scholarly journals Ligand-induced sequestering of branchpoint sequence allows conditional control of splicing

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Suk Kim ◽  
Veronica Gusti ◽  
Kenneth J Dery ◽  
Rajesh K Gaur
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Leising ◽  
Joshua E. Wolf ◽  
Chad M. Ruprecht

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-171
Author(s):  
Cia-Hin Lau ◽  
Chung Tin

Gene therapy and transgenic research have advanced quickly in recent years due to the development of CRISPR technology. The rapid development of CRISPR technology has been largely benefited by chemical engineering. Firstly, chemical or synthetic substance enables spatiotemporal and conditional control of Cas9 or dCas9 activities. It prevents the leaky expression of CRISPR components, as well as minimizes toxicity and off-target effects. Multi-input logic operations and complex genetic circuits can also be implemented via multiplexed and orthogonal regulation of target genes. Secondly, rational chemical modifications to the sgRNA enhance gene editing efficiency and specificity by improving sgRNA stability and binding affinity to on-target genomic loci, and hence reducing off-target mismatches and systemic immunogenicity. Chemically-modified Cas9 mRNA is also more active and less immunogenic than the native mRNA. Thirdly, nonviral vehicles can circumvent the challenges associated with viral packaging and production through the delivery of Cas9-sgRNA ribonucleoprotein complex or large Cas9 expression plasmids. Multi-functional nanovectors enhance genome editing in vivo by overcoming multiple physiological barriers, enabling ligand-targeted cellular uptake, and blood-brain barrier crossing. Chemical engineering can also facilitate viral-based delivery by improving vector internalization, allowing tissue-specific transgene expression, and preventing inactivation of the viral vectors in vivo. This review aims to discuss how chemical engineering has helped improve existing CRISPR applications and enable new technologies for biomedical research. The usefulness, advantages, and molecular action for each chemical engineering approach are also highlighted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent D. Campese ◽  
Lauren A. Brannigan ◽  
Joseph E. LeDoux

Using rodents, three training arrangements (i.e., ABB vs. ABA, AAA vs. AAB and ABB vs. ABC) explored whether extinction influences the expression of avoidance in a manner controlled by context. Retention testing following extinction showed that more avoidance responding (i.e., renewal) was observed when extinguished cues were tested outside of the context where they had undergone extinction. In contrast, response rates were significantly lower when stimuli were tested within the context where extinction learning had occurred. These findings add to the emerging literature assessing the role of Pavlovian extinction processes in the development of instrumental avoidance responding by demonstrating conditional control over extinguished responding by context. This study was conducted using a within-subjects approach that minimized the potential for context-outcome associations to bias responding, and thus, reflects hierarchical control over behavior based on the specific associative status of each tested cue in each training context.


RNA ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. rna.078329.120
Author(s):  
Valentin Jacquier ◽  
Manon Prevot ◽  
Thierry Gostan ◽  
Remy Bordonne ◽  
Sofia Benkhelifa-Ziyyat ◽  
...  

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease caused by reduced amounts of the ubiquitously expressed Survival of Motor Neuron (SMN) protein. In agreement with its crucial role in the biogenesis of spliceosomal snRNPs, SMN-deficiency is correlated to numerous splicing alterations in patient cells and various tissues of SMA mouse models. Among the snRNPs whose assembly is impacted by SMN-deficiency, those involved in the minor spliceosome are particularly affected. Importantly, splicing of several, but not all U12-dependent introns has been shown to be affected in different SMA models. Here, we have investigated the molecular determinants of this differential splicing in spinal cords from SMA mice. We show that the branchpoint sequence (BPS) is a key element controlling splicing efficiency of minor introns. Unexpectedly, splicing of several minor introns with suboptimal BPS is not affected in SMA mice. Using in vitro splicing experiments and oligonucleotides targeting minor or major snRNAs, we show for the first time that splicing of these introns involves both the minor and major machineries. Our results strongly suggest that splicing of a subset of minor introns is not affected in SMA mice because components of the major spliceosome compensate for the loss of minor splicing activity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 957-960
Author(s):  
Taylor M. Courtney ◽  
Alexander Deiters

Protein phosphatases play an essential role in cell signaling; however, they remain understudied compared with protein kinases, in part due to a lack of appropriate tools. In order to provide conditional control over phosphatase function, we developed two different approaches for rendering MKP3 (a dual-specific phosphatase, also termed DUSP6) activatable by light. Specifically, we expressed the protein with strategically placed light-removable protecting groups in cells with an expanded genetic code. This allowed for the acute perturbation of the Ras/MAPK signaling pathway upon photoactivation in live cells. In doing so, we confirmed that MKP3 does not act as a thresholding gate for growth factor stimulation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ESRK) pathway.


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