FANCD2 binding identifies conserved fragile sites at large transcribed genes in avian cells.

Common Chromosomal Fragile Sites (CFSs) are specific genomic regions prone to form breaks on metaphase chromosomes in response to replication stress. Moreover, CFSs are mutational hotspots in cancer genomes, showing that the mutational mechanisms that operate at CFSs are highly active in cancer cells. Orthologs of human CFSs are found in a number of other mammals, but the extent of CFS conservation beyond the mammalian lineage is unclear. Characterization of CFSs from distantly related organisms can provide new insight into the biology underlying CFSs. Here, we have mapped CFSs in an avian cell line. We find that, overall the most significant CFSs coincide with extremely large conserved genes, from which very long transcripts are produced. However, no significant correlation between any sequence characteristics and CFSs is found. Moreover, we identified putative early replicating fragile sites (ERFSs), which is a distinct class of fragile sites and we developed a fluctuation analysis revealing high mutation rates at the CFS gene PARK2, with deletions as the most prevalent mutation. Finally, we show that avian homologs of the human CFS genes despite their fragility have resisted the general intron size reduction observed in birds suggesting that CFSs have a conserved biological function.

Valine-Induced Isoleucine Starvation in Escherichia coli K-12 Studied by Spike-In Normalized RNA Sequencing.

Escherichia coli cells respond to a period of famine by globally reorganizing their gene expression. The changes are known as the stringent response, which is orchestrated by the alarmone ppGpp that binds directly to RNA polymerase. The resulting changes in gene expression are particularly well studied in the case of amino acid starvation. We used deep RNA sequencing in combination with spike-in cells to measure global changes in the transcriptome after valine-induced isoleucine starvation of a standard E. coli K12 strain. Owing to the whole-cell spike-in method that eliminates variations in RNA extraction efficiency between samples, we show that ribosomal RNA levels are reduced during isoleucine starvation and we quantify how the change in cellular RNA content affects estimates of gene regulation. Specifically, we show that standard data normalization relying on sample sequencing depth underestimates the number of down-regulated genes in the stringent response and overestimates the number of up-regulated genes by approximately 40%. The whole-cell spike-in method also made it possible to quantify how rapidly the pool of total messenger RNA (mRNA) decreases upon amino acid starvation. A principal component analysis showed that the first two components together described 69% of the variability of the data, underlining that large and highly coordinated regulons are at play in the stringent response. The induction of starvation by sudden addition of high valine concentrations provoked prominent regulatory responses outside of the expected ppGpp, RpoS, and Lrp regulons. This underlines the notion that with the high resolution possible in deep RNA sequencing analysis, any different starvation method (e.g., nitrogen-deprivation, removal of an amino acid from an auxotroph strain, or valine addition to E. coli K12 strains) will produce measurable variations in the stress response produced by the cells to cope with the specific treatment.

Distribution of CRISPR spacer matches in viruses and plasmids of crenarchaeal acidothermophiles and implications for their inhibitory mechanism.

Transcripts from spacer sequences within chromosomal repeat clusters [CRISPRs (clusters of regularly interspaced palindromic repeats)] from archaea have been implicated in inhibiting or regulating the propagation of archaeal viruses and plasmids. For the crenarchaeal thermoacidophiles, the chromosomal spacers show a high level of matches ( approximately 30%) with viral or plasmid genomes. Moreover, their distribution along the virus/plasmid genomes, as well as their DNA strand specificity, appear to be random. This is consistent with the hypothesis that chromosomal spacers are taken up directly and randomly from virus and plasmid DNA and that the spacer transcripts target the genomic DNA of the extrachromosomal elements and not their transcripts.

Identification of putative noncoding RNA genes in the Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 genome.

Noncoding RNA (ncRNA) genes are not involved in the production of mRNA and proteins, but produce transcripts that function directly as structural or regulatory RNAs. In the present study, the presence of ncRNA genes in the genome of Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 was evaluated by combining comparative genomics (alignment-based) and predicted secondary structure approaches. Two hundred and thirteen putative ncRNA genes were identified in the B. cenocepacia J2315 genome and upregulated expression of four of these could be confirmed by microarray analysis. Most of the ncRNA gene transcripts have a marked predicted secondary structure that may facilitate interaction with other molecules. Several B. cenocepacia J2315 ncRNAs seem to be related to previously characterized ncRNAs involved in regulation of various cellular processes, while the function of many others remains unknown. The presence of a large number of ncRNA genes in this organism may help to explain its complexity, phenotypic variability and ability to survive in a remarkably wide range of environments.