Non-canonical Bases in the Genome: The Regulatory Information Layer in DNA.

Multicellular organisms developed the concept of specialized cells that perform specific functions. Examples are neurons and fibroblast to name just two out of more than 200. These cellular differences are established based on the same sequence information stored in the cell nucleus of all cells of an organism. The sequence information needs consequently different interpretations by the different cell types. During cellular development this interpretation of the genetic code has to be tightly regulated in space and time. Interpretation of the sequence information involves the controlled activation and silencing of specific genes so that certain proteins are made in one cell type but not in others. This involves an additional regulatory information layer beyond the pure base sequence. One aspect of this regulatory information layer relies on functional groups that are attached to the C(5) position of the canonical base dC. Currently four regulatory, non-canonical bases with a methyl (CH3 )-, a hydroxymethyl (CH2 OH)-, a formyl (CHO)- and a carboxyl (COOH)- group are known. While 5-methyl-cytidine is long recognised to be a regulatory base in the genome, the other three bases and the enzymes responsible for generating them, were just recently discovered.

In silico integrative analysis of multi-omics reveals regulatory layers for diurnal gene expression in mouse liver.

Diurnal oscillation persists throughout the body and plays an essential role in maintaining physiological homeostasis. Disruption of diurnal rhythm contributes to many diseases including type 2 diabetes. The regulatory mechanism of the transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL) of core clock genes is well-established, while a systematic study across all regulatory layers of gene expression, including gene transcription, RNA translation, and DNA binding protein (DBP) activities, is still lacking. We comprehensively bioinformatics analyzed the rhythmicity of gene transcription, mature RNA abundance, protein abundance and DBP activity using publicly available omic-datasets from mouse livers. We found that the core clock genes, Bmal1 and Rev-erbα, persistently retained rhythmicity in all stages, which supported the essential rhythmic function along with the TTFL. Interestingly, there were many layer-specific rhythmic genes playing layer-specific rhythmic functions. The systematic analysis of gene transcription rate, RNA translation efficiency, and post-translation modification of DBP were incorporated to determine the potential mechanisms for layer-specific rhythmic genes. We observed the gene with rhythmic expression in both mature RNA and protein layers were largely due to relatively consistent translation rate. In addition, rhythmic translation rate induced the rhythms of protein whose mature RNA levels were not rhythmic. Further analysis revealed a phosphorylation-mediated and an enhancer RNA-mediated cycling regulation between the corresponding layers. This study presents a global view of the oscillating genes in multiple layers via a systematical analysis and indicates the complexity of regulatory mechanisms across different layers for further functional study.