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van den Akker GGH, Zacchini F, Housmans BAC, van der Vloet L, Caron MMJ, Montanaro L, Welting TJM. Current Practice in Bicistronic IRES Reporter Use: A Systematic Review. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:5193. [PMID: 34068921 PMCID: PMC8156625 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22105193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2021] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Bicistronic reporter assays have been instrumental for transgene expression, understanding of internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) translation, and identification of novel cap-independent translational elements (CITE). We observed a large methodological variability in the use of bicistronic reporter assays and data presentation or normalization procedures. Therefore, we systematically searched the literature for bicistronic IRES reporter studies and analyzed methodological details, data visualization, and normalization procedures. Two hundred fifty-seven publications were identified using our search strategy (published 1994-2020). Experimental studies on eukaryotic adherent cell systems and the cell-free translation assay were included for further analysis. We evaluated the following methodological details for 176 full text articles: the bicistronic reporter design, the cell line or type, transfection methods, and time point of analyses post-transfection. For the cell-free translation assay, we focused on methods of in vitro transcription, type of translation lysate, and incubation times and assay temperature. Data can be presented in multiple ways: raw data from individual cistrons, a ratio of the two, or fold changes thereof. In addition, many different control experiments have been suggested when studying IRES-mediated translation. In addition, many different normalization and control experiments have been suggested when studying IRES-mediated translation. Therefore, we also categorized and summarized their use. Our unbiased analyses provide a representative overview of bicistronic IRES reporter use. We identified parameters that were reported inconsistently or incompletely, which could hamper data reproduction and interpretation. On the basis of our analyses, we encourage adhering to a number of practices that should improve transparency of bicistronic reporter data presentation and improve methodological descriptions to facilitate data replication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guus Gijsbertus Hubert van den Akker
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Maastricht University, Medical Center+, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands; (G.G.H.v.d.A.); (B.A.C.H.); (L.v.d.V.); (M.M.J.C.)
| | - Federico Zacchini
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, Bologna University, I-40138 Bologna, Italy; (F.Z.); (L.M.)
- Centro di Ricerca Biomedica Applicata—CRBA, Bologna University, Policlinico di Sant’Orsola, I-40138 Bologna, Italy
| | - Bas Adrianus Catharina Housmans
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Maastricht University, Medical Center+, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands; (G.G.H.v.d.A.); (B.A.C.H.); (L.v.d.V.); (M.M.J.C.)
| | - Laura van der Vloet
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Maastricht University, Medical Center+, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands; (G.G.H.v.d.A.); (B.A.C.H.); (L.v.d.V.); (M.M.J.C.)
| | - Marjolein Maria Johanna Caron
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Maastricht University, Medical Center+, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands; (G.G.H.v.d.A.); (B.A.C.H.); (L.v.d.V.); (M.M.J.C.)
| | - Lorenzo Montanaro
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, Bologna University, I-40138 Bologna, Italy; (F.Z.); (L.M.)
- Centro di Ricerca Biomedica Applicata—CRBA, Bologna University, Policlinico di Sant’Orsola, I-40138 Bologna, Italy
- Programma Dipartimentale in Medicina di Laboratorio, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Via Albertoni 15, I-40138 Bologna, Italy
| | - Tim Johannes Maria Welting
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Maastricht University, Medical Center+, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands; (G.G.H.v.d.A.); (B.A.C.H.); (L.v.d.V.); (M.M.J.C.)
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Karollus A, Avsec Ž, Gagneur J. Predicting mean ribosome load for 5'UTR of any length using deep learning. PLoS Comput Biol 2021; 17:e1008982. [PMID: 33970899 PMCID: PMC8136849 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 04/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The 5’ untranslated region plays a key role in regulating mRNA translation and consequently protein abundance. Therefore, accurate modeling of 5’UTR regulatory sequences shall provide insights into translational control mechanisms and help interpret genetic variants. Recently, a model was trained on a massively parallel reporter assay to predict mean ribosome load (MRL)—a proxy for translation rate—directly from 5’UTR sequence with a high degree of accuracy. However, this model is restricted to sequence lengths investigated in the reporter assay and therefore cannot be applied to the majority of human sequences without a substantial loss of information. Here, we introduced frame pooling, a novel neural network operation that enabled the development of an MRL prediction model for 5’UTRs of any length. Our model shows state-of-the-art performance on fixed length randomized sequences, while offering better generalization performance on longer sequences and on a variety of translation-related genome-wide datasets. Variant interpretation is demonstrated on a 5’UTR variant of the gene HBB associated with beta-thalassemia. Frame pooling could find applications in other bioinformatics predictive tasks. Moreover, our model, released open source, could help pinpoint pathogenic genetic variants. The human genome carries a complex code. It consists of genes, which provide blueprints to assemble proteins, and regulatory elements, which control when, where, and how often particular genes are transcribed and translated into protein. To read the genome correctly and specifically to find the causes of inherited diseases, we need to be able to find and interpret these regulatory elements. Here, we focus on particular regions of the genome, the so-called 5’ untranslated regions, which play an important role in determining how often a transcribed gene is translated into protein. We develop deep learning models which can quantitatively interpret regulatory elements in human 5’ untranslated regions and use this information to predict a proxy of the translation efficiency. Our model generalizes a previous model to 5’ untranslated regions of any length, just as they are encountered in natural human genes. Because this model requires only the sequence as input, it can give estimates for the impact of mutations in the sequence, even if these particular mutations are very rare or entirely novel. Such estimates could help pinpoint mutations that disrupt the normal functioning of gene regulation, which could be used to better diagnose patients suffering from rare genetic disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Karollus
- Department of Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
| | - Žiga Avsec
- Department of Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
- Graduate School of Quantitative Biosciences (QBM), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Julien Gagneur
- Department of Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
- Institute of Human Genetics, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany
- * E-mail:
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Koch A, Aguilera L, Morisaki T, Munsky B, Stasevich TJ. Quantifying the dynamics of IRES and cap translation with single-molecule resolution in live cells. Nat Struct Mol Biol 2020; 27:1095-1104. [PMID: 32958947 DOI: 10.1038/s41594-020-0504-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Viruses use internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) to hijack host ribosomes and promote cap-independent translation. Although they are well-studied in bulk, the dynamics of IRES-mediated translation remain unexplored at the single-molecule level. Here, we developed a bicistronic biosensor encoding distinct repeat epitopes in two open reading frames (ORFs), one translated from the 5' cap, and the other from the encephalomyocarditis virus IRES. When combined with a pair of complementary probes that bind the epitopes cotranslationally, the biosensor lights up in different colors depending on which ORF is translated. Using the sensor together with single-molecule tracking and computational modeling, we measured the kinetics of cap-dependent versus IRES-mediated translation in living human cells. We show that bursts of IRES translation are shorter and rarer than bursts of cap translation, although the situation reverses upon stress. Collectively, our data support a model for translational regulation primarily driven by transitions between translationally active and inactive RNA states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda Koch
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Luis Aguilera
- Keck Scholars, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and School of Biomedical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Tatsuya Morisaki
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Brian Munsky
- Keck Scholars, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and School of Biomedical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
| | - Timothy J Stasevich
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA. .,World Research Hub Initiative, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan.
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Luo XN, Song QQ, Yu J, Song J, Wang XL, Xia D, Sun P, Han J. Identification of the internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) of prion protein gene. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 2017; 93:46-51. [PMID: 29107182 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocel.2017.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2017] [Revised: 10/22/2017] [Accepted: 10/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Many studies demonstrated that there are several type bands of prion protein in cells. However, the formation of different prion protein bands is elusive. After several low molecular weight bands of prion protein appeared in SMB-S15 cells infected with scrapie agent Chandler, we think that IRES-dependent translation mechanism induced by prion is involved in the formation of prion protein bands. Then we designed a series of pPrP-GFP fusing plasmids and bicistronic plasmids to identify the IRES sites of prion protein gene and found 3 IRES sites inside of PrP mRNA. We also demonstrated that cap-independent translation of PrP was associated with the ER stress through Tunicamycin treatment. We still found that only IRE1 and PERK pathway regulated the IRES-dependent translation of PrP in this study. Our results indicated, we found that PrP gene had an IRES-dependent translation initiation mechanism and we successfully identified the IRESs inside of the prion protein gene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Nuan Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Qin-Qin Song
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Jie Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Juan Song
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Xin-Ling Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Dong Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
| | - Peng Sun
- Inner Mongolia Medical University, Huhehot, China
| | - Jun Han
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
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Gritsenko AA, Weingarten-Gabbay S, Elias-Kirma S, Nir R, de Ridder D, Segal E. Sequence features of viral and human Internal Ribosome Entry Sites predictive of their activity. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005734. [PMID: 28922394 PMCID: PMC5630158 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2016] [Revised: 10/06/2017] [Accepted: 08/22/2017] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Translation of mRNAs through Internal Ribosome Entry Sites (IRESs) has emerged as a prominent mechanism of cellular and viral initiation. It supports cap-independent translation of select cellular genes under normal conditions, and in conditions when cap-dependent translation is inhibited. IRES structure and sequence are believed to be involved in this process. However due to the small number of IRESs known, there have been no systematic investigations of the determinants of IRES activity. With the recent discovery of thousands of novel IRESs in human and viruses, the next challenge is to decipher the sequence determinants of IRES activity. We present the first in-depth computational analysis of a large body of IRESs, exploring RNA sequence features predictive of IRES activity. We identified predictive k-mer features resembling IRES trans-acting factor (ITAF) binding motifs across human and viral IRESs, and found that their effect on expression depends on their sequence, number and position. Our results also suggest that the architecture of retroviral IRESs differs from that of other viruses, presumably due to their exposure to the nuclear environment. Finally, we measured IRES activity of synthetically designed sequences to confirm our prediction of increasing activity as a function of the number of short IRES elements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexey A. Gritsenko
- The Delft Bioinformatics Laboratory, Department of Intelligent Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
- Platform Green Synthetic Biology, Delft, The Netherlands
- Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Shira Weingarten-Gabbay
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Shani Elias-Kirma
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Ronit Nir
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Dick de Ridder
- The Delft Bioinformatics Laboratory, Department of Intelligent Systems, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
- Platform Green Synthetic Biology, Delft, The Netherlands
- Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, Delft, The Netherlands
- Bioinformatics Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Eran Segal
- Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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