1
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Riccardi F, Romano G, Licastro D, Pagani F. Age-dependent regulation of ELP1 exon 20 splicing in Familial Dysautonomia by RNA Polymerase II kinetics and chromatin structure. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0298965. [PMID: 38829854 PMCID: PMC11146744 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Familial Dysautonomia (FD) is a rare disease caused by ELP1 exon 20 skipping. Here we clarify the role of RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) and chromatin on this splicing event. A slow RNAPII mutant and chromatin-modifying chemicals that reduce the rate of RNAPII elongation induce exon skipping whereas chemicals that create a more relaxed chromatin exon inclusion. In the brain of a mouse transgenic for the human FD-ELP1 we observed on this gene an age-dependent decrease in the RNAPII density profile that was most pronounced on the alternative exon, a robust increase in the repressive marks H3K27me3 and H3K9me3 and a decrease of H3K27Ac, together with a progressive reduction in ELP1 exon 20 inclusion level. In HEK 293T cells, selective drug-induced demethylation of H3K27 increased RNAPII elongation on ELP1 and SMN2, promoted the inclusion of the corresponding alternative exons, and, by RNA-sequencing analysis, induced changes in several alternative splicing events. These data suggest a co-transcriptional model of splicing regulation in which age-dependent changes in H3K27me3/Ac modify the rate of RNAPII elongation and affect processing of ELP1 alternative exon 20.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico Riccardi
- Human Molecular Genetics, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Padriciano, Trieste, Italy
| | - Giulia Romano
- Human Molecular Genetics, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Padriciano, Trieste, Italy
| | - Danilo Licastro
- Laboratorio di Genomica ed Epigenomica, AREA Science Park, Padriciano, Trieste, Italy
| | - Franco Pagani
- Human Molecular Genetics, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Padriciano, Trieste, Italy
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2
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Do HTT, Shanak S, Barghash A, Helms V. Differential exon usage of developmental genes is associated with deregulated epigenetic marks. Sci Rep 2023; 13:12256. [PMID: 37507411 PMCID: PMC10382575 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-38879-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Alternative exon usage is known to affect a large portion of genes in mammalian genomes. Importantly, different splice isoforms sometimes possess distinctly different protein functions. Here, we analyzed data from the Human Epigenome Atlas for 11 different human adult tissues and for 8 cultured cells that mimic early developmental stages. We found a significant enrichment of cases where differential usage of exons in various developmental stages of human cells and tissues is associated with differential epigenetic modifications in the flanking regions of individual exons. Many of the genes that were differentially regulated at the exon level and showed deregulated histone marks at the respective exon flanks are functionally associated with development and metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Siba Shanak
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Arab American University, Jenin, Palestine
| | - Ahmad Barghash
- Department of Computer Science, German Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan
| | - Volkhard Helms
- Center for Bioinformatics, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.
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3
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Imbriano C, Belluti S. Histone Marks-Dependent Effect on Alternative Splicing: New Perspectives for Targeted Splicing Modulation in Cancer? Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23158304. [PMID: 35955433 PMCID: PMC9368390 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23158304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Revised: 07/23/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is a tightly regulated mechanism that generates the complex human proteome from a small number of genes. Cis-regulatory RNA motifs in exons and introns control AS, recruiting positive and negative trans-acting splicing regulators. At a higher level, chromatin affects splicing events. Growing evidence indicates that the popular histone code hypothesis can be extended to RNA-level processes, such as AS. In addition to nucleosome positioning, which can generate transcriptional barriers to shape the final splicing outcome, histone post-translational modifications can contribute to the detailed regulation of single exon inclusion/exclusion. A histone-based system can identify alternatively spliced chromatin stretches, affecting RNAPII elongation locally or recruiting splicing components via adaptor complexes. In tumor cells, several mechanisms trigger misregulated AS events and produce cancer-associated transcripts. On a genome-wide level, aberrant AS can be the consequence of dysfunctional epigenetic splicing code, including altered enrichment in histone post-translational modifications. This review describes the main findings related to the effect of histone modifications and variants on splicing outcome and how a dysfunctional epigenetic splicing code triggers aberrant AS in cancer. In addition, it highlights recent advances in programmable DNA-targeting technologies and their possible application for AS targeted epigenetic modulation.
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4
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Agirre E, Oldfield AJ, Bellora N, Segelle A, Luco RF. Splicing-associated chromatin signatures: a combinatorial and position-dependent role for histone marks in splicing definition. Nat Commun 2021; 12:682. [PMID: 33514745 PMCID: PMC7846797 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20979-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Accepted: 01/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Alternative splicing relies on the combinatorial recruitment of splicing regulators to specific RNA binding sites. Chromatin has been shown to impact this recruitment. However, a limited number of histone marks have been studied at a global level. In this work, a machine learning approach, applied to extensive epigenomics datasets in human H1 embryonic stem cells and IMR90 foetal fibroblasts, has identified eleven chromatin modifications that differentially mark alternatively spliced exons depending on the level of exon inclusion. These marks act in a combinatorial and position-dependent way, creating characteristic splicing-associated chromatin signatures (SACS). In support of a functional role for SACS in coordinating splicing regulation, changes in the alternative splicing of SACS-marked exons between ten different cell lines correlate with changes in SACS enrichment levels and recruitment of the splicing regulators predicted by RNA motif search analysis. We propose the dynamic nature of chromatin modifications as a mechanism to rapidly fine-tune alternative splicing when necessary. Chromatin is known to regulate splicing by modulating recruitment of splicing factors. Using machine learning approaches, the authors have underlined a chromatin code for alternative splicing regulation that is conserved amongst cell lines.
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Affiliation(s)
- E Agirre
- Institute of Human Genetics, UMR9002 CNRS-University of Montpellier, 34000, Montpellier, France.,Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - A J Oldfield
- Institute of Human Genetics, UMR9002 CNRS-University of Montpellier, 34000, Montpellier, France
| | - N Bellora
- Institute of Nuclear Technologies for Health (INTECNUS), National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Bariloche, 8400, Argentina
| | - A Segelle
- Institute of Human Genetics, UMR9002 CNRS-University of Montpellier, 34000, Montpellier, France
| | - R F Luco
- Institute of Human Genetics, UMR9002 CNRS-University of Montpellier, 34000, Montpellier, France.
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5
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Chen JB, Dong SS, Yao S, Duan YY, Hu WX, Chen H, Wang NN, Chen XF, Hao RH, Thynn HN, Guo MR, Zhang YJ, Rong Y, Chen YX, Zhou FL, Guo Y, Yang TL. Modeling circRNA expression pattern with integrated sequence and epigenetic features demonstrates the potential involvement of H3K79me2 in circRNA expression. Bioinformatics 2020; 36:4739-4748. [PMID: 32539144 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION CircRNAs are an abundant class of non-coding RNAs with widespread, cell-/tissue-specific patterns. Previous work suggested that epigenetic features might be related to circRNA expression. However, the contribution of epigenetic changes to circRNA expression has not been investigated systematically. Here, we built a machine learning framework named CIRCScan, to predict circRNA expression in various cell lines based on the sequence and epigenetic features. RESULTS The predicted accuracy of the expression status models was high with area under the curve of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) values of 0.89-0.92 and the false-positive rates of 0.17-0.25. Predicted expressed circRNAs were further validated by RNA-seq data. The performance of expression-level prediction models was also good with normalized root-mean-square errors of 0.28-0.30 and Pearson's correlation coefficient r over 0.4 in all cell lines, along with Spearman's correlation coefficient ρ of 0.33-0.46. Noteworthy, H3K79me2 was highly ranked in modeling both circRNA expression status and levels across different cells. Further analysis in additional nine cell lines demonstrated a significant enrichment of H3K79me2 in circRNA flanking intron regions, supporting the potential involvement of H3K79me2 in circRNA expression regulation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The CIRCScan assembler is freely available online for academic use at https://github.com/johnlcd/CIRCScan. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia-Bin Chen
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Shan-Shan Dong
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Shi Yao
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Yuan-Yuan Duan
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Wei-Xin Hu
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Hao Chen
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Nai-Ning Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Xiao-Feng Chen
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Ruo-Han Hao
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Hlaing Nwe Thynn
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Ming-Rui Guo
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Yu-Jie Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Yu Rong
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Yi-Xiao Chen
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Fu-Ling Zhou
- Department of Hematopathology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Yan Guo
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Tie-Lin Yang
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Biomedical Informatics & Genomics Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China
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6
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Hu Q, Greene CS, Heller EA. Specific histone modifications associate with alternative exon selection during mammalian development. Nucleic Acids Res 2020; 48:4709-4724. [PMID: 32319526 PMCID: PMC7229819 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Revised: 03/23/2020] [Accepted: 04/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is frequent during early mouse embryonic development. Specific histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) have been shown to regulate exon splicing by either directly recruiting splice machinery or indirectly modulating transcriptional elongation. In this study, we hypothesized that hPTMs regulate expression of alternatively spliced genes for specific processes during differentiation. To address this notion, we applied an innovative machine learning approach to relate global hPTM enrichment to AS regulation during mammalian tissue development. We found that specific hPTMs, H3K36me3 and H3K4me1, play a role in skipped exon selection among all the tissues and developmental time points examined. In addition, we used iterative random forest model and found that interactions of multiple hPTMs most strongly predicted splicing when they included H3K36me3 and H3K4me1. Collectively, our data demonstrated a link between hPTMs and alternative splicing which will drive further experimental studies on the functional relevance of these modifications to alternative splicing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiwen Hu
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Casey S Greene
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Heller
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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7
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Lee C, Chang W, Chang Y, Yang J, Chang C, Hsu K, Chen Y, Liu T, Chen Y, Lin S, Wu Y, Chang J. Alternative splicing in human cancer cells is modulated by the amiloride derivative 3,5-diamino-6-chloro-N-(N-(2,6-dichlorobenzoyl)carbamimidoyl)pyrazine-2-carboxide. Mol Oncol 2019; 13:1744-1762. [PMID: 31152681 PMCID: PMC6670021 DOI: 10.1002/1878-0261.12524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2018] [Revised: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 05/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is a process that enables the generation of multiple protein isoforms with different biological properties from a single mRNA. Cancer cells often use the maneuverability conferred by AS to produce proteins that contribute to growth and survival. In our previous studies, we identified that amiloride modulates AS in cancer cells. However, the effective concentration of amiloride required to modulate AS is too high for use in cancer treatment. In this study, we used computational algorithms to screen potential amiloride derivatives for their ability to regulate AS in cancer cells. We found that 3,5-diamino-6-chloro-N-(N-(2,6-dichlorobenzoyl)carbamimidoyl)pyrazine-2-carboxamide (BS008) can regulate AS of apoptotic gene transcripts, including HIPK3, SMAC, and BCL-X, at a lower concentration than amiloride. This splicing regulation involved various splicing factors, and it was accompanied by a change in the phosphorylation state of serine/arginine-rich proteins (SR proteins). RNA sequencing was performed to reveal that AS of many other apoptotic gene transcripts, such as AATF, ATM, AIFM1, NFKB1, and API5, was also modulated by BS008. In vivo experiments further indicated that treatment of tumor-bearing mice with BS008 resulted in a marked decrease in tumor size. BS008 also had inhibitory effects in vitro, either alone or in a synergistic combination with the cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents sorafenib and nilotinib. BS008 enabled sorafenib dose reduction without compromising antitumor activity. These findings suggest that BS008 may possess therapeutic potential for cancer treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chien‐Chin Lee
- Epigenome Research CenterChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
| | - Wen‐Hsin Chang
- Epigenome Research CenterChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
- Department of Primary Care MedicineTaipei Medical University HospitalTaiwan
| | - Ya‐Sian Chang
- Epigenome Research CenterChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
- Department of Laboratory MedicineChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
- Center for Precision MedicineChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
| | - Jinn‐Moon Yang
- TIGP‐BioinformaticsInstitute of Information ScienceAcademia SinicaTaipeiTaiwan
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems BiologyNational Chiao Tung UniversityHsinchuTaiwan
- Department of Biological Science and TechnologyNational Chiao Tung UniversityHsinchuTaiwan
| | - Chih‐Shiang Chang
- Graduate Institute of Pharmaceutical ChemistryChina Medical UniversityTaichungTaiwan
| | - Kai‐Cheng Hsu
- Graduate Institute of Cancer Molecular Biology and Drug DiscoveryCollege of Medical Science and TechnologyTaipei Medical UniversityTaiwan
| | - Yun‐Ti Chen
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems BiologyNational Chiao Tung UniversityHsinchuTaiwan
| | - Ting‐Yuan Liu
- Department of Laboratory MedicineChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
| | - Yu‐Chia Chen
- Department of Laboratory MedicineChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
| | - Shyr‐Yi Lin
- Department of Primary Care MedicineTaipei Medical University HospitalTaiwan
- Department of General MedicineSchool of MedicineCollege of MedicineTaipei Medical UniversityTaiwan
- TMU Research Center of Cancer Translational MedicineTaipei Medical UniversityTaiwan
| | - Yang‐Chang Wu
- Graduate Institute of Natural ProductsKaohsiung Medical UniversityTaiwan
- Research Center for Natural Products and Drug DevelopmentKaohsiung Medical UniversityTaiwan
- Department of Medical ResearchKaohsiung Medical University HospitalTaiwan
- Chinese Medicine Research and Development CenterChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
| | - Jan‐Gowth Chang
- Epigenome Research CenterChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
- Department of Primary Care MedicineTaipei Medical University HospitalTaiwan
- Department of Laboratory MedicineChina Medical University HospitalTaichungTaiwan
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8
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Aguiar D, Cheng LF, Dumitrascu B, Mordelet F, Pai AA, Engelhardt BE. Bayesian nonparametric discovery of isoforms and individual specific quantification. Nat Commun 2018; 9:1681. [PMID: 29703885 PMCID: PMC5923247 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03402-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2017] [Accepted: 02/11/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Most human protein-coding genes can be transcribed into multiple distinct mRNA isoforms. These alternative splicing patterns encourage molecular diversity, and dysregulation of isoform expression plays an important role in disease etiology. However, isoforms are difficult to characterize from short-read RNA-seq data because they share identical subsequences and occur in different frequencies across tissues and samples. Here, we develop biisq, a Bayesian nonparametric model for isoform discovery and individual specific quantification from short-read RNA-seq data. biisq does not require isoform reference sequences but instead estimates an isoform catalog shared across samples. We use stochastic variational inference for efficient posterior estimates and demonstrate superior precision and recall for simulations compared to state-of-the-art isoform reconstruction methods. biisq shows the most gains for low abundance isoforms, with 36% more isoforms correctly inferred at low coverage versus a multi-sample method and 170% more versus single-sample methods. We estimate isoforms in the GEUVADIS RNA-seq data and validate inferred isoforms by associating genetic variants with isoform ratios. Alternative splicing leads to transcript isoform diversity. Here, Aguiar et al. develop biisq, a Bayesian nonparametric approach to discover and quantify isoforms from RNA-seq data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek Aguiar
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA.
| | - Li-Fang Cheng
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA
| | - Bianca Dumitrascu
- Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Fantine Mordelet
- Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Athma A Pai
- Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01605, USA
| | - Barbara E Engelhardt
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA. .,Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA.
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9
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Xu Y, Wang Y, Luo J, Zhao W, Zhou X. Deep learning of the splicing (epi)genetic code reveals a novel candidate mechanism linking histone modifications to ESC fate decision. Nucleic Acids Res 2017; 45:12100-12112. [PMID: 29036709 PMCID: PMC5716079 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Revised: 09/08/2017] [Accepted: 09/15/2017] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is a genetically and epigenetically regulated pre-mRNA processing to increase transcriptome and proteome diversity. Comprehensively decoding these regulatory mechanisms holds promise in getting deeper insights into a variety of biological contexts involving in AS, such as development and diseases. We assembled splicing (epi)genetic code, DeepCode, for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) differentiation by integrating heterogeneous features of genomic sequences, 16 histone modifications with a multi-label deep neural network. With the advantages of epigenetic features, DeepCode significantly improves the performance in predicting the splicing patterns and their changes during hESC differentiation. Meanwhile, DeepCode reveals the superiority of epigenomic features and their dominant roles in decoding AS patterns, highlighting the necessity of including the epigenetic properties when assembling a more comprehensive splicing code. Moreover, DeepCode allows the robust predictions across cell lineages and datasets. Especially, we identified a putative H3K36me3-regulated AS event leading to a nonsense-mediated mRNA decay of BARD1. Reduced BARD1 expression results in the attenuation of ATM/ATR signalling activities and further the hESC differentiation. These results suggest a novel candidate mechanism linking histone modifications to hESC fate decision. In addition, when trained in different contexts, DeepCode can be expanded to a variety of biological and biomedical fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yungang Xu
- Center for Systems Medicine, School of Biomedical Bioinformatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
| | - Yongcui Wang
- Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, Qinghai 810008, China
| | - Jiesi Luo
- Center for Systems Medicine, School of Biomedical Bioinformatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Weiling Zhao
- Center for Systems Medicine, School of Biomedical Bioinformatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Xiaobo Zhou
- Center for Systems Medicine, School of Biomedical Bioinformatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
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10
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Gardella KA, Muro I, Fang G, Sarkar K, Mendez O, Wright CW. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT) isoforms control lymphoid cancer cell proliferation through differentially regulating tumor suppressor p53 activity. Oncotarget 2017; 7:10710-22. [PMID: 26909609 PMCID: PMC4905433 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.7539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2015] [Accepted: 01/22/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT) is involved in xenobiotic and hypoxic responses, and we previously showed that ARNT also regulates nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling by altering the DNA binding activity of the RelB subunit. However, our initial study of ARNT-mediated RelB modulation was based on simultaneous suppression of the two ARNT isoforms, isoform 1 and 3, and precluded the examination of their individual functions. We find here that while normal lymphocytes harbor equal levels of isoform 1 and 3, lymphoid malignancies exhibit a shift to higher levels of ARNT isoform 1. These elevated levels of ARNT isoform 1 are critical to the proliferation of these cancerous cells, as suppression of isoform 1 in a human multiple myeloma (MM) cell line, and an anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) cell line, triggered S-phase cell cycle arrest, spontaneous apoptosis, and sensitized cells to doxorubicin treatment. Furthermore, co-suppression of RelB or p53 with ARNT isoform 1 prevented cell cycle arrest and blocked doxorubicin induced apoptosis. Together our findings reveal that certain blood cancers rely on ARNT isoform 1 to potentiate proliferation by antagonizing RelB and p53-dependent cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Significantly, our results identify ARNT isoform 1 as a potential target for anticancer therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kacie A Gardella
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Israel Muro
- Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and The Center for Molecular and Cellular Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Gloria Fang
- Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and The Center for Molecular and Cellular Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Krishnakali Sarkar
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Omayra Mendez
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Casey W Wright
- Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and The Center for Molecular and Cellular Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.,Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
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11
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Reduced H3K27me3 Expression Is Common in Nodular Melanomas of Childhood Associated With Congenital Melanocytic Nevi But Not in Proliferative Nodules. Am J Surg Pathol 2017; 41:396-404. [PMID: 27849631 DOI: 10.1097/pas.0000000000000769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
The formation of a nodule within a congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN) raises concerns about possible melanoma. Most new nodular growths that develop during childhood, however, are benign proliferative nodules (PN); melanoma is very rare. The distinction of melanoma from PN can at times be difficult clinically and histopathologically, requiring ancillary molecular tests for diagnosis. Although the application of molecular methods has revealed new insights into the mutational and genomic landscape of childhood melanomas, little is known about epigenetic events that may drive the growth of a melanoma or PN in a CMN. In this study we compared the expression of H3K27me3, a key regulator in chromatin remodelling-controlled transcription, in PNs and pediatric nodular melanomas arising within medium-sized to large CMN by immunohistochemistry. Significant loss of H3K27me3 expression was seen in 4 of 5 melanomas, but not in any of the 20 PNs. This observation suggests that epigenetic events likely play a role in the pathogenesis of melanoma developing in the dermis or subcutis of CMN. Furthermore, assessing for H3K27me3 expression by immunohistochemistry may be diagnostically useful for problematic cases.
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12
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Hu Q, Kim EJ, Feng J, Grant GR, Heller EA. Histone posttranslational modifications predict specific alternative exon subtypes in mammalian brain. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005602. [PMID: 28609483 PMCID: PMC5487056 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2017] [Revised: 06/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
A compelling body of literature, based on next generation chromatin immunoprecipitation and RNA sequencing of reward brain regions indicates that the regulation of the epigenetic landscape likely underlies chronic drug abuse and addiction. It is now critical to develop highly innovative computational strategies to reveal the relevant regulatory transcriptional mechanisms that may underlie neuropsychiatric disease. We have analyzed chromatin regulation of alternative splicing, which is implicated in cocaine exposure in mice. Recent literature has described chromatin-regulated alternative splicing, suggesting a novel function for drug-induced neuroepigenetic remodeling. However, the extent of the genome-wide association between particular histone modifications and alternative splicing remains unexplored. To address this, we have developed novel computational approaches to model the association between alternative splicing and histone posttranslational modifications in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain reward region. Using classical statistical methods and machine learning to combine ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq data, we found that specific histone modifications are strongly associated with various aspects of differential splicing. H3K36me3 and H3K4me1 have the strongest association with splicing indicating they play a significant role in alternative splicing in brain reward tissue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiwen Hu
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Eun Ji Kim
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Jian Feng
- Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States of America
| | - Gregory R. Grant
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
- Penn Epigenetics Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth A. Heller
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
- Penn Epigenetics Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
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13
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Wu Q, Guan J, Zhou S. Histone modification patterns in highly differentiation cells. Neurocomputing 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neucom.2015.11.108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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14
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Warns JA, Davie JR, Dhasarathy A. Connecting the dots: chromatin and alternative splicing in EMT. Biochem Cell Biol 2015; 94:12-25. [PMID: 26291837 DOI: 10.1139/bcb-2015-0053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Nature has devised sophisticated cellular machinery to process mRNA transcripts produced by RNA Polymerase II, removing intronic regions and connecting exons together, to produce mature RNAs. This process, known as splicing, is very closely linked to transcription. Alternative splicing, or the ability to produce different combinations of exons that are spliced together from the same genomic template, is a fundamental means of regulating protein complexity. Similar to transcription, both constitutive and alternative splicing can be regulated by chromatin and its associated factors in response to various signal transduction pathways activated by external stimuli. This regulation can vary between different cell types, and interference with these pathways can lead to changes in splicing, often resulting in aberrant cellular states and disease. The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), which leads to cancer metastasis, is influenced by alternative splicing events of chromatin remodelers and epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation and non-coding RNAs. In this review, we will discuss the role of epigenetic factors including chromatin, chromatin remodelers, DNA methyltransferases, and microRNAs in the context of alternative splicing, and discuss their potential involvement in alternative splicing during the EMT process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica A Warns
- a Department of Basic Sciences, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 501 N. Columbia Road Stop 9061, Grand Forks, ND 58202-9061, USA
| | - James R Davie
- b Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, John Buhler Research Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 3P4, Canada
| | - Archana Dhasarathy
- a Department of Basic Sciences, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 501 N. Columbia Road Stop 9061, Grand Forks, ND 58202-9061, USA
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15
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Guantes R, Rastrojo A, Neves R, Lima A, Aguado B, Iborra FJ. Global variability in gene expression and alternative splicing is modulated by mitochondrial content. Genome Res 2015; 25:633-44. [PMID: 25800673 PMCID: PMC4417112 DOI: 10.1101/gr.178426.114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2014] [Accepted: 03/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Noise in gene expression is a main determinant of phenotypic variability. Increasing experimental evidence suggests that genome-wide cellular constraints largely contribute to the heterogeneity observed in gene products. It is still unclear, however, which global factors affect gene expression noise and to what extent. Since eukaryotic gene expression is an energy demanding process, differences in the energy budget of each cell could determine gene expression differences. Here, we quantify the contribution of mitochondrial variability (a natural source of ATP variation) to global variability in gene expression. We find that changes in mitochondrial content can account for ∼50% of the variability observed in protein levels. This is the combined result of the effect of mitochondria dosage on transcription and translation apparatus content and activities. Moreover, we find that mitochondrial levels have a large impact on alternative splicing, thus modulating both the abundance and type of mRNAs. A simple mathematical model in which mitochondrial content simultaneously affects transcription rate and splicing site choice can explain the alternative splicing data. The results of this study show that mitochondrial content (and/or probably function) influences mRNA abundance, translation, and alternative splicing, which ultimately affects cellular phenotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raul Guantes
- Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science Institute "Nicolás Cabrera" and Institute of Condensed Matter Physics (IFIMAC), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
| | - Alberto Rastrojo
- Centro Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa," CSIC-UAM, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
| | - Ricardo Neves
- MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DS, United Kingdom
| | - Ana Lima
- UC Biotech, Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Biocant, Center of Innovation in Biotechnology, 3060-197 Cantanhede, Portugal
| | - Begoña Aguado
- Centro Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa," CSIC-UAM, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
| | - Francisco J Iborra
- MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DS, United Kingdom; Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
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16
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Chandra V, Hong KM. Effects of deranged metabolism on epigenetic changes in cancer. Arch Pharm Res 2015; 38:321-37. [PMID: 25628247 DOI: 10.1007/s12272-015-0561-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2014] [Accepted: 01/09/2015] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The concept of epigenetics is now providing the mechanisms by which cells transfer their new environmental-change-induced phenotypes to their daughter cells. However, how extracellular or cytoplasmic environmental cues are connected to the nuclear epigenome remains incompletely understood. Recently emerging evidence suggests that epigenetic changes are correlated with metabolic changes via chromatin remodeling. As many human complex diseases including cancer harbor both epigenetic changes and metabolic dysregulation, understanding the molecular processes linking them has huge implications for disease pathogenesis and therapeutic intervention. In this review, the impacts of metabolic changes on cancer epigenetics are discussed, along with the current knowledge on cancer metabolism and epigenetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vishal Chandra
- Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology Branch, Research Institute, National Cancer Center, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang, 410-769, Korea
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17
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Liu H, Jin T, Guan J, Zhou S. Histone modifications involved in cassette exon inclusions: a quantitative and interpretable analysis. BMC Genomics 2014; 15:1148. [PMID: 25526687 PMCID: PMC4378014 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-1148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2014] [Accepted: 11/20/2014] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Chromatin structure and epigenetic modifications have been shown to involve in the co-transcriptional splicing of RNA precursors. In particular, some studies have suggested that some types of histone modifications (HMs) may participate in the alternative splicing and function as exon marks. However, most existing studies pay attention to the qualitative relationship between epigenetic modifications and exon inclusion. The quantitative analysis that reveals to what extent each type of epigenetic modification is responsible for exon inclusion is very helpful for us to understand the splicing process. Results In this paper, we focus on the quantitative analysis of HMs’ influence on the inclusion of cassette exons (CEs) into mature RNAs. With the high-throughput ChIP-seq and RNA-seq data obtained from ENCODE website, we modeled the association of HMs with CE inclusions by logistic regression whose coefficients are meaningful and interpretable for us to reveal the effect of each type of HM. Three type of HMs, H3K36me3, H3K9me3 and H4K20me1, were found to play major role in CE inclusions. HMs’ effect on CE inclusions is conservative across cell types, and does not depend on the expression levels of the genes hosting CEs. HMs located in the flanking regions of CEs were also taken into account in our analysis, and HMs within bounded flanking regions were shown to affect moderately CE inclusions. Moreover, we also found that HMs on CEs whose length is approximately close to nucleosomal-DNA length affect greatly on CE inclusion. Conclusions We suggested that a few types of HMs correlate closely to alternative splicing and perhaps function jointly with splicing machinery to regulate the inclusion level of exons. Our findings are helpful to understand HMs’ effect on exon definition, as well as the mechanism of co-transcriptional splicing. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-1148) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Shuigeng Zhou
- Shanghai Key Lab of Intelligent Information Processing, and School of Computer Science, Fudan University, 200433 Shanghai, China.
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