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Chung C, Verheijen BM, Navapanich Z, McGann EG, Shemtov S, Lai GJ, Arora P, Towheed A, Haroon S, Holczbauer A, Chang S, Manojlovic Z, Simpson S, Thomas KW, Kaplan C, van Hasselt P, Timmers M, Erie D, Chen L, Gout JF, Vermulst M. Evolutionary conservation of the fidelity of transcription. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1547. [PMID: 36941254 PMCID: PMC10027832 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36525-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Accurate transcription is required for the faithful expression of genetic information. However, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanisms that control the fidelity of transcription, or the conservation of these mechanisms across the tree of life. To address these issues, we measured the error rate of transcription in five organisms of increasing complexity and found that the error rate of RNA polymerase II ranges from 2.9 × 10-6 ± 1.9 × 10-7/bp in yeast to 4.0 × 10-6 ± 5.2 × 10-7/bp in worms, 5.69 × 10-6 ± 8.2 × 10-7/bp in flies, 4.9 × 10-6 ± 3.6 × 10-7/bp in mouse cells and 4.7 × 10-6 ± 9.9 × 10-8/bp in human cells. These error rates were modified by various factors including aging, mutagen treatment and gene modifications. For example, the deletion or modification of several related genes increased the error rate substantially in both yeast and human cells. This research highlights the evolutionary conservation of factors that control the fidelity of transcription. Additionally, these experiments provide a reasonable estimate of the error rate of transcription in human cells and identify disease alleles in a subunit of RNA polymerase II that display error-prone transcription. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that the error rate and spectrum of transcription co-evolved with our genetic code.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Chung
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Bert M Verheijen
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Zoe Navapanich
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Eric G McGann
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Sarah Shemtov
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Guan-Ju Lai
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Payal Arora
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Atif Towheed
- Children's hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Suraiya Haroon
- Children's hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Agnes Holczbauer
- Children's hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sharon Chang
- Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Zarko Manojlovic
- Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Stephen Simpson
- College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Kelley W Thomas
- College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Craig Kaplan
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Peter van Hasselt
- Department of Metabolic Disease, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Marc Timmers
- Department of Urology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Partner Site Freiburg, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Dorothy Erie
- Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Lin Chen
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Jean-Franćois Gout
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA
| | - Marc Vermulst
- School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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The fidelity of transcription in human cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2210038120. [PMID: 36696440 PMCID: PMC9945944 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210038120] [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: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
To determine the error rate of transcription in human cells, we analyzed the transcriptome of H1 human embryonic stem cells with a circle-sequencing approach that allows for high-fidelity sequencing of the transcriptome. These experiments identified approximately 100,000 errors distributed over every major RNA species in human cells. Our results indicate that different RNA species display different error rates, suggesting that human cells prioritize the fidelity of some RNAs over others. Cross-referencing the errors that we detected with various genetic and epigenetic features of the human genome revealed that the in vivo error rate in human cells changes along the length of a transcript and is further modified by genetic context, repetitive elements, epigenetic markers, and the speed of transcription. Our experiments further suggest that BRCA1, a DNA repair protein implicated in breast cancer, has a previously unknown role in the suppression of transcription errors. Finally, we analyzed the distribution of transcription errors in multiple tissues of a new mouse model and found that they occur preferentially in neurons, compared to other cell types. These observations lend additional weight to the idea that transcription errors play a key role in the progression of various neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease.
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