scholarly journals The Fusion of CLEC12A and MIR223HG Arises from a trans-Splicing Event in Normal and Transformed Human Cells

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 12178
Author(s):  
Bijay P. Dhungel ◽  
Geoffray Monteuuis ◽  
Caroline Giardina ◽  
Mehdi S. Tabar ◽  
Yue Feng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Cellular Localization ◽  
Chromosomal Rearrangements ◽  
Chimeric Protein ◽  
Cell Surface Receptor ◽  
Lectin Domain ◽  
Normal Tissues ◽  
Chimeric Rnas ◽  
Trans Splicing

Chimeric RNAs are often associated with chromosomal rearrangements in cancer. In addition, they are also widely detected in normal tissues, contributing to transcriptomic complexity. Despite their prevalence, little is known about the characteristics and functions of chimeric RNAs. Here, we examine the genetic structure and biological roles of CLEC12A-MIR223HG, a novel chimeric transcript produced by the fusion of the cell surface receptor CLEC12A and the miRNA-223 host gene (MIR223HG), first identified in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. Surprisingly, we observed that CLEC12A-MIR223HG is not just expressed in CML, but also in a variety of normal tissues and cell lines. CLEC12A-MIR223HG expression is elevated in pro-monocytic cells resistant to chemotherapy and during monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation. We observed that CLEC12A-MIR223HG is a product of trans-splicing rather than a chromosomal rearrangement and that transcriptional activation of CLEC12A with the CRISPR/Cas9 Synergistic Activation Mediator (SAM) system increases CLEC12A-MIR223HG expression. CLEC12A-MIR223HG translates into a chimeric protein, which largely resembles CLEC12A but harbours an altered C-type lectin domain altering key disulphide bonds. These alterations result in differences in post-translational modifications, cellular localization, and protein–protein interactions. Taken together, our observations support a possible involvement of CLEC12A-MIR223HG in the regulation of CLEC12A function. Our workflow also serves as a template to study other uncharacterized chimeric RNAs.

EAF1, a novel ELL-associated factor that is delocalized by expression of the MLL-ELL fusion protein

Blood ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Simone ◽  
Paul E. Polak ◽  
Joseph J. Kaberlein ◽  
Roger T. Luo ◽  
Denise A. Levitan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fusion Protein ◽  
Cell Lines ◽  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Fusion Gene ◽  
Elongation Factor ◽  
Chimeric Protein ◽  
Leukemic Cell ◽  
Transcriptional Elongation ◽  
Associated Factor

Abstract The (11;19)(q23;p13.1) translocation in acute leukemia leads to the generation of a chimeric protein that fuses MLL to the transcriptional elongation factor ELL. A novel protein was isolated from a yeast 2-hybrid screen with ELL that was named EAF1 for ELL-associated factor 1. Using specific antibodies, the endogenous EAF1 and ELL proteins were coimmunoprecipitated from multiple cell lines. In addition, endogenous EAF1 also exhibited the capacity to interact with ELL2. Database comparisons with EAF1 identified a region with a high content of serine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid residues that exhibited homology with the transcriptional activation domains of several translocation partner proteins of MLL, including AF4, LAF4, and AF5q31. A similar transcriptional activation domain has been identified in this region of EAF1. By confocal microscopy, endogenous EAF1 and ELL colocalized in a distinct nuclear speckled pattern. Transfection of theMLL-ELL fusion gene delocalized EAF1 from its nuclear speckled distribution to a diffuse nucleoplasmic pattern. In leukemic cell lines derived from mice transplanted withMLL-ELL–transduced bone marrow, EAF1 speckles were not detected. Taken together, these data suggest that expression of the MLL-ELL fusion protein may have a dominant effect on the normal protein-protein interactions of ELL.

scholarly journals Fusion Transcripts of Adjacent Genes: New Insights into the World of Human Complex Transcripts in Cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (21) ◽  
pp. 5252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenza Barresi ◽  
Ilaria Cosentini ◽  
Chiara Scuderi ◽  
Salvatore Napoli ◽  
Virginia Di Bella ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Chromosomal Rearrangements ◽  
Complete Analysis ◽  
Fusion Transcripts ◽  
Normal Tissues ◽  
Genome Complexity ◽  
Trans Splicing ◽  
Splicing Patterns ◽  
Transcriptional Slippage ◽  
Human Complex

The awareness of genome complexity brought a radical approach to the study of transcriptome, opening eyes to single RNAs generated from two or more adjacent genes according to the present consensus. This kind of transcript was thought to originate only from chromosomal rearrangements, but the discovery of readthrough transcription opens the doors to a new world of fusion RNAs. In the last years many possible intergenic cis-splicing mechanisms have been proposed, unveiling the origins of transcripts that contain some exons of both the upstream and downstream genes. In some cases, alternative mechanisms, such as trans-splicing and transcriptional slippage, have been proposed. Five databases, containing validated and predicted Fusion Transcripts of Adjacent Genes (FuTAGs), are available for the scientific community. A comparative analysis revealed that two of them contain the majority of the results. A complete analysis of the more widely characterized FuTAGs is provided in this review, including their expression pattern in normal tissues and in cancer. Gene structure, intergenic splicing patterns and exon junction sequences have been determined and here reported for well-characterized FuTAGs. The available functional data and the possible roles in cancer progression are discussed.

scholarly journals Identification of the cross-strand chimeric RNAs generated by fusions of bi-directional transcripts

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuting Wang ◽  
Qin Zou ◽  
Fajin Li ◽  
Wenwei Zhao ◽  
Hui Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rna Splicing ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Normal Tissues ◽  
Rna Transcripts ◽  
Chimeric Rnas ◽  
Dna Strands ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Chimeric Rna ◽  
Cancerous Cells

AbstractA major part of the transcriptome complexity is attributed to multiple types of DNA or RNA fusion events, which take place within a gene such as alternative splicing or between different genes such as DNA rearrangement and trans-splicing. In the present study, using the RNA deep sequencing data, we systematically survey a type of non-canonical fusions between the RNA transcripts from the two opposite DNA strands. We name the products of such fusion events cross-strand chimeric RNA (cscRNA). Hundreds to thousands of cscRNAs can be found in human normal tissues, primary cells, and cancerous cells, and in other species as well. Although cscRNAs exhibit strong tissue-specificity, our analysis identifies thousands of recurrent cscRNAs found in multiple different samples. cscRNAs are mostly originated from convergent transcriptions of the annotated genes and their anti-sense DNA. The machinery of cscRNA biogenesis is unclear, but the cross-strand junction events show some features related to RNA splicing. The present study is a comprehensive survey of the non-canonical cross-strand RNA junction events, a resource for further characterization of the originations and functions of the cscRNAs.

scholarly journals Frequent assembly of chimeric complexes in the protein interaction network of an interspecies yeast hybrid

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Dandage ◽  
Caroline M Berger ◽  
Isabelle Gagnon-Arsenault ◽  
Kyung-Mee Moon ◽  
Richard Greg Stacey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Molecular Level ◽  
Yeast Species ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Mitochondrial Protein ◽  
Chimeric Protein ◽  
Interaction Network ◽  
Protein Protein Interactions ◽  
Extreme Phenotypes ◽  
Yeast Hybrid

Abstract Hybrids between species often show extreme phenotypes, including some that take place at the molecular level. In this study, we investigated the phenotypes of an interspecies diploid hybrid in terms of protein-protein interactions inferred from protein correlation profiling. We used two yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces uvarum, which are interfertile, but yet have proteins diverged enough to be differentiated using mass spectrometry. Most of the protein-protein interactions are similar between hybrid and parents, and are consistent with the assembly of chimeric complexes, which we validated using an orthogonal approach for the prefoldin complex. We also identified instances of altered protein-protein interactions in the hybrid, for instance in complexes related to proteostasis and in mitochondrial protein complexes. Overall, this study uncovers the likely frequent occurrence of chimeric protein complexes with few exceptions, which may result from incompatibilities or imbalances between the parental proteins.

scholarly journals Native Structure-Based Peptides as Potential Protein–Protein Interaction Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein and Human ACE2 Receptor

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 2157
Author(s):  
Norbert Odolczyk ◽  
Ewa Marzec ◽  
Maria Winiewska-Szajewska ◽  
Jarosław Poznański ◽  
Piotr Zielenkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Rna Virus ◽  
Antiviral Drug ◽  
Host Protein ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Cell Surface Receptor ◽  
Short Peptides ◽  
Virus Protein ◽  
Positive Strand Rna

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a positive-strand RNA virus that causes severe respiratory syndrome in humans, which is now referred to as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since December 2019, the new pathogen has rapidly spread globally, with over 65 million cases reported to the beginning of December 2020, including over 1.5 million deaths. Unfortunately, currently, there is no specific and effective treatment for COVID-19. As SARS-CoV-2 relies on its spike proteins (S) to bind to a host cell-surface receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme-2(ACE2), and this interaction is proved to be responsible for entering a virus into host cells, it makes an ideal target for antiviral drug development. In this work, we design three very short peptides based on the ACE2 sequence/structure fragments, which may effectively bind to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of S protein and may, in turn, disrupt the important virus-host protein–protein interactions, blocking early steps of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Two of our peptides bind to virus protein with affinity in nanomolar range, and as very short peptides have great potential for drug development.

c-Fos-induced activation of a TATA-box-containing promoter involves direct contact with TATA-box-binding protein

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 6021-6029
Author(s):  
R Metz ◽  
A J Bannister ◽  
J A Sutherland ◽  
C Hagemeier ◽  
E C O'Rourke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Binding Protein ◽  
Tata Box ◽  
Binding Motif ◽  
Protein Protein Interactions ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Tata Box Binding Protein

Transcriptional activation in eukaryotes involves protein-protein interactions between regulatory transcription factors and components of the basal transcription machinery. Here we show that c-Fos, but not a related protein, Fra-1, can bind the TATA-box-binding protein (TBP) both in vitro and in vivo and that c-Fos can also interact with the transcription factor IID complex. High-affinity binding to TBP requires c-Fos activation modules which cooperate to activate transcription. One of these activation modules contains a TBP-binding motif (TBM) which was identified through its homology to TBP-binding viral activators. This motif is required for transcriptional activation, as well as TBP binding. Domain swap experiments indicate that a domain containing the TBM can confer TBP binding on Fra-1 both in vitro and in vivo. In vivo activation experiments indicate that a GAL4-Fos fusion can activate a promoter bearing a GAL4 site linked to a TATA box but that this activity does not occur at high concentrations of GAL4-Fos. This inhibition (squelching) of c-Fos activity is relieved by the presence of excess TBP, indicating that TBP is a direct functional target of c-Fos. Removing the TBM from c-Fos severely abrogates activation of a promoter containing a TATA box but does not affect activation of a promoter driven only by an initiator element. Collectively, these results suggest that c-Fos is able to activate via two distinct mechanisms, only one of which requires contact with TBP. Since TBP binding is not exhibited by Fra-1, TBP-mediated activation may be one characteristic that discriminates the function of Fos-related proteins.

Single zinc-finger extension: enhancing transcriptional activity and specificity of three-zinc-finger proteins

2005 ◽  
Vol 386 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander E.F. Smith ◽  
Farzin Farzaneh ◽  
Kevin G. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Transcription Factors ◽  
Fusion Protein ◽  
Zinc Finger ◽  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Zinc Finger Protein ◽  
Zinc Finger Proteins ◽  
Finger Protein ◽  
Finger Extension ◽  
Vp16 Fusion

AbstractIn order to demonstrate that an existing zinc-finger protein can be simply modified to enhance DNA binding and sequence discrimination in both episomal and chromatin contexts using existing zinc-finger DNA recognition code data, and without recourse to phage display and selection strategies, we have examined the consequences of a single zinc-finger extension to a synthetic three-zinc-finger VP16 fusion protein, on transcriptional activation from model target promoters harbouring the zinc-finger binding sequences. We report a nearly 10-fold enhanced transcriptional activation by the four-zinc-finger VP16 fusion protein relative to the progenitor three-finger VP16 protein in transient assays and a greater than five-fold enhancement in stable reporter-gene expression assays. A marked decrease in transcriptional activation was evident for the four-zinc-finger derivative from mutated regulatory regions compared to the progenitor protein, as a result of recognition site-size extension. This discriminatory effect was shown to be protein concentration-dependent. These observations suggest that four-zinc-finger proteins are stable functional motifs that can be a significant improvement over the progenitor three-zinc-finger protein, both in terms of specificity and the ability to target transcriptional function to promoters, and that single zinc-finger extension can therefore have a significant impact on DNA zinc-finger protein interactions. This is a simple route for modifying or enhancing the binding properties of existing synthetic zinc-finger-based transcription factors and may be particularly suited for the modification of endogenous zinc-finger transcription factors for promoter biasing applications.

scholarly journals Four structurally distinct, non-DNA-binding subunits of human nuclear respiratory factor 2 share a conserved transcriptional activation domain.

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Gugneja ◽  
J V Virbasius ◽  
R C Scarpulla
Keyword(s):  
Dna Binding ◽  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Deletion Mapping ◽  
Rnase Protection ◽  
Nuclear Respiratory Factor ◽  
Gamma Subunits ◽  
Nuclear Respiratory Factor 2 ◽  
Alpha Beta ◽  
Beta 2

Nuclear respiratory factor 2 (NRF-2) was previously purified to near homogeneity from HeLa cells on the basis of its ability to bind tandem recognition sites in the rat cytochrome oxidase subunit IV (RCO4) promoter. It consisted of five subunits, alpha, beta 1, beta 2, gamma 1, and gamma 2. Sequencing of tryptic peptides from alpha and from mixtures of the two beta or two gamma subunits revealed sequence identities with subunits of the mouse GA-binding protein (GABP), a ubiquitously expressed ETS domain activator composed of three subunits, alpha, beta 1, and beta 2. To understand the precise relationship between NRF-2 and GABP, cDNAs for all five NRF-2 subunits have now been cloned and their products have been overexpressed. The results establish that the two additional NRF-2 subunits are molecular variants that differ from GABP beta 1 and beta 2 by having a 12-amino-acid insertion containing two serine doublets. PCR and RNase protection assays show that mRNAs for these variants are expressed in the human but not the rodent cells and tissues examined. The insertion did not alter the ability of the beta and gamma subunits to associate with alpha, the DNA-binding subunit, nor did it affect the ability of NRF-2 beta 1 or beta 2 to direct high-affinity binding of alpha to tandem sites in the RCO4 promoter. In addition, the four NRF-2 beta and gamma subunits were equally proficient in activating transcription in transfected cells when fused to a GAL4 DNA-binding domain. The domain responsible for this transcriptional activation was localized by deletion mapping to a region of approximately 70 amino acids that is conserved in all four NRF-2 beta and gamma subunits. The repeated glutamine-containing hydrophobic clusters within this region bear a strong resemblance to those recently implicated in protein-protein interactions within the transcriptional apparatus.

scholarly journals A Specificity and Targeting Subunit of a Human SWI/SNF Family-Related Chromatin-Remodeling Complex

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 8879-8888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuqin Nie ◽  
Yutong Xue ◽  
Dafeng Yang ◽  
Sharleen Zhou ◽  
Bonnie J. Deroo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Glucocorticoid Receptor ◽  
Chromatin Remodeling ◽  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Transcriptional Activation ◽  
Gene Activation ◽  
Dna Interaction ◽  
Protein Protein Interactions ◽  
Baf Complex ◽  
Chromatin Remodeling Complexes

ABSTRACT The SWI/SNF family of chromatin-remodeling complexes facilitates gene activation by assisting transcription machinery to gain access to targets in chromatin. This family includes BAF (also called hSWI/SNF-A) and PBAF (hSWI/SNF-B) from humans and SWI/SNF and Rsc fromSaccharomyces cerevisiae. However, the relationship between the human and yeast complexes is unclear because all human subunits published to date are similar to those of both yeast SWI/SNF and Rsc. Also, the two human complexes have many identical subunits, making it difficult to distinguish their structures or functions. Here we describe the cloning and characterization of BAF250, a subunit present in human BAF but not PBAF. BAF250 contains structural motifs conserved in yeast SWI1 but not in any Rsc components, suggesting that BAF is related to SWI/SNF. BAF250 is also a homolog of the Drosophila melanogaster Osa protein, which has been shown to interact with a SWI/SNF-like complex in flies. BAF250 possesses at least two conserved domains that could be important for its function. First, it has an AT-rich DNA interaction-type DNA-binding domain, which can specifically bind a DNA sequence known to be recognized by a SWI/SNF family-related complex at the β-globin locus. Second, BAF250 stimulates glucocorticoid receptor-dependent transcriptional activation, and the stimulation is sharply reduced when the C-terminal region of BAF250 is deleted. This region of BAF250 is capable of interacting directly with the glucocorticoid receptor in vitro. Our data suggest that BAF250 confers specificity to the human BAF complex and may recruit the complex to its targets through either protein-DNA or protein-protein interactions.

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