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Lihanova Y, Nagel R, Jakob T, Sasso S. Characterization of activating cis-regulatory elements from the histone genes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2024; 119:525-539. [PMID: 38693717 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Revised: 04/08/2024] [Accepted: 04/12/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024]
Abstract
Regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes is controlled by cis-regulatory modules (CRMs). A major class of CRMs are enhancers which are composed of activating cis-regulatory elements (CREs) responsible for upregulating transcription. To date, most enhancers and activating CREs have been studied in angiosperms; in contrast, our knowledge about these key regulators of gene expression in green algae is limited. In this study, we aimed at characterizing putative activating CREs/CRMs from the histone genes of the unicellular model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. To test the activity of four candidates, reporter constructs consisting of a tetramerized CRE, an established promoter, and a gene for the mCerulean3 fluorescent protein were incorporated into the nuclear genome of C. reinhardtii, and their activity was quantified by flow cytometry. Two tested candidates, Eupstr and Ehist cons, significantly upregulated gene expression and were characterized in detail. Eupstr, which originates from highly expressed genes of C. reinhardtii, is an orientation-independent CRE capable of activating both the RBCS2 and β2-tubulin promoters. Ehist cons, which is a CRM from histone genes of angiosperms, upregulates the β2-tubulin promoter in C. reinhardtii over a distance of at least 1.5 kb. The octamer motif present in Ehist cons was identified in C. reinhardtii and the related green algae Chlamydomonas incerta, Chlamydomonas schloesseri, and Edaphochlamys debaryana, demonstrating its high evolutionary conservation. The results of this investigation expand our knowledge about the regulation of gene expression in green algae. Furthermore, the characterized activating CREs/CRMs can be applied as valuable genetic tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuliia Lihanova
- Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Raimund Nagel
- Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Torsten Jakob
- Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Severin Sasso
- Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
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2
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Plouviez M, Dubreucq E. Key Proteomics Tools for Fundamental and Applied Microalgal Research. Proteomes 2024; 12:13. [PMID: 38651372 PMCID: PMC11036299 DOI: 10.3390/proteomes12020013] [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: 12/29/2023] [Revised: 03/28/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Microscopic, photosynthetic prokaryotes and eukaryotes, collectively referred to as microalgae, are widely studied to improve our understanding of key metabolic pathways (e.g., photosynthesis) and for the development of biotechnological applications. Omics technologies, which are now common tools in biological research, have been shown to be critical in microalgal research. In the past decade, significant technological advancements have allowed omics technologies to become more affordable and efficient, with huge datasets being generated. In particular, where studies focused on a single or few proteins decades ago, it is now possible to study the whole proteome of a microalgae. The development of mass spectrometry-based methods has provided this leap forward with the high-throughput identification and quantification of proteins. This review specifically provides an overview of the use of proteomics in fundamental (e.g., photosynthesis) and applied (e.g., lipid production for biofuel) microalgal research, and presents future research directions in this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxence Plouviez
- School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
- The Cawthron Institute, Nelson 7010, New Zealand
| | - Eric Dubreucq
- Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies, L’Institut Agro Montpellier, 34060 Montpellier, France;
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3
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Degnan DJ, Lewis LA, Bramer LM, McCue LA, Pesavento JJ, Zhou M, Bilbao A. IsoForma: An R Package for Quantifying and Visualizing Positional Isomers in Top-Down LC-MS/MS Data. J Proteome Res 2024. [PMID: 38421884 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.3c00681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
Proteoforms, the different forms of a protein with sequence variations including post-translational modifications (PTMs), execute vital functions in biological systems, such as cell signaling and epigenetic regulation. Advances in top-down mass spectrometry (MS) technology have permitted the direct characterization of intact proteoforms and their exact number of modification sites, allowing for the relative quantification of positional isomers (PI). Protein positional isomers refer to a set of proteoforms with identical total mass and set of modifications, but varying PTM site combinations. The relative abundance of PI can be estimated by matching proteoform-specific fragment ions to top-down tandem MS (MS2) data to localize and quantify modifications. However, the current approaches heavily rely on manual annotation. Here, we present IsoForma, an open-source R package for the relative quantification of PI within a single tool. Benchmarking IsoForma's performance against two existing workflows produced comparable results and improvements in speed. Overall, IsoForma provides a streamlined process for quantifying PI, reduces the analysis time, and offers an essential framework for developing customized proteoform analysis workflows. The software is open source and available at https://github.com/EMSL-Computing/isoforma-lib.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Degnan
- Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Logan A Lewis
- Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Lisa M Bramer
- Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Lee Ann McCue
- Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - James J Pesavento
- Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, California 94575, United States
| | - Mowei Zhou
- Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Aivett Bilbao
- Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
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Berthias F, Bilgin N, Mecinović J, Jensen ON. Top-down ion mobility/mass spectrometry reveals enzyme specificity: Separation and sequencing of isomeric proteoforms. Proteomics 2024; 24:e2200471. [PMID: 38282202 DOI: 10.1002/pmic.202200471] [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: 07/09/2023] [Revised: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/30/2024]
Abstract
Enzymatic catalysis is one of the fundamental processes that drives the dynamic landscape of post-translational modifications (PTMs), expanding the structural and functional diversity of proteins. Here, we assessed enzyme specificity using a top-down ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) workflow. We successfully applied trapped IMS (TIMS) to investigate site-specific N-ε-acetylation of lysine residues of full-length histone H4 catalyzed by histone lysine acetyltransferase KAT8. We demonstrate that KAT8 exhibits a preference for N-ε-acetylation of residue K16, while also adding acetyl groups on residues K5 and K8 as the first degree of acetylation. Achieving TIMS resolving power values of up to 300, we fully separated mono-acetylated regioisomers (H4K5ac, H4K8ac, and H4K16ac). Each of these separated regioisomers produce unique MS/MS fragment ions, enabling estimation of their individual mobility distributions and the exact localization of the N-ε-acetylation sites. This study highlights the potential of top-down TIMS-MS/MS for conducting enzymatic assays at the intact protein level and, more generally, for separation and identification of intact isomeric proteoforms and precise PTM localization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francis Berthias
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Nurgül Bilgin
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej, Denmark
| | - Jasmin Mecinović
- Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej, Denmark
| | - Ole N Jensen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
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Beauchemin R, Merindol N, Fantino E, Lavoie P, Nouemssi SB, Meddeb-Mouelhi F, Desgagné-Penix I. Successful reversal of transgene silencing in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Biotechnol J 2024; 19:e2300232. [PMID: 37975165 DOI: 10.1002/biot.202300232] [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: 05/23/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been successfully engineered to produce compounds of interest following transgene integration and heterologous protein expression. The advantages of this model include the availability of validated tools for bioengineering, its photosynthetic ability, and its potential use as biofuel. Despite this, breakthroughs have been hindered by its ability to silence transgene expression through epigenetic changes. Histone deacetylases (HDAC) are main players in gene expression. We hypothesized that transgene silencing can be reverted with chemical treatments using HDAC inhibitors. To analyze this, we transformed C. reinhardtii, integrating into its genome the mVenus reporter gene under the HSP70-rbcs2 promoter. From 384 transformed clones, 88 (22.9%) displayed mVenus positive (mVenus+ ) cells upon flow-cytometry analysis. Five clones with different fluorescence intensities were selected. The number of integrated copies was measured by qPCR. Transgene expression levels were followed over the growth cycle and upon SAHA treatment, using a microplate reader, flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, and western blot analysis. First, we observed that expression varies with the cell cycle, reaching a maximum level just before the stationary phase in all clones. Second, we uncovered that supplementation with HDAC inhibitors of the hydroxamate family, such as vorinostat (suberoylanilide-hydroxamic-acid, SAHA) at the initiation of culture increases the frequency (% of mVenus+ cells) and the level of transgene expression per cell over the whole growth cycle, through histone deacetylase inhibition. Thus, we propose a new tool to successfully trigger the expression of heterologous proteins in the green algae C. reinhardtii, overcoming its main obstacle as an expression platform.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémy Beauchemin
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Natacha Merindol
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Elisa Fantino
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Pamela Lavoie
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Serge Basile Nouemssi
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Fatma Meddeb-Mouelhi
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
| | - Isabel Desgagné-Penix
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
- Plant Biology Research Group, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
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Strenkert D, Yildirim A, Yan J, Yoshinaga Y, Pellegrini M, O'Malley RC, Merchant SS, Umen JG. The landscape of Chlamydomonas histone H3 lysine 4 methylation reveals both constant features and dynamic changes during the diurnal cycle. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2022; 112:352-368. [PMID: 35986497 PMCID: PMC9588799 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.15948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Revised: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/14/2022] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Chromatin modifications are epigenetic regulatory features with major roles in various cellular events, yet they remain understudied in algae. We interrogated the genome-wide distribution pattern of mono- and trimethylated histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) using chromatin-immunoprecipitation followed by deep-sequencing (ChIP-seq) during key phases of the Chlamydomonas cell cycle: early G1 phase, Zeitgeber Time 1 (ZT1), when cells initiate biomass accumulation, S/M phase (ZT13) when cells are replicating DNA and undergoing mitosis, and late G0 phase (ZT23) when they are quiescent. Tri-methylated H3K4 was predominantly enriched at transcription start sites of the majority of protein coding genes (85%). The likelihood of a gene being marked by H3K4me3 correlated with it being transcribed at some point during the life cycle but not necessarily by continuous active transcription, as exemplified by early zygotic genes, which may remain transcriptionally dormant for thousands of generations between sexual cycles. The exceptions to this rule were around 120 loci, some of which encode non-poly-adenylated transcripts, such as small nuclear RNAs and replication-dependent histones that had H3K4me3 peaks only when they were being transcribed. Mono-methylated H3K4 was the default state for the vast majority of histones that were bound outside of transcription start sites and terminator regions of genes. A small fraction of the genome that was depleted of any H3 lysine 4 methylation was enriched for DNA cytosine methylation and the genes within these DNA methylation islands were poorly expressed. Besides marking protein coding genes, H3K4me3 ChIP-seq data served also as a annotation tool for validation of hundreds of long non-coding RNA genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Strenkert
- California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Asli Yildirim
- Institute of Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, 520 Boyer Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
| | - Juying Yan
- DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Yuko Yoshinaga
- DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Matteo Pellegrini
- Institute of Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
| | - Ronan C O'Malley
- DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Sabeeha S Merchant
- California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - James G Umen
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, 63132, USA
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Etier A, Dumetz F, Chéreau S, Ponts N. Post-Translational Modifications of Histones Are Versatile Regulators of Fungal Development and Secondary Metabolism. Toxins (Basel) 2022; 14:toxins14050317. [PMID: 35622565 PMCID: PMC9145779 DOI: 10.3390/toxins14050317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 04/16/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Chromatin structure is a major regulator of DNA-associated processes, such as transcription, DNA repair, and replication. Histone post-translational modifications, or PTMs, play a key role on chromatin dynamics. PTMs are involved in a wide range of biological processes in eukaryotes, including fungal species. Their deposition/removal and their underlying functions have been extensively investigated in yeasts but much less in other fungi. Nonetheless, the major role of histone PTMs in regulating primary and secondary metabolisms of filamentous fungi, including human and plant pathogens, has been pinpointed. In this review, an overview of major identified PTMs and their respective functions in fungi is provided, with a focus on filamentous fungi when knowledge is available. To date, most of these studies investigated histone acetylations and methylations, but the development of new methodologies and technologies increasingly allows the wider exploration of other PTMs, such as phosphorylation, ubiquitylation, sumoylation, and acylation. Considering the increasing number of known PTMs and the full range of their possible interactions, investigations of the subsequent Histone Code, i.e., the biological consequence of the combinatorial language of all histone PTMs, from a functional point of view, are exponentially complex. Better knowledge about histone PTMs would make it possible to efficiently fight plant or human contamination, avoid the production of toxic secondary metabolites, or optimize the industrial biosynthesis of certain beneficial compounds.
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