy regulation and discuss the role of m6A modification-autophagy axis in different human diseases, including obesity, heart disease, azoospermatism or oligospermatism, intervertebral disc degeneration, and cancer. The comprehensive understanding of the m6A modification and autophagy interplay may help in interpreting their impact on human diseases and may aid in devising future therapeutic strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiyan Shen ◽  
Guomin Luo ◽  
Qingjuan Chen

AbstractApproximately 338,000 patients are diagnosed with kidney cancer worldwide each year, and renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which is derived from renal epithelium, accounts for more than ninety percent of the malignancy. Next generation RNA sequencing has enabled the identification of novel long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the past 10 years. Recent studies have provided extensive evidence that lncRNAs bind to chromatin modification proteins, transcription factors, RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs, and thereby modulate gene expression through regulating chromatin status, gene transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA decay and stability, protein translation and stability. In vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that over-expression of oncogenic lncRNAs and silencing of tumor suppressive lncRNAs are a common feature of human RCC, and that aberrant lncRNA expression is a marker for poor patient prognosis, and is essential for the initiation and progression of RCC. Because lncRNAs, compared with mRNAs, are expressed in a tissue-specific manner, aberrantly expressed lncRNAs can be better targeted for the treatment of RCC through screening small molecule compounds which block the interaction between lncRNAs and their binding proteins or microRNAs.


Author(s):  
J. J. David Ho ◽  
Jeffrey H. S. Man ◽  
Jonathan H. Schatz ◽  
Philip A. Marsden

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (28) ◽  
pp. E6457-E6466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine D. Eichhorn ◽  
Yuan Yang ◽  
Lucas Repeta ◽  
Juli Feigon

The La and the La-related protein (LARP) superfamily is a diverse class of RNA binding proteins involved in RNA processing, folding, and function. Larp7 binds to the abundant long noncoding 7SK RNA and is required for 7SK ribonucleoprotein (RNP) assembly and function. The 7SK RNP sequesters a pool of the positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) in an inactive state; on release, P-TEFb phosphorylates RNA Polymerase II to stimulate transcription elongation. Despite its essential role in transcription, limited structural information is available for the 7SK RNP, particularly for protein–RNA interactions. Larp7 contains an N-terminal La module that binds UUU-3′OH and a C-terminal atypical RNA recognition motif (xRRM) required for specific binding to 7SK and P-TEFb assembly. Deletion of the xRRM is linked to gastric cancer in humans. We report the 2.2-Å X-ray crystal structure of the human La-related protein group 7 (hLarp7) xRRM bound to the 7SK stem-loop 4, revealing a unique binding interface. Contributions of observed interactions to binding affinity were investigated by mutagenesis and isothermal titration calorimetry. NMR 13C spin relaxation data and comparison of free xRRM, RNA, and xRRM–RNA structures show that the xRRM is preordered to bind a flexible loop 4. Combining structures of the hLarp7 La module and the xRRM–7SK complex presented here, we propose a structural model for Larp7 binding to the 7SK 3′ end and mechanism for 7SK RNP assembly. This work provides insight into how this domain contributes to 7SK recognition and assembly of the core 7SK RNP.


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