Effect of SMARCB1 deficiency in renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) on genes associated with nucleosome assembly and telomere organization.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. 614-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavlos Msaouel ◽  
Gabriel G. Malouf ◽  
Xiaoping Su ◽  
Hui Yao ◽  
Durga N Tripathi ◽  
...  

614 Background: RMC is a highly aggressive tumor with close to universal fatality despite therapy. It is almost exclusively found in young African-Americans with sickle cell trait, and is characterized by complete loss of expression of SMARCB1, a major chromatin remodeler involved in regulation of gene expression. We investigated the effects of SMARCB1 loss on mutation frequency, gene expression, and cell growth in RMC. Methods: Whole exome sequencing (WES) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) were performed in RMC tissues from 15 and 11 patients respectively, each with matched adjacent normal kidney tissue controls. In vitro experiments were performed in a cell line (RMC2C) we established from a patient with RMC. SMARCB1 was conditionally re-expressed using a tetracycline-inducible lentivector. Gene ontology (GO) analysis was performed using DAVID. Results: WES showed that RMC harbors a low number (median of < 25/tumor sample) of non-synonymous exomic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) or small indels. GO analysis revealed that the most significant pathways upregulated in RMC compared with normal tissue were those associated with nucleosome assembly and telomere organization (p values < 0.0001). Re-expression of SMARCB1 at near-endogenous levels suppressed the growth rate of RMC2C cells. Subsequent silencing of SMARCB1 expression restored the growth rate of these cells. RNA-seq of RMC2C cells expressing SMARCB1 demonstrated that the most significant downregulated pathways compared with SMARCB1-negative RMC2C cells were those associated with nucleosome assembly and telomere organization (p values < 0.0001). Conclusions: RMC harbors a remarkably simple genome, as evidenced by our WES analysis. Therefore, consistently detected alterations, such as SMARCB1 loss, are likely to serve as drivers for this disease. Indeed, in vitro restoration of SMARCB1 expression suppressed the growth of RMC cells and repressed genes associated with nucleosome assembly and telomere organization, identifying for the first time a causal link between loss of SMARCB1 and dysregulation of these genes. These results provide the basis for future therapeutic strategies targeting SMARCB1 loss in RMC.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Hatakeyama ◽  
R. Retureau ◽  
M. Pasi ◽  
B. Hartmann ◽  
C. Nogues ◽  
...  

AbstractNucleosome assembly and disassembly play a central role in the regulation of gene expression. Here we use PhAST (Photochemical Analysis of Structural Transitions) to monitor at the base pair level, structural alterations induced all along DNA upon histone binding or release. By offering the first consistent, detailed comparison of nucleosome assembly and disassembly in vitro, we are able to reveal similarities and differences between the two processes. We identify multiple intermediate states characterised by specific PhAST signatures; revealing a complexity that goes beyond the known sequential events involving (H3-H4)2 tetramer and H2A-H2B heterodimers. Such signatures localise and quantify the extent of the asymmetry of DNA/histone interactions with respect to the nucleosome dyad. This asymmetry is therefore defined by the localisation and amplitude of the signals. The localisation of the signal is consistent between assembly and disassembly and dictated by the DNA sequence. However, the amplitude component of this asymmetry not only evolves during the assembly and disassembly but does so differently between the two processes.Understanding the regulation of gene expression requires a complete knowledge of nucleosome dynamics. Our unexpected observation of differences between assembly and disassembly opens up new avenues to define the role of the DNA sequence in these processes. Overall, we provide new insights into how the intrinsic properties of DNA are integrated into a holistic mechanism that controls chromatin structure.Statement of SignificanceThis manuscript addresses the question of nucleosome dissociation compares with association. We used PhAST which is a non-intrusive photochemical technique to follow nucleosome dynamics at base pair resolution. We observed structural asymmetry during nucleosome turnover. We also showed for the first time that the process of nucleosome dissociation is not a reversal of association. This asymmetry favours intermediate states involved in chromatin organisation suggesting novel models for the role of nucleosome turnover in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryosuke Nakamura ◽  
Shigeyuki Mukudai ◽  
Renjie Bing ◽  
Michael J. Garabedian ◽  
Ryan C. Branski

AbstractSimilar to the hypertrophic scar and keloids, the efficacy of glucorticoids (GC) for vocal fold injury is highly variable. We previously reported dexamethasone enhanced the pro-fibrotic effects of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β as a potential mechanism for inconsistent clinical outcomes. In the current study, we sought to determine the mechanism(s) whereby GCs influence the fibrotic response and mechanisms underlying these effects with an emphasis on TGF-β and nuclear receptor subfamily 4 group A member 1 (NR4A1) signaling. Human VF fibroblasts (HVOX) were treated with three commonly-employed GCs+ /-TGF-β1. Phosphorylation of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR:NR3C1) and activation of NR4A1 was analyzed by western blotting. Genes involved in the fibrotic response, including ACTA2, TGFBR1, and TGFBR2 were analyzed by qPCR. RNA-seq was performed to identify global changes in gene expression induced by dexamethasone. GCs enhanced phosphorylation of GR at Ser211 and TGF-β-induced ACTA2 expression. Dexamethasone upregulated TGFBR1, and TGFBR2 in the presence of TGF-β1 and increased active NR4A1. RNA-seq results confirmed numerous pathways, including TGF-β signaling, affected by dexamethasone. Synergistic pro-fibrotic effects of TGF-β were observed across GCs and appeared to be mediated, at least partially, via upregulation of TGF-β receptors. Dexamethasone exhibited diverse regulation of gene expression including NR4A1 upregulation consistent with the anti-fibrotic potential of GCs.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 5532-5535 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Abate ◽  
D Luk ◽  
E Gagne ◽  
R G Roeder ◽  
T Curran

The products of c-fos and c-jun (Fos and Jun) function in gene regulation by interacting with the AP-1 binding site. Here we have examined the contribution of Fos and Jun toward transcriptional activity by using Fos and Jun polypeptides purified from Escherichia coli. Fos contained a transcriptional activation domain as well as a region which exerted a negative influence on transcriptional activity in vitro. Moreover, distinct activation domains in both Fos and Jun functioned cooperatively in transcriptional stimulation. Thus, regulation of gene expression by Fos and Jun results from an integration of several functional domains in a bimolecular complex.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugur M. Ayturk ◽  
Joseph P. Scollan ◽  
Alexander Vesprey ◽  
Christina M. Jacobsen ◽  
Paola Divieti Pajevic ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTSingle cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) is emerging as a powerful technology to examine transcriptomes of individual cells. We determined whether scRNA-seq could be used to detect the effect of environmental and pharmacologic perturbations on osteoblasts. We began with a commonly used in vitro system in which freshly isolated neonatal mouse calvarial cells are expanded and induced to produce a mineralized matrix. We used scRNA-seq to compare the relative cell type abundances and the transcriptomes of freshly isolated cells to those that had been cultured for 12 days in vitro. We observed that the percentage of macrophage-like cells increased from 6% in freshly isolated calvarial cells to 34% in cultured cells. We also found that Bglap transcripts were abundant in freshly isolated osteoblasts but nearly undetectable in the cultured calvarial cells. Thus, scRNA-seq revealed significant differences between heterogeneity of cells in vivo and in vitro. We next performed scRNA-seq on freshly recovered long bone endocortical cells from mice that received either vehicle or Sclerostin-neutralizing antibody for 1 week. Bone anabolism-associated transcripts were also not significantly increased in immature and mature osteoblasts recovered from Sclerostin-neutralizing antibody treated mice; this is likely a consequence of being underpowered to detect modest changes in gene expression, since only 7% of the sequenced endocortical cells were osteoblasts, and a limited portion of their transcriptomes were sampled. We conclude that scRNA-seq can detect changes in cell abundance, identity, and gene expression in skeletally derived cells. In order to detect modest changes in osteoblast gene expression at the single cell level in the appendicular skeleton, larger numbers of osteoblasts from endocortical bone are required.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Alvarez ◽  
Elior Rahmani ◽  
Brandon Jew ◽  
Kristina M. Garske ◽  
Zong Miao ◽  
...  

AbstractSingle-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) measures gene expression in individual nuclei instead of cells, allowing for unbiased cell type characterization in solid tissues. Contrary to single-cell RNA seq (scRNA-seq), we observe that snRNA-seq is commonly subject to contamination by high amounts of extranuclear background RNA, which can lead to identification of spurious cell types in downstream clustering analyses if overlooked. We present a novel approach to remove debris-contaminated droplets in snRNA-seq experiments, called Debris Identification using Expectation Maximization (DIEM). Our likelihood-based approach models the gene expression distribution of debris and cell types, which are estimated using EM. We evaluated DIEM using three snRNA-seq data sets: 1) human differentiating preadipocytes in vitro, 2) fresh mouse brain tissue, and 3) human frozen adipose tissue (AT) from six individuals. All three data sets showed various degrees of extranuclear RNA contamination. We observed that existing methods fail to account for contaminated droplets and led to spurious cell types. When compared to filtering using these state of the art methods, DIEM better removed droplets containing high levels of extranuclear RNA and led to higher quality clusters. Although DIEM was designed for snRNA-seq data, we also successfully applied DIEM to single-cell data. To conclude, our novel method DIEM removes debris-contaminated droplets from single-cell-based data fast and effectively, leading to cleaner downstream analysis. Our code is freely available for use at https://github.com/marcalva/diem.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (27) ◽  
pp. E3545-E3554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Wang ◽  
John H. Werren ◽  
Andrew G. Clark

There is extraordinary diversity in sexual dimorphism (SD) among animals, but little is known about its epigenetic basis. To study the epigenetic architecture of SD in a haplodiploid system, we performed RNA-seq and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of adult females and males from two closely related parasitoid wasps, Nasonia vitripennis and Nasonia giraulti. More than 75% of expressed genes displayed significantly sex-biased expression. As a consequence, expression profiles are more similar between species within each sex than between sexes within each species. Furthermore, extremely male- and female-biased genes are enriched for totally different functional categories: male-biased genes for key enzymes in sex-pheromone synthesis and female-biased genes for genes involved in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Remarkably, just 70 highly expressed, extremely male-biased genes account for 10% of all transcripts in adult males. Unlike expression profiles, DNA methylomes are highly similar between sexes within species, with no consistent sex differences in methylation found. Therefore, methylation changes cannot explain the extensive level of sex-biased gene expression observed. Female-biased genes have smaller sequence divergence between species, higher conservation to other hymenopterans, and a broader expression range across development. Overall, female-biased genes have been recruited from genes with more conserved and broadly expressing “house-keeping” functions, whereas male-biased genes are more recently evolved and are predominately testis specific. In summary, Nasonia accomplish a striking degree of sex-biased expression without sex chromosomes or epigenetic differences in methylation. We propose that methylation provides a general signal for constitutive gene expression, whereas other sex-specific signals cause sex-biased gene expression.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. e1002728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermine Mohr ◽  
Christian A. Mohr ◽  
Marlon R. Schneider ◽  
Laura Scrivano ◽  
Barbara Adler ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (7) ◽  
pp. pdb.prot070136-pdb.prot070136 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. M. Rivera ◽  
L. Berk ◽  
T. Clackson

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
G. Gamarra ◽  
C. Ponsart ◽  
S. Lacaze ◽  
F. Nuttinck ◽  
P. Mermillod ◽  
...  

Dietary supplementation with propylene glycol (PG) increases the rate of grade 1 embryos produced from feed restricted females (Gamarra et al. 2014 Reprod. Fertil. Dev.). The aim of this study was to evaluate if a PG feeding supplement could modify the expression profile of selected candidate genes that are important for in vitro embryo development and the gene expression patterns of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system in oocytes and cumulus cells in feed-restricted heifers. Feed-restricted heifers (n = 16, growth rate of 600 g day–1) received a single daily drench of 400 mL of water (group restricted, R) from Day 1 to Day 9 of a first synchronized oestrous cycle followed by 400 mL of PG from Day 1 to Day 9 of the second synchronized oestrous cycle (group restricted + PG, RPG). Ovum pick-up (OPU) was performed following superovulation, on Day 5 of the oestrous cycle to produce embryos in vitro and on Day 9 without superovulation to obtain oocytes and cumulus cells. The same protocol was used in control animals (n = 6, growth rate of 800 g day–1). Real-time PCR was used to determine the relative abundance of genes involved in lipid metabolism and storage (PLIN2, SCD), energy metabolism (ATP5A1, GLUT1), membrane permeability (AQP3), epigenetic marks (DNMT3a), apoptosis (BAX, TP53), and protein processing (HSPA9B) in grade 1 blastocysts, IGF1, IGF1R, IGFBP2, IGFBP4 in cumulus cells, and IGF1R and IGFBP2 in oocytes. Mann-Whitney nonparametric tests were performed to analyse gene expression results. The expression of PLIN2, ATP5A1, GLUT1, AQP3, DNMT3a, BAX, and HSPA9B were decreased in embryos collected from restricted compared with control animals. The expression levels of these genes were restored when females were supplemented with PG. The expression of TP53 and SCD were not affected. In cumulus cells, the expression levels of IGF1, IGF1R, and IGFBP4 were decreased in restricted compared with control animals. The expression levels of IGF1 and IGF1R were restored with PG supplementation. No differences were observed for the IGFBP2 gene. In the oocytes, no differences were observed for the expression levels of IGF1R and IGFBP2 genes. In conclusion, this work shows for the first time that feed restriction and dietary supplementation by PG in heifers produced changes in gene expression in blastocysts and modified the pattern of the IGF system in cumulus cells. These results suggest the existence of an epigenetic regulation induced by PG during follicular growth, which can regulate the level of gene expression up to the blastocyst stage. In general, PG supplementation of feed-restricted donors restored gene expression at the levels observed after normal feeding.


Blood ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 89 (12) ◽  
pp. 4282-4289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenlin Shao ◽  
Laura Benedetti ◽  
William W. Lamph ◽  
Clara Nervi ◽  
Wilson H. Miller

Abstract The unique t(15; 17) of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) fuses the PML gene with the retinoic acid receptor α (RARα) gene. Although retinoic acid (RA) inhibits cell growth and induces differentiation in human APL cells, resistance to RA develops both in vitro and in patients. We have developed RA-resistant subclones of the human APL cell line, NB4, whose nuclear extracts display altered RA binding. In the RA-resistant subclone, R4, we find an absence of ligand binding of PML-RARα associated with a point mutation changing a leucine to proline in the ligand-binding domain of the fusion PML-RARα protein. In contrast to mutations in RARα found in retinoid-resistant HL60 cells, in this NB4 subclone, the coexpressed RARα remains wild-type. In vitro expression of a cloned PML-RARα with the observed mutation in R4 confirms that this amino acid change causes the loss of ligand binding, but the mutant PML-RARα protein retains the ability to heterodimerize with RXRα and thus to bind to retinoid response elements (RAREs). This leads to a dominant negative block of transcription from RAREs that is dose-dependent and not relieved by RA. An unrearranged RARα engineered with this mutation also lost ligand binding and inhibited transcription in a dominant negative manner. We then found that the mutant PML-RARα selectively alters regulation of gene expression in the R4 cell line. R4 cells have lost retinoid-regulation of RXRα and RARβ and the RA-induced loss of PML-RARα protein seen in NB4 cells, but retain retinoid-induction of CD18 and CD38. Thus, the R4 cell line provides data supporting the presence of an RARα-mediated pathway that is independent from gene expression induced or repressed by PML-RARα. The high level of retinoid resistance in vitro and in vivo of cells from some relapsed APL patients suggests similar molecular changes may occur clinically.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document