1
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Lax C, Mondo SJ, Osorio-Concepción M, Muszewska A, Corrochano-Luque M, Gutiérrez G, Riley R, Lipzen A, Guo J, Hundley H, Amirebrahimi M, Ng V, Lorenzo-Gutiérrez D, Binder U, Yang J, Song Y, Cánovas D, Navarro E, Freitag M, Gabaldón T, Grigoriev IV, Corrochano LM, Nicolás FE, Garre V. Symmetric and asymmetric DNA N6-adenine methylation regulates different biological responses in Mucorales. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6066. [PMID: 39025853 PMCID: PMC11258239 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50365-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024] Open
Abstract
DNA N6-adenine methylation (6mA) has recently gained importance as an epigenetic modification in eukaryotes. Its function in lineages with high levels, such as early-diverging fungi (EDF), is of particular interest. Here, we investigated the biological significance and evolutionary implications of 6mA in EDF, which exhibit divergent evolutionary patterns in 6mA usage. The analysis of two Mucorales species displaying extreme 6mA usage reveals that species with high 6mA levels show symmetric methylation enriched in highly expressed genes. In contrast, species with low 6mA levels show mostly asymmetric 6mA. Interestingly, transcriptomic regulation throughout development and in response to environmental cues is associated with changes in the 6mA landscape. Furthermore, we identify an EDF-specific methyltransferase, likely originated from endosymbiotic bacteria, as responsible for asymmetric methylation, while an MTA-70 methylation complex performs symmetric methylation. The distinct phenotypes observed in the corresponding mutants reinforced the critical role of both types of 6mA in EDF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos Lax
- Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Stephen J Mondo
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Department of Agricultural Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Macario Osorio-Concepción
- Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Anna Muszewska
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pawinskiego 5A, 02-106, Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Gabriel Gutiérrez
- Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
| | - Robert Riley
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Anna Lipzen
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Jie Guo
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Hope Hundley
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Mojgan Amirebrahimi
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Vivian Ng
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Damaris Lorenzo-Gutiérrez
- Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Ulrike Binder
- Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Junhuan Yang
- College of Food Science and Engineering, Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang, 524048, China
| | - Yuanda Song
- Colin Ratledge Center for Microbial Lipids, School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255049, China
| | - David Cánovas
- Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
| | - Eusebio Navarro
- Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Michael Freitag
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
| | - Toni Gabaldón
- Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS), Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Igor V Grigoriev
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Luis M Corrochano
- Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain.
| | - Francisco E Nicolás
- Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
| | - Victoriano Garre
- Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
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2
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Goity A, Dovzhenok A, Lim S, Hong C, Loros J, Dunlap JC, Larrondo LF. Transcriptional rewiring of an evolutionarily conserved circadian clock. EMBO J 2024; 43:2015-2034. [PMID: 38627599 PMCID: PMC11099105 DOI: 10.1038/s44318-024-00088-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 03/05/2024] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Circadian clocks temporally coordinate daily organismal biology over the 24-h cycle. Their molecular design, preserved between fungi and animals, is based on a core-oscillator composed of a one-step transcriptional-translational-negative-feedback-loop (TTFL). To test whether this evolutionarily conserved TTFL architecture is the only plausible way for achieving a functional circadian clock, we adopted a transcriptional rewiring approach, artificially co-opting regulators of the circadian output pathways into the core-oscillator. Herein we describe one of these semi-synthetic clocks which maintains all basic circadian features but, notably, it also exhibits new attributes such as a "lights-on timer" logic, where clock phase is fixed at the end of the night. Our findings indicate that fundamental circadian properties such as period, phase and temperature compensation are differentially regulated by transcriptional and posttranslational aspects of the clockworks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandra Goity
- Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Andrey Dovzhenok
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Sookkyung Lim
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Christian Hong
- Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Jennifer Loros
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA
| | - Jay C Dunlap
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA
| | - Luis F Larrondo
- Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile.
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
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3
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Gupta MN, Uversky VN. Protein structure-function continuum model: Emerging nexuses between specificity, evolution, and structure. Protein Sci 2024; 33:e4968. [PMID: 38532700 DOI: 10.1002/pro.4968] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2023] [Revised: 02/18/2024] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
The rationale for replacing the old binary of structure-function with the trinity of structure, disorder, and function has gained considerable ground in recent years. A continuum model based on the expanded form of the existing paradigm can now subsume importance of both conformational flexibility and intrinsic disorder in protein function. The disorder is actually critical for understanding the protein-protein interactions in many regulatory processes, formation of membrane-less organelles, and our revised notions of specificity as amply illustrated by moonlighting proteins. While its importance in formation of amyloids and function of prions is often discussed, the roles of intrinsic disorder in infectious diseases and protein function under extreme conditions are also becoming clear. This review is an attempt to discuss how our current understanding of protein function, specificity, and evolution fit better with the continuum model. This integration of structure and disorder under a single model may bring greater clarity in our continuing quest for understanding proteins and molecular mechanisms of their functionality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Munishwar Nath Gupta
- Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
| | - Vladimir N Uversky
- Department of Molecular Medicine and USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Research Institute, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
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4
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Liu XL, Duan Z, Yu M, Liu X. Epigenetic control of circadian clocks by environmental signals. Trends Cell Biol 2024:S0962-8924(24)00028-X. [PMID: 38423855 DOI: 10.1016/j.tcb.2024.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Revised: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
Circadian clocks have evolved to enable organisms to respond to daily environmental changes. Maintaining a robust circadian rhythm under various perturbations and stresses is essential for the fitness of an organism. In the core circadian oscillator conserved in eukaryotes (from fungi to mammals), a negative feedback loop based on both transcription and translation drives circadian rhythms. The expression of circadian clock genes depends both on the binding of transcription activators at the promoter and on the chromatin state of the clock genes, and epigenetic modifications of chromatin are crucial for transcriptional regulation of circadian clock genes. Herein we review current knowledge of epigenetic regulation of circadian clock mechanisms and discuss how environmental cues can control clock gene expression by affecting chromatin states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Lan Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Zeyu Duan
- State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Muqun Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Xiao Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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5
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de Barros Dantas LL, Eldridge BM, Dorling J, Dekeya R, Lynch DA, Dodd AN. Circadian regulation of metabolism across photosynthetic organisms. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2023; 116:650-668. [PMID: 37531328 PMCID: PMC10953457 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 07/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023]
Abstract
Circadian regulation produces a biological measure of time within cells. The daily cycle in the availability of light for photosynthesis causes dramatic changes in biochemical processes in photosynthetic organisms, with the circadian clock having crucial roles in adaptation to these fluctuating conditions. Correct alignment between the circadian clock and environmental day-night cycles maximizes plant productivity through its regulation of metabolism. Therefore, the processes that integrate circadian regulation with metabolism are key to understanding how the circadian clock contributes to plant productivity. This forms an important part of exploiting knowledge of circadian regulation to enhance sustainable crop production. Here, we examine the roles of circadian regulation in metabolic processes in source and sink organ structures of Arabidopsis. We also evaluate possible roles for circadian regulation in root exudation processes that deposit carbon into the soil, and the nature of the rhythmic interactions between plants and their associated microbial communities. Finally, we examine shared and differing aspects of the circadian regulation of metabolism between Arabidopsis and other model photosynthetic organisms, and between circadian control of metabolism in photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms. This synthesis identifies a variety of future research topics, including a focus on metabolic processes that underlie biotic interactions within ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bethany M. Eldridge
- Department of Cell and Developmental BiologyJohn Innes Centre, Norwich Research ParkNorwichUK
| | - Jack Dorling
- Department of Cell and Developmental BiologyJohn Innes Centre, Norwich Research ParkNorwichUK
| | - Richard Dekeya
- Department of Cell and Developmental BiologyJohn Innes Centre, Norwich Research ParkNorwichUK
| | - Deirdre A. Lynch
- Department of Cell and Developmental BiologyJohn Innes Centre, Norwich Research ParkNorwichUK
| | - Antony N. Dodd
- Department of Cell and Developmental BiologyJohn Innes Centre, Norwich Research ParkNorwichUK
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6
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Cheng Y, Chi Y, Sun L, Wang GZ. Dominant constraints on the evolution of rhythmic gene expression. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2023; 21:4301-4311. [PMID: 37692081 PMCID: PMC10492206 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2023.08.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Revised: 08/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the individual transcriptional regulators of the core circadian clock are distinct among different organisms, the autoregulatory feedback loops they form are conserved. This unified design principle explains how daily physiological activities oscillate across species. However, it is unknown whether analogous design principles govern the gene expression output of circadian clocks. In this study, we performed a comparative analysis of rhythmic gene expression in eight diverse species and identified four common distribution patterns of cycling gene expression across these species. We hypothesized that the maintenance of reduced energetic costs constrains the evolution of rhythmic gene expression. Our large-scale computational simulations support this hypothesis by showing that selection against high-energy expenditure completely regenerates all cycling gene patterns. Moreover, we find that the peaks of rhythmic expression have been subjected to this type of selective pressure. The results suggest that selective pressure from circadian regulation efficiently removes unnecessary gene products from the transcriptome, thereby significantly impacting its evolutionary path.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Guang-Zhong Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
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7
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Castillo KD, Chapa ED, Lamb TM, Gangopadhyay M, Bell-Pedersen D. Circadian clock control of tRNA synthetases in Neurospora crassa. F1000Res 2023; 11:1556. [PMID: 37841830 PMCID: PMC10576190 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.125351.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: In Neurospora crassa, the circadian clock controls rhythmic mRNA translation initiation through regulation of the eIF2α kinase CPC-3 (the homolog of yeast and mammalian GCN2). Active CPC-3 phosphorylates and inactivates eIF2α, leading to higher phosphorylated eIF2α (P-eIF2α) levels and reduced translation initiation during the subjective day. This daytime activation of CPC-3 is driven by its binding to uncharged tRNA, and uncharged tRNA levels peak during the day under control of the circadian clock. The daily rhythm in uncharged tRNA levels could arise from rhythmic amino acid levels or aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRSs) levels. Methods: To determine if and how the clock potentially controls rhythms in aspartyl-tRNA synthetase (AspRS) and glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase (GlnRS), both observed to be rhythmic in circadian genomic datasets, transcriptional and translational fusions to luciferase were generated. These luciferase reporter fusions were examined in wild type (WT), clock mutant Δ frq, and clock-controlled transcription factor deletion strains. Results: Translational and transcriptional fusions of AspRS and GlnRS to luciferase confirmed that their protein levels are clock-controlled with peak levels at night. Moreover, clock-controlled transcription factors NCU00275 and ADV-1 drive robust rhythmic protein expression of AspRS and GlnRS, respectively. Conclusions: These data support a model whereby coordinate clock control of select aaRSs drives rhythms in uncharged tRNAs, leading to rhythmic CPC-3 activation, and rhythms in translation of specific mRNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathrina D. Castillo
- Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Emily D. Chapa
- Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Teresa M. Lamb
- Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Madhusree Gangopadhyay
- Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Deborah Bell-Pedersen
- Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
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8
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Olivares-Yañez C, Alessandri MP, Salas L, Larrondo LF. Methylxanthines Modulate Circadian Period Length Independently of the Action of Phosphodiesterase. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0372722. [PMID: 37272789 PMCID: PMC10434132 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.03727-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/06/2023] Open
Abstract
In Neurospora crassa, caffeine and other methylxanthines are known to inhibit phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity, leading to augmented cAMP levels. In this organism, it has also been shown that the addition of these drugs significantly lengthens the circadian period, as seen by conidiation rhythms. Utilizing in vivo bioluminescence reporters, pharmacological inhibitors, and cAMP analogs, we revisited the effect of methylxanthines and the role of cAMP signaling in the Neurospora clockworks. We observed that caffeine, like all tested methylxanthines, led to significant period lengthening, visualized with both core-clock transcriptional and translational reporters. Remarkably, this phenotype is still observed when phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity is genetically or chemically (via 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine) abrogated. Likewise, methylxanthines still exert a period effect in several cAMP signaling pathway mutants, including adenylate cyclase (cr-1) and protein kinase A (PKA) (Δpkac-1) mutants, suggesting that these drugs lead to circadian phenotypes through mechanisms different from the canonical PDE-cAMP-PKA signaling axis. Thus, this study highlights the strong impact of methylxanthines on circadian period in Neurospora, albeit the exact mechanisms somehow remain elusive. IMPORTANCE Evidence from diverse organisms show that caffeine causes changes in the circadian clock, causing period lengthening. The fungus Neurospora crassa is no exception; here, several methylxanthines such as caffeine, theophylline, and aminophylline cause period lengthening in a concentration-dependent manner. Although methylxanthines are expected to inhibit phosphodiesterase activity, we were able to show by genetic and pharmacological means that these drugs exert their effects through a different mechanism. Moreover, our results indicate that increases in cAMP levels and changes in PKA activity do not impact the circadian period and therefore are not part of underlying effects of methylxanthine. These results set the stage for future analyses dissecting the molecular mechanisms by which these drugs dramatically modify the circadian period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Consuelo Olivares-Yañez
- ANID-Millennium Science Initiative Program, Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile
- Centro de Biotecnología Vegetal, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile
| | - María P. Alessandri
- ANID-Millennium Science Initiative Program, Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Loreto Salas
- ANID-Millennium Science Initiative Program, Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Luis F. Larrondo
- ANID-Millennium Science Initiative Program, Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
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9
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Sartor F, Xu X, Popp T, Dodd AN, Kovács ÁT, Merrow M. The circadian clock of the bacterium B. subtilis evokes properties of complex, multicellular circadian systems. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadh1308. [PMID: 37540742 PMCID: PMC10403212 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh1308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/06/2023]
Abstract
Circadian clocks are pervasive throughout nature, yet only recently has this adaptive regulatory program been described in nonphotosynthetic bacteria. Here, we describe an inherent complexity in the Bacillus subtilis circadian clock. We find that B. subtilis entrains to blue and red light and that circadian entrainment is separable from masking through fluence titration and frequency demultiplication protocols. We identify circadian rhythmicity in constant light, consistent with the Aschoff's rule, and entrainment aftereffects, both of which are properties described for eukaryotic circadian clocks. We report that circadian rhythms occur in wild isolates of this prokaryote, thus establishing them as a general property of this species, and that its circadian system responds to the environment in a complex fashion that is consistent with multicellular eukaryotic circadian systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Sartor
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Xinming Xu
- Bacterial Interactions and Evolution Group, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
- Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Tanja Popp
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Antony N. Dodd
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Ákos T. Kovács
- Bacterial Interactions and Evolution Group, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
- Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Martha Merrow
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
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10
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Nagel A, Leonard M, Maurus I, Starke J, Schmitt K, Valerius O, Harting R, Braus GH. The Frq-Frh Complex Light-Dependently Delays Sfl1-Induced Microsclerotia Formation in Verticillium dahliae. J Fungi (Basel) 2023; 9:725. [PMID: 37504714 PMCID: PMC10381341 DOI: 10.3390/jof9070725] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The vascular plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae has to adapt to environmental changes outside and inside its host. V. dahliae harbors homologs of Neurospora crassa clock genes. The molecular functions and interactions of Frequency (Frq) and Frq-interacting RNA helicase (Frh) in controlling conidia or microsclerotia development were investigated in V. dahliae JR2. Fungal mutant strains carrying clock gene deletions, an FRH point mutation, or GFP gene fusions were analyzed on transcript, protein, and phenotypic levels as well as in pathogenicity assays on tomato plants. Our results support that the Frq-Frh complex is formed and that it promotes conidiation, but also that it suppresses and therefore delays V. dahliae microsclerotia formation in response to light. We investigated a possible link between the negative element Frq and positive regulator Suppressor of flocculation 1 (Sfl1) in microsclerotia formation to elucidate the regulatory molecular mechanism. Both Frq and Sfl1 are mainly present during the onset of microsclerotia formation with decreasing protein levels during further development. Induction of microsclerotia formation requires Sfl1 and can be delayed at early time points in the light through the Frq-Frh complex. Gaining further molecular knowledge on V. dahliae development will improve control of fungal growth and Verticillium wilt disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Nagel
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Miriam Leonard
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Isabel Maurus
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Jessica Starke
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Kerstin Schmitt
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Oliver Valerius
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Rebekka Harting
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Gerhard H Braus
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics and Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
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11
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Wang B, Dunlap JC. Domains required for the interaction of the central negative element FRQ with its transcriptional activator WCC within the core circadian clock of Neurospora. J Biol Chem 2023; 299:104850. [PMID: 37220856 PMCID: PMC10320511 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104850] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2023] [Revised: 05/04/2023] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2023] Open
Abstract
In the negative feedback loop composing the Neurospora circadian clock, the core element, FREQUENCY (FRQ), binds with FRQ-interacting RNA helicase (FRH) and casein kinase 1 to form the FRQ-FRH complex (FFC) which represses its own expression by interacting with and promoting phosphorylation of its transcriptional activators White Collar-1 (WC-1) and WC-2 (together forming the White Collar complex, WCC). Physical interaction between FFC and WCC is a prerequisite for the repressive phosphorylations, and although the motif on WCC needed for this interaction is known, the reciprocal recognition motif(s) on FRQ remains poorly defined. To address this, we assessed FFC-WCC in a series of frq segmental-deletion mutants, confirming that multiple dispersed regions on FRQ are necessary for its interaction with WCC. Biochemical analysis shows that interaction between FFC and WCC but not within FFC or WCC can be disrupted by high salt, suggesting that electrostatic forces drive the association of the two complexes. As a basic sequence on WC-1 was previously identified as a key motif for WCC-FFC assembly, our mutagenetic analysis targeted negatively charged residues of FRQ, leading to identification of three Asp/Glu clusters in FRQ that are indispensable for FFC-WCC formation. Surprisingly, in several frq Asp/Glu-to-Ala mutants that vastly diminish FFC-WCC interaction, the core clock still oscillates robustly with an essentially wildtype period, indicating that the interaction between the positive and negative elements in the feedback loop is required for the operation of the circadian clock but is not a determinant of the period length.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bin Wang
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.
| | - Jay C Dunlap
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
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12
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Wang Z, Kim W, Wang YW, Yakubovich E, Dong C, Trail F, Townsend JP, Yarden O. The Sordariomycetes: an expanding resource with Big Data for mining in evolutionary genomics and transcriptomics. FRONTIERS IN FUNGAL BIOLOGY 2023; 4:1214537. [PMID: 37746130 PMCID: PMC10512317 DOI: 10.3389/ffunb.2023.1214537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2023] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Advances in genomics and transcriptomics accompanying the rapid accumulation of omics data have provided new tools that have transformed and expanded the traditional concepts of model fungi. Evolutionary genomics and transcriptomics have flourished with the use of classical and newer fungal models that facilitate the study of diverse topics encompassing fungal biology and development. Technological advances have also created the opportunity to obtain and mine large datasets. One such continuously growing dataset is that of the Sordariomycetes, which exhibit a richness of species, ecological diversity, economic importance, and a profound research history on amenable models. Currently, 3,574 species of this class have been sequenced, comprising nearly one-third of the available ascomycete genomes. Among these genomes, multiple representatives of the model genera Fusarium, Neurospora, and Trichoderma are present. In this review, we examine recently published studies and data on the Sordariomycetes that have contributed novel insights to the field of fungal evolution via integrative analyses of the genetic, pathogenic, and other biological characteristics of the fungi. Some of these studies applied ancestral state analysis of gene expression among divergent lineages to infer regulatory network models, identify key genetic elements in fungal sexual development, and investigate the regulation of conidial germination and secondary metabolism. Such multispecies investigations address challenges in the study of fungal evolutionary genomics derived from studies that are often based on limited model genomes and that primarily focus on the aspects of biology driven by knowledge drawn from a few model species. Rapidly accumulating information and expanding capabilities for systems biological analysis of Big Data are setting the stage for the expansion of the concept of model systems from unitary taxonomic species/genera to inclusive clusters of well-studied models that can facilitate both the in-depth study of specific lineages and also investigation of trait diversity across lineages. The Sordariomycetes class, in particular, offers abundant omics data and a large and active global research community. As such, the Sordariomycetes can form a core omics clade, providing a blueprint for the expansion of our knowledge of evolution at the genomic scale in the exciting era of Big Data and artificial intelligence, and serving as a reference for the future analysis of different taxonomic levels within the fungal kingdom.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Wang
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Wonyong Kim
- Korean Lichen Research Institute, Sunchon National University, Suncheon, Republic of Korea
| | - Yen-Wen Wang
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Elizabeta Yakubovich
- Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Caihong Dong
- Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Frances Trail
- Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
- Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
| | - Jeffrey P. Townsend
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, United States
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Program in Microbiology, and Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Oded Yarden
- Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
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13
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Pelham JF, Mosier AE, Altshuler SC, Rhodes ML, Kirchhoff CL, Fall WB, Mann C, Baik LS, Chiu JC, Hurley JM. Conformational changes in the negative arm of the circadian clock correlate with dynamic interactomes involved in post-transcriptional regulation. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112376. [PMID: 37043358 PMCID: PMC10562519 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Revised: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Biology is tuned to the Earth's diurnal cycle by the circadian clock, a transcriptional/translational negative feedback loop that regulates physiology via transcriptional activation and other post-transcriptional mechanisms. We hypothesize that circadian post-transcriptional regulation might stem from conformational shifts in the intrinsically disordered proteins that comprise the negative arm of the feedback loop to coordinate variation in negative-arm-centered macromolecular complexes. This work demonstrates temporal conformational fluidity in the negative arm that correlates with 24-h variation in physiologically diverse macromolecular complex components in eukaryotic clock proteins. Short linear motifs on the negative-arm proteins that correspond with the interactors localized to disordered regions and known temporal phosphorylation sites suggesting changes in these macromolecular complexes could be due to conformational changes imparted by the temporal phospho-state. Interactors that oscillate in the macromolecular complexes over circadian time correlate with post-transcriptionally regulated proteins, highlighting how time-of-day variation in the negative-arm protein complexes may tune cellular physiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline F Pelham
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Alexander E Mosier
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Samuel C Altshuler
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Morgan L Rhodes
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | | | - William B Fall
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Catherine Mann
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Lisa S Baik
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Joanna C Chiu
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Jennifer M Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA; Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.
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14
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Wang B, Dunlap JC. Domains Required for FRQ-WCC Interaction within the Core Circadian Clock of Neurospora. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.02.25.530043. [PMID: 36865291 PMCID: PMC9980274 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.25.530043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
In the negative feedback loop composing the Neurospora circadian clock, the core element, FREQUENCY (FRQ) binds with FRH (FRQ-interacting RNA helicase) and Casein Kinase 1 (CK1) to form the FRQ-FRH complex (FFC) which represses its own expression by interacting with and promoting phosphorylation of its transcriptional activators White Collar-1 (WC-1) and WC-2 (together forming the White Collar Complex, WCC). Physical interaction between FFC and WCC is a prerequisite for the repressive phosphorylations, and although the motif on WCC needed for this interaction is known, the reciprocal recognition motif(s) on FRQ remains poorly defined. To address this, FFC-WCC was assessed in a series of frq segmental-deletion mutants, confirming that multiple dispersed regions on FRQ are necessary for its interaction with WCC. Biochemical analysis shows that interaction between FFC and WCC but not within FFC or WCC can be disrupted by high salt, suggesting that electrostatic forces drive the association of the two complexes. As a basic sequence on WC-1 was previously identified as a key motif for WCC-FFC assembly, our mutagenetic analysis targeted negatively charged residues of FRQ leading to identification of three Asp/Glu clusters in FRQ that are indispensable for FFC-WCC formation. Surprisingly, in several frq Asp/Glu-to-Ala mutants that vastly diminish FFC-WCC interaction, the core clock still oscillates robustly with an essentially WT period, indicating that the binding strength between the positive and negative elements in the feedback loop is required for the clock but is not a determinant of the period length.
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15
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Kelliher CM, Stevenson EL, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC. Nutritional compensation of the circadian clock is a conserved process influenced by gene expression regulation and mRNA stability. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3001961. [PMID: 36603054 PMCID: PMC9848017 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Revised: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Compensation is a defining principle of a true circadian clock, where its approximately 24-hour period length is relatively unchanged across environmental conditions. Known compensation effectors directly regulate core clock factors to buffer the oscillator's period length from variables in the environment. Temperature Compensation mechanisms have been experimentally addressed across circadian model systems, but much less is known about the related process of Nutritional Compensation, where circadian period length is maintained across physiologically relevant nutrient levels. Using the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, we performed a genetic screen under glucose and amino acid starvation conditions to identify new regulators of Nutritional Compensation. Our screen uncovered 16 novel mutants, and together with 4 mutants characterized in prior work, a model emerges where Nutritional Compensation of the fungal clock is achieved at the levels of transcription, chromatin regulation, and mRNA stability. However, eukaryotic circadian Nutritional Compensation is completely unstudied outside of Neurospora. To test for conservation in cultured human cells, we selected top hits from our fungal genetic screen, performed siRNA knockdown experiments of the mammalian orthologs, and characterized the cell lines with respect to compensation. We find that the wild-type mammalian clock is also compensated across a large range of external glucose concentrations, as observed in Neurospora, and that knocking down the mammalian orthologs of the Neurospora compensation-associated genes CPSF6 or SETD2 in human cells also results in nutrient-dependent period length changes. We conclude that, like Temperature Compensation, Nutritional Compensation is a conserved circadian process in fungal and mammalian clocks and that it may share common molecular determinants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina M. Kelliher
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth-Lauren Stevenson
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Jennifer J. Loros
- Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Jay C. Dunlap
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
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16
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Szőke A, Sárkány O, Schermann G, Kapuy O, Diernfellner ACR, Brunner M, Gyöngyösi N, Káldi K. Adaptation to glucose starvation is associated with molecular reorganization of the circadian clock in Neurospora crassa. eLife 2023; 12:79765. [PMID: 36625037 PMCID: PMC9831608 DOI: 10.7554/elife.79765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
The circadian clock governs rhythmic cellular functions by driving the expression of a substantial fraction of the genome and thereby significantly contributes to the adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Using the circadian model organism Neurospora crassa, we show that molecular timekeeping is robust even under severe limitation of carbon sources, however, stoichiometry, phosphorylation and subcellular distribution of the key clock components display drastic alterations. Protein kinase A, protein phosphatase 2 A and glycogen synthase kinase are involved in the molecular reorganization of the clock. RNA-seq analysis reveals that the transcriptomic response of metabolism to starvation is highly dependent on the positive clock component WC-1. Moreover, our molecular and phenotypic data indicate that a functional clock facilitates recovery from starvation. We suggest that the molecular clock is a flexible network that allows the organism to maintain rhythmic physiology and preserve fitness even under long-term nutritional stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anita Szőke
- Department of Physiology, Semmelweis UniversityBudapestHungary
| | - Orsolya Sárkány
- Department of Physiology, Semmelweis UniversityBudapestHungary
| | - Géza Schermann
- Department of Neurovascular Cellbiology, University Hospital BonnBonnGermany
| | - Orsolya Kapuy
- Department of Molecular Biology, Semmelweis UniversityBudapestHungary
| | | | | | - Norbert Gyöngyösi
- Department of Molecular Biology, Semmelweis UniversityBudapestHungary
| | - Krisztina Káldi
- Department of Physiology, Semmelweis UniversityBudapestHungary
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17
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Castillo KD, Wu C, Ding Z, Lopez-Garcia OK, Rowlinson E, Sachs MS, Bell-Pedersen D. A circadian clock translational control mechanism targets specific mRNAs to cytoplasmic messenger ribonucleoprotein granules. Cell Rep 2022; 41:111879. [PMID: 36577368 PMCID: PMC10241597 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 12/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Phosphorylation of Neurospora crassa eukaryotic initiation factor 2 α (eIF2α), a conserved translation initiation factor, is clock controlled. To determine the impact of rhythmic eIF2α phosphorylation on translation, we performed temporal ribosome profiling and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) in wild-type (WT), clock mutant Δfrq, eIF2α kinase mutant Δcpc-3, and constitutively active cpc-3c cells. About 14% of mRNAs are rhythmically translated in WT cells, and translation rhythms for ∼30% of these mRNAs, which we named circadian translation-initiation-controlled genes (cTICs), are dependent on the clock and CPC-3. Most cTICs are expressed from arrhythmic mRNAs and contain a P-body (PB) localization motif in their 5' leader sequence. Deletion of SNR-1, a component of cytoplasmic messenger ribonucleoprotein granules (cmRNPgs) that include PBs and stress granules (SGs), and the PB motif on one of the cTIC mRNAs, zip-1, significantly alters zip-1 rhythmic translation. These results reveal that the clock regulates rhythmic translation of specific mRNAs through rhythmic eIF2α activity and cmRNPg metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathrina D Castillo
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA; Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Cheng Wu
- Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Zhaolan Ding
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA; Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | | | - Emma Rowlinson
- Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Matthew S Sachs
- Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Deborah Bell-Pedersen
- Center for Biological Clocks Research, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA; Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
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18
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Valim HF, Dal Grande F, Otte J, Singh G, Merges D, Schmitt I. Identification and expression of functionally conserved circadian clock genes in lichen-forming fungi. Sci Rep 2022; 12:15884. [PMID: 36151124 PMCID: PMC9508176 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19646-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Lichen-forming fungi establish stable symbioses with green algae or cyanobacteria. Many species have broad distributions, both in geographic and ecological space, making them ideal subjects to study organism-environment interactions. However, little is known about the specific mechanisms that contribute to environmental adaptation in lichen-forming fungi. The circadian clock provides a well-described mechanism that contributes to regional adaptation across a variety of species, including fungi. Here, we identify the putative circadian clock components in phylogenetically divergent lichen-forming fungi. The core circadian genes (frq, wc-1, wc-2, frh) are present across the Fungi, including 31 lichen-forming species, and their evolutionary trajectories mirror overall fungal evolution. Comparative analyses of the clock genes indicate conserved domain architecture among lichen- and non-lichen-forming taxa. We used RT-qPCR to examine the core circadian loop of two unrelated lichen-forming fungi, Umbilicaria pustulata (Lecanoromycetes) and Dermatocarpon miniatum (Eurotiomycetes), to determine that the putative frq gene is activated in a light-dependent manner similar to the model fungus Neurospora crassa. Together, these results demonstrate that lichen-forming fungi retain functional light-responsive mechanisms, including a functioning circadian clock. Our findings provide a stepping stone into investigating the circadian clock in the lichen symbiosis, e.g. its role in adaptation, and in synchronizing the symbiotic interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henrique F Valim
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
| | - Francesco Dal Grande
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/B, Padua, Italy
| | - Jürgen Otte
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Garima Singh
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/B, Padua, Italy
| | - Dominik Merges
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7070, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Imke Schmitt
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Goethe University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Straße 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
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19
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Henríquez-Urrutia M, Spanner R, Olivares-Yánez C, Seguel-Avello A, Pérez-Lara R, Guillén-Alonso H, Winkler R, Herrera-Estrella AH, Canessa P, Larrondo LF. Circadian oscillations in Trichoderma atroviride and the role of core clock components in secondary metabolism, development, and mycoparasitism against the phytopathogen Botrytis cinerea. eLife 2022; 11:71358. [PMID: 35950750 PMCID: PMC9427114 DOI: 10.7554/elife.71358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Circadian clocks are important for an individual’s fitness, and recent studies have underlined their role in the outcome of biological interactions. However, the relevance of circadian clocks in fungal–fungal interactions remains largely unexplored. We sought to characterize a functional clock in the biocontrol agent Trichoderma atroviride to assess its importance in the mycoparasitic interaction against the phytopathogen Botrytis cinerea. Thus, we confirmed the existence of circadian rhythms in T. atroviride, which are temperature-compensated and modulated by environmental cues such as light and temperature. Nevertheless, the presence of such molecular rhythms appears to be highly dependent on the nutritional composition of the media. Complementation of a clock null (Δfrq) Neurospora crassa strain with the T. atroviride-negative clock component (tafrq) restored core clock function, with the same period observed in the latter fungus, confirming the role of tafrq as a bona fide core clock component. Confrontation assays between wild-type and clock mutant strains of T. atroviride and B. cinerea, in constant light or darkness, revealed an inhibitory effect of light on T. atroviride’s mycoparasitic capabilities. Interestingly, when confrontation assays were performed under light/dark cycles, T. atroviride’s overgrowth capacity was enhanced when inoculations were at dawn compared to dusk. Deleting the core clock-negative element FRQ in B. cinerea, but not in T. atroviride, was vital for the daily differential phenotype, suggesting that the B. cinerea clock has a more significant influence on the result of this interaction. Additionally, we observed that T. atroviride clock components largely modulate development and secondary metabolism in this fungus, including the rhythmic production of distinct volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Thus, this study provides evidence on how clock components impact diverse aspects of T. atroviride lifestyle and how daily changes modulate fungal interactions and dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlene Henríquez-Urrutia
- Molecular Genetics and Microbiology department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Rebecca Spanner
- Molecular Genetics and Microbiology department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Consuelo Olivares-Yánez
- Millennium Science Initiative Program, Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology, Santiago, Chile
| | - Aldo Seguel-Avello
- Molecular Genetics and Microbiology department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Rodrigo Pérez-Lara
- Molecular Genetics and Microbiology department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Hector Guillén-Alonso
- Department of Biotechnology and Biochemistry, Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato, Irapuato, Mexico
| | - Robert Winkler
- Department of Biotechnology and Biochemistry, Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato, Irapuato, Mexico
| | | | - Paulo Canessa
- Centro de Biotecnología Vegetal, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile
| | - Luis F Larrondo
- Molecular Genetics and Microbiology department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
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20
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Bartholomai BM, Gladfelter AS, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC. PRD-2 mediates clock-regulated perinuclear localization of clock gene RNAs within the circadian cycle of Neurospora. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2203078119. [PMID: 35881801 PMCID: PMC9351534 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2203078119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The transcription-translation negative feedback loops underlying animal and fungal circadian clocks are remarkably similar in their molecular regulatory architecture and, although much is understood about their central mechanism, little is known about the spatiotemporal dynamics of the gene products involved. A common feature of these circadian oscillators is a significant temporal delay between rhythmic accumulation of clock messenger RNAs (mRNAs) encoding negative arm proteins, for example, frq in Neurospora and Per1-3 in mammals, and the appearance of the clock protein complexes assembled from the proteins they encode. Here, we report use of single-molecule RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) to show that the fraction of nuclei actively transcribing the clock gene frq changes in a circadian manner, and that these mRNAs cycle in abundance with fewer than five transcripts per nucleus at any time. Spatial point patterning statistics reveal that frq is spatially clustered near nuclei in a time of day-dependent manner and that clustering requires an RNA-binding protein, PRD-2 (PERIOD-2), recently shown also to bind to mRNA encoding another core clock component, casein kinase 1. An intrinsically disordered protein, PRD-2 displays behavior in vivo and in vitro consistent with participation in biomolecular condensates. These data are consistent with a role for phase-separating RNA-binding proteins in spatiotemporally organizing clock mRNAs to facilitate local translation and assembly of clock protein complexes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bradley M. Bartholomai
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755
| | - Amy S. Gladfelter
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
| | - Jennifer J. Loros
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755
| | - Jay C. Dunlap
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755
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21
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Nelson RJ, Bumgarner JR, Liu JA, Love JA, Meléndez-Fernández OH, Becker-Krail DD, Walker WH, Walton JC, DeVries AC, Prendergast BJ. Time of day as a critical variable in biology. BMC Biol 2022; 20:142. [PMID: 35705939 PMCID: PMC9202143 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-022-01333-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Circadian rhythms are important for all aspects of biology; virtually every aspect of biological function varies according to time of day. Although this is well known, variation across the day is also often ignored in the design and reporting of research. For this review, we analyzed the top 50 cited papers across 10 major domains of the biological sciences in the calendar year 2015. We repeated this analysis for the year 2019, hypothesizing that the awarding of a Nobel Prize in 2017 for achievements in the field of circadian biology would highlight the importance of circadian rhythms for scientists across many disciplines, and improve time-of-day reporting. RESULTS Our analyses of these 1000 empirical papers, however, revealed that most failed to include sufficient temporal details when describing experimental methods and that few systematic differences in time-of-day reporting existed between 2015 and 2019. Overall, only 6.1% of reports included time-of-day information about experimental measures and manipulations sufficient to permit replication. CONCLUSIONS Circadian rhythms are a defining feature of biological systems, and knowing when in the circadian day these systems are evaluated is fundamentally important information. Failing to account for time of day hampers reproducibility across laboratories, complicates interpretation of results, and reduces the value of data based predominantly on nocturnal animals when extrapolating to diurnal humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Randy J Nelson
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA.
| | - Jacob R Bumgarner
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - Jennifer A Liu
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - Jharnae A Love
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago and Institute for Mind and Biology, IL, 60637, Chicago, USA
| | - O Hecmarie Meléndez-Fernández
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - Darius D Becker-Krail
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - William H Walker
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - James C Walton
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - A Courtney DeVries
- Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
- Department of Medicine, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA
| | - Brian J Prendergast
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago and Institute for Mind and Biology, IL, 60637, Chicago, USA
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22
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Schmoll M, Sanz C, Zhang W. Editorial: Light Regulation of Metabolic Networks in Microbes. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:829106. [PMID: 35197956 PMCID: PMC8859093 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.829106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Monika Schmoll
- AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Center for Health and Bioresources, Tulln, Austria
- *Correspondence: Monika Schmoll
| | - Catalina Sanz
- Department of Microbiology and Genetics, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Weiwen Zhang
- Laboratory of Synthetic Microbiology, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
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23
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Abstract
Abscisic acid (ABA) is recognized as the key hormonal regulator of plant stress physiology. This phytohormone is also involved in plant growth and development under normal conditions. Over the last 50 years the components of ABA machinery have been well characterized, from synthesis to molecular perception and signaling; knowledge about the fine regulation of these ABA machinery components is starting to increase. In this article, we review a particular regulation of the ABA machinery that comes from the plant circadian system and extends to multiple levels. The circadian clock is a self-sustained molecular oscillator that perceives external changes and prepares plants to respond to them in advance. The circadian system constitutes the most important predictive homeostasis mechanism in living beings. Moreover, the circadian clock has several output pathways that control molecular, cellular and physiological downstream processes, such as hormonal response and transcriptional activity. One of these outputs involves the ABA machinery. The circadian oscillator components regulate expression and post-translational modification of ABA machinery elements, from synthesis to perception and signaling response. The circadian clock establishes a gating in the ABA response during the day, which fine tunes stomatal closure and plant growth response.
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24
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Das B, de Bekker C. Time-course RNASeq of Camponotus floridanus forager and nurse ant brains indicate links between plasticity in the biological clock and behavioral division of labor. BMC Genomics 2022; 23:57. [PMID: 35033027 PMCID: PMC8760764 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-021-08282-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Circadian clocks allow organisms to anticipate daily fluctuations in their environment by driving rhythms in physiology and behavior. Inter-organismal differences in daily rhythms, called chronotypes, exist and can shift with age. In ants, age, caste-related behavior and chronotype appear to be linked. Brood-tending nurse ants are usually younger individuals and show “around-the-clock” activity. With age or in the absence of brood, nurses transition into foraging ants that show daily rhythms in activity. Ants can adaptively shift between these behavioral castes and caste-associated chronotypes depending on social context. We investigated how changes in daily gene expression could be contributing to such behavioral plasticity in Camponotus floridanus carpenter ants by combining time-course behavioral assays and RNA-Sequencing of forager and nurse brains. Results We found that nurse brains have three times fewer 24 h oscillating genes than foragers. However, several hundred genes that oscillated every 24 h in forager brains showed robust 8 h oscillations in nurses, including the core clock genes Period and Shaggy. These differentially rhythmic genes consisted of several components of the circadian entrainment and output pathway, including genes said to be involved in regulating insect locomotory behavior. We also found that Vitellogenin, known to regulate division of labor in social insects, showed robust 24 h oscillations in nurse brains but not in foragers. Finally, we found significant overlap between genes differentially expressed between the two ant castes and genes that show ultradian rhythms in daily expression. Conclusion This study provides a first look at the chronobiological differences in gene expression between forager and nurse ant brains. This endeavor allowed us to identify a putative molecular mechanism underlying plastic timekeeping: several components of the ant circadian clock and its output can seemingly oscillate at different harmonics of the circadian rhythm. We propose that such chronobiological plasticity has evolved to allow for distinct regulatory networks that underlie behavioral castes, while supporting swift caste transitions in response to colony demands. Behavioral division of labor is common among social insects. The links between chronobiological and behavioral plasticity that we found in C. floridanus, thus, likely represent a more general phenomenon that warrants further investigation. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-021-08282-x.
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Affiliation(s)
- Biplabendu Das
- Department of Biology, College of Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA. .,Genomics and Bioinformatics Cluster, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA.
| | - Charissa de Bekker
- Department of Biology, College of Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA. .,Genomics and Bioinformatics Cluster, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA.
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25
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Bartholomai BM, Gladfelter AS, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC. Quantitative single molecule RNA-FISH and RNase-free cell wall digestion in Neurospora crassa. Fungal Genet Biol 2021; 156:103615. [PMID: 34425213 PMCID: PMC8463489 DOI: 10.1016/j.fgb.2021.103615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 08/13/2021] [Accepted: 08/15/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Single molecule RNA-FISH (smFISH) is a valuable tool for analysis of mRNA spatial patterning in fixed cells that is underutilized in filamentous fungi. A primary complication for fixed-cell imaging in filamentous fungi is the need for enzymatic cell wall permeabilization, which is compounded by considerable variability in cell wall composition between species. smFISH adds another layer of complexity due to a requirement for RNase free conditions. Here, we describe the cloning, expression, and purification of a chitinase suitable for supplementation of a commercially available RNase-free enzyme preparation for efficient permeabilization of the Neurospora cell wall. We further provide a method for smFISH in Neurospora which includes a tool for generating numerical data from images that can be used in downstream customized analysis protocols.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bradley M Bartholomai
- Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Amy S Gladfelter
- University of North Carolina, Department of Biology, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Jennifer J Loros
- Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Jay C Dunlap
- Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Hanover, NH, USA.
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26
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Eskandari R, Ratnayake L, Lakin-Thomas PL. Shared Components of the FRQ-Less Oscillator and TOR Pathway Maintain Rhythmicity in Neurospora. J Biol Rhythms 2021; 36:329-345. [PMID: 33825541 PMCID: PMC8276340 DOI: 10.1177/0748730421999948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Molecular models for the endogenous oscillators that drive circadian rhythms in eukaryotes center on rhythmic transcription/translation of a small number of "clock genes." Although substantial evidence supports the concept that negative and positive transcription/translation feedback loops (TTFLs) are responsible for regulating the expression of these clock genes, certain rhythms in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa continue even when clock genes (frq, wc-1, and wc-2) are not rhythmically expressed. Identification of the rhythmic processes operating outside of the TTFL has been a major unresolved area in circadian biology. Our lab previously identified a mutation (vta) that abolishes FRQ-less rhythmicity of the conidiation rhythm and also affects rhythmicity when FRQ is functional. Further studies identified the vta gene product as a component of the TOR (Target of Rapamycin) nutrient-sensing pathway that is conserved in eukaryotes. We now report the discovery of TOR pathway components including GTR2 (homologous to the yeast protein Gtr2, and RAG C/D in mammals) as binding partners of VTA through co-immunoprecipitation (IP) and mass spectrometry analysis using a VTA-FLAG strain. Reciprocal IP with GTR2-FLAG found VTA as a binding partner. A Δgtr2 strain was deficient in growth responses to amino acids. Free-running conidiation rhythms in a FRQ-less strain were abolished in Δgtr2. Entrainment of a FRQ-less strain to cycles of heat pulses demonstrated that Δgtr2 is defective in entrainment. In all of these assays, Δgtr2 is similar to Δvta. In addition, expression of GTR2 protein was found to be rhythmic across two circadian cycles, and functional VTA was required for GTR2 rhythmicity. FRQ protein exhibited the expected rhythm in the presence of GTR2 but the rhythmic level of FRQ dampened in the absence of GTR2. These results establish association of VTA with GTR2, and their role in maintaining functional circadian rhythms through the TOR pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosa Eskandari
- Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
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27
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Cellular Calcium Levels Influenced by NCA-2 Impact Circadian Period Determination in Neurospora. mBio 2021; 12:e0149321. [PMID: 34182778 PMCID: PMC8262947 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01493-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Intracellular calcium signaling has been implicated in the control of a variety of circadian processes in animals and plants, but its role in microbial clocks has remained largely cryptic. To examine the role of intracellular Ca2+ in the Neurospora clock, we screened mutants with knockouts of calcium transporter genes and identified a gene encoding a calcium exporter, nca-2, uniquely as having significant period effects. The loss of NCA-2 results in an increase in the cytosolic calcium level, and this leads to hyper-phosphorylation of core clock components, FRQ and WC-1, and a short period, as measured by both the core oscillator and the overt clock. Genetic analyses showed that mutations in certain frq phospho-sites and in Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent kinase 2 (camk-2) are epistatic to nca-2 in controlling the pace of the oscillator. These data are consistent with a model in which elevated intracellular Ca2+ leads to the increased activity of CAMK-2, leading to enhanced FRQ phosphorylation, accelerated closure of the circadian feedback loop, and a shortened circadian period length. At a mechanistic level, some CAMKs undergo more auto-phosphorylations in the Δnca-2 mutant, consistent with high calcium levels in the Δnca-2 mutant influencing the enzymatic activities of CAMKs. NCA-2 interacts with multiple proteins, including CSP-6, a protein known to be required for circadian output. Most importantly, the expression of nca-2 is circadian clock-controlled at both the transcriptional and translational levels, and this in combination with the period effects seen in strains lacking NCA-2 firmly places calcium signaling within the larger circadian system, where it acts as both an input to and an output from the core clock.
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28
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Muñoz-Guzmán F, Caballero V, Larrondo LF. A global search for novel transcription factors impacting the Neurospora crassa circadian clock. G3 (BETHESDA, MD.) 2021; 11:jkab100. [PMID: 33792687 PMCID: PMC8495738 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Eukaryotic circadian oscillators share a common circuit architecture, a negative feedback loop in which a positive element activates the transcription of a negative one that then represses the action of the former, inhibiting its own expression. While studies in mammals and insects have revealed additional transcriptional inputs modulating the expression of core clock components, this has been less characterized in the model Neurospora crassa, where the participation of other transcriptional components impacting circadian clock dynamics remains rather unexplored. Thus, we sought to identify additional transcriptional regulators modulating the N. crassa clock, following a reverse genetic screen based on luminescent circadian reporters and a collection of transcription factors (TFs) knockouts, successfully covering close to 60% of them. Besides the canonical core clock components WC-1 and -2, none of the tested transcriptional regulators proved to be essential for rhythmicity. Nevertheless, we identified a set of 23 TFs that when absent lead to discrete, but significant, changes in circadian period. While the current level of analysis does not provide mechanistic information about how these new players modulate circadian parameters, the results of this screen reveal that an important number of light and clock-regulated TFs, involved in a plethora of processes, are capable of modulating the clockworks. This partial reverse genetic clock screen also exemplifies how the N. crassa knockout collection continues to serve as an expedite platform to address broad biological questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felipe Muñoz-Guzmán
- ANID—Millennium Science Initiative Program—Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago 8331150, Chile
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile
| | - Valeria Caballero
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile
| | - Luis F Larrondo
- ANID—Millennium Science Initiative Program—Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago 8331150, Chile
- Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile
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29
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De Los Santos H, Bennett KP, Hurley JM. MOSAIC: a joint modeling methodology for combined circadian and non-circadian analysis of multi-omics data. Bioinformatics 2021; 37:767-774. [PMID: 33051654 PMCID: PMC8098022 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2020] [Revised: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Circadian rhythms are approximately 24-h endogenous cycles that control many biological functions. To identify these rhythms, biological samples are taken over circadian time and analyzed using a single omics type, such as transcriptomics or proteomics. By comparing data from these single omics approaches, it has been shown that transcriptional rhythms are not necessarily conserved at the protein level, implying extensive circadian post-transcriptional regulation. However, as proteomics methods are known to be noisier than transcriptomic methods, this suggests that previously identified arrhythmic proteins with rhythmic transcripts could have been missed due to noise and may not be due to post-transcriptional regulation. RESULTS To determine if one can use information from less-noisy transcriptomic data to inform rhythms in more-noisy proteomic data, and thus more accurately identify rhythms in the proteome, we have created the Multi-Omics Selection with Amplitude Independent Criteria (MOSAIC) application. MOSAIC combines model selection and joint modeling of multiple omics types to recover significant circadian and non-circadian trends. Using both synthetic data and proteomic data from Neurospora crassa, we showed that MOSAIC accurately recovers circadian rhythms at higher rates in not only the proteome but the transcriptome as well, outperforming existing methods for rhythm identification. In addition, by quantifying non-circadian trends in addition to circadian trends in data, our methodology allowed for the recognition of the diversity of circadian regulation as compared to non-circadian regulation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION MOSAIC's full interface is available at https://github.com/delosh653/MOSAIC. An R package for this functionality, mosaic.find, can be downloaded at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=mosaic.find. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah De Los Santos
- Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.,Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Kristin P Bennett
- Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.,Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.,Department of Mathematical Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Jennifer M Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.,Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
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30
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Mosier AE, Hurley JM. Circadian Interactomics: How Research Into Protein-Protein Interactions Beyond the Core Clock Has Influenced the Model of Circadian Timekeeping. J Biol Rhythms 2021; 36:315-328. [PMID: 34056936 DOI: 10.1177/07487304211014622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
The circadian clock is the broadly conserved, protein-based, timekeeping mechanism that synchronizes biology to the Earth's 24-h light-dark cycle. Studies of the mechanisms of circadian timekeeping have placed great focus on the role that individual protein-protein interactions play in the creation of the timekeeping loop. However, research has shown that clock proteins most commonly act as part of large macromolecular protein complexes to facilitate circadian control over physiology. The formation of these complexes has led to the large-scale study of the proteins that comprise these complexes, termed here "circadian interactomics." Circadian interactomic studies of the macromolecular protein complexes that comprise the circadian clock have uncovered many basic principles of circadian timekeeping as well as mechanisms of circadian control over cellular physiology. In this review, we examine the wealth of knowledge accumulated using circadian interactomics approaches to investigate the macromolecular complexes of the core circadian clock, including insights into the core mechanisms that impart circadian timing and the clock's regulation of many physiological processes. We examine data acquired from the investigation of the macromolecular complexes centered on both the activating and repressing arm of the circadian clock and from many circadian model organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander E Mosier
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
| | - Jennifer M Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.,Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
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31
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Circadian Clock Control of Translation Initiation Factor eIF2α Activity Requires eIF2γ-Dependent Recruitment of Rhythmic PPP-1 Phosphatase in Neurospora crassa. mBio 2021; 12:mBio.00871-21. [PMID: 34006661 PMCID: PMC8262944 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00871-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The circadian clock controls the phosphorylation and activity of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α). In Neurospora crassa, the clock drives a daytime peak in the activity of the eIF2α kinase CPC-3, the homolog of yeast and mammalian GCN2 kinase. This leads to increased levels of phosphorylated eIF2α (P-eIF2α) and reduced mRNA translation initiation during the day. We hypothesized that rhythmic eIF2α activity also requires dephosphorylation of P-eIF2α at night by phosphatases. In support of this hypothesis, we show that mutation of N. crassa PPP-1, a homolog of the yeast eIF2α phosphatase GLC7, leads to high and arrhythmic P-eIF2α levels, while maintaining core circadian oscillator function. PPP-1 levels are clock-controlled, peaking in the early evening, and rhythmic PPP-1 levels are necessary for rhythmic P-eIF2α accumulation. Deletion of the N terminus of N. crassa eIF2γ, the region necessary for eIF2γ interaction with GLC7 in yeast, led to high and arrhythmic P-eIF2α levels. These data supported that N. crassa eIF2γ functions to recruit PPP-1 to dephosphorylate eIF2α at night. Thus, in addition to the activity of CPC-3 kinase, circadian clock regulation of eIF2α activity requires dephosphorylation by PPP-1 phosphatase at night. These data show how the circadian clock controls the activity a central regulator of translation, critical for cellular metabolism and growth control, through the temporal coordination of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation events.
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Brych A, Haas FB, Parzefall K, Panzer S, Schermuly J, Altmüller J, Engelsdorf T, Terpitz U, Rensing SA, Kiontke S, Batschauer A. Coregulation of gene expression by White collar 1 and phytochrome in Ustilago maydis. Fungal Genet Biol 2021; 152:103570. [PMID: 34004340 DOI: 10.1016/j.fgb.2021.103570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Ustilago maydis encodes ten predicted light-sensing proteins. The biological functions of only a few of them are elucidated. Among the characterized ones are two DNA-photolyases and two rhodopsins that act as DNA-repair enzymes or green light-driven proton pumps, respectively. Here we report on the role of two other photoreceptors in U. maydis, namely White collar 1 (Wco1) and Phytochrome 1 (Phy1). We show that they bind flavins or biliverdin as chromophores, respectively. Both photoreceptors undergo a photocycle in vitro. Wco1 is the dominant blue light receptor in the saprophytic phase, controlling all of the 324 differentially expressed genes in blue light. U. maydis also responds to red and far-red light. However, the number of red or far-red light-controlled genes is less compared to blue light-regulated ones. Moreover, most of the red and far-red light-controlled genes not only depend on Phy1 but also on Wco1, indicating partial coregulation of gene expression by both photoreceptors. GFP-fused Wco1 is preferentially located in the nucleus, Phy1 in the cytosol, thus providing no hint that these photoreceptors directly interact or operate within the same complex. This is the first report on a functional characterization and coaction of White collar 1 and phytochrome orthologs in basidiomycetes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika Brych
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Fabian B Haas
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Cell Biology, Marburg, Germany; BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Philipps University of Marburg, Germany
| | - Katharina Parzefall
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Sabine Panzer
- Theodor-Boveri-Institute, Department of Biotechnology and Biophysics, Biocenter, Julius-Maximilian-University, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Jeanette Schermuly
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Janine Altmüller
- Cologne Center for Genomics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Timo Engelsdorf
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Ulrich Terpitz
- Theodor-Boveri-Institute, Department of Biotechnology and Biophysics, Biocenter, Julius-Maximilian-University, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Stefan A Rensing
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Cell Biology, Marburg, Germany; BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Philipps University of Marburg, Germany
| | - Stephan Kiontke
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Alfred Batschauer
- University of Marburg, Department of Biology, Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Marburg, Germany.
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Jacq A, Becquet D, Bello-Goutierrez MM, Boyer B, Guillen S, Franc JL, François-Bellan AM. Genome-wide screening of circadian and non-circadian impact of Neat1 genetic deletion. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2021; 19:2121-2132. [PMID: 33995907 PMCID: PMC8085668 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2021.04.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2021] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Neat1 deletion affects numerous circadian and non-circadian genes. Neat1 deletion causes loss, modification or acquisition of gene circadian pattern. Paraspeckles contribute significantly to the circadian transcriptome.
The functions of the long non-coding RNA, Nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (Neat1), are poorly understood. Neat1 is required for the formation of paraspeckles, but its respective paraspeckle-dependent or independent functions are unknown. Several studies including ours reported that Neat1 is involved in the regulation of circadian rhythms. We characterized the impact of Neat1 genetic deletion in a rat pituitary cell line. The mRNAs whose circadian expression pattern or expression level is regulated by Neat1 were identified after high-throughput RNA sequencing of the circadian transcriptome of wild-type cells compared to cells in which Neat1 was deleted by CRISPR/Cas9. The numerous RNAs affected by Neat1 deletion were found to be circadian or non-circadian, targets or non-targets of paraspeckles, and to be associated with many key biological processes showing that Neat1, in interaction with the circadian system or independently, could play crucial roles in key physiological functions through diverse mechanisms.
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Huang YS, Lu KC, Chao HW, Chen A, Chao TK, Guo CY, Hsieh HY, Shih HM, Sytwu HK, Wu CC. The MTNR1A mRNA is stabilized by the cytoplasmic hnRNPL in renal tubular cells. J Cell Physiol 2021; 236:2023-2035. [PMID: 32730662 DOI: 10.1002/jcp.29988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2020] [Revised: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The downregulation of melatonin receptor 1A (MTNR1A) is associated with a range of pathological conditions, including membranous nephropathy. Knowledge of the mechanism underlying MTNR1A expression has been limited to the transcriptional regulation level. Here, RNA interference screening in human kidney cells revealed that heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein L (hnRNPL) upregulated MTNR1A RNA post-transcriptionally. hnRNPL knockdown or overexpression led to increased or decreased levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate-responsive element-binding protein phosphorylation, respectively. Molecular studies showed that cytoplasmic hnRNPL exerts a stabilizing effect on the MTNR1A transcript through CA-repeat elements in its coding region. Further studies revealed that the interaction between hnRNPL and MTNR1A serves to protect MNTR1A RNA degradation by the exosome component 10 protein. MTNR1A, but not hnRNPL, displays a diurnal rhythm in mouse kidneys. Enhanced levels of MTNR1A recorded at midnight correlated with robust binding activity between cytoplasmic hnRNPL and the MTNR1A transcript. Both hnRNPL and MTNR1A were decreased in the cytoplasm of tubular epithelial cells from experimental membranous nephropathy kidneys, supporting their clinical relevance. Collectively, our data identified cytoplasmic hnRNPL as a novel player in the upregulation of MTNR1A expression in renal tubular epithelial cells, and as a potential therapeutic target.
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MESH Headings
- Animals
- Cell Line
- Circadian Rhythm/genetics
- Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein/metabolism
- Cytoplasm/metabolism
- Epithelial Cells/metabolism
- Exoribonucleases/metabolism
- Exosome Multienzyme Ribonuclease Complex/metabolism
- Glomerulonephritis, Membranous/genetics
- Glomerulonephritis, Membranous/pathology
- Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein L/metabolism
- Humans
- Kidney Tubules/metabolism
- Kidney Tubules/pathology
- Mice, Inbred BALB C
- Models, Biological
- Open Reading Frames/genetics
- Phosphorylation
- RNA Stability/genetics
- RNA, Messenger/genetics
- RNA, Messenger/metabolism
- Receptor, Melatonin, MT1/genetics
- Receptor, Melatonin, MT1/metabolism
- Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid/genetics
- Up-Regulation/genetics
- Mice
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Affiliation(s)
- Yen-Sung Huang
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Kuo-Cheng Lu
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Hsu-Wen Chao
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ann Chen
- Department of Pathology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tai-Kuang Chao
- Department of Pathology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Cheng-Yi Guo
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsin-Yi Hsieh
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsiu-Ming Shih
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County, Taiwan
| | - Huey-Kang Sytwu
- National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County, Taiwan
- Department and Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chia-Chao Wu
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department and Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
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35
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Oh VKS, Li RW. Temporal Dynamic Methods for Bulk RNA-Seq Time Series Data. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:352. [PMID: 33673721 PMCID: PMC7997275 DOI: 10.3390/genes12030352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Revised: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Dynamic studies in time course experimental designs and clinical approaches have been widely used by the biomedical community. These applications are particularly relevant in stimuli-response models under environmental conditions, characterization of gradient biological processes in developmental biology, identification of therapeutic effects in clinical trials, disease progressive models, cell-cycle, and circadian periodicity. Despite their feasibility and popularity, sophisticated dynamic methods that are well validated in large-scale comparative studies, in terms of statistical and computational rigor, are less benchmarked, comparing to their static counterparts. To date, a number of novel methods in bulk RNA-Seq data have been developed for the various time-dependent stimuli, circadian rhythms, cell-lineage in differentiation, and disease progression. Here, we comprehensively review a key set of representative dynamic strategies and discuss current issues associated with the detection of dynamically changing genes. We also provide recommendations for future directions for studying non-periodical, periodical time course data, and meta-dynamic datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vera-Khlara S. Oh
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA;
- Department of Computer Science and Statistics, College of Natural Sciences, Jeju National University, Jeju City 63243, Korea
| | - Robert W. Li
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA;
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36
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Collins EJ, Cervantes-Silva MP, Timmons GA, O'Siorain JR, Curtis AM, Hurley JM. Post-transcriptional circadian regulation in macrophages organizes temporally distinct immunometabolic states. Genome Res 2021; 31:171-185. [PMID: 33436377 PMCID: PMC7849412 DOI: 10.1101/gr.263814.120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Our core timekeeping mechanism, the circadian clock, plays a vital role in immunity. Although the mechanics of circadian control over the immune response is generally explained by transcriptional activation or repression derived from this clock's transcription-translation negative-feedback loop, research suggests that some regulation occurs beyond transcriptional activity. We comprehensively profiled the transcriptome and proteome of murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and found that only 15% of the circadian proteome had corresponding oscillating mRNA, suggesting post-transcriptional regulation influences macrophage clock regulatory output to a greater extent than any other tissue previously profiled. This regulation may be explained by the robust temporal enrichment we identified for proteins involved in degradation and translation. Extensive post-transcriptional temporal-gating of metabolic pathways was also observed and further corresponded with daily variations in ATP production, mitochondrial morphology, and phagocytosis. The disruption of this circadian post-transcriptional metabolic regulation impaired immune functionality. Our results demonstrate that cell-intrinsic post-transcriptional regulation is a primary driver of circadian output in macrophages and that this regulation, particularly of metabolic pathways, plays an important role in determining their response to immune stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily J Collins
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA
| | - Mariana P Cervantes-Silva
- School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and Tissue Engineering Research Group, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin D02, Ireland
| | - George A Timmons
- School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and Tissue Engineering Research Group, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin D02, Ireland
| | - James R O'Siorain
- School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and Tissue Engineering Research Group, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin D02, Ireland
| | - Annie M Curtis
- School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and Tissue Engineering Research Group, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin D02, Ireland
| | - Jennifer M Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA
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37
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Kelliher CM, Lambreghts R, Xiang Q, Baker CL, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC. PRD-2 directly regulates casein kinase I and counteracts nonsense-mediated decay in the Neurospora circadian clock. eLife 2020; 9:64007. [PMID: 33295874 PMCID: PMC7746235 DOI: 10.7554/elife.64007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2020] [Accepted: 12/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Circadian clocks in fungi and animals are driven by a functionally conserved transcription–translation feedback loop. In Neurospora crassa, negative feedback is executed by a complex of Frequency (FRQ), FRQ-interacting RNA helicase (FRH), and casein kinase I (CKI), which inhibits the activity of the clock’s positive arm, the White Collar Complex (WCC). Here, we show that the prd-2 (period-2) gene, whose mutation is characterized by recessive inheritance of a long 26 hr period phenotype, encodes an RNA-binding protein that stabilizes the ck-1a transcript, resulting in CKI protein levels sufficient for normal rhythmicity. Moreover, by examining the molecular basis for the short circadian period of upf-1prd-6 mutants, we uncovered a strong influence of the Nonsense-Mediated Decay pathway on CKI levels. The finding that circadian period defects in two classically derived Neurospora clock mutants each arise from disruption of ck-1a regulation is consistent with circadian period being exquisitely sensitive to levels of casein kinase I.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina M Kelliher
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
| | - Randy Lambreghts
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
| | - Qijun Xiang
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
| | - Christopher L Baker
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States.,The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, United States
| | - Jennifer J Loros
- Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
| | - Jay C Dunlap
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, United States
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Abstract
The identification and characterization of rhythmically expressed mRNAs have been an active area of research over the past 20 years, as these mRNAs are believed to produce the daily rhythms in a wide range of biological processes. Circadian transcriptome studies have used mature mRNA as a primary readout and focused largely on rhythmic RNA synthesis as a regulatory mechanism underlying rhythmic mRNA expression. However, RNA synthesis, RNA degradation, or a combination of both must be rhythmic to drive rhythmic RNA profiles, and it is still unclear to what extent rhythmic synthesis leads to rhythmic RNA profiles. In addition, circadian RNA expression is also often tissue specific. Although a handful of genes cycle in all or most tissues, others are rhythmic only in certain tissues, even though the same core clock mechanism is believed to control the rhythmic RNA profiles in all tissues. This review focuses on the dynamics of rhythmic RNA synthesis and degradation and discusses how these steps collectively determine the rhythmicity, phase, and amplitude of RNA accumulation. In particular, we highlight a possible role of RNA degradation in driving tissue-specific RNA rhythms. By unifying findings from experimental and theoretical studies, we will provide a comprehensive overview of how rhythmic gene expression can be achieved and how each regulatory step contributes to tissue-specific circadian transcriptome output in mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Shihoko Kojima
- To whom all correspondence should be addressed: Shihoko Kojima, Department of Biological Sciences, Fralin Life Sciences Institute, Virginia Tech, 1015 Life Science Circle, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA; .
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39
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Pelham JF, Dunlap JC, Hurley JM. Intrinsic disorder is an essential characteristic of components in the conserved circadian circuit. Cell Commun Signal 2020; 18:181. [PMID: 33176800 PMCID: PMC7656774 DOI: 10.1186/s12964-020-00658-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Accepted: 09/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The circadian circuit, a roughly 24 h molecular feedback loop, or clock, is conserved from bacteria to animals and allows for enhanced organismal survival by facilitating the anticipation of the day/night cycle. With circadian regulation reportedly impacting as high as 80% of protein coding genes in higher eukaryotes, the protein-based circadian clock broadly regulates physiology and behavior. Due to the extensive interconnection between the clock and other cellular systems, chronic disruption of these molecular rhythms leads to a decrease in organismal fitness as well as an increase of disease rates in humans. Importantly, recent research has demonstrated that proteins comprising the circadian clock network display a significant amount of intrinsic disorder. MAIN BODY In this work, we focus on the extent of intrinsic disorder in the circadian clock and its potential mechanistic role in circadian timing. We highlight the conservation of disorder by quantifying the extent of computationally-predicted protein disorder in the core clock of the key eukaryotic circadian model organisms Drosophila melanogaster, Neurospora crassa, and Mus musculus. We further examine previously published work, as well as feature novel experimental evidence, demonstrating that the core negative arm circadian period drivers FREQUENCY (Neurospora crassa) and PERIOD-2 (PER2) (Mus musculus), possess biochemical characteristics of intrinsically disordered proteins. Finally, we discuss the potential contributions of the inherent biophysical principals of intrinsically disordered proteins that may explain the vital mechanistic roles they play in the clock to drive their broad evolutionary conservation in circadian timekeeping. CONCLUSION The pervasive conservation of disorder amongst the clock in the crown eukaryotes suggests that disorder is essential for optimal circadian timing from fungi to animals, providing vital homeostatic cellular maintenance and coordinating organismal physiology across phylogenetic kingdoms. Video abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline F. Pelham
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 USA
| | - Jay C. Dunlap
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755 USA
| | - Jennifer M. Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 USA
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12018 USA
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40
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Cascant-Lopez E, Crosthwaite SK, Johnson LJ, Harrison RJ. No Evidence That Homologs of Key Circadian Clock Genes Direct Circadian Programs of Development or mRNA Abundance in Verticillium dahliae. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:1977. [PMID: 33013740 PMCID: PMC7493669 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Many organisms harbor circadian clocks that promote their adaptation to the rhythmic environment. While a broad knowledge of the molecular mechanism of circadian clocks has been gained through the fungal model Neurospora crassa, little is known about circadian clocks in other fungi. N. crassa belongs to the same class as many important plant pathogens including the vascular wilt fungus Verticillium dahliae. We identified homologs of N. crassa clock proteins in V. dahliae, which showed high conservation in key protein domains. However, no evidence for an endogenous, free-running and entrainable rhythm was observed in the daily formation of conidia and microsclerotia. In N. crassa the frequency (frq) gene encodes a central clock protein expressed rhythmically and in response to light. In contrast, expression of Vdfrq is not light-regulated. Temporal gene expression profiling over 48 h in constant darkness and temperature revealed no circadian expression of key clock genes. Furthermore, RNA-seq over a 24 h time-course revealed no robust oscillations of clock-associated transcripts in constant darkness. Comparison of gene expression between wild-type V. dahliae and a ΔVdfrq mutant showed that genes involved in metabolism, transport and redox processes are mis-regulated in the absence of Vdfrq. In addition, VdΔfrq mutants display growth defects and reduced pathogenicity in a strain dependent manner. Our data indicate that if a circadian clock exists in Verticillium, it is based on alternative mechanisms such as post-transcriptional interactions of VdFRQ and the WC proteins or the components of a FRQ-less oscillator. Alternatively, it could be that whilst the original functions of the clock proteins have been maintained, in this species the interactions that generate robust rhythmicity have been lost or are only triggered when specific environmental conditions are met. The presence of conserved clock genes in genomes should not be taken as definitive evidence of circadian function.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Louise J Johnson
- The School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Richard J Harrison
- Genetics, Genomics and Breeding, NIAB EMR, East Malling, United Kingdom.,National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), Cambridge, United Kingdom
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41
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Molecular Regulation of Circadian Chromatin. J Mol Biol 2020; 432:3466-3482. [PMID: 31954735 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Revised: 12/13/2019] [Accepted: 01/07/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Circadian rhythms are generated by transcriptional negative feedback loops and require histone modifications and chromatin remodeling to ensure appropriate timing and amplitude of clock gene expression. Circadian modifications to histones are important for transcriptional initiation and feedback inhibition serving as signaling platform for chromatin-remodeling enzymes. Current models indicate circadian-regulated facultative heterochromatin (CRFH) is a conserved mechanism at clock genes in Neurospora, Drosophila, and mice. CRFH consists of antiphasic rhythms in activating and repressive modifications generating chromatin states that cycle between transcriptionally permissive and nonpermissive. There are rhythms in histone H3 lysine 9 and 27 acetylation (H3K9ac and H3K27ac) and histone H3 lysine 4 methylation (H3K4me) during activation; while deacetylation, histone H3 lysine 9 methylation (H3K9me) and heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) are hallmarks of repression. ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling enzymes control accessibility, nucleosome positioning/occupancy, and nuclear organization. In Neurospora, the rhythm in facultative heterochromatin is mediated by the frequency (frq) natural antisense transcript (NAT) qrf. While in mammals, histone deacetylases (HDACs), histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase (KMT1/SUV39), and components of nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) are part of the nuclear PERIOD complex (PER complex). Genomics efforts have found relationships among rhythmic chromatin modifications at clock-controlled genes (ccg) revealing circadian control of genome-wide chromatin states. There are also circadian clock-regulated lncRNAs with an emerging function that includes assisting in chromatin dynamics. In this review, we explore the connections between circadian clock, chromatin remodeling, lncRNAs, and CRFH and how these impact rhythmicity, amplitude, period, and phase of circadian clock genes.
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42
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Díaz RD, Larrondo LF. A circadian clock in Neurospora crassa functions during plant cell wall deconstruction. Fungal Biol 2020; 124:501-508. [PMID: 32389313 DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2020.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2019] [Revised: 03/05/2020] [Accepted: 03/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Circadian clocks are autonomous timers that are believed to confer organisms a selective advantage by enabling processes to occur at appropriate times of the day. In the model fungus Neurospora crassa, 20-40 % of its genes are reported to be under circadian regulation, as assayed in simple sugar media. Although it has been well-described that Neurospora efficiently deconstructs plant cell wall components, little is known regarding the status of the clock when Neurospora grows on cellulosic material, or whether such a clock has an impact on any of the genes involved in this process. Through luciferase-based reporters and fluorescent detection assays, we show that a clock is functioning when Neurospora grows on cellulose-containing wheat straw as the only carbon and nitrogen source. Additionally, we found that the major cellobiohydrolase encoding gene involved in plant cell wall deconstruction, cbh-1, is rhythmically regulated by the Neurospora clock, in a manner that depends on cellulose concentration and on the transcription factor CRE-1, known as a key player in carbon-catabolite repression in this fungus. Our findings are a step towards a more comprehensive understanding on how clock regulation modulates cellulose degradation, and thus Neurospora's physiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo D Díaz
- Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology, Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile
| | - Luis F Larrondo
- Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology, Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile.
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43
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Circadian clock control of eIF2α phosphorylation is necessary for rhythmic translation initiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:10935-10945. [PMID: 32355000 PMCID: PMC7245112 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1918459117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Circadian clock control of mRNA translation, which contributes to the daily cycling of at least 50% of the proteins synthesized in eukaryotic cells, is understudied. We show that the circadian clock in the model fungus Neurospora crassa regulates rhythms in phosphorylation and activity of the conserved translation initiation factor eIF2α, with a peak in phosphorylated eIF2α levels during the daytime. This leads to reduced mRNA translation of select messages during the day and increased translation at night. We demonstrate that rhythmic accumulation of phosphorylated eIF2α requires increased uncharged tRNA levels during the day to activate the eIF2α kinase, coordinating rhythmic translation initiation and protein production with nutrient and energy metabolism. The circadian clock in eukaryotes controls transcriptional and posttranscriptional events, including regulation of the levels and phosphorylation state of translation factors. However, the mechanisms underlying clock control of translation initiation, and the impact of this potential regulation on rhythmic protein synthesis, were not known. We show that inhibitory phosphorylation of eIF2α (P-eIF2α), a conserved translation initiation factor, is clock controlled in Neurospora crassa, peaking during the subjective day. Cycling P-eIF2α levels required rhythmic activation of the eIF2α kinase CPC-3 (the homolog of yeast and mammalian GCN2), and rhythmic activation of CPC-3 was abolished under conditions in which the levels of charged tRNAs were altered. Clock-controlled accumulation of P-eIF2α led to reduced translation during the day in vitro and was necessary for the rhythmic synthesis of select proteins in vivo. Finally, loss of rhythmic P-eIF2α levels led to reduced linear growth rates, supporting the idea that partitioning translation to specific times of day provides a growth advantage to the organism. Together, these results reveal a fundamental mechanism by which the clock regulates rhythmic protein production, and provide key insights into how rhythmic translation, cellular energy, stress, and nutrient metabolism are linked through the levels of charged versus uncharged tRNAs.
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44
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De los Santos H, Collins EJ, Mann C, Sagan AW, Jankowski MS, Bennett KP, Hurley JM. ECHO: an application for detection and analysis of oscillators identifies metabolic regulation on genome-wide circadian output. Bioinformatics 2020; 36:773-781. [PMID: 31384918 PMCID: PMC7523678 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btz617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2018] [Revised: 07/24/2019] [Accepted: 08/02/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Time courses utilizing genome scale data are a common approach to identifying the biological pathways that are controlled by the circadian clock, an important regulator of organismal fitness. However, the methods used to detect circadian oscillations in these datasets are not able to accommodate changes in the amplitude of the oscillations over time, leading to an underestimation of the impact of the clock on biological systems. RESULTS We have created a program to efficaciously identify oscillations in large-scale datasets, called the Extended Circadian Harmonic Oscillator application, or ECHO. ECHO utilizes an extended solution of the fixed amplitude oscillator that incorporates the amplitude change coefficient. Employing synthetic datasets, we determined that ECHO outperforms existing methods in detecting rhythms with decreasing oscillation amplitudes and in recovering phase shift. Rhythms with changing amplitudes identified from published biological datasets revealed distinct functions from those oscillations that were harmonic, suggesting purposeful biologic regulation to create this subtype of circadian rhythms. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION ECHO's full interface is available at https://github.com/delosh653/ECHO. An R package for this functionality, echo.find, can be downloaded at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=echo.find. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah De los Santos
- Department of Computer Science, Troy, NY 12180, USA,Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | | | | | - April W Sagan
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | | | - Kristin P Bennett
- Department of Computer Science, Troy, NY 12180, USA,Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, Troy, NY 12180, USA,Department of Mathematical Sciences, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Jennifer M Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Troy, NY 12180, USA,Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA,To whom correspondence should be addressed.
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45
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Kelliher CM, Loros JJ, Dunlap JC. Evaluating the circadian rhythm and response to glucose addition in dispersed growth cultures of Neurospora crassa. Fungal Biol 2019; 124:398-406. [PMID: 32389302 DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2019.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2019] [Revised: 11/12/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Work on the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa has contributed to or pioneered many aspects of research on circadian clock mechanism, a process that is functionally conserved across eukaryotes. Biochemical assays of the fungal circadian clock typically involve growth in liquid medium where Neurospora forms a spherical ball of submerged mycelium. Here, we revive a method for dispersed growth of Neurospora in batch culture using polyacrylic acid as an additive to the medium. We demonstrate that dispersed growth cultures utilize more carbon than mycelial balls, but nonetheless retain a functional circadian clock. This culturing method is suited for use in circadian experiments where uniform exposure to nutrients and/or increased biomass is required.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina M Kelliher
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Jennifer J Loros
- Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Jay C Dunlap
- Department of Molecular & Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
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46
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De Los Santos H, Bennett KP, Hurley JM. ENCORE: A Visualization Tool for Insight into Circadian Omics. ACM-BCB ... ... : THE ... ACM CONFERENCE ON BIOINFORMATICS, COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOMEDICINE. ACM CONFERENCE ON BIOINFORMATICS, COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOMEDICINE 2019; 2019:5-14. [PMID: 31754663 PMCID: PMC6868525 DOI: 10.1145/3307339.3342137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Circadian rhythms are 24-hour biological cycles that control daily molecular rhythms in many organisms. The cellular elements that fall under the regulation of the clock are often studied through the use of omics-scale data sets gathered over time to determine how circadian regulation impacts cellular physiology. Previously, we created the ECHO (Extended Circadian Harmonic Oscillator) tool to identify rhythms in these data sets. Using ECHO, we found that circadian oscillations widely undergo a change in amplitude over time and that these amplitude changes have a biological function in the cell. However, ECHO does not align gene ontologies with the identified oscillating genes to give functional context. Thus, we created ENCORE (ECHO Native Circadian Ontological Rhythmicity Explorer), a novel visualization tool which combines the disparate databases of Gene Ontologies, protein-protein interactions, and auxiliary information to uncover the meaning of circadianly-regulated genes. This freely-available tool performs automatic enrichment and creates publication-worthy visualizations which we used to extend previously-gathered data on circadian regulation of physiology from published omics-scale studies in three circadian model organisms: mouse, fruit fly, and Neurospora crassa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah De Los Santos
- Institute for Data Exploration and Applications/Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
| | - Kristin P Bennett
- Institute for Data Exploration and Applications/Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
| | - Jennifer M Hurley
- Department of Biological Sciences/Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
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Zhu Q, Ramakrishnan M, Park J, Belden WJ. Histone H3 lysine 4 methyltransferase is required for facultative heterochromatin at specific loci. BMC Genomics 2019; 20:350. [PMID: 31068130 PMCID: PMC6505117 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-019-5729-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Accepted: 04/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Histone H3 lysine 4 tri-methylation (H3K4me3) and histone H3 lysine 9 tri-methylation (H3K9me3) are widely perceived to be opposing and often mutually exclusive chromatin modifications. However, both are needed for certain light-activated genes in Neurospora crassa (Neurospora), including frequency (frq) and vivid (vvd). Except for these 2 loci, little is known about how H3K4me3 and H3K9me3 impact and contribute to light-regulated gene expression. Results In this report, we performed a multi-dimensional genomic analysis to understand the role of H3K4me3 and H3K9me3 using the Neurospora light response as the system. RNA-seq on strains lacking H3 lysine 4 methyltransferase (KMT2/SET-1) and histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase (KMT1/DIM-5) revealed some light-activated genes had altered expression, but the light response was largely intact. Comparing these 2 mutants to wild-type (WT), we found that roughly equal numbers of genes showed elevated and reduced expression in the dark and the light making the environmental stimulus somewhat ancillary to the genome-wide effects. ChIP-seq experiments revealed H3K4me3 and H3K9me3 had only minor changes in response to light in WT, but there were notable alterations in H3K4me3 in Δkmt1/Δdim-5 and H3K9me3 in Δkmt2/Δset-1 indicating crosstalk and redistribution between the modifications. Integrated analysis of the RNA-seq and ChIP-seq highlighted context-dependent roles for KMT2/SET1 and KMT1/DIM-5 as either co-activators or co-repressors with some overlap as co-regulators. At a small subset of loci, H3K4 methylation is required for H3K9me3-mediated facultative heterochromatin including, the central clock gene frequency (frq). Finally, we used sequential ChIP (re-ChIP) experiment to confirm Neurospora contains K4/K9 bivalent domains. Conclusions Collectively, these data indicate there are obfuscated regulatory roles for H3K4 methylation and H3K9 methylation depending on genome location with some minor overlap and co-dependency. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-019-5729-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiaoqiao Zhu
- Department of Animal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA
| | - Mukund Ramakrishnan
- Department of Animal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA.,Current Address: Department of Biological Sciences, IISER Berhampur, Berhampur, Ganjam, Odisha, 760010, India
| | - Jinhee Park
- Department of Animal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA
| | - William J Belden
- Department of Animal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA.
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Circadian clock regulation of the glycogen synthase ( gsn) gene by WCC is critical for rhythmic glycogen metabolism in Neurospora crassa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:10435-10440. [PMID: 31048503 PMCID: PMC6534987 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1815360116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Circadian rhythms enable organisms to anticipate daily environmental cycles and control the timing of numerous biological processes, including metabolism, to optimize the health and survival of organisms. Glycogen metabolism is a conserved glucose homeostatic process; however, the molecular mechanisms linking the circadian clock and glycogen metabolism remain largely unknown. In this report, we demonstrate that circadian clock-dependent transcriptional regulation of glycogen synthase, gsn, regulates circadian oscillations of GSN protein and glycogen accumulation in the model filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa. Circadian clocks generate rhythms in cellular functions, including metabolism, to align biological processes with the 24-hour environment. Disruption of this alignment by shift work alters glucose homeostasis. Glucose homeostasis depends on signaling and allosteric control; however, the molecular mechanisms linking the clock to glucose homeostasis remain largely unknown. We investigated the molecular links between the clock and glycogen metabolism, a conserved glucose homeostatic process, in Neurospora crassa. We find that glycogen synthase (gsn) mRNA, glycogen phosphorylase (gpn) mRNA, and glycogen levels, accumulate with a daily rhythm controlled by the circadian clock. Because the synthase and phosphorylase are critical to homeostasis, their roles in generating glycogen rhythms were investigated. We demonstrate that while gsn was necessary for glycogen production, constitutive gsn expression resulted in high and arrhythmic glycogen levels, and deletion of gpn abolished gsn mRNA rhythms and rhythmic glycogen accumulation. Furthermore, we show that gsn promoter activity is rhythmic and is directly controlled by core clock component white collar complex (WCC). We also discovered that WCC-regulated transcription factors, VOS-1 and CSP-1, modulate the phase and amplitude of rhythmic gsn mRNA, and these changes are similarly reflected in glycogen oscillations. Together, these data indicate the importance of clock-regulated gsn transcription over signaling or allosteric control of glycogen rhythms, a mechanism that is potentially conserved in mammals and critical to metabolic homeostasis.
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The Phospho-Code Determining Circadian Feedback Loop Closure and Output in Neurospora. Mol Cell 2019; 74:771-784.e3. [PMID: 30954403 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2019.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Revised: 01/07/2019] [Accepted: 03/01/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
In the negative feedback loop driving fungal and animal circadian oscillators, negative elements (FREQUENCY [FRQ], PERIODS [PERs], and CRYPTOCHROMES [CRYs]) are understood to inhibit their own expression, in part by promoting the phosphorylation of their heterodimeric transcriptional activators (e.g., White Collar-1 [WC-1]-WC-2 [White Collar complex; WCC] and BMAL1/Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput [CLOCK]). However, correlations between heterodimer activity and phosphorylation are weak, contradictions exist, and mechanistic details are almost wholly lacking. We report mapping of 80 phosphosites on WC-1 and 15 on WC-2 and elucidation of the time-of-day-specific code, requiring both a group of phosphoevents on WC-1 and two distinct clusters on WC-2, that governs circadian repression, leading to feedback loop closure. Combinatorial control via phosphorylation also governs rhythmic WCC binding to the promoters of clock-controlled genes mediating the essential first step in circadian output, a group encoding both transcription factors and signaling proteins. These data provide a basic mechanistic understanding for fundamental events underlying circadian negative feedback and output, key aspects of circadian biology.
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Loros JJ. Principles of the animal molecular clock learned from Neurospora. Eur J Neurosci 2019; 51:19-33. [PMID: 30687965 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 12/10/2018] [Accepted: 12/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Study of Neurospora, a model system evolutionarily related to animals and sharing a circadian system having nearly identical regulatory architecture to that of animals, has advanced our understanding of all circadian rhythms. Work on the molecular bases of the Oscillator began in Neurospora before any clock genes were cloned and provided the second example of a clock gene, frq, as well as the first direct experimental proof that the core of the Oscillator was built around a transcriptional translational negative feedback loop (TTFL). Proof that FRQ was a clock component provided the basis for understanding how light resets the clock, and this in turn provided the generally accepted understanding for how light resets all animal and fungal clocks. Experiments probing the mechanism of light resetting led to the first identification of a heterodimeric transcriptional activator as the positive element in a circadian feedback loop, and to the general description of the fungal/animal clock as a single step TTFL. The common means through which DNA damage impacts the Oscillator in fungi and animals was first described in Neurospora. Lastly, the systematic study of Output was pioneered in Neurospora, providing the vocabulary and conceptual framework for understanding how Output works in all cells. This model system has contributed to the current appreciation of the role of Intrinsic Disorder in clock proteins and to the documentation of the essential roles of protein post-translational modification, as distinct from turnover, in building a circadian clock.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer J Loros
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire.,Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire
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