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Kretov DA, Folkes L, Mora-Martin A, Walawalkar IA, Imrat, Syedah N, Vanuytsel K, Moxon S, Murphy GJ, Cifuentes D. The miR-144/Hmgn2 regulatory axis orchestrates chromatin organization during erythropoiesis. Nat Commun 2024; 15:3821. [PMID: 38714702 PMCID: PMC11076586 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47982-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Differentiation of stem and progenitor cells is a highly regulated process that involves the coordinated action of multiple layers of regulation. Here we show how the post-transcriptional regulatory layer instructs the level of chromatin regulation via miR-144 and its targets to orchestrate chromatin condensation during erythropoiesis. The loss of miR-144 leads to impaired chromatin condensation during erythrocyte maturation. Among the several targets of miR-144 that influence chromatin organization, the miR-144-dependent regulation of Hmgn2 is conserved from fish to humans. Our genetic probing of the miR-144/Hmgn2 regulatory axis establish that intact miR-144 target sites in the Hmgn2 3'UTR are necessary for the proper maturation of erythrocytes in both zebrafish and human iPSC-derived erythroid cells while loss of Hmgn2 rescues in part the miR-144 null phenotype. Altogether, our results uncover miR-144 and its target Hmgn2 as the backbone of the genetic regulatory circuit that controls the terminal differentiation of erythrocytes in vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitry A Kretov
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Leighton Folkes
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Alexandra Mora-Martin
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Isha A Walawalkar
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Imrat
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Noreen Syedah
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kim Vanuytsel
- Center for Regenerative Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
- Section of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
- Amyloidosis Center, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - George J Murphy
- Center for Regenerative Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
- Section of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daniel Cifuentes
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Virology, Immunology and Microbiology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
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2
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Kretov DA, Folkes L, Mora-Martin A, Syedah N, Walawalkar IA, Vanyustel K, Moxon S, Murphy GJ, Cifuentes D. The miR-144/Hmgn2 regulatory axis orchestrates chromatin organization during erythropoiesis. bioRxiv 2024:2023.07.18.549576. [PMID: 37503141 PMCID: PMC10370056 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.18.549576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Differentiation of stem and progenitor cells is a highly regulated process that involves the coordinated action of multiple layers of regulation. Here we show how the post-transcriptional regulatory layer instructs the level of chromatin regulation via miR-144 and its targets to orchestrate chromatin condensation during erythropoiesis. The loss of miR-144 leads to impaired chromatin condensation during erythrocyte maturation. Among the several targets of miR-144 that influence chromatin organization, the miR-144-dependent regulation of Hmgn2 is conserved from fish to humans. Our genetic probing of the miR-144/Hmgn2 regulatory axis established that intact miR-144 target sites in the Hmgn2 3'UTR are necessary for the proper maturation of erythrocytes in both zebrafish and human iPSC-derived erythroid cells while loss of Hmgn2 rescues in part the miR-144 null phenotype. Altogether, our results uncover miR-144 and its target Hmgn2 as the backbone of the genetic regulatory circuit that controls the terminal differentiation of erythrocytes in vertebrates.
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3
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César‐Razquin A, Casacuberta J, Dalmay T, Federici S, Jacchia S, Kagkli DM, Moxon S, Papadopoulou N. Technical Note on the quality of DNA sequencing for the molecular characterisation of genetically modified plants. EFSA J 2024; 22:e8744. [PMID: 38634010 PMCID: PMC11022705 DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2024.8744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
As part of the risk assessment (RA) requirements for genetically modified (GM) plants, according to Regulation (EU) No 503/2013 and the EFSA guidance on the RA of food and feed from GM plants (EFSA GMO Panel 2011), applicants need to perform a molecular characterisation of the DNA sequences inserted in the GM plant genome. This Technical Note to the applicants puts together requirements and recommendations for the quality assessment of the methodology, analysis and reporting when DNA sequencing is used for the molecular characterisation of GM plants. In particular, it applies to the use of Sanger sequencing and next-generation sequencing for the characterisation of the inserted genetic material and its flanking regions at each insertion site, the determination of the copy number of all detectable inserts and the analysis of the genetic stability of the inserts. This updated document replaces the EFSA 2018 Technical Note and reflects the current knowledge in scientific-technical methods for generating and verifying, in a standardised manner, DNA sequencing data in the context of RA of GM plants. It does not take into consideration the verification and validation of the detection method which remains under the remit of the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
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4
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Bennett-Keki S, Fowler EK, Folkes L, Moxon S, Chapman T. Sex-biased gene expression in nutrient-sensing pathways. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20222086. [PMID: 36883280 PMCID: PMC9993052 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Differences in lifespan between males and females are found across many taxa and may be determined, at least in part, by differential responses to diet. Here we tested the hypothesis that the higher dietary sensitivity of female lifespan is mediated by higher and more dynamic expression in nutrient-sensing pathways in females. We first reanalysed existing RNA-seq data, focusing on 17 nutrient-sensing genes with reported lifespan effects. This revealed, consistent with the hypothesis, a dominant pattern of female-biased gene expression, and among sex-biased genes there tended to be a loss of female-bias after mating. We then tested directly the expression of these 17 nutrient-sensing genes in wild-type third instar larvae, once-mated 5- and 16-day-old adults. This confirmed sex-biased gene expression and showed that it was generally absent in larvae, but frequent and stable in adults. Overall, the findings suggest a proximate explanation for the sensitivity of female lifespan to dietary manipulations. We suggest that the contrasting selective pressures to which males and females are subject create differing nutritional demands and requirements, resulting in sex differences in lifespan. This underscores the potential importance of the health impacts of sex-specific dietary responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne Bennett-Keki
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Emily K. Fowler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Leighton Folkes
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Tracey Chapman
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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5
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Mills LA, Moreno-Cabezuelo JÁ, Włodarczyk A, Victoria AJ, Mejías R, Nenninger A, Moxon S, Bombelli P, Selão TT, McCormick AJ, Lea-Smith DJ. Development of a Biotechnology Platform for the Fast-Growing Cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 11901. Biomolecules 2022; 12:biom12070872. [PMID: 35883428 PMCID: PMC9313322 DOI: 10.3390/biom12070872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/21/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Synechococcus sp. PCC 11901 reportedly demonstrates the highest, most sustained growth of any known cyanobacterium under optimized conditions. Due to its recent discovery, our knowledge of its biology, including the factors underlying sustained, fast growth, is limited. Furthermore, tools specific for genetic manipulation of PCC 11901 are not established. Here, we demonstrate that PCC 11901 shows faster growth than other model cyanobacteria, including the fast-growing species Synechococcuselongatus UTEX 2973, under optimal growth conditions for UTEX 2973. Comparative genomics between PCC 11901 and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 reveal conservation of most metabolic pathways but PCC 11901 has a simplified electron transport chain and reduced light harvesting complex. This may underlie its superior light use, reduced photoinhibition, and higher photosynthetic and respiratory rates. To aid biotechnology applications, we developed a vitamin B12 auxotrophic mutant but were unable to generate unmarked knockouts using two negative selectable markers, suggesting that recombinase- or CRISPR-based approaches may be required for repeated genetic manipulation. Overall, this study establishes PCC 11901 as one of the most promising species currently available for cyanobacterial biotechnology and provides a useful set of bioinformatics tools and strains for advancing this field, in addition to insights into the factors underlying its fast growth phenotype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren A. Mills
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.A.M.); (J.Á.M.-C.); (R.M.); (S.M.)
| | - José Ángel Moreno-Cabezuelo
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.A.M.); (J.Á.M.-C.); (R.M.); (S.M.)
| | - Artur Włodarczyk
- Bondi Bio Pty Ltd., c/o Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, 745 Harris Street, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia;
| | - Angelo J. Victoria
- SynthSys and Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK; (A.J.V.); (A.N.); (A.J.M.)
| | - Rebeca Mejías
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.A.M.); (J.Á.M.-C.); (R.M.); (S.M.)
| | - Anja Nenninger
- SynthSys and Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK; (A.J.V.); (A.N.); (A.J.M.)
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.A.M.); (J.Á.M.-C.); (R.M.); (S.M.)
| | - Paolo Bombelli
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, UK;
| | - Tiago T. Selão
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK;
| | - Alistair J. McCormick
- SynthSys and Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK; (A.J.V.); (A.N.); (A.J.M.)
| | - David J. Lea-Smith
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.A.M.); (J.Á.M.-C.); (R.M.); (S.M.)
- Correspondence:
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6
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Billmeier M, Green D, Hall AE, Turnbull C, Singh A, Xu P, Moxon S, Dalmay T. Mechanistic insights into non-coding Y RNA processing. RNA Biol 2022; 19:468-480. [PMID: 35354369 PMCID: PMC8973356 DOI: 10.1080/15476286.2022.2057725] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Y RNAs (84–112 nt) are non-coding RNAs transcribed by RNA polymerase III and are characterized by a distinctive secondary structure. Human Y RNAs interact with the autoimmune proteins SSB and RO60 that together form a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex termed RoRNP and Y RNAs also perform regulatory roles in DNA and RNA replication and stability, which has major implications for diseases including cancer. During cellular stress and apoptosis, Y RNAs are cleaved into 3’ and 5’ end fragments termed Y RNA-derived small RNAs (ysRNAs). Although some ysRNA functions in stress, apoptosis and cancer have been reported, their fundamental biogenesis has not been described. Here we report that 3’ end RNY5 cleavage is structure dependent. In high throughput mutagenesis experiments, cleavage occurred between the 2nd and 3rd nt above a double stranded stem comprising high GC content. We demonstrate that an internal loop above stem S3 is critical for producing 3’ end ysRNAs (31 nt) with mutants resulting in longer or no ysRNAs. We show a UGGGU sequence motif at position 22 of RNY5 is critical for producing 5’ end ysRNAs (22–25 nt). We show that intact RO60 is critical for ysRNA biogenesis. We conclude that ribonuclease L (RNASEL) contributes to Y RNA cleavage in mouse embryonic fibroblasts but is not the only endoribonuclease important in human cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Billmeier
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK.,Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Darrell Green
- Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Adam E Hall
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK.,Horizon Discovery, Cambridge Research Park, Waterbeach, UK
| | - Carly Turnbull
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Archana Singh
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK.,Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Ping Xu
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK.,Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Plant Germplasm Resource, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
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7
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Hotzy C, Fowler E, Kiehl B, Francis R, Mason J, Moxon S, Rostant W, Chapman T, Immler S. Evolutionary history of sexual selection affects microRNA profiles in Drosophila sperm. Evolution 2021; 76:310-319. [PMID: 34874067 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Revised: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The presence of small RNAs in sperm is a relatively recent discovery and little is currently known about their importance and functions. Environmental changes including social conditions and dietary manipulations are known to affect the composition and expression of some small RNAs in sperm and may elicit a physiological stress response resulting in an associated change in gamete miRNA profiles. Here, we tested how microRNA profiles in sperm are affected by variation in both sexual selection and dietary regimes in Drosophila melanogaster selection lines. The selection lines were exposed to standard versus low yeast diet treatments and three different population sex ratios (male-biased, female-biased or equal sex) in a full-factorial design. After 38 generations of selection, all males were maintained on their selected diet and in a common garden male-only environment prior to sperm sampling. We performed transcriptome analyses on miRNAs in purified sperm samples. We found 11 differentially expressed miRNAs with the majority showing differences between male- and female-biased lines. Dietary treatment only had a significant effect on miRNA expression levels in interaction with sex ratio. Our findings suggest that long-term adaptation may affect miRNA profiles in sperm and that these may show varied interactions with short-term environmental changes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cosima Hotzy
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
| | - Emily Fowler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Berrit Kiehl
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
| | - Roy Francis
- Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
| | - Janet Mason
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Wayne Rostant
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Tracey Chapman
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Simone Immler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
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8
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Kanakis I, Alameddine M, Folkes L, Moxon S, Myrtziou I, Ozanne SE, Peffers MJ, Goljanek-Whysall K, Vasilaki A. Small-RNA Sequencing Reveals Altered Skeletal Muscle microRNAs and snoRNAs Signatures in Weanling Male Offspring from Mouse Dams Fed a Low Protein Diet during Lactation. Cells 2021; 10:cells10051166. [PMID: 34064819 PMCID: PMC8150574 DOI: 10.3390/cells10051166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Revised: 05/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Maternal diet during gestation and lactation affects the development of skeletal muscles in offspring and determines muscle health in later life. In this paper, we describe the association between maternal low protein diet-induced changes in offspring skeletal muscle and the differential expression (DE) of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs). We used a mouse model of maternal protein restriction, where dams were fed either a normal (N, 20%) or a low protein (L, 8%) diet during gestation and newborns were cross-fostered to N or L lactating dams, resulting in the generation of NN, NL and LN offspring groups. Total body and tibialis anterior (TA) weights were decreased in weanling NL male offspring but were not different in the LN group, as compared to NN. However, histological evaluation of TA muscle revealed reduced muscle fibre size in both groups at weaning. Small RNA-sequencing demonstrated DE of multiple miRs, snoRNAs and snRNAs. Bioinformatic analyses of miRs-15a, -34a, -122 and -199a, in combination with known myomiRs, confirmed their implication in key muscle-specific biological processes. This is the first comprehensive report for the DE of sncRNAs in nutrition-associated programming of skeletal muscle development, highlighting the need for further research to unravel the detailed molecular mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ioannis Kanakis
- Department of Musculoskeletal & Ageing Science, Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; (M.A.); (M.J.P.); (K.G.-W.); (A.V.)
- Chester Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Chester, Chester CH2 1BR, UK;
- Correspondence: or
| | - Moussira Alameddine
- Department of Musculoskeletal & Ageing Science, Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; (M.A.); (M.J.P.); (K.G.-W.); (A.V.)
| | - Leighton Folkes
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.F.); (S.M.)
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; (L.F.); (S.M.)
| | - Ioanna Myrtziou
- Chester Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Chester, Chester CH2 1BR, UK;
| | - Susan E. Ozanne
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK;
| | - Mandy J. Peffers
- Department of Musculoskeletal & Ageing Science, Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; (M.A.); (M.J.P.); (K.G.-W.); (A.V.)
| | - Katarzyna Goljanek-Whysall
- Department of Musculoskeletal & Ageing Science, Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; (M.A.); (M.J.P.); (K.G.-W.); (A.V.)
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine and REMEDI, CMNHS, NUI Galway, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland
| | - Aphrodite Vasilaki
- Department of Musculoskeletal & Ageing Science, Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L7 8TX, UK; (M.A.); (M.J.P.); (K.G.-W.); (A.V.)
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9
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Bradley T, Moxon S. FilTar: using RNA-Seq data to improve microRNA target prediction accuracy in animals. Bioinformatics 2020; 36:2410-2416. [PMID: 31930382 PMCID: PMC7178423 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Revised: 01/01/2020] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION MicroRNA (miRNA) target prediction algorithms do not generally consider biological context and therefore generic target prediction based on seed binding can lead to a high level of false-positive predictions. Here, we present FilTar, a method that incorporates RNA-Seq data to make miRNA target prediction specific to a given cell type or tissue of interest. RESULTS We demonstrate that FilTar can be used to: (i) provide sample specific 3'-UTR reannotation; extending or truncating default annotations based on RNA-Seq read evidence and (ii) filter putative miRNA target predictions by transcript expression level, thus removing putative interactions where the target transcript is not expressed in the tissue or cell line of interest. We test the method on a variety of miRNA transfection datasets and demonstrate increased accuracy versus generic miRNA target prediction methods. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION FilTar is freely available and can be downloaded from https://github.com/TBradley27/FilTar. The tool is implemented using the Python and R programming languages, and is supported on GNU/Linux operating systems. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Bradley
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.,Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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10
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Kretov DA, Walawalkar IA, Mora-Martin A, Shafik AM, Moxon S, Cifuentes D. Ago2-Dependent Processing Allows miR-451 to Evade the Global MicroRNA Turnover Elicited during Erythropoiesis. Mol Cell 2020; 78:317-328.e6. [PMID: 32191872 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.02.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2019] [Revised: 12/02/2019] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are sequentially processed by two RNase III enzymes, Drosha and Dicer. miR-451 is the only known miRNA whose processing bypasses Dicer and instead relies on the slicer activity of Argonaute-2 (Ago2). miR-451 is highly conserved in vertebrates and regulates erythrocyte maturation, where it becomes the most abundant miRNA. However, the basis for the non-canonical biogenesis of miR-451 is unclear. Here, we show that Ago2 is less efficient than Dicer in processing pre-miRNAs, but this deficit is overcome when miR-144 represses Dicer in a negative-feedback loop during erythropoiesis. Loss of miR-144-mediated Dicer repression in zebrafish embryos and human cells leads to increased canonical miRNA production and impaired miR-451 maturation. Overexpression of Ago2 rescues some of the defects of miR-451 processing. Thus, the evolution of Ago2-dependent processing allows miR-451 to circumvent the global repression of canonical miRNAs elicited, in part, by the miR-144 targeting of Dicer during erythropoiesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitry A Kretov
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Isha A Walawalkar
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Andrew M Shafik
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Daniel Cifuentes
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
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11
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Stocks MB, Mohorianu I, Beckers M, Paicu C, Moxon S, Thody J, Dalmay T, Moulton V. The UEA sRNA Workbench (version 4.4): a comprehensive suite of tools for analyzing miRNAs and sRNAs. Bioinformatics 2019; 34:3382-3384. [PMID: 29722807 PMCID: PMC6157081 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bty338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2017] [Accepted: 04/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivation RNA interference, a highly conserved regulatory mechanism, is mediated via small RNAs (sRNA). Recent technical advances enabled the analysis of larger, complex datasets and the investigation of microRNAs and the less known small interfering RNAs. However, the size and intricacy of current data requires a comprehensive set of tools, able to discriminate the patterns from the low-level, noise-like, variation; numerous and varied suggestions from the community represent an invaluable source of ideas for future tools, the ability of the community to contribute to this software is essential. Results We present a new version of the UEA sRNA Workbench, reconfigured to allow an easy insertion of new tools/workflows. In its released form, it comprises of a suite of tools in a user-friendly environment, with enhanced capabilities for a comprehensive processing of sRNA-seq data e.g. tools for an accurate prediction of sRNA loci (CoLIde) and miRNA loci (miRCat2), as well as workflows to guide the users through common steps such as quality checking of the input data, normalization of abundances or detection of differential expression represent the first step in sRNA-seq analyses. Availability and implementation The UEA sRNA Workbench is available at: http://srna-workbench.cmp.uea.ac.uk. The source code is available at: https://github.com/sRNAworkbenchuea/UEA_sRNA_Workbench Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew B Stocks
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Irina Mohorianu
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Matthew Beckers
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Claudia Paicu
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Joshua Thody
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Vincent Moulton
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
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12
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Curson ARJ, Williams BT, Pinchbeck BJ, Sims LP, Martínez AB, Rivera PPL, Kumaresan D, Mercadé E, Spurgin LG, Carrión O, Moxon S, Cattolico RA, Kuzhiumparambil U, Guagliardo P, Clode PL, Raina JB, Todd JD. Author Correction: DSYB catalyses the key step of dimethylsulfoniopropionate biosynthesis in many phytoplankton. Nat Microbiol 2019; 4:540-542. [PMID: 30700867 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-019-0386-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
In the version of this Letter originally published, the Methods incorrectly stated that all phytoplankton cultures were sampled in mid-exponential phase. The low-nitrogen cultures were sampled in early stationary phase and at the point at which Fv/Fm values decreased, to indicate that cultures were experiencing low-nitrogen conditions. All other phytoplankton cultures were sampled in exponential phase. Growth and Fv/Fm data are provided here on high- and low-nitrogen cultures (Figs 1, 2 and 3) to clarify and support this correction. The Methods also stated that cell counting was done using a Beckman Multisizer 3 Coulter Counter, but a CASY Model TT Cell Counter was used.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew R J Curson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Beth T Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | | | - Leanne P Sims
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | | | | | - Deepak Kumaresan
- School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Global Food Security, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Elena Mercadé
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Lewis G Spurgin
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Ornella Carrión
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | | | | | - Paul Guagliardo
- The Centre for Microscopy Characterisation and Analysis, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
| | - Peta L Clode
- The Centre for Microscopy Characterisation and Analysis, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.,Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
| | - Jean-Baptiste Raina
- Climate Change Cluster (C3), Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jonathan D Todd
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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13
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Abstract
MiRNAs are crucial regulators of gene expression found across both the plant and animal kingdoms. While the number of annotated miRNAs deposited in miRBase has greatly increased in recent years, few studies provided comparative analyses across sets of related species, or investigated the role of miRNAs in the evolution of gene regulation. We generated small RNA libraries across 5 mammalian species (cow, dog, horse, pig and rabbit) from 4 different tissues (brain, heart, kidney and testis). We identified 1676 miRBase and 413 novel miRNAs by manually curating the set of computational predictions obtained from miRCat and miRDeep2. Our dataset spanning five species has enabled us to investigate the molecular mechanisms and selective pressures driving the evolution of miRNAs in mammals. We highlight the important contributions of intronic sequences (366 orthogroups), duplication events (135 orthogroups) and repetitive elements (37 orthogroups) in the emergence of new miRNA loci. We use this framework to estimate the patterns of gains and losses across the phylogeny, and observe high levels of miRNA turnover. Additionally, the identification of lineage-specific losses enables the characterisation of the selective constraints acting on the associated target sites. Compared to the miRBase subset, novel miRNAs tend to be more tissue specific. 20 percent of novel orthogroups are restricted to the brain, and their target repertoires appear to be enriched for neuron activity and differentiation processes. These findings may reflect an important role for young miRNAs in the evolution of brain expression plasticity. Many seed sequences appear to be specific to either the cow or the dog. Analyses on the associated targets highlight the presence of several genes under artificial positive selection, suggesting an involvement of these miRNAs in the domestication process. Altogether, we provide an overview on the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for miRNA turnover in 5 domestic species, and their possible contribution to the evolution of gene regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Penso-Dolfin
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR47UZ, United Kingdom.
| | - Simon Moxon
- University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR47TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Wilfried Haerty
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR47UZ, United Kingdom
| | - Federica Di Palma
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR47UZ, United Kingdom.
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14
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Casacuberta J, Nogué F, Naegeli H, Birch AN, De Schrijver A, Gralak MA, Guerche P, Manachini B, Messéan A, Nielsen EE, Robaglia C, Rostoks N, Sweet J, Tebbe C, Visioli F, Wal JM, Moxon S, Schneeberger K, Federici S, Ramon M, Papadopoulou N, Jones H. Technical Note on the quality of DNA sequencing for the molecular characterisation of genetically modified plants. EFSA J 2018; 16:e05345. [PMID: 32625981 PMCID: PMC7009663 DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
As part of the risk assessment (RA) requirements for genetically modified (GM) plants, according to Regulation (EU) No 503/2013 and the EFSA guidance on the RA of food and feed from GM plants (EFSA GMO Panel, 2011), applicants need to perform a molecular characterisation of the DNA sequences inserted in the GM plant genome. The European Commission has mandated EFSA to develop a technical note to the applicants on, and checking of, the quality of the methodology, analysis and reporting covering complete sequencing of the insert and flanking regions, insertion site analysis of the GM event, and generational stability and integrity. This Technical Note puts together requirements and recommendations for when DNA sequencing is part of the molecular characterisation of GM plants, in particular for the characterisation of the inserted genetic material at each insertion site and flanking regions, the determination of the copy number of all detectable inserts, and the analysis of the genetic stability of the inserts, when addressed by Sanger sequencing or NGS. This document reflects the current knowledge in scientific-technical methods for generating and verifying, in a standardised manner, DNA sequencing data in the context of RA of GM plants. From 1 October 2018, this Technical Note will replace the JRC guideline of 2016 (updated April 2017) related to the verification and quality assessment of the sequencing of the insert(s) and flanking regions. It does not take into consideration the verification and validation of the detection method which remains under the remit of the JRC.
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15
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Mok GF, Lozano-Velasco E, Maniou E, Viaut C, Moxon S, Wheeler G, Münsterberg A. miR-133-mediated regulation of the Hedgehog pathway orchestrates embryo myogenesis. Development 2018; 145:dev.159657. [PMID: 29802149 PMCID: PMC6031409 DOI: 10.1242/dev.159657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2017] [Accepted: 05/10/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Skeletal myogenesis serves as a paradigm to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying exquisitely regulated cell fate decisions in developing embryos. The evolutionarily conserved miR-133 family of microRNAs is expressed in the myogenic lineage, but how it acts remains incompletely understood. Here, we performed genome-wide differential transcriptomics of miR-133 knockdown (KD) embryonic somites, the source of vertebrate skeletal muscle. These analyses, performed in chick embryos, revealed extensive downregulation of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway components: patched receptors, Hedgehog interacting protein and the transcriptional activator Gli1. By contrast, Gli3, a transcriptional repressor, was de-repressed and confirmed as a direct miR-133 target. Phenotypically, miR-133 KD impaired myotome formation and growth by disrupting proliferation, extracellular matrix deposition and epithelialization. Together, these observations suggest that miR-133-mediated Gli3 silencing is crucial for embryonic myogenesis. Consistent with this idea, we found that activation of Shh signalling by either purmorphamine, or KD of Gli3 by antisense morpholino, rescued the miR-133 KD phenotype. Thus, we identify a novel Shh/myogenic regulatory factor/miR-133/Gli3 axis that connects epithelial morphogenesis with myogenic fate specification. Summary: Here, using chick embryos, we showed that post-transcriptional silencing of the Gli3 repressor by miR-133 is required to stably establish the myogenic programme in early somites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gi Fay Mok
- School of Biological Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Estefania Lozano-Velasco
- School of Biological Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Eirini Maniou
- School of Biological Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Camille Viaut
- School of Biological Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- The Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK
| | - Grant Wheeler
- School of Biological Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Andrea Münsterberg
- School of Biological Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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16
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Pinhal D, Bovolenta LA, Moxon S, Oliveira AC, Nachtigall PG, Acencio ML, Patton JG, Hilsdorf AWS, Lemke N, Martins C. Genome-wide microRNA screening in Nile tilapia reveals pervasive isomiRs' transcription, sex-biased arm switching and increasing complexity of expression throughout development. Sci Rep 2018; 8:8248. [PMID: 29844338 PMCID: PMC5974277 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26607-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2016] [Accepted: 05/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of gene expression in multicellular organisms. The elucidation of miRNA function and evolution depends on the identification and characterization of miRNA repertoire of strategic organisms, as the fast-evolving cichlid fishes. Using RNA-seq and comparative genomics we carried out an in-depth report of miRNAs in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), an emergent model organism to investigate evo-devo mechanisms. Five hundred known miRNAs and almost one hundred putative novel vertebrate miRNAs have been identified, many of which seem to be teleost-specific, cichlid-specific or tilapia-specific. Abundant miRNA isoforms (isomiRs) were identified with modifications in both 5p and 3p miRNA transcripts. Changes in arm usage (arm switching) of nine miRNAs were detected in early development, adult stage and even between male and female samples. We found an increasing complexity of miRNA expression during ontogenetic development, revealing a remarkable synchronism between the rate of new miRNAs recruitment and morphological changes. Overall, our results enlarge vertebrate miRNA collection and reveal a notable differential ratio of miRNA arms and isoforms influenced by sex and developmental life stage, providing a better picture of the evolutionary and spatiotemporal dynamics of miRNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danillo Pinhal
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, SP, Brazil.
| | - Luiz A Bovolenta
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Arthur C Oliveira
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Pedro G Nachtigall
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Marcio L Acencio
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
| | - James G Patton
- Stevenson Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | | | - Ney Lemke
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, SP, Brazil
| | - Cesar Martins
- Department of Morphology, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, SP, Brazil
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17
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Curson ARJ, Williams BT, Pinchbeck BJ, Sims LP, Martínez AB, Rivera PPL, Kumaresan D, Mercadé E, Spurgin LG, Carrión O, Moxon S, Cattolico RA, Kuzhiumparambil U, Guagliardo P, Clode PL, Raina JB, Todd JD. DSYB catalyses the key step of dimethylsulfoniopropionate biosynthesis in many phytoplankton. Nat Microbiol 2018; 3:430-439. [PMID: 29483657 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-018-0119-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2017] [Accepted: 01/29/2018] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a globally important organosulfur molecule and the major precursor for dimethyl sulfide. These compounds are important info-chemicals, key nutrients for marine microorganisms, and are involved in global sulfur cycling, atmospheric chemistry and cloud formation1-3. DMSP production was thought to be confined to eukaryotes, but heterotrophic bacteria can also produce DMSP through the pathway used by most phytoplankton 4 , and the DsyB enzyme catalysing the key step of this pathway in bacteria was recently identified 5 . However, eukaryotic phytoplankton probably produce most of Earth's DMSP, yet no DMSP biosynthesis genes have been identified in any such organisms. Here we identify functional dsyB homologues, termed DSYB, in many phytoplankton and corals. DSYB is a methylthiohydroxybutryate methyltransferase enzyme localized in the chloroplasts and mitochondria of the haptophyte Prymnesium parvum, and stable isotope tracking experiments support these organelles as sites of DMSP synthesis. DSYB transcription levels increased with DMSP concentrations in different phytoplankton and were indicative of intracellular DMSP. Identification of the eukaryotic DSYB sequences, along with bacterial dsyB, provides the first molecular tools to predict the relative contributions of eukaryotes and prokaryotes to global DMSP production. Furthermore, evolutionary analysis suggests that eukaryotic DSYB originated in bacteria and was passed to eukaryotes early in their evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew R J Curson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Beth T Williams
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | | | - Leanne P Sims
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | | | | | - Deepak Kumaresan
- School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Global Food Security, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Elena Mercadé
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Lewis G Spurgin
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Ornella Carrión
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | | | | | - Paul Guagliardo
- The Centre for Microscopy Characterisation and Analysis, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
| | - Peta L Clode
- The Centre for Microscopy Characterisation and Analysis, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.,Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
| | - Jean-Baptiste Raina
- Climate Change Cluster (C3), Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jonathan D Todd
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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18
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Ward NJ, Green D, Higgins J, Dalmay T, Münsterberg A, Moxon S, Wheeler GN. microRNAs associated with early neural crest development in Xenopus laevis. BMC Genomics 2018; 19:59. [PMID: 29347911 PMCID: PMC5774138 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-4436-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2017] [Accepted: 01/04/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The neural crest (NC) is a class of transitory stem cell-like cells unique to vertebrate embryos. NC cells arise within the dorsal neural tube where they undergo an epithelial to mesenchymal transition in order to migrate and differentiate throughout the developing embryo. The derivative cell types give rise to multiple tissues, including the craniofacial skeleton, peripheral nervous system and skin pigment cells. Several well-studied gene regulatory networks underpin NC development, which when disrupted can lead to various neurocristopathies such as craniofrontonasal dysplasia, DiGeorge syndrome and some forms of cancer. Small RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNA molecules important in post-transcriptional gene silencing and critical for cellular regulation of gene expression. RESULTS To uncover novel small RNAs in NC development we used high definition adapters and next generation sequencing of libraries derived from ectodermal explants of Xenopus laevis embryos induced to form neural and NC tissue. Ectodermal and blastula animal pole (blastula) stage tissues were also sequenced. We show that miR-427 is highly abundant in all four tissue types though in an isoform specific manner and we define a set of 11 miRNAs that are enriched in the NC. In addition, we show miR-301a and miR-338 are highly expressed in both the NC and blastula suggesting a role for these miRNAs in maintaining the stem cell-like phenotype of NC cells. CONCLUSION We have characterised the miRNAs expressed in Xenopus embryonic explants treated to form ectoderm, neural or NC tissue. This has identified novel tissue specific miRNAs and highlighted differential expression of miR-427 isoforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole J. Ward
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ UK
| | - Darrell Green
- Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ UK
| | - Janet Higgins
- Regulatory Genomics, Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ UK
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ UK
| | - Andrea Münsterberg
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ UK
| | - Grant N. Wheeler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ UK
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19
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Paicu C, Mohorianu I, Stocks M, Xu P, Coince A, Billmeier M, Dalmay T, Moulton V, Moxon S. miRCat2: accurate prediction of plant and animal microRNAs from next-generation sequencing datasets. Bioinformatics 2017; 33:2446-2454. [PMID: 28407097 PMCID: PMC5870699 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btx210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2017] [Revised: 03/28/2017] [Accepted: 04/10/2017] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION MicroRNAs are a class of ∼21-22 nt small RNAs which are excised from a stable hairpin-like secondary structure. They have important gene regulatory functions and are involved in many pathways including developmental timing, organogenesis and development in eukaryotes. There are several computational tools for miRNA detection from next-generation sequencing datasets. However, many of these tools suffer from high false positive and false negative rates. Here we present a novel miRNA prediction algorithm, miRCat2. miRCat2 incorporates a new entropy-based approach to detect miRNA loci, which is designed to cope with the high sequencing depth of current next-generation sequencing datasets. It has a user-friendly interface and produces graphical representations of the hairpin structure and plots depicting the alignment of sequences on the secondary structure. RESULTS We test miRCat2 on a number of animal and plant datasets and present a comparative analysis with miRCat, miRDeep2, miRPlant and miReap. We also use mutants in the miRNA biogenesis pathway to evaluate the predictions of these tools. Results indicate that miRCat2 has an improved accuracy compared with other methods tested. Moreover, miRCat2 predicts several new miRNAs that are differentially expressed in wild-type versus mutants in the miRNA biogenesis pathway. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION miRCat2 is part of the UEA small RNA Workbench and is freely available from http://srna-workbench.cmp.uea.ac.uk/. CONTACT v.moulton@uea.ac.uk or s.moxon@uea.ac.uk. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Paicu
- The Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Irina Mohorianu
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Matthew Stocks
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Ping Xu
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Aurore Coince
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Martina Billmeier
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Vincent Moulton
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
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20
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Mathers TC, Chen Y, Kaithakottil G, Legeai F, Mugford ST, Baa-Puyoulet P, Bretaudeau A, Clavijo B, Colella S, Collin O, Dalmay T, Derrien T, Feng H, Gabaldón T, Jordan A, Julca I, Kettles GJ, Kowitwanich K, Lavenier D, Lenzi P, Lopez-Gomollon S, Loska D, Mapleson D, Maumus F, Moxon S, Price DRG, Sugio A, van Munster M, Uzest M, Waite D, Jander G, Tagu D, Wilson ACC, van Oosterhout C, Swarbreck D, Hogenhout SA. Erratum to: Rapid transcriptional plasticity of duplicated gene clusters enables a clonally reproducing aphid to colonise diverse plant species. Genome Biol 2017; 18:63. [PMID: 28376841 PMCID: PMC5381131 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-017-1202-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 03/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas C Mathers
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK.,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA
| | - Yazhou Chen
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA
| | | | - Fabrice Legeai
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France.,IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | - Sam T Mugford
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA
| | - Patrice Baa-Puyoulet
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Univ Lyon, INSA-Lyon, INRA, BF2I, UMR0203, F-69621, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Anthony Bretaudeau
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France.,IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | | | - Stefano Colella
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Univ Lyon, INSA-Lyon, INRA, BF2I, UMR0203, F-69621, Villeurbanne, France.,Present Address: INRA, UMR1342 IRD-CIRAD-INRA-SupAgro-Université de Montpellier, Laboratoire des Symbioses Tropicales et Méditéranéennes, Campus International de Baillarguet, TA-A82/J, F-34398, Montpellier cedex 5, France
| | - Olivier Collin
- IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Thomas Derrien
- CNRS, UMR 6290, Institut de Génétique et Developpement de Rennes, Université de Rennes 1, 2 Avenue du Pr. Léon Bernard, 35000, Rennes, France
| | - Honglin Feng
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA
| | - Toni Gabaldón
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona, 08003, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003, Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Anna Jordan
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK
| | - Irene Julca
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona, 08003, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Graeme J Kettles
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,Present address: Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertforshire, ALF5 2JQ, UK
| | - Krissana Kowitwanich
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,Present address: J. R. Simplot Company, Boise, ID, USA
| | - Dominique Lavenier
- IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | - Paolo Lenzi
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,Present address: Alson H. Smith Jr. Agriculture and Extension Center, Virginia Tech, Winchester, 22602, VA, USA
| | - Sara Lopez-Gomollon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.,Present address: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
| | - Damian Loska
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona, 08003, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Daniel Mapleson
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Florian Maumus
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Unité de Recherche Génomique-Info (URGI), INRA, Université Paris-Saclay, 78026, Versailles, France
| | - Simon Moxon
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Daniel R G Price
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA.,Present address: Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PZ, UK
| | - Akiko Sugio
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France
| | - Manuella van Munster
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR BGPI, CIRAD TA-A54K, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France
| | - Marilyne Uzest
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR BGPI, CIRAD TA-A54K, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France
| | - Darren Waite
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Georg Jander
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Denis Tagu
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France
| | - Alex C C Wilson
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA
| | - Cock van Oosterhout
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - David Swarbreck
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK. .,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA. .,School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
| | - Saskia A Hogenhout
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK. .,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA. .,School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
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21
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Fishwick C, Higgins J, Percival-Alwyn L, Hustler A, Pearson J, Bastkowski S, Moxon S, Swarbreck D, Greenman CD, Southgate J. Heterarchy of transcription factors driving basal and luminal cell phenotypes in human urothelium. Cell Death Differ 2017; 24:809-818. [PMID: 28282036 PMCID: PMC5423105 DOI: 10.1038/cdd.2017.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2016] [Revised: 01/10/2017] [Accepted: 01/11/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Cell differentiation is affected by complex networks of transcription factors that co-ordinate re-organisation of the chromatin landscape. The hierarchies of these relationships can be difficult to dissect. During in vitro differentiation of normal human uro-epithelial cells, formaldehyde-assisted isolation of regulatory elements (FAIRE-seq) and RNA-seq was used to identify alterations in chromatin accessibility and gene expression changes following activation of the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) as a differentiation-initiating event. Regions of chromatin identified by FAIRE-seq, as having altered accessibility during differentiation, were found to be enriched with sequence-specific binding motifs for transcription factors predicted to be involved in driving basal and differentiated urothelial cell phenotypes, including forkhead box A1 (FOXA1), P63, GRHL2, CTCF and GATA-binding protein 3 (GATA3). In addition, co-occurrence of GATA3 motifs was observed within subsets of differentiation-specific peaks containing P63 or FOXA1. Changes in abundance of GRHL2, GATA3 and P63 were observed in immunoblots of chromatin-enriched extracts. Transient siRNA knockdown of P63 revealed that P63 favoured a basal-like phenotype by inhibiting differentiation and promoting expression of basal marker genes. GATA3 siRNA prevented differentiation-associated downregulation of P63 protein and transcript, and demonstrated positive feedback of GATA3 on PPARG transcript, but showed no effect on FOXA1 transcript or protein expression. This approach indicates that as a transcriptionally regulated programme, urothelial differentiation operates as a heterarchy, wherein GATA3 is able to co-operate with FOXA1 to drive expression of luminal marker genes, but that P63 has potential to transrepress expression of the same genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl Fishwick
- Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Janet Higgins
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UZ, UK
| | | | - Arianna Hustler
- Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Joanna Pearson
- Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | | | - Simon Moxon
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - David Swarbreck
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Chris D Greenman
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Jennifer Southgate
- Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
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22
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Mathers TC, Chen Y, Kaithakottil G, Legeai F, Mugford ST, Baa-Puyoulet P, Bretaudeau A, Clavijo B, Colella S, Collin O, Dalmay T, Derrien T, Feng H, Gabaldón T, Jordan A, Julca I, Kettles GJ, Kowitwanich K, Lavenier D, Lenzi P, Lopez-Gomollon S, Loska D, Mapleson D, Maumus F, Moxon S, Price DRG, Sugio A, van Munster M, Uzest M, Waite D, Jander G, Tagu D, Wilson ACC, van Oosterhout C, Swarbreck D, Hogenhout SA. Rapid transcriptional plasticity of duplicated gene clusters enables a clonally reproducing aphid to colonise diverse plant species. Genome Biol 2017; 18:27. [PMID: 28190401 PMCID: PMC5304397 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-016-1145-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 161] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2016] [Accepted: 12/22/2016] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The prevailing paradigm of host-parasite evolution is that arms races lead to increasing specialisation via genetic adaptation. Insect herbivores are no exception and the majority have evolved to colonise a small number of closely related host species. Remarkably, the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, colonises plant species across 40 families and single M. persicae clonal lineages can colonise distantly related plants. This remarkable ability makes M. persicae a highly destructive pest of many important crop species. Results To investigate the exceptional phenotypic plasticity of M. persicae, we sequenced the M. persicae genome and assessed how one clonal lineage responds to host plant species of different families. We show that genetically identical individuals are able to colonise distantly related host species through the differential regulation of genes belonging to aphid-expanded gene families. Multigene clusters collectively upregulate in single aphids within two days upon host switch. Furthermore, we demonstrate the functional significance of this rapid transcriptional change using RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knock-down of genes belonging to the cathepsin B gene family. Knock-down of cathepsin B genes reduced aphid fitness, but only on the host that induced upregulation of these genes. Conclusions Previous research has focused on the role of genetic adaptation of parasites to their hosts. Here we show that the generalist aphid pest M. persicae is able to colonise diverse host plant species in the absence of genetic specialisation. This is achieved through rapid transcriptional plasticity of genes that have duplicated during aphid evolution. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13059-016-1145-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas C Mathers
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK.,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA
| | - Yazhou Chen
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA
| | | | - Fabrice Legeai
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France.,IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | - Sam T Mugford
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA
| | - Patrice Baa-Puyoulet
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Univ Lyon, INSA-Lyon, INRA, BF2I, UMR0203, F-69621, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Anthony Bretaudeau
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France.,IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | | | - Stefano Colella
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Univ Lyon, INSA-Lyon, INRA, BF2I, UMR0203, F-69621, Villeurbanne, France.,Present Address: INRA, UMR1342 IRD-CIRAD-INRA-SupAgro-Université de Montpellier, Laboratoire des Symbioses Tropicales et Méditéranéennes, Campus International de Baillarguet, TA-A82/J, F-34398, Montpellier cedex 5, France
| | - Olivier Collin
- IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Thomas Derrien
- CNRS, UMR 6290, Institut de Génétique et Developpement de Rennes, Université de Rennes 1, 2 Avenue du Pr. Léon Bernard, 35000, Rennes, France
| | - Honglin Feng
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA
| | - Toni Gabaldón
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona, 08003, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003, Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Anna Jordan
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK
| | - Irene Julca
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona, 08003, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Graeme J Kettles
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,Present address: Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertforshire, ALF5 2JQ, UK
| | - Krissana Kowitwanich
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,Present address: J. R. Simplot Company, Boise, ID, USA
| | - Dominique Lavenier
- IRISA/INRIA, GenOuest Core Facility, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, 35042, France
| | - Paolo Lenzi
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,Present address: Alson H. Smith Jr. Agriculture and Extension Center, Virginia Tech, Winchester, 22602, VA, USA
| | - Sara Lopez-Gomollon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.,Present address: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
| | - Damian Loska
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona, 08003, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Daniel Mapleson
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Florian Maumus
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Unité de Recherche Génomique-Info (URGI), INRA, Université Paris-Saclay, 78026, Versailles, France
| | - Simon Moxon
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Daniel R G Price
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA.,Present address: Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PZ, UK
| | - Akiko Sugio
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France
| | - Manuella van Munster
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR BGPI, CIRAD TA-A54K, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France
| | - Marilyne Uzest
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR BGPI, CIRAD TA-A54K, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France
| | - Darren Waite
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK
| | - Georg Jander
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| | - Denis Tagu
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,INRA, UMR 1349 IGEPP (Institute of Genetics Environment and Plant Protection), Domaine de la Motte, 35653, Le Rheu Cedex, France
| | - Alex C C Wilson
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA
| | - Cock van Oosterhout
- The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA.,School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - David Swarbreck
- Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UZ, UK. .,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA. .,School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
| | - Saskia A Hogenhout
- John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK. .,The International Aphid Genomics Consortium, Miami, USA. .,School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
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23
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Houston R, Moxon S, Nogué F, Papadopoulou N, Ramon M, Waigmann E. Assessment of the potential integration of the DNA plasmid vaccine CLYNAV into the salmon genome. EFSA J 2017; 15:e04689. [PMID: 32625277 PMCID: PMC7009875 DOI: 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The European Commission mandated EFSA to review a new data package provided by the company Elanco, for the possible integration/non‐integration of the DNA plasmid vaccine CLYNAV into the genome of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and to indicate whether EFSA agrees with the conclusions drawn by Elanco. The vaccine is injected into fish to confer protection against pancreas disease caused by the salmonid alphavirus. The majority of the experimental data provided by the company was for muscle tissue close to the injection site and for gonadal tissue. EFSA considers that the long persistence of DNA plasmid in muscle tissue close to the injection site and the potential heritability of an integration event in gonad cells support the focus of the assessment on both these tissues. The experimental data did not provide scientifically robust evidence for a true integration event. The company overall concluded that the likelihood of integration is negligible, based on considerations in the context of the company's environmental risk assessment, but did not provide a quantitative value for the rate of integration linked to the term ‘negligible’. It is therefore not possible to evaluate this statement specifically with regard to integration rates. EFSA notes that knowledge about homologous and non‐homologous integration predicts that integration could occur with certain frequency. Therefore, EFSA has constructed worst‐case scenarios leading to upper estimates for possible integration rates of the DNA plasmid vaccine into the Atlantic salmon genome. EFSA concludes that, based on the worst‐case scenarios described here and taking into account additional factors decreasing the likelihood of integration, the actual integration rate is likely to be orders of magnitude lower than the upper estimated integration rate calculated in the context of the worst‐case scenarios. With the available evidence, the actual integration rate cannot be estimated with more precision.
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24
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Kontra L, Csorba T, Tavazza M, Lucioli A, Tavazza R, Moxon S, Tisza V, Medzihradszky A, Turina M, Burgyán J. Distinct Effects of p19 RNA Silencing Suppressor on Small RNA Mediated Pathways in Plants. PLoS Pathog 2016; 12:e1005935. [PMID: 27711201 PMCID: PMC5053613 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2016] [Accepted: 09/13/2016] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
RNA silencing is one of the main defense mechanisms employed by plants to fight viruses. In change, viruses have evolved silencing suppressor proteins to neutralize antiviral silencing. Since the endogenous and antiviral functions of RNA silencing pathway rely on common components, it was suggested that viral suppressors interfere with endogenous silencing pathway contributing to viral symptom development. In this work, we aimed to understand the effects of the tombusviral p19 suppressor on endogenous and antiviral silencing during genuine virus infection. We showed that ectopically expressed p19 sequesters endogenous small RNAs (sRNAs) in the absence, but not in the presence of virus infection. Our presented data question the generalized model in which the sequestration of endogenous sRNAs by the viral suppressor contributes to the viral symptom development. We further showed that p19 preferentially binds the perfectly paired ds-viral small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) but does not select based on their sequence or the type of the 5' nucleotide. Finally, co-immunoprecipitation of sRNAs with AGO1 or AGO2 from virus-infected plants revealed that p19 specifically impairs vsiRNA loading into AGO1 but not AGO2. Our findings, coupled with the fact that p19-expressing wild type Cymbidium ringspot virus (CymRSV) overcomes the Nicotiana benthamiana silencing based defense killing the host, suggest that AGO1 is the main effector of antiviral silencing in this host-virus combination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Levente Kontra
- National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary
- Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary
| | - Tibor Csorba
- National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary
| | - Mario Tavazza
- Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), C.R. Casaccia, Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandra Lucioli
- Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), C.R. Casaccia, Rome, Italy
| | - Raffaela Tavazza
- Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), C.R. Casaccia, Rome, Italy
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom
| | - Viktória Tisza
- National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary
| | - Anna Medzihradszky
- National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary
| | - Massimo Turina
- National Research Council, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Torino, Italy
| | - József Burgyán
- National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary
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25
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Hatch VL, Marin-Barba M, Moxon S, Ford CT, Ward NJ, Tomlinson ML, Desanlis I, Hendry AE, Hontelez S, van Kruijsbergen I, Veenstra GJC, Münsterberg AE, Wheeler GN. The positive transcriptional elongation factor (P-TEFb) is required for neural crest specification. Dev Biol 2016; 416:361-72. [PMID: 27343897 DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2016.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2015] [Revised: 05/06/2016] [Accepted: 06/08/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Regulation of gene expression at the level of transcriptional elongation has been shown to be important in stem cells and tumour cells, but its role in the whole animal is only now being fully explored. Neural crest cells (NCCs) are a multipotent population of cells that migrate during early development from the dorsal neural tube throughout the embryo where they differentiate into a variety of cell types including pigment cells, cranio-facial skeleton and sensory neurons. Specification of NCCs is both spatially and temporally regulated during embryonic development. Here we show that components of the transcriptional elongation regulatory machinery, CDK9 and CYCLINT1 of the P-TEFb complex, are required to regulate neural crest specification. In particular, we show that expression of the proto-oncogene c-Myc and c-Myc responsive genes are affected. Our data suggest that P-TEFb is crucial to drive expression of c-Myc, which acts as a 'gate-keeper' for the correct temporal and spatial development of the neural crest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria L Hatch
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Marta Marin-Barba
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Christopher T Ford
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Nicole J Ward
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Matthew L Tomlinson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Ines Desanlis
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Adam E Hendry
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Saartje Hontelez
- Radboud University, Department of Molecular Developmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Ila van Kruijsbergen
- Radboud University, Department of Molecular Developmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Gert Jan C Veenstra
- Radboud University, Department of Molecular Developmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Andrea E Münsterberg
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Grant N Wheeler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
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26
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Giusti J, Pinhal D, Moxon S, Campos CL, Münsterberg A, Martins C. MicroRNA-10 modulates Hox genes expression during Nile tilapia embryonic development. Mech Dev 2016; 140:12-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mod.2016.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2015] [Revised: 02/12/2016] [Accepted: 03/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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27
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Penso-Dolfin L, Swofford R, Johnson J, Alföldi J, Lindblad-Toh K, Swarbreck D, Moxon S, Di Palma F. An Improved microRNA Annotation of the Canine Genome. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0153453. [PMID: 27119849 PMCID: PMC4847789 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2015] [Accepted: 03/30/2016] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
The domestic dog, Canis familiaris, is a valuable model for studying human diseases. The publication of the latest Canine genome build and annotation, CanFam3.1 provides an opportunity to enhance our understanding of gene regulation across tissues in the dog model system. In this study, we used the latest dog genome assembly and small RNA sequencing data from 9 different dog tissues to predict novel miRNAs in the dog genome, as well as to annotate conserved miRNAs from the miRBase database that were missing from the current dog annotation. We used both miRCat and miRDeep2 algorithms to computationally predict miRNA loci. The resulting, putative hairpin sequences were analysed in order to discard false positives, based on predicted secondary structures and patterns of small RNA read alignments. Results were further divided into high and low confidence miRNAs, using the same criteria. We generated tissue specific expression profiles for the resulting set of 811 loci: 720 conserved miRNAs, (207 of which had not been previously annotated in the dog genome) and 91 novel miRNA loci. Comparative analyses revealed 8 putative homologues of some novel miRNA in ferret, and one in microbat. All miRNAs were also classified into the genic and intergenic categories, based on the Ensembl RefSeq gene annotation for CanFam3.1. This additionally allowed us to identify four previously undescribed MiRtrons among our total set of miRNAs. We additionally annotated piRNAs, using proTRAC on the same input data. We thus identified 263 putative clusters, most of which (211 clusters) were found to be expressed in testis. Our results represent an important improvement of the dog genome annotation, paving the way to further research on the evolution of gene regulation, as well as on the contribution of post-transcriptional regulation to pathological conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Penso-Dolfin
- Vertebrate and Health Genomics, The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Ross Swofford
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Jeremy Johnson
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Jessica Alföldi
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Kerstin Lindblad-Toh
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - David Swarbreck
- Regulatory Genomics, The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Moxon
- Regulatory Genomics, The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (SM); (DFP)
| | - Federica Di Palma
- Vertebrate and Health Genomics, The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (SM); (DFP)
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Hall AE, Lu WT, Godfrey JD, Antonov AV, Paicu C, Moxon S, Dalmay T, Wilczynska A, Muller PAJ, Bushell M. The cytoskeleton adaptor protein ankyrin-1 is upregulated by p53 following DNA damage and alters cell migration. Cell Death Dis 2016; 7:e2184. [PMID: 27054339 PMCID: PMC4855670 DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2016.91] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2015] [Revised: 03/09/2016] [Accepted: 03/15/2016] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
The integrity of the genome is maintained by a host of surveillance and repair mechanisms that are pivotal for cellular function. The tumour suppressor protein p53 is a major component of the DNA damage response pathway and plays a vital role in the maintenance of cell-cycle checkpoints. Here we show that a microRNA, miR-486, and its host gene ankyrin-1 (ANK1) are induced by p53 following DNA damage. Strikingly, the cytoskeleton adaptor protein ankyrin-1 was induced over 80-fold following DNA damage. ANK1 is upregulated in response to a variety of DNA damage agents in a range of cell types. We demonstrate that miR-486-5p is involved in controlling G1/S transition following DNA damage, whereas the induction of the ankyrin-1 protein alters the structure of the actin cytoskeleton and sustains limited cell migration during DNA damage. Importantly, we found that higher ANK1 expression correlates with decreased survival in cancer patients. Thus, these observations highlight ANK1 as an important effector downstream of the p53 pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- A E Hall
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
| | - W-T Lu
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
| | - J D Godfrey
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
| | - A V Antonov
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
| | - C Paicu
- The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, UK.,School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - S Moxon
- The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, UK
| | - T Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - A Wilczynska
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
| | - P A J Muller
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
| | - M Bushell
- Medical Research Council (MRC), Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK
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Vij S, Kuhl H, Kuznetsova IS, Komissarov A, Yurchenko AA, Van Heusden P, Singh S, Thevasagayam NM, Prakki SRS, Purushothaman K, Saju JM, Jiang J, Mbandi SK, Jonas M, Hin Yan Tong A, Mwangi S, Lau D, Ngoh SY, Liew WC, Shen X, Hon LS, Drake JP, Boitano M, Hall R, Chin CS, Lachumanan R, Korlach J, Trifonov V, Kabilov M, Tupikin A, Green D, Moxon S, Garvin T, Sedlazeck FJ, Vurture GW, Gopalapillai G, Kumar Katneni V, Noble TH, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S, Jerry DR, O'Brien SJ, Schatz MC, Dalmay T, Turner SW, Lok S, Christoffels A, Orbán L. Chromosomal-Level Assembly of the Asian Seabass Genome Using Long Sequence Reads and Multi-layered Scaffolding. PLoS Genet 2016; 12:e1005954. [PMID: 27082250 PMCID: PMC4833346 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2015] [Accepted: 03/03/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shubha Vij
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Heiner Kuhl
- Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
| | - Inna S. Kuznetsova
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
- Laboratory of Chromosome Structure and Function, Department of Cytology and Histology, Biological Faculty, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Aleksey Komissarov
- Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Andrey A. Yurchenko
- Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Peter Van Heusden
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
| | - Siddharth Singh
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | | | | | | | - Jolly M. Saju
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Junhui Jiang
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Stanley Kimbung Mbandi
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
| | - Mario Jonas
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
| | - Amy Hin Yan Tong
- Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Sarah Mwangi
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
| | - Doreen Lau
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Si Yan Ngoh
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Woei Chang Liew
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Xueyan Shen
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
| | - Lawrence S. Hon
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | - James P. Drake
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | - Matthew Boitano
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | - Richard Hall
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | - Chen-Shan Chin
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | | | - Jonas Korlach
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | - Vladimir Trifonov
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
| | - Marsel Kabilov
- Genomics Core Facility, Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexey Tupikin
- Genomics Core Facility, Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Darrell Green
- Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Moxon
- The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Tyler Garvin
- Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, One Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States of America
| | - Fritz J. Sedlazeck
- Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, One Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States of America
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Gregory W. Vurture
- Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, One Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States of America
| | - Gopikrishna Gopalapillai
- Nutrition, Genetics & Biotechnology Division, ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Vinaya Kumar Katneni
- Nutrition, Genetics & Biotechnology Division, ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Tansyn H. Noble
- College of Marine and Environmental Sciences and Center for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Vinod Scaria
- CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi, India
| | - Sridhar Sivasubbu
- CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi, India
| | - Dean R. Jerry
- College of Marine and Environmental Sciences and Center for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Stephen J. O'Brien
- Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Oceanographic Center, Nova Southeastern University Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, United States of America
| | - Michael C. Schatz
- Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, One Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States of America
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Tamás Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen W. Turner
- Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America
| | - Si Lok
- The Centre for Applied Genomics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Alan Christoffels
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
| | - László Orbán
- Reproductive Genomics Group, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore
- Department of Animal Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Georgikon Faculty, University of Pannonia, Keszthely, Hungary
- Centre for Comparative Genomics, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia
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Ahmed A, Ward NJ, Moxon S, Lopez-Gomollon S, Viaut C, Tomlinson ML, Patrushev I, Gilchrist MJ, Dalmay T, Dotlic D, Münsterberg AE, Wheeler GN. A Database of microRNA Expression Patterns in Xenopus laevis. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0138313. [PMID: 26506012 PMCID: PMC4624429 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2015] [Accepted: 08/28/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding RNAs around 22 nucleotides long. They inhibit gene expression either by translational repression or by causing the degradation of the mRNAs they bind to. Many are highly conserved amongst diverse organisms and have restricted spatio-temporal expression patterns during embryonic development where they are thought to be involved in generating accuracy of developmental timing and in supporting cell fate decisions and tissue identity. We determined the expression patterns of 180 miRNAs in Xenopus laevis embryos using LNA oligonucleotides. In addition we carried out small RNA-seq on different stages of early Xenopus development, identified 44 miRNAs belonging to 29 new families and characterized the expression of 5 of these. Our analyses identified miRNA expression in many organs of the developing embryo. In particular a large number were expressed in neural tissue and in the somites. Surprisingly none of the miRNAs we have looked at show expression in the heart. Our results have been made freely available as a resource in both XenMARK and Xenbase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayisha Ahmed
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Nicole J. Ward
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Moxon
- The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7UH, United Kingdom
| | - Sara Lopez-Gomollon
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Camille Viaut
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Matthew L. Tomlinson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Ilya Patrushev
- The Francis Crick Institute, Mill Hill Laboratory, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London, NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
| | - Michael J. Gilchrist
- The Francis Crick Institute, Mill Hill Laboratory, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London, NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Dario Dotlic
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Andrea E. Münsterberg
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Grant N. Wheeler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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Trieu TA, Calo S, Nicolás FE, Vila A, Moxon S, Dalmay T, Torres-Martínez S, Garre V, Ruiz-Vázquez RM. A non-canonical RNA silencing pathway promotes mRNA degradation in basal Fungi. PLoS Genet 2015; 11:e1005168. [PMID: 25875805 PMCID: PMC4395119 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2015] [Accepted: 03/20/2015] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The increasing knowledge on the functional relevance of endogenous small RNAs (esRNAs) as riboregulators has stimulated the identification and characterization of these molecules in numerous eukaryotes. In the basal fungus Mucor circinelloides, an emerging opportunistic human pathogen, esRNAs that regulate the expression of many protein coding genes have been described. These esRNAs share common machinery for their biogenesis consisting of an RNase III endonuclease Dicer, a single Argonaute protein and two RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. We show in this study that, besides participating in this canonical dicer-dependent RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, the rdrp genes are involved in a novel dicer-independent degradation process of endogenous mRNAs. The analysis of esRNAs accumulated in wild type and silencing mutants demonstrates that this new rdrp-dependent dicer-independent regulatory pathway, which does not produce sRNA molecules of discrete sizes, controls the expression of target genes promoting the specific degradation of mRNAs by a previously unknown RNase. This pathway mainly regulates conserved genes involved in metabolism and cellular processes and signaling, such as those required for heme biosynthesis, and controls responses to specific environmental signals. Searching the Mucor genome for candidate RNases to participate in this pathway, and functional analysis of the corresponding knockout mutants, identified a new protein, R3B2. This RNase III-like protein presents unique domain architecture, it is specifically found in basal fungi and, besides its relevant role in the rdrp-dependent dicer-independent pathway, it is also involved in the canonical dicer-dependent RNAi pathway, highlighting its crucial role in the biogenesis and function of regulatory esRNAs. The involvement of RdRPs in RNA degradation could represent the first evolutionary step towards the development of an RNAi mechanism and constitutes a genetic link between mRNA degradation and post-transcriptional gene silencing. Most eukaryotic organisms produce different classes of endogenous small RNA (esRNA) molecules that suppress gene expression through RNA interference (RNAi) pathways. These pathways, which may differ among organisms, are normally involved in genome defense, heterochromatin formation and regulation of genes involved in multiple cellular functions. In the basal fungus Mucor circinelloides, an opportunistic human pathogen, we previously demonstrated that biogenesis of a large group of esRNA molecules requires a basic RNAi machinery consisting of a Dicer-like protein, an Argonaute nuclease and two RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. This canonical dicer-dependent pathway regulates different cellular processes, such as vegetative sporulation. Besides those esRNAs generated by this canonical RNAi pathway, we have identified a new rdrp-dependent dicer-independent esRNA class. These esRNAs are produced by a degradation pathway in which the RdRP proteins signal specific transcripts that will be degraded by a newly identified RNase. This RNase, named R3B2, presents unique domain architecture, can only be found in basal fungi and it is also involved in the canonical dicer-dependent RNAi pathway. Our results expand the role of RdRPs in gene silencing and reveal the involvement of these proteins in a new RNA degradation process that could represent the first step in the evolution of RNAi.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trung Anh Trieu
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Silvia Calo
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | | | - Ana Vila
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Simon Moxon
- The Genome Analysis Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | | | - Victoriano Garre
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| | - Rosa M. Ruiz-Vázquez
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
- * E-mail:
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Nicolás FE, Vila A, Moxon S, Cascales MD, Torres-Martínez S, Ruiz-Vázquez RM, Garre V. The RNAi machinery controls distinct responses to environmental signals in the basal fungus Mucor circinelloides. BMC Genomics 2015; 16:237. [PMID: 25880254 PMCID: PMC4417260 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-1443-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2014] [Accepted: 03/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND RNA interference (RNAi) is a conserved mechanism of genome defence that can also have a role in the regulation of endogenous functions through endogenous small RNAs (esRNAs). In fungi, knowledge of the functions regulated by esRNAs has been hampered by lack of clear phenotypes in most mutants affected in the RNAi machinery. Mutants of Mucor circinelloides affected in RNAi genes show defects in physiological and developmental processes, thus making Mucor an outstanding fungal model for studying endogenous functions regulated by RNAi. Some classes of Mucor esRNAs map to exons (ex-siRNAs) and regulate expression of the genes from which they derive. To have a broad picture of genes regulated by the silencing machinery during vegetative growth, we have sequenced and compared the mRNA profiles of mutants in the main RNAi genes by using RNA-seq. In addition, we have achieved a more complete phenotypic characterization of silencing mutants. RESULTS Deletion of any main RNAi gene provoked a deep impact in mRNA accumulation at exponential and stationary growth. Genes showing increased mRNA levels, as expected for direct ex-siRNAs targets, but also genes with decreased expression were detected, suggesting that, most probably, the initial ex-siRNA targets regulate the expression of other genes, which can be up- or down-regulated. Expression of 50% of the genes was dependent on more than one RNAi gene in agreement with the existence of several classes of ex-siRNAs produced by different combinations of RNAi proteins. These combinations of proteins have also been involved in the regulation of different cellular processes. Besides genes regulated by the canonical RNAi pathway, this analysis identified processes, such as growth at low pH and sexual interaction that are regulated by a dicer-independent non-canonical RNAi pathway. CONCLUSION This work shows that the RNAi pathways play a relevant role in the regulation of a significant number of endogenous genes in M. circinelloides during exponential and stationary growth phases and opens up an important avenue for in-depth study of genes involved in the regulation of physiological and developmental processes in this fungal model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco E Nicolás
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
| | - Ana Vila
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
| | - Simon Moxon
- The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.
| | - María D Cascales
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
| | - Santiago Torres-Martínez
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
| | - Rosa M Ruiz-Vázquez
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
| | - Victoriano Garre
- Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
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Toseland A, Moxon S, Mock T, Moulton V. Metatranscriptomes from diverse microbial communities: assessment of data reduction techniques for rigorous annotation. BMC Genomics 2014; 15:901. [PMID: 25318651 PMCID: PMC4209020 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2014] [Accepted: 09/29/2014] [Indexed: 05/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Metatranscriptome sequence data can contain highly redundant sequences from diverse populations of microbes and so data reduction techniques are often applied before taxonomic and functional annotation. For metagenomic data, it has been observed that the variable coverage and presence of closely related organisms can lead to fragmented assemblies containing chimeric contigs that may reduce the accuracy of downstream analyses and some advocate the use of alternate data reduction techniques. However, it is unclear how such data reduction techniques impact the annotation of metatranscriptome data and thus affect the interpretation of the results. Results To investigate the effect of such techniques on the annotation of metatranscriptome data we assess two commonly employed methods: clustering and de-novo assembly. To do this, we also developed an approach to simulate 454 and Illumina metatranscriptome data sets with varying degrees of taxonomic diversity. For the Illumina simulations, we found that a two-step approach of assembly followed by clustering of contigs and unassembled sequences produced the most accurate reflection of the real protein domain content of the sample. For the 454 simulations, the combined annotation of contigs and unassembled reads produced the most accurate protein domain annotations. Conclusions Based on these data we recommend that assembly be attempted, and that unassembled reads be included in the final annotation for metatranscriptome data, even from highly diverse environments as the resulting annotations should lead to a more accurate reflection of the transcriptional behaviour of the microbial population under investigation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-901) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Toseland
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ, UK.
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Lopez-Gomollon S, Beckers M, Rathjen T, Moxon S, Maumus F, Mohorianu I, Moulton V, Dalmay T, Mock T. Global discovery and characterization of small non-coding RNAs in marine microalgae. BMC Genomics 2014; 15:697. [PMID: 25142467 PMCID: PMC4156623 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2014] [Accepted: 07/09/2014] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Marine phytoplankton are responsible for 50% of the CO2 that is fixed annually worldwide and contribute massively to other biogeochemical cycles in the oceans. Diatoms and coccolithophores play a significant role as the base of the marine food web and they sequester carbon due to their ability to form blooms and to biomineralise. To discover the presence and regulation of short non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) in these two important phytoplankton groups, we sequenced short RNA transcriptomes of two diatom species (Thalassiosira pseudonana, Fragilariopsis cylindrus) and validated them by Northern blots along with the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi. RESULTS Despite an exhaustive search, we did not find canonical miRNAs in diatoms. The most prominent classes of sRNAs in diatoms were repeat-associated sRNAs and tRNA-derived sRNAs. The latter were also present in E. huxleyi. tRNA-derived sRNAs in diatoms were induced under important environmental stress conditions (iron and silicate limitation, oxidative stress, alkaline pH), and they were very abundant especially in the polar diatom F. cylindrus (20.7% of all sRNAs) even under optimal growth conditions. CONCLUSIONS This study provides first experimental evidence for the existence of short non-coding RNAs in marine microalgae. Our data suggest that canonical miRNAs are absent from diatoms. However, the group of tRNA-derived sRNAs seems to be very prominent in diatoms and coccolithophores and maybe used for acclimation to environmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
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Valadez JJ, Berendes S, Jeffery C, Thomson J, Othman HB, Moxon S, Danon L, Turki AA, Saffialden R, Mirzoyan L. P3.100 Filling the Knowledge Gap: Measuring HIV Prevalence and Risk Factors Among Populations Most Vulnerable to HIV in Libya. Br J Vener Dis 2013. [DOI: 10.1136/sextrans-2013-051184.0559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Mapleson D, Moxon S, Dalmay T, Moulton V. MirPlex: A Tool for Identifying miRNAs in High-Throughput sRNA Datasets Without a Genome. J Exp Zool (Mol Dev Evol ) 2012. [DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.22483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Simon Moxon
- University of East Anglia; Norwich; United Kingdom
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- University of East Anglia; Norwich; United Kingdom
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Stocks MB, Moxon S, Mapleson D, Woolfenden HC, Mohorianu I, Folkes L, Schwach F, Dalmay T, Moulton V. The UEA sRNA workbench: a suite of tools for analysing and visualizing next generation sequencing microRNA and small RNA datasets. Bioinformatics 2012; 28:2059-61. [PMID: 22628521 PMCID: PMC3400958 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bts311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 219] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
SUMMARY RNA silencing is a complex, highly conserved mechanism mediated by small RNAs (sRNAs), such as microRNAs (miRNAs), that is known to be involved in a diverse set of biological functions including development, pathogen control, genome maintenance and response to environmental change. Advances in next generation sequencing technologies are producing increasingly large numbers of sRNA reads per sample at a fraction of the cost of previous methods. However, many bioinformatics tools do not scale accordingly, are cumbersome, or require extensive support from bioinformatics experts. Therefore, researchers need user-friendly, robust tools, capable of not only processing large sRNA datasets in a reasonable time frame but also presenting the results in an intuitive fashion and visualizing sRNA genomic features. Herein, we present the UEA sRNA workbench, a suite of tools that is a successor to the web-based UEA sRNA Toolkit, but in downloadable format and with several enhanced and additional features. AVAILABILITY The program and help pages are available at http://srna-workbench.cmp.uea.ac.uk. CONTACT vincent.moulton@cmp.uea.ac.uk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew B Stocks
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ, Norwich, UK
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Folkes L, Moxon S, Woolfenden HC, Stocks MB, Szittya G, Dalmay T, Moulton V. PAREsnip: a tool for rapid genome-wide discovery of small RNA/target interactions evidenced through degradome sequencing. Nucleic Acids Res 2012; 40:e103. [PMID: 22467211 PMCID: PMC3401462 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gks277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Small RNAs (sRNAs) are a class of short (20–25 nt) non-coding RNAs that play important regulatory roles in gene expression. An essential first step in understanding their function is to confidently identify sRNA targets. In plants, several classes of sRNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and trans-acting small interfering RNAs have been shown to bind with near-perfect complementarity to their messenger RNA (mRNA) targets, generally leading to cleavage of the mRNA. Recently, a high-throughput technique known as Parallel Analysis of RNA Ends (PARE) has made it possible to sequence mRNA cleavage products on a large-scale. Computational methods now exist to use these data to find targets of conserved and newly identified miRNAs. Due to speed limitations such methods rely on the user knowing which sRNA sequences are likely to target a transcript. By limiting the search to a tiny subset of sRNAs it is likely that many other sRNA/mRNA interactions will be missed. Here, we describe a new software tool called PAREsnip that allows users to search for potential targets of all sRNAs obtained from high-throughput sequencing experiments. By searching for targets of a complete ‘sRNAome’ we can facilitate large-scale identification of sRNA targets, allowing us to discover regulatory interaction networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leighton Folkes
- School of Computing Sciences and School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
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Bateman A, Agrawal S, Birney E, Bruford EA, Bujnicki JM, Cochrane G, Cole JR, Dinger ME, Enright AJ, Gardner PP, Gautheret D, Griffiths-Jones S, Harrow J, Herrero J, Holmes IH, Huang HD, Kelly KA, Kersey P, Kozomara A, Lowe TM, Marz M, Moxon S, Pruitt KD, Samuelsson T, Stadler PF, Vilella AJ, Vogel JH, Williams KP, Wright MW, Zwieb C. RNAcentral: A vision for an international database of RNA sequences. RNA 2011; 17:1941-6. [PMID: 21940779 PMCID: PMC3198587 DOI: 10.1261/rna.2750811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
During the last decade there has been a great increase in the number of noncoding RNA genes identified, including new classes such as microRNAs and piRNAs. There is also a large growth in the amount of experimental characterization of these RNA components. Despite this growth in information, it is still difficult for researchers to access RNA data, because key data resources for noncoding RNAs have not yet been created. The most pressing omission is the lack of a comprehensive RNA sequence database, much like UniProt, which provides a comprehensive set of protein knowledge. In this article we propose the creation of a new open public resource that we term RNAcentral, which will contain a comprehensive collection of RNA sequences and fill an important gap in the provision of biomedical databases. We envision RNA researchers from all over the world joining a federated RNAcentral network, contributing specialized knowledge and databases. RNAcentral would centralize key data that are currently held across a variety of databases, allowing researchers instant access to a single, unified resource. This resource would facilitate the next generation of RNA research and help drive further discoveries, including those that improve food production and human and animal health. We encourage additional RNA database resources and research groups to join this effort. We aim to obtain international network funding to further this endeavor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Bateman
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
- Corresponding author.E-mail .
| | - Shipra Agrawal
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bangalore 560 100, India
- BioCOS Life Sciences Private Limited, Bangalore 560 100, India
| | - Ewan Birney
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Elspeth A. Bruford
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Janusz M. Bujnicki
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Trojdena 4, 02-109 Warsaw, Poland
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznan, Poland
| | - Guy Cochrane
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - James R. Cole
- Microbial Ecology Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1319, USA
| | - Marcel E. Dinger
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Anton J. Enright
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Paul P. Gardner
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel Gautheret
- Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie–UMR CNRS 8621, Université Paris-Sud–Bâtiment 400, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
| | - Sam Griffiths-Jones
- Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Manchester, M13 9PT, United Kingdom
| | - Jen Harrow
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
| | - Javier Herrero
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Ian H. Holmes
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1762, USA
| | - Hsien-Da Huang
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, National Chiao Tung University, HsinChu, 30050, Taiwan
| | - Krystyna A. Kelly
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, United Kingdom
| | - Paul Kersey
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Ana Kozomara
- Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Manchester, M13 9PT, United Kingdom
| | - Todd M. Lowe
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
| | - Manja Marz
- RNA Bioinformatics Group, Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Marbacher Weg 6, 35037 Marburg, Germany
| | - Simon Moxon
- University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Kim D. Pruitt
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland 20894, USA
| | - Tore Samuelsson
- Department of Medical Biochemistry, University of Goteborg, Medicinareg. 9A, S-405 30 Goteborg, Sweden
| | - Peter F. Stadler
- Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, and Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, University of Leipzig, 04009 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Albert J. Vilella
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Jan-Hinnerk Vogel
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom
| | - Kelly P. Williams
- Sandia National Laboratories, MS 9291, Livermore, California 94551-0969, USA
| | - Mathew W. Wright
- European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
| | - Christian Zwieb
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3901, USA
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Mohorianu I, Schwach F, Jing R, Lopez-Gomollon S, Moxon S, Szittya G, Sorefan K, Moulton V, Dalmay T. Profiling of short RNAs during fleshy fruit development reveals stage-specific sRNAome expression patterns. Plant J 2011; 67:232-46. [PMID: 21443685 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313x.2011.04586.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Plants feature a particularly diverse population of short (s)RNAs, the central component of all RNA silencing pathways. Next generation sequencing techniques enable deeper insights into this complex and highly conserved mechanism and allow identification and quantification of sRNAs. We employed deep sequencing to monitor the sRNAome of developing tomato fruits covering the period between closed flowers and ripened fruits by profiling sRNAs at 10 time-points. It is known that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in development but very little information is available about the majority of sRNAs that are not miRNAs. Here we show distinctive patterns of sRNA expression that often coincide with stages of the developmental process such as flowering, early and late fruit maturation. Moreover, thousands of non-miRNA sRNAs are differentially expressed during fruit development and ripening. Some of these differentially expressed sRNAs derived from transposons but many derive from protein coding genes or regions that show homology to protein coding genes, several of which are known to play a role in flower and fruit development. These findings raise the possibility of a regulative role of these sRNAs during fruit onset and maturation in a crop species. We also identified six new miRNAs and experimentally validated two target mRNAs. These two mRNAs are targeted by the same miRNA but do not belong to the same gene family, which is rare for plant miRNAs. Expression pattern and putative function of these targets indicate a possible role in glutamate accumulation, which contributes to establishing the taste of the fruit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irina Mohorianu
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
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41
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Surridge AK, Lopez-Gomollon S, Moxon S, Maroja LS, Rathjen T, Nadeau NJ, Dalmay T, Jiggins CD. Characterisation and expression of microRNAs in developing wings of the neotropical butterfly Heliconius melpomene. BMC Genomics 2011; 12:62. [PMID: 21266089 PMCID: PMC3039609 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-12-62] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2010] [Accepted: 01/26/2011] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Heliconius butterflies are an excellent system for studies of adaptive convergent and divergent phenotypic traits. Wing colour patterns are used as signals to both predators and potential mates and are inherited in a Mendelian manner. The underlying genetic mechanisms of pattern formation have been studied for many years and shed light on broad issues, such as the repeatability of evolution. In Heliconius melpomene, the yellow hindwing bar is controlled by the HmYb locus. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that have key roles in many biological processes, including development. miRNAs could act as regulators of genes involved in wing development, patterning and pigmentation. For this reason we characterised miRNAs in developing butterfly wings and examined differences in their expression between colour pattern races. RESULTS We sequenced small RNA libraries from two colour pattern races and detected 142 Heliconius miRNAs with homology to others found in miRBase. Several highly abundant miRNAs were differentially represented in the libraries between colour pattern races. These candidates were tested further using Northern blots, showing that differences in expression were primarily due to developmental stage rather than colour pattern. Assembly of sequenced reads to the HmYb region identified hme-miR-193 and hme-miR-2788; located 2380 bp apart in an intergenic region. These two miRNAs are expressed in wings and show an upregulation between 24 and 72 hours post-pupation, indicating a potential role in butterfly wing development. A search for miRNAs in all available H. melpomene BAC sequences (~2.5 Mb) did not reveal any other miRNAs and no novel miRNAs were predicted. CONCLUSIONS Here we describe the first butterfly miRNAs and characterise their expression in developing wings. Some show differences in expression across developing pupal stages and may have important functions in butterfly wing development. Two miRNAs were located in the HmYb region and were expressed in developing pupal wings. Future work will examine the expression of these miRNAs in different colour pattern races and identify miRNA targets among wing patterning genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison K Surridge
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB23EJ, UK
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Pantaleo V, Saldarelli P, Miozzi L, Giampetruzzi A, Gisel A, Moxon S, Dalmay T, Bisztray G, Burgyan J. Deep sequencing analysis of viral short RNAs from an infected Pinot Noir grapevine. Virology 2010; 408:49-56. [PMID: 20875658 DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2010.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2010] [Revised: 07/16/2010] [Accepted: 09/01/2010] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Virus-derived short interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) isolated from grapevine V. vinifera Pinot Noir clone ENTAV 115 were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing using the Illumina Solexa platform. We identified and characterized vsiRNAs derived from grapevine field plants naturally infected with different viruses belonging to the genera Foveavirus, Maculavirus, Marafivirus and Nepovirus. These vsiRNAs were mainly of 21 and 22 nucleotides (nt) in size and were discontinuously distributed throughout Grapevine rupestris stem-pitting associated virus (GRSPaV) and Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV) genomic RNAs. Among the studied viruses, GRSPaV and GFkV vsiRNAs had a 5' terminal nucleotide bias, which differed from that described for experimental viral infections in Arabidopsis thaliana. VsiRNAs were found to originate from both genomic and antigenomic GRSPaV RNA strands, whereas with the grapevine tymoviruses GFkV and Grapevine Red Globe associated virus (GRGV), the large majority derived from the antigenomic viral strand, a feature never observed in other plant-virus interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vitantonio Pantaleo
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale del C.N.R., Strada delle Cacce 73, Turin, Italy.
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Pantaleo V, Szittya G, Moxon S, Miozzi L, Moulton V, Dalmay T, Burgyan J. Identification of grapevine microRNAs and their targets using high-throughput sequencing and degradome analysis. Plant J 2010; 62:960-976. [PMID: 20230504 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313x.2010.04208.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
In plants, microRNAs (miRNAs) comprise one of three classes of small RNAs regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Many plant miRNAs are conserved, and play a role in development, abiotic stress responses or pathogen responses. However, some miRNAs have only been found in certain species. Here, we use deep-sequencing, computational and molecular methods to identify, profile, and describe conserved and non-conserved miRNAs in four grapevine (Vitis vinifera) tissues. A total of 24 conserved miRNA families were identified in all four tissues, and 26 known but non-conserved miRNAs were also found. In addition to known miRNAs, we also found 21 new grapevine-specific miRNAs together with their star strands. We have also shown that almost all of them originated from single genes. Furthermore, 21 other plausible miRNA candidates have been described. We have found that many known and new miRNAs showed tissue-specific expression. Finally, 112 target mRNAs of known and 44 target mRNAs of new grapevine-specific miRNAs were identified by genomic-scale high-throughput sequencing of miRNA cleaved mRNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vitantonio Pantaleo
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Torino, Italy
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Pantaleo V, Szittya G, Moxon S, Miozzi L, Moulton V, Dalmay T, Burgyan J. Identification of grapevine microRNAs and their targets using high-throughput sequencing and degradome analysis. Plant J 2010; 62:960-76. [PMID: 20230504 DOI: 10.1111/j.0960-7412.2010.04208.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
In plants, microRNAs (miRNAs) comprise one of three classes of small RNAs regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Many plant miRNAs are conserved, and play a role in development, abiotic stress responses or pathogen responses. However, some miRNAs have only been found in certain species. Here, we use deep-sequencing, computational and molecular methods to identify, profile, and describe conserved and non-conserved miRNAs in four grapevine (Vitis vinifera) tissues. A total of 24 conserved miRNA families were identified in all four tissues, and 26 known but non-conserved miRNAs were also found. In addition to known miRNAs, we also found 21 new grapevine-specific miRNAs together with their star strands. We have also shown that almost all of them originated from single genes. Furthermore, 21 other plausible miRNA candidates have been described. We have found that many known and new miRNAs showed tissue-specific expression. Finally, 112 target mRNAs of known and 44 target mRNAs of new grapevine-specific miRNAs were identified by genomic-scale high-throughput sequencing of miRNA cleaved mRNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vitantonio Pantaleo
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Torino, Italy
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Nicolas FE, Moxon S, de Haro JP, Calo S, Grigoriev IV, Torres-Martínez S, Moulton V, Ruiz-Vázquez RM, Dalmay T. Endogenous short RNAs generated by Dicer 2 and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 1 regulate mRNAs in the basal fungus Mucor circinelloides. Nucleic Acids Res 2010; 38:5535-41. [PMID: 20427422 PMCID: PMC2938224 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkq301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Endogenous short RNAs (esRNAs) play diverse roles in eukaryotes and usually are produced from double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) by Dicer. esRNAs are grouped into different classes based on biogenesis and function but not all classes are present in all three eukaryotic kingdoms. The esRNA register of fungi is poorly described compared to other eukaryotes and it is not clear what esRNA classes are present in this kingdom and whether they regulate the expression of protein coding genes. However, evidence that some dicer mutant fungi display altered phenotypes suggests that esRNAs play an important role in fungi. Here, we show that the basal fungus Mucor circinelloides produces new classes of esRNAs that map to exons and regulate the expression of many protein coding genes. The largest class of these exonic-siRNAs (ex-siRNAs) are generated by RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase 1 (RdRP1) and dicer-like 2 (DCL2) and target the mRNAs of protein coding genes from which they were produced. Our results expand the range of esRNAs in eukaryotes and reveal a new role for esRNAs in fungi.
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Szittya G, Moxon S, Pantaleo V, Toth G, Rusholme Pilcher RL, Moulton V, Burgyan J, Dalmay T. Structural and functional analysis of viral siRNAs. PLoS Pathog 2010; 6:e1000838. [PMID: 20368973 PMCID: PMC2848561 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 115] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2009] [Accepted: 03/01/2010] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
A large amount of short interfering RNA (vsiRNA) is generated from plant viruses during infection, but the function, structure and biogenesis of these is not understood. We profiled vsiRNAs using two different high-throughput sequencing platforms and also developed a hybridisation based array approach. The profiles obtained through the Solexa platform and by hybridisation were very similar to each other but different from the 454 profile. Both deep sequencing techniques revealed a strong bias in vsiRNAs for the positive strand of the virus and identified regions on the viral genome that produced vsiRNA in much higher abundance than other regions. The hybridisation approach also showed that the position of highly abundant vsiRNAs was the same in different plant species and in the absence of RDR6. We used the Terminator 5'-Phosphate-Dependent Exonuclease to study the 5' end of vsiRNAs and showed that a perfect control duplex was not digested by the enzyme without denaturation and that the efficiency of the Terminator was strongly affected by the concentration of the substrate. We found that most vsiRNAs have 5' monophosphates, which was also confirmed by profiling short RNA libraries following either direct ligation of adapters to the 5' end of short RNAs or after replacing any potential 5' ends with monophosphates. The Terminator experiments also showed that vsiRNAs were not perfect duplexes. Using a sensor construct we also found that regions from the viral genome that were complementary to non-abundant vsiRNAs were targeted in planta just as efficiently as regions recognised by abundant vsiRNAs. Different high-throughput sequencing techniques have different reproducible sequence bias and generate different profiles of short RNAs. The Terminator exonuclease does not process double stranded RNA, and because short RNAs can quickly re-anneal at high concentration, this assay can be misleading if the substrate is not denatured and not analysed in a dilution series. The sequence profiles and Terminator digests suggest that CymRSV siRNAs are produced from the structured positive strand rather than from perfect double stranded RNA or by RNA dependent RNA polymerase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gyorgy Szittya
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | | | - Gabor Toth
- Plant Virology, Agricultural Biotechnology Center, Gödöllö, Hungary
| | | | - Vincent Moulton
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | | | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
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Navarro B, Pantaleo V, Gisel A, Moxon S, Dalmay T, Bisztray G, Di Serio F, Burgyán J. Deep sequencing of viroid-derived small RNAs from grapevine provides new insights on the role of RNA silencing in plant-viroid interaction. PLoS One 2009; 4:e7686. [PMID: 19890399 PMCID: PMC2767511 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2009] [Accepted: 10/07/2009] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Viroids are circular, highly structured, non-protein-coding RNAs that, usurping cellular enzymes and escaping host defense mechanisms, are able to replicate and move through infected plants. Similarly to viruses, viroid infections are associated with the accumulation of viroid-derived 21-24 nt small RNAs (vd-sRNAs) with the typical features of the small interfering RNAs characteristic of RNA silencing, a sequence-specific mechanism involved in defense against invading nucleic acids and in regulation of gene expression in most eukaryotic organisms. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To gain further insights on the genesis and possible role of vd-sRNAs in plant-viroid interaction, sRNAs isolated from Vitis vinifera infected by Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) and Grapevine yellow speckle viroid 1 (GYSVd1) were sequenced by the high-throughput platform Solexa-Illumina, and the vd-sRNAs were analyzed. The large majority of HSVd- and GYSVd1-sRNAs derived from a few specific regions (hotspots) of the genomic (+) and (-) viroid RNAs, with a prevalence of those from the (-) strands of both viroids. When grouped according to their sizes, vd-sRNAs always assumed a distribution with prominent 21-, 22- and 24-nt peaks, which, interestingly, mapped at the same hotspots. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE These findings show that different Dicer-like enzymes (DCLs) target viroid RNAs, preferentially accessing to the same viroid domains. Interestingly, our results also suggest that viroid RNAs may interact with host enzymes involved in the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway, indicating more complex scenarios than previously thought for both vd-sRNAs genesis and possible interference with host gene expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatriz Navarro
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Torino and Bari, Italy
| | - Vitantonio Pantaleo
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Torino and Bari, Italy
| | - Andreas Gisel
- Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, Italy
| | - Simon Moxon
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | - Tamas Dalmay
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
| | | | - Francesco Di Serio
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Torino and Bari, Italy
| | - József Burgyán
- Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Torino and Bari, Italy
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Schwach F, Moxon S, Moulton V, Dalmay T. Deciphering the diversity of small RNAs in plants: the long and short of it. Brief Funct Genomic Proteomic 2009; 8:472-81. [PMID: 19641088 DOI: 10.1093/bfgp/elp024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
RNA silencing is a complex and highly conserved regulatory mechanism that is now known to be involved in such diverse processes as development, pathogen control, genome maintenance and response to environmental changes. Since its recent discovery, RNA silencing has become a fast moving key area of research in plant and animal molecular biology. Research in this field has greatly profited from recent developments in novel sequencing technologies that allow massive parallel sequencing of small RNA (sRNA) molecules, the key players of all RNA silencing phenomena. As researchers are beginning to decipher the complexity of RNA silencing, novel methodologies have to be developed to make sense of the large amounts of data that are currently being generated. In this review we present an overview of RNA silencing pathways in plants and the current challenges in analysing sRNA data, with a special focus on computational approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Schwach
- School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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Szittya G, Moxon S, Santos DM, Jing R, Fevereiro MPS, Moulton V, Dalmay T. High-throughput sequencing of Medicago truncatula short RNAs identifies eight new miRNA families. BMC Genomics 2008. [PMID: 19068109 DOI: 10.1186/1471‐2164‐9‐593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND High-throughput sequencing technology is capable to identify novel short RNAs in plant species. We used Solexa sequencing to find new microRNAs in one of the model legume species, barrel medic (Medicago truncatula). RESULTS 3,948,871 reads were obtained from two separate short RNA libraries generated from total RNA extracted from M. truncatula leaves, representing 1,563,959 distinct sequences. 2,168,937 reads were mapped to the available M. truncatula genome corresponding to 619,175 distinct sequences. 174,504 reads representing 25 conserved miRNA families showed perfect matches to known miRNAs. We also identified 26 novel miRNA candidates that were potentially generated from 32 loci. Nine of these loci produced eight distinct sequences, for which the miRNA* sequences were also sequenced. These sequences were not described in other plant species and accumulation of these eight novel miRNAs was confirmed by Northern blot analysis. Potential target genes were predicted for most conserved and novel miRNAs. CONCLUSION Deep sequencing of short RNAs from M. truncatula leaves identified eight new miRNAs indicating that specific miRNAs exist in legume species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gyorgy Szittya
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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Szittya G, Moxon S, Santos DM, Jing R, Fevereiro MPS, Moulton V, Dalmay T. High-throughput sequencing of Medicago truncatula short RNAs identifies eight new miRNA families. BMC Genomics 2008; 9:593. [PMID: 19068109 PMCID: PMC2621214 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-9-593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 234] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2008] [Accepted: 12/09/2008] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background High-throughput sequencing technology is capable to identify novel short RNAs in plant species. We used Solexa sequencing to find new microRNAs in one of the model legume species, barrel medic (Medicago truncatula). Results 3,948,871 reads were obtained from two separate short RNA libraries generated from total RNA extracted from M. truncatula leaves, representing 1,563,959 distinct sequences. 2,168,937 reads were mapped to the available M. truncatula genome corresponding to 619,175 distinct sequences. 174,504 reads representing 25 conserved miRNA families showed perfect matches to known miRNAs. We also identified 26 novel miRNA candidates that were potentially generated from 32 loci. Nine of these loci produced eight distinct sequences, for which the miRNA* sequences were also sequenced. These sequences were not described in other plant species and accumulation of these eight novel miRNAs was confirmed by Northern blot analysis. Potential target genes were predicted for most conserved and novel miRNAs. Conclusion Deep sequencing of short RNAs from M. truncatula leaves identified eight new miRNAs indicating that specific miRNAs exist in legume species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gyorgy Szittya
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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