scholarly journals Protein Binding to Cis-Motifs in mRNAs Coding Sequence Is Common and Regulates Transcript Stability and the Rate of Translation

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2910
Author(s):  
Ewa A. Grzybowska ◽  
Maciej Wakula

Protein binding to the non-coding regions of mRNAs is relatively well characterized and its functionality has been described in many examples. New results obtained by high-throughput methods indicate that binding to the coding sequence (CDS) by RNA-binding proteins is also quite common, but the functions thereof are more obscure. As described in this review, CDS binding has a role in the regulation of mRNA stability, but it has also a more intriguing role in the regulation of translational efficiency. Global approaches, which suggest the significance of CDS binding along with specific examples of CDS-binding RBPs and their modes of action, are outlined here, pointing to the existence of a relatively less-known regulatory network controlling mRNA stability and translation on yet another level.

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly A. Harper ◽  
Alison J. Tyson-Capper

Overexpression of the enzyme COX-2 (cyclo-oxygenase-2) is associated with various pathophysiological conditions, including inflammatory diseases and different cancers. Increased synthesis of COX-2 in fetal membranes and the myometrium is also linked with the onset of term and preterm labour. COX-2 gene regulation is controlled at various levels including gene transcription and post-transcriptional events. The present article focuses on the complexity of COX-2 gene regulation and reviews current concepts that highlight: (i) transcription of COX-2 is induced rapidly and transiently in response to a plethora of stimuli; (ii) COX-2 mRNA stability and translational efficiency is governed by multiple regulatory elements within the 3′-untranslated region; (iii) specific microRNAs and RNA-binding proteins influence COX-2 mRNA stability; and (iv) regulation of COX-2 involves alternative polyadenylation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott I Adamson ◽  
Lijun Zhan ◽  
Brenton R Graveley

Background: RNA binding protein-RNA interactions mediate a variety of processes including pre-mRNA splicing, translation, decay, polyadenylation and many others. Previous high-throughput studies have characterized general sequence features associated with increased and decreased splicing of certain exons, but these studies are limited by not knowing the mechanisms, and in particular, the mediating RNA binding proteins, underlying these associations. Results: Here we utilize ENCODE data from diverse data modalities to identify functional splicing regulatory elements and their associated RNA binding proteins. We identify features which make splicing events more sensitive to depletion of RNA binding proteins, as well as which RNA binding proteins act as splicing regulators sensitive to depletion. To analyze the sequence determinants underlying RBP-RNA interactions impacting splicing, we assay tens of thousands of sequence variants in a high-throughput splicing reporter called Vex-seq and confirm a small subset in their endogenous loci using CRISPR base editors. Finally, we leverage other large transcriptomic datasets to confirm the importance of RNA binding proteins which we designed experiments around and identify additional RBPs which may act as additional splicing regulators of the exons studied. Conclusions: This study identifies sequence and other features underlying splicing regulation mediated specific RNA binding proteins, as well as validates and identifies other potentially important regulators of splicing in other large transcriptomic datasets.


Author(s):  
Hua Jin ◽  
Daxiang Na ◽  
Reazur Rahman ◽  
Weijin Xu ◽  
Allegra Fieldsend ◽  
...  

Abstract4E-BP (eIF4E-BP) represses translation initiation by binding to the 5’cap-binding protein eIF4E and inhibiting its activity. Although 4E-BP has been shown to be important in growth control, stress response, cancer, neuronal activity and mammalian circadian rhythms, it is not understood how it preferentially represses a subset of mRNAs. We successfully used hyperTRIBE (Targets of RNA-binding proteins identified by editing) to identify in vivo 4E-BP mRNA targets in both Drosophila and mammals under conditions known to activate 4E-BP. The protein associates with specific mRNAs, and ribosome profiling data show that mTOR inhibition changes the translational efficiency of 4E-BP TRIBE targets compared to non-targets. In both systems, these targets have specific motifs and are enriched in translation-related pathways, which correlate well with the known activity of 4E-BP and suggest that it modulates the binding specificity of eIF4E and contributes to mTOR translational specificity.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoyi Ji ◽  
Ze Yang ◽  
Leonardi Gozali ◽  
Thomas Kenney ◽  
Arif Kocabas ◽  
...  

AbstractMature mRNA molecules are typically considered to be comprised of a 5’UTR, a 3’UTR and a coding region (CDS), all attached until degradation. Unexpectedly, however, there have been multiple recent reports of widespread differential expression of mRNA 3’UTRs and their cognate coding regions, resulting in the expression of isolated 3’UTRs (i3’UTRs); these i3’UTRs can be highly expressed, often in reciprocal patterns to their cognate CDS. Similar to the role of other lncRNAs, isolated 3’UTRs are likely to play an important role in gene regulation but little is known about the contexts in which they are deployed. To begin to parse the functions of i3’UTRs, here we carry out in vitro, in vivo and in silico analyses of differential 3’UTR/CDS mRNA ratio usage across tissues, development and cell state changes both for a select list of developmentally important genes as well as through unbiased transcriptome-wide analyses. Across two developmental paradigms we find a distinct switch from high i3’UTR expression of stem cell related genes in proliferating cells compared to newly differentiated cells. Our unbiased transcriptome analysis across multiple gene sets shows that regardless of tissue, genes with high 3’UTR to CDS ratios belong predominantly to gene ontology categories related to cell-type specific functions while in contrast, the gene ontology categories of genes with low 3’UTR to CDS ratios are similar and relate to common cellular functions. In addition to these specific findings our data provide critical information from which detailed hypotheses for individual i3’UTRs can be tested-with a common theme that i3’UTRs appear poised to regulate cell-specific gene expression and state.Significance StatementThe widespread existence and expression of mRNA 3’ untranslated sequences in the absence of their cognate coding regions (called isolated 3’UTRs or i3’UTRs) opens up considerable avenues for gene regulation not previously envisioned. Each isolated 3’UTR may still bind and interact with micro RNAs, RNA binding proteins as well as other nucleic acid sequences, all in the absence or low levels of cognate protein production. Here we document the expression, localization and regulation of i3’UTRs both within particular biological systems as well as across the transcriptome. As this is an entirely new area of experimental investigation these early studies are seminal to this burgeoning field.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuya Li ◽  
Fanghong Dong ◽  
Yuexin Wu ◽  
Sai Zhang ◽  
Chen Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractCharacterizing the binding behaviors of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is important for understanding their functional roles in gene expression regulation. However, current high-throughput experimental methods for identifying RBP targets, such as CLIP-seq and RNAcompete, usually suffer from the false positive and false negative issues. Here, we develop a deep boosting based machine learning approach, called DeBooster, to accurately model the binding sequence preferences and identify the corresponding binding targets of RBPs from CLIP-seq data. Comprehensive validation tests have shown that DeBooster can outperform other state-of-the-art approaches in predicting RBP targets and recover false negatives that are common in current CLIP-seq data. In addition, we have demonstrated several new potential applications of DeBooster in understanding the regulatory functions of RBPs, including the binding effects of the RNA helicase MOV10 on mRNA degradation, the influence of different binding behaviors of the ADAR proteins on RNA editing, as well as the antagonizing effect of RBP binding on miRNA repression. Moreover, DeBooster may provide an effective index to investigate the effect of pathogenic mutations in RBP binding sites, especially those related to splicing events. We expect that DeBooster will be widely applied to analyze large-scale CLIP-seq experimental data and can provide a practically useful tool for novel biological discoveries in understanding the regulatory mechanisms of RBPs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 121 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahana Suresh Babu ◽  
Johnson Rajasingh ◽  
Wing Tak Wong ◽  
Prasanna Krishnamurthy

Background: The Hu family of RNA-binding proteins, HuR (also known as ELAVL1 or human embryonic lethal abnormal vision-like protein), binds to the 3’-untranslated region of mRNAs and regulates transcript stability and translation. Global deletion of HuR is embryonically lethal in mice and plays a critical role in progenitor cell survival and biology. Induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have distinct transcriptional machinery for the maintenance of pluripotency and achievement of differentiation. However, the exact role of HuR in pluripotency or differentiation of iPSC to cardiomyocytes (iCM) remains unclear. Methods: HuR knockdown in human dermal fibroblast-derived iPSCs was achieved by CRISPR/Cas9 or lentiviral shRNA transduction and subsequently differentiated into cardiomyocytes (iCM). Then, the expression of HuR, pluripotency and cardiomyocyte markers were evaluated on days 0, 1, 3, 6, 8 and 17 following the initiation of differentiation. Results: At basal level, HuR expression was higher in the iPSCs compared to dermal fibroblasts. Upon differentiation of iPSCs into iCM, HuR mRNA expression gradually reduced with significantly lower levels on day 17. As expected, pluripotency markers gradually reduced upon differentiation with significantly lower levels from day 6 onwards. We observed a corresponding increase in ISL1, MESP1 (mesoderm/cardiac progenitor markers) from day 3 through day 8 with a steep fall from day 8 to day 17. This was associated with Myosin light chain-2V and GATA4 expression increases from day 8 through day 17. Interestingly, knockdown of HuR resulted in clumps of colonies with differentiated cells and a corresponding increase in cardiac-troponin positive cells. However, as a general observation, HuR knockdown reduced beating intensity compared to wild type cells. Conclusions: Based on these data, we could speculate that HuR might be necessary for maintenance of pluripotency and loss of which renders cells to differentiate in culture. HuR knockdown yields higher number of c-troponin positive cells but its effect on functional maturity of iCM needs to be further evaluated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Lv ◽  
Fan Dong ◽  
Yong Zhou ◽  
Zhiping Cai ◽  
Gangmin Wang

AbstractRNA-binding proteins (RBPs) predominantly contribute to abnormal posttranscriptional gene modulation and disease progression in cancer. Sorbin and SH3 domain-containing 2 (SORBS2), an RBP, has been reported to be a potent tumor suppressor in several cancer types. Through integrative analysis of clinical specimens, we disclosed that the expression level of SORBS2 was saliently decreased in metastatic tissues and positively correlated with overall survival. We observed that overexpression of SORBS2 brought about decreased metastatic capacity in ccRCC cell lines. Transcriptome-wide analysis revealed that SORBS2 notably increased microtubule-associated tumor-suppressor 1 gene (MTUS1) expression. In-depth mechanistic exploring discovered that the Cys2-His2 zinc finger (C2H2-ZnF) domain of SORBS2 directly bound to the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of MTUS1 mRNA, which increased MTUS1 mRNA stability. In addition, we identified that MTUS1 regulated microtubule dynamics via promoting KIF2CS192 phosphorylation by Aurora B. Together, our research identified SORBS2 as a suppressor of ccRCC metastasis by enhancing MTUS1 mRNA stability, providing a novel understanding of RBPs during ccRCC progression.


2012 ◽  
Vol 91 (7) ◽  
pp. 651-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Palanisamy ◽  
A. Jakymiw ◽  
E.A. Van Tubergen ◽  
N.J. D’Silva ◽  
K.L. Kirkwood

Cytokines are critical mediators of inflammation and host defenses. Regulation of cytokines can occur at various stages of gene expression, including transcription, mRNA export, and post- transcriptional and translational levels. Among these modes of regulation, post-transcriptional regulation has been shown to play a vital role in controlling the expression of cytokines by modulating mRNA stability. The stability of cytokine mRNAs, including TNFα, IL-6, and IL-8, has been reported to be altered by the presence of AU-rich elements (AREs) located in the 3′-untranslated regions (3′UTRs) of the mRNAs. Numerous RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs bind to these 3′UTRs to regulate the stability and/or translation of the mRNAs. Thus, this paper describes the cooperative function between RNA-binding proteins and miRNAs and how they regulate AU-rich elements containing cytokine mRNA stability/degradation and translation. These mRNA control mechanisms can potentially influence inflammation as it relates to oral biology, including periodontal diseases and oral pharyngeal cancer progression.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gulliver Bjørnholt Grønning ◽  
Thomas Koed Doktor ◽  
Simon Jonas Larsen ◽  
Ulrika Simone Spangsberg Petersen ◽  
Lise Lolle Holm ◽  
...  

Abstract Nucleotide variants can cause functional changes by altering protein–RNA binding in various ways that are not easy to predict. This can affect processes such as splicing, nuclear shuttling, and stability of the transcript. Therefore, correct modeling of protein–RNA binding is critical when predicting the effects of sequence variations. Many RNA-binding proteins recognize a diverse set of motifs and binding is typically also dependent on the genomic context, making this task particularly challenging. Here, we present DeepCLIP, the first method for context-aware modeling and predicting protein binding to RNA nucleic acids using exclusively sequence data as input. We show that DeepCLIP outperforms existing methods for modeling RNA-protein binding. Importantly, we demonstrate that DeepCLIP predictions correlate with the functional outcomes of nucleotide variants in independent wet lab experiments. Furthermore, we show how DeepCLIP binding profiles can be used in the design of therapeutically relevant antisense oligonucleotides, and to uncover possible position-dependent regulation in a tissue-specific manner. DeepCLIP is freely available as a stand-alone application and as a webtool at http://deepclip.compbio.sdu.dk.


Open Biology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 190096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Balcerak ◽  
Alicja Trebinska-Stryjewska ◽  
Ryszard Konopinski ◽  
Maciej Wakula ◽  
Ewa Anna Grzybowska

RNA–protein interactions are crucial for most biological processes in all organisms. However, it appears that the complexity of RNA-based regulation increases with the complexity of the organism, creating additional regulatory circuits, the scope of which is only now being revealed. It is becoming apparent that previously unappreciated features, such as disordered structural regions in proteins or non-coding regions in DNA leading to higher plasticity and pliability in RNA–protein complexes, are in fact essential for complex, precise and fine-tuned regulation. This review addresses the issue of the role of RNA–protein interactions in generating eukaryotic complexity, focusing on the newly characterized disordered RNA-binding motifs, moonlighting of metabolic enzymes, RNA-binding proteins interactions with different RNA species and their participation in regulatory networks of higher order.


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