Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Show: 20 | 50 | 100
Results 1 - 20 de 62
Filter
Add more filters

Publication year range
1.
Genome Res ; 2022 Aug 12.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35961773

ABSTRACT

In eukaryotes, capped RNAs include long transcripts such as messenger RNAs and long noncoding RNAs, as well as shorter transcripts such as spliceosomal RNAs, small nucleolar RNAs, and enhancer RNAs. Long capped transcripts can be profiled using cap analysis gene expression (CAGE) sequencing and other methods. Here, we describe a sequencing library preparation protocol for short capped RNAs, apply it to a differentiation time course of the human cell line THP-1, and systematically compare the landscape of short capped RNAs to that of long capped RNAs. Transcription initiation peaks associated with genes in the sense direction have a strong preference to produce either long or short capped RNAs, with one out of six peaks detected in the short capped RNA libraries only. Gene-associated short capped RNAs have highly specific 3' ends, typically overlapping splice sites. Enhancers also preferentially generate either short or long capped RNAs, with 10% of enhancers observed in the short capped RNA libraries only. Enhancers producing either short or long capped RNAs show enrichment for GWAS-associated disease SNPs. We conclude that deep sequencing of short capped RNAs reveals new families of noncoding RNAs and elucidates the diversity of transcripts generated at known and novel promoters and enhancers.

2.
PLoS Biol ; 19(10): e3001419, 2021 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34618807

ABSTRACT

Evolving in sync with the computation revolution over the past 30 years, computational biology has emerged as a mature scientific field. While the field has made major contributions toward improving scientific knowledge and human health, individual computational biology practitioners at various institutions often languish in career development. As optimistic biologists passionate about the future of our field, we propose solutions for both eager and reluctant individual scientists, institutions, publishers, funding agencies, and educators to fully embrace computational biology. We believe that in order to pave the way for the next generation of discoveries, we need to improve recognition for computational biologists and better align pathways of career success with pathways of scientific progress. With 10 outlined steps, we call on all adjacent fields to move away from the traditional individual, single-discipline investigator research model and embrace multidisciplinary, data-driven, team science.


Subject(s)
Computational Biology , Budgets , Cooperative Behavior , Humans , Interdisciplinary Research , Mentoring , Motivation , Publications , Reward , Software
3.
Genome Res ; 30(7): 951-961, 2020 07.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32718981

ABSTRACT

Gene expression profiles in homologous tissues have been observed to be different between species, which may be due to differences between species in the gene expression program in each cell type, but may also reflect differences in cell type composition of each tissue in different species. Here, we compare expression profiles in matching primary cells in human, mouse, rat, dog, and chicken using Cap Analysis Gene Expression (CAGE) and short RNA (sRNA) sequencing data from FANTOM5. While we find that expression profiles of orthologous genes in different species are highly correlated across cell types, in each cell type many genes were differentially expressed between species. Expression of genes with products involved in transcription, RNA processing, and transcriptional regulation was more likely to be conserved, while expression of genes encoding proteins involved in intercellular communication was more likely to have diverged during evolution. Conservation of expression correlated positively with the evolutionary age of genes, suggesting that divergence in expression levels of genes critical for cell function was restricted during evolution. Motif activity analysis showed that both promoters and enhancers are activated by the same transcription factors in different species. An analysis of expression levels of mature miRNAs and of primary miRNAs identified by CAGE revealed that evolutionary old miRNAs are more likely to have conserved expression patterns than young miRNAs. We conclude that key aspects of the regulatory network are conserved, while differential expression of genes involved in cell-to-cell communication may contribute greatly to phenotypic differences between species.


Subject(s)
Evolution, Molecular , Transcriptome , Animals , Chickens/genetics , Dogs , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Regulatory Networks , Humans , Mice , MicroRNAs/metabolism , Nucleotide Motifs , Principal Component Analysis , Promoter Regions, Genetic , Rats , Species Specificity , Transcription Factors/metabolism
4.
Genome Res ; 30(7): 1073-1081, 2020 07.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32079618

ABSTRACT

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key coordinators of biological and cellular processes. Characterizing lncRNA expression across cells and tissues is key to understanding their role in determining phenotypes, including human diseases. We present here FC-R2, a comprehensive expression atlas across a broadly defined human transcriptome, inclusive of over 109,000 coding and noncoding genes, as described in the FANTOM CAGE-Associated Transcriptome (FANTOM-CAT) study. This atlas greatly extends the gene annotation used in the original recount2 resource. We demonstrate the utility of the FC-R2 atlas by reproducing key findings from published large studies and by generating new results across normal and diseased human samples. In particular, we (a) identify tissue-specific transcription profiles for distinct classes of coding and noncoding genes, (b) perform differential expression analysis across thirteen cancer types, identifying novel noncoding genes potentially involved in tumor pathogenesis and progression, and (c) confirm the prognostic value for several enhancer lncRNAs expression in cancer. Our resource is instrumental for the systematic molecular characterization of lncRNA by the FANTOM6 Consortium. In conclusion, comprised of over 70,000 samples, the FC-R2 atlas will empower other researchers to investigate functions and biological roles of both known coding genes and novel lncRNAs.


Subject(s)
Transcriptome , Databases, Genetic , Enhancer Elements, Genetic , Gene Expression Profiling , Genome, Human , Humans , Neoplasms/genetics , Organ Specificity , Prognosis , RNA, Long Noncoding/genetics , RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism , RNA, Messenger/metabolism
5.
Nature ; 543(7644): 199-204, 2017 03 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28241135

ABSTRACT

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are largely heterogeneous and functionally uncharacterized. Here, using FANTOM5 cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) data, we integrate multiple transcript collections to generate a comprehensive atlas of 27,919 human lncRNA genes with high-confidence 5' ends and expression profiles across 1,829 samples from the major human primary cell types and tissues. Genomic and epigenomic classification of these lncRNAs reveals that most intergenic lncRNAs originate from enhancers rather than from promoters. Incorporating genetic and expression data, we show that lncRNAs overlapping trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms are specifically expressed in cell types relevant to the traits, implicating these lncRNAs in multiple diseases. We further demonstrate that lncRNAs overlapping expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL)-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms of messenger RNAs are co-expressed with the corresponding messenger RNAs, suggesting their potential roles in transcriptional regulation. Combining these findings with conservation data, we identify 19,175 potentially functional lncRNAs in the human genome.


Subject(s)
Databases, Genetic , RNA, Long Noncoding/chemistry , RNA, Long Noncoding/genetics , Transcriptome/genetics , Cells, Cultured , Conserved Sequence/genetics , Datasets as Topic , Enhancer Elements, Genetic/genetics , Epigenesis, Genetic , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation , Genome, Human/genetics , Genome-Wide Association Study , Genomics , Humans , Internet , Molecular Sequence Annotation , Organ Specificity/genetics , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , Quantitative Trait Loci/genetics , RNA Stability , RNA, Messenger/genetics
6.
Nucleic Acids Res ; 49(D1): D892-D898, 2021 01 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33211864

ABSTRACT

The Functional ANnoTation Of the Mammalian genome (FANTOM) Consortium has continued to provide extensive resources in the pursuit of understanding the transcriptome, and transcriptional regulation, of mammalian genomes for the last 20 years. To share these resources with the research community, the FANTOM web-interfaces and databases are being regularly updated, enhanced and expanded with new data types. In recent years, the FANTOM Consortium's efforts have been mainly focused on creating new non-coding RNA datasets and resources. The existing FANTOM5 human and mouse miRNA atlas was supplemented with rat, dog, and chicken datasets. The sixth (latest) edition of the FANTOM project was launched to assess the function of human long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). From its creation until 2020, FANTOM6 has contributed to the research community a large dataset generated from the knock-down of 285 lncRNAs in human dermal fibroblasts; this is followed with extensive expression profiling and cellular phenotyping. Other updates to the FANTOM resource includes the reprocessing of the miRNA and promoter atlases of human, mouse and chicken with the latest reference genome assemblies. To facilitate the use and accessibility of all above resources we further enhanced FANTOM data viewers and web interfaces. The updated FANTOM web resource is publicly available at https://fantom.gsc.riken.jp/.


Subject(s)
Molecular Sequence Annotation , RNA, Long Noncoding/genetics , Transcriptome/genetics , Animals , Binding Sites , Chromatin/metabolism , Drosophila/genetics , Fibroblasts/cytology , Fibroblasts/metabolism , Genome , Humans , Metadata , Mice , MicroRNAs/genetics , MicroRNAs/metabolism , Promoter Regions, Genetic , RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism , Transcription Factors/metabolism , User-Computer Interface
7.
Nucleic Acids Res ; 47(D1): D752-D758, 2019 01 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30407557

ABSTRACT

The FANTOM web resource (http://fantom.gsc.riken.jp/) was developed to provide easy access to the data produced by the FANTOM project. It contains the most complete and comprehensive sets of actively transcribed enhancers and promoters in the human and mouse genomes. We determined the transcription activities of these regulatory elements by CAGE (Cap Analysis of Gene Expression) for both steady and dynamic cellular states in all major and some rare cell types, consecutive stages of differentiation and responses to stimuli. We have expanded the resource by employing different assays, such as RNA-seq, short RNA-seq and a paired-end protocol for CAGE (CAGEscan), to provide new angles to study the transcriptome. That yielded additional atlases of long noncoding RNAs, miRNAs and their promoters. We have also expanded the CAGE analysis to cover rat, dog, chicken, and macaque species for a limited number of cell types. The CAGE data obtained from human and mouse were reprocessed to make them available on the latest genome assemblies. Here, we report the recent updates of both data and interfaces in the FANTOM web resource.


Subject(s)
Databases, Genetic , Genome/genetics , Internet , Transcriptome/genetics , Animals , Cell Differentiation/genetics , Chickens/genetics , Dogs , Gene Expression Regulation/genetics , Genomics/trends , Humans , Mice , MicroRNAs/genetics , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , RNA, Long Noncoding/genetics , Rats , User-Computer Interface
8.
Nature ; 507(7493): 462-70, 2014 Mar 27.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24670764

ABSTRACT

Regulated transcription controls the diversity, developmental pathways and spatial organization of the hundreds of cell types that make up a mammal. Using single-molecule cDNA sequencing, we mapped transcription start sites (TSSs) and their usage in human and mouse primary cells, cell lines and tissues to produce a comprehensive overview of mammalian gene expression across the human body. We find that few genes are truly 'housekeeping', whereas many mammalian promoters are composite entities composed of several closely separated TSSs, with independent cell-type-specific expression profiles. TSSs specific to different cell types evolve at different rates, whereas promoters of broadly expressed genes are the most conserved. Promoter-based expression analysis reveals key transcription factors defining cell states and links them to binding-site motifs. The functions of identified novel transcripts can be predicted by coexpression and sample ontology enrichment analyses. The functional annotation of the mammalian genome 5 (FANTOM5) project provides comprehensive expression profiles and functional annotation of mammalian cell-type-specific transcriptomes with wide applications in biomedical research.


Subject(s)
Atlases as Topic , Molecular Sequence Annotation , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , Transcriptome/genetics , Animals , Cell Line , Cells, Cultured , Cluster Analysis , Conserved Sequence/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation/genetics , Gene Regulatory Networks/genetics , Genes, Essential/genetics , Genome/genetics , Humans , Mice , Open Reading Frames/genetics , Organ Specificity , RNA, Messenger/analysis , RNA, Messenger/genetics , Transcription Factors/metabolism , Transcription Initiation Site , Transcription, Genetic/genetics
9.
Nucleic Acids Res ; 46(22): 11898-11909, 2018 12 14.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30407537

ABSTRACT

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) modulate the post-transcriptional regulation of target genes and are related to biology of complex human traits, but genetic landscape of miRNAs remains largely unknown. Given the strikingly tissue-specific miRNA expression profiles, we here expand a previous method to quantitatively evaluate enrichment of genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals on miRNA-target gene networks (MIGWAS) to further estimate tissue-specific enrichment. Our approach integrates tissue-specific expression profiles of miRNAs (∼1800 miRNAs in 179 cells) with GWAS to test whether polygenic signals enrich in miRNA-target gene networks and whether they fall within specific tissues. We applied MIGWAS to 49 GWASs (nTotal = 3 520 246), and successfully identified biologically relevant tissues. Further, MIGWAS could point miRNAs as candidate biomarkers of the trait. As an illustrative example, we performed differentially expressed miRNA analysis between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy controls (n = 63). We identified novel biomarker miRNAs (e.g. hsa-miR-762) by integrating differentially expressed miRNAs with MIGWAS results for RA, as well as novel associated loci with significant genetic risk (rs56656810 at MIR762 at 16q11; n = 91 482, P = 3.6 × 10-8). Our result highlighted that miRNA-target gene network contributes to human disease genetics in a cell type-specific manner, which could yield an efficient screening of miRNAs as promising biomarkers.


Subject(s)
Arthritis, Rheumatoid/genetics , Asthma/genetics , Colitis, Ulcerative/genetics , Gene Regulatory Networks , Genome, Human , Graves Disease/genetics , MicroRNAs/genetics , Algorithms , Arthritis, Rheumatoid/immunology , Arthritis, Rheumatoid/pathology , Asthma/immunology , Asthma/pathology , Biomarkers/metabolism , Case-Control Studies , Colitis, Ulcerative/immunology , Colitis, Ulcerative/pathology , Computational Biology/methods , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation , Genetic Loci , Genome-Wide Association Study , Graves Disease/immunology , Graves Disease/pathology , Humans , MicroRNAs/classification , MicroRNAs/metabolism , Multifactorial Inheritance/genetics , Multifactorial Inheritance/immunology , Organ Specificity , Signal Transduction
10.
PLoS Genet ; 13(3): e1006641, 2017 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28263993

ABSTRACT

The FANTOM5 consortium utilised cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) to provide an unprecedented insight into transcriptional regulation in human cells and tissues. In the current study, we have used CAGE-based transcriptional profiling on an extended dense time course of the response of human monocyte-derived macrophages grown in macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF1) to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We propose that this system provides a model for the differentiation and adaptation of monocytes entering the intestinal lamina propria. The response to LPS is shown to be a cascade of successive waves of transient gene expression extending over at least 48 hours, with hundreds of positive and negative regulatory loops. Promoter analysis using motif activity response analysis (MARA) identified some of the transcription factors likely to be responsible for the temporal profile of transcriptional activation. Each LPS-inducible locus was associated with multiple inducible enhancers, and in each case, transient eRNA transcription at multiple sites detected by CAGE preceded the appearance of promoter-associated transcripts. LPS-inducible long non-coding RNAs were commonly associated with clusters of inducible enhancers. We used these data to re-examine the hundreds of loci associated with susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in genome-wide association studies. Loci associated with IBD were strongly and specifically (relative to rheumatoid arthritis and unrelated traits) enriched for promoters that were regulated in monocyte differentiation or activation. Amongst previously-identified IBD susceptibility loci, the vast majority contained at least one promoter that was regulated in CSF1-dependent monocyte-macrophage transitions and/or in response to LPS. On this basis, we concluded that IBD loci are strongly-enriched for monocyte-specific genes, and identified at least 134 additional candidate genes associated with IBD susceptibility from reanalysis of published GWA studies. We propose that dysregulation of monocyte adaptation to the environment of the gastrointestinal mucosa is the key process leading to inflammatory bowel disease.


Subject(s)
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/genetics , Macrophages/cytology , Monocytes/cytology , Transcriptome , Amino Acid Motifs , Cell Differentiation , Cytokines/metabolism , Gene Expression Regulation , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Genome-Wide Association Study , Genomics , Humans , Inflammation , Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/etiology , Intestinal Mucosa/metabolism , Ligands , Lipopolysaccharides/pharmacology , Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor/pharmacology , Multigene Family , Promoter Regions, Genetic , Time Factors , Transcription Factors/metabolism , Transcription, Genetic , Transcriptional Activation
11.
Bioinformatics ; 33(23): 3696-3700, 2017 Dec 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28961713

ABSTRACT

MOTIVATION: Drug combination therapy for treatment of cancers and other multifactorial diseases has the potential of increasing the therapeutic effect, while reducing the likelihood of drug resistance. In order to reduce time and cost spent in comprehensive screens, methods are needed which can model additive effects of possible drug combinations. RESULTS: We here show that the transcriptional response to combinatorial drug treatment at promoters, as measured by single molecule CAGE technology, is accurately described by a linear combination of the responses of the individual drugs at a genome wide scale. We also find that the same linear relationship holds for transcription at enhancer elements. We conclude that the described approach is promising for eliciting the transcriptional response to multidrug treatment at promoters and enhancers in an unbiased genome wide way, which may minimize the need for exhaustive combinatorial screens. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The CAGE sequence data used in this study is available in the DDBJ Sequence Read Archive (http://trace.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/index_e.html), accession number DRP001113. CONTACT: xin.gao@kaust.edu.sa or erik.arner@riken.jp. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/pharmacology , Enhancer Elements, Genetic/drug effects , Promoter Regions, Genetic/drug effects , Genome, Human , Humans , Regression Analysis , Transcription, Genetic/drug effects
12.
Cerebellum ; 17(3): 308-325, 2018 Jun.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29307116

ABSTRACT

Laser-capture microdissection was used to isolate external germinal layer tissue from three developmental periods of mouse cerebellar development: embryonic days 13, 15, and 18. The cerebellar granule cell-enriched mRNA library was generated with next-generation sequencing using the Helicos technology. Our objective was to discover transcriptional regulators that could be important for the development of cerebellar granule cells-the most numerous neuron in the central nervous system. Through differential expression analysis, we have identified 82 differentially expressed transcription factors (TFs) from a total of 1311 differentially expressed genes. In addition, with TF-binding sequence analysis, we have identified 46 TF candidates that could be key regulators responsible for the variation in the granule cell transcriptome between developmental stages. Altogether, we identified 125 potential TFs (82 from differential expression analysis, 46 from motif analysis with 3 overlaps in the two sets). From this gene set, 37 TFs are considered novel due to the lack of previous knowledge about their roles in cerebellar development. The results from transcriptome-wide analyses were validated with existing online databases, qRT-PCR, and in situ hybridization. This study provides an initial insight into the TFs of cerebellar granule cells that might be important for development and provide valuable information for further functional studies on these transcriptional regulators.


Subject(s)
Cerebellum/embryology , Cerebellum/metabolism , Neurons/metabolism , Transcription Factors/metabolism , Animals , Computer Simulation , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental , In Situ Hybridization , Laser Capture Microdissection , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction , Transcriptome
13.
Nature ; 488(7410): 231-5, 2012 Aug 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-22722852

ABSTRACT

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are involved in an increasingly recognized number of cellular events. Some ncRNAs are processed by DICER and DROSHA RNases to give rise to small double-stranded RNAs involved in RNA interference (RNAi). The DNA-damage response (DDR) is a signalling pathway that originates from a DNA lesion and arrests cell proliferation3. So far, DICER and DROSHA RNA products have not been reported to control DDR activation. Here we show, in human, mouse and zebrafish, that DICER and DROSHA, but not downstream elements of the RNAi pathway, are necessary to activate the DDR upon exogenous DNA damage and oncogene-induced genotoxic stress, as studied by DDR foci formation and by checkpoint assays. DDR foci are sensitive to RNase A treatment, and DICER- and DROSHA-dependent RNA products are required to restore DDR foci in RNase-A-treated cells. Through RNA deep sequencing and the study of DDR activation at a single inducible DNA double-strand break, we demonstrate that DDR foci formation requires site-specific DICER- and DROSHA-dependent small RNAs, named DDRNAs, which act in a MRE11­RAD50­NBS1-complex-dependent manner (MRE11 also known as MRE11A; NBS1 also known as NBN). DDRNAs, either chemically synthesized or in vitro generated by DICER cleavage, are sufficient to restore the DDR in RNase-A-treated cells, also in the absence of other cellular RNAs. Our results describe an unanticipated direct role of a novel class of ncRNAs in the control of DDR activation at sites of DNA damage.


Subject(s)
DNA Damage/genetics , RNA, Untranslated/genetics , Ribonuclease III/genetics , Zebrafish/genetics , Animals , Cell Cycle Proteins/metabolism , Cell Line , DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded , DNA Repair Enzymes/metabolism , DNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism , Enzyme Activation , HEK293 Cells , HeLa Cells , High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing , Humans , Mice , Nuclear Proteins/metabolism , RNA Interference , RNA, Untranslated/biosynthesis , Ribonuclease, Pancreatic/metabolism , Sequence Analysis, RNA , Substrate Specificity/genetics
14.
Nucleic Acids Res ; 44(7): 3233-52, 2016 Apr 20.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27001520

ABSTRACT

Functionality of the non-coding transcripts encoded by the human genome is the coveted goal of the modern genomics research. While commonly relied on the classical methods of forward genetics, integration of different genomics datasets in a global Systems Biology fashion presents a more productive avenue of achieving this very complex aim. Here we report application of a Systems Biology-based approach to dissect functionality of a newly identified vast class of very long intergenic non-coding (vlinc) RNAs. Using highly quantitative FANTOM5 CAGE dataset, we show that these RNAs could be grouped into 1542 novel human genes based on analysis of insulators that we show here indeed function as genomic barrier elements. We show that vlinc RNAs genes likely function in cisto activate nearby genes. This effect while most pronounced in closely spaced vlinc RNA-gene pairs can be detected over relatively large genomic distances. Furthermore, we identified 101 vlinc RNA genes likely involved in early embryogenesis based on patterns of their expression and regulation. We also found another 109 such genes potentially involved in cellular functions also happening at early stages of development such as proliferation, migration and apoptosis. Overall, we show that Systems Biology-based methods have great promise for functional annotation of non-coding RNAs.


Subject(s)
RNA, Long Noncoding/genetics , Cell Nucleus/genetics , Embryonic Development/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation , Humans , Insulator Elements , Molecular Sequence Annotation , Promoter Regions, Genetic , RNA, Long Noncoding/classification , RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism , Retroviridae/genetics , Systems Biology , Terminal Repeat Sequences , Transcription Factors/metabolism
15.
J Immunol ; 194(12): 6035-44, 2015 Jun 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25957166

ABSTRACT

Basic leucine zipper transcription factor Batf2 is poorly described, whereas Batf and Batf3 have been shown to play essential roles in dendritic cell, T cell, and B cell development and regulation. Batf2 was drastically induced in IFN-γ-activated classical macrophages (M1) compared with unstimulated or IL-4-activated alternative macrophages (M2). Batf2 knockdown experiments from IFN-γ-activated macrophages and subsequent expression profiling demonstrated important roles for regulation of immune responses, inducing inflammatory and host-protective genes Tnf, Ccl5, and Nos2. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Beijing strain HN878)-infected macrophages further induced Batf2 and augmented host-protective Batf2-dependent genes, particularly in M1, whose mechanism was suggested to be mediated through both TLR2 and TLR4 by LPS and heat-killed HN878 (HKTB) stimulation experiments. Irf1 binding motif was enriched in the promoters of Batf2-regulated genes. Coimmunoprecipitation study demonstrated Batf2 association with Irf1. Furthermore, Irf1 knockdown showed downregulation of IFN-γ- or LPS/HKTB-activated host-protective genes Tnf, Ccl5, Il12b, and Nos2. Conclusively, Batf2 is an activation marker gene for M1 involved in gene regulation of IFN-γ-activated classical macrophages, as well as LPS/HKTB-induced macrophage stimulation, possibly by Batf2/Irf1 gene induction. Taken together, these results underline the role of Batf2/Irf1 in inducing inflammatory responses in M. tuberculosis infection.


Subject(s)
Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors/genetics , Interferon Regulatory Factor-1/genetics , Macrophages/immunology , Macrophages/metabolism , Mycobacterium Infections/genetics , Mycobacterium Infections/immunology , Mycobacterium/immunology , Animals , Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors/metabolism , Cluster Analysis , Disease Models, Animal , Gene Expression , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects , Gene Knockdown Techniques , Interferon Regulatory Factor-1/metabolism , Interferon-gamma/pharmacology , Lipopolysaccharides/immunology , Macrophage Activation/immunology , Male , Mice , Mycobacterium Infections/metabolism , Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II/genetics , Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II/metabolism , Protein Binding , Tumor Necrosis Factors/genetics , Tumor Necrosis Factors/metabolism
16.
Nucleic Acids Res ; 43(14): 6969-82, 2015 Aug 18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-26117544

ABSTRACT

Classically or alternatively activated macrophages (M1 and M2, respectively) play distinct and important roles for microbiocidal activity, regulation of inflammation and tissue homeostasis. Despite this, their transcriptional regulatory dynamics are poorly understood. Using promoter-level expression profiling by non-biased deepCAGE we have studied the transcriptional dynamics of classically and alternatively activated macrophages. Transcription factor (TF) binding motif activity analysis revealed four motifs, NFKB1_REL_RELA, IRF1,2, IRF7 and TBP that are commonly activated but have distinct activity dynamics in M1 and M2 activation. We observe matching changes in the expression profiles of the corresponding TFs and show that only a restricted set of TFs change expression. There is an overall drastic and transient up-regulation in M1 and a weaker and more sustainable up-regulation in M2. Novel TFs, such as Thap6, Maff, (M1) and Hivep1, Nfil3, Prdm1, (M2) among others, were suggested to be involved in the activation processes. Additionally, 52 (M1) and 67 (M2) novel differentially expressed genes and, for the first time, several differentially expressed long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) transcriptome markers were identified. In conclusion, the finding of novel motifs, TFs and protein-coding and lncRNA genes is an important step forward to fully understand the transcriptional machinery of macrophage activation.


Subject(s)
Gene Expression Regulation , Macrophage Activation/genetics , Macrophages/metabolism , Transcriptome , Animals , Cells, Cultured , DNA/chemistry , Gene Expression Profiling , High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing , Interferon-gamma/pharmacology , Interleukin-13/pharmacology , Interleukin-4/pharmacology , Macrophages/drug effects , Male , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Nucleotide Motifs , Promoter Regions, Genetic , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Transcription Factors/metabolism
17.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A ; 111(31): 11467-72, 2014 Aug 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25049417

ABSTRACT

Next-generation sequencing experiments have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) are expressed in many different isoforms (isomiRs), whose biological relevance is often unclear. We found that mature miR-21, the most widely researched miRNA because of its importance in human disease, is produced in two prevalent isomiR forms that differ by 1 nt at their 3' end, and moreover that the 3' end of miR-21 is posttranscriptionally adenylated by the noncanonical poly(A) polymerase PAPD5. PAPD5 knockdown caused an increase in the miR-21 expression level, suggesting that PAPD5-mediated adenylation of miR-21 leads to its degradation. Exoribonuclease knockdown experiments followed by small-RNA sequencing suggested that PARN degrades miR-21 in the 3'-to-5' direction. In accordance with this model, microarray expression profiling demonstrated that PAPD5 knockdown results in a down-regulation of miR-21 target mRNAs. We found that disruption of the miR-21 adenylation and degradation pathway is a general feature in tumors across a wide range of tissues, as evidenced by data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, as well as in the noncancerous proliferative disease psoriasis. We conclude that PAPD5 and PARN mediate degradation of oncogenic miRNA miR-21 through a tailing and trimming process, and that this pathway is disrupted in cancer and other proliferative diseases.


Subject(s)
Adenine/metabolism , MicroRNAs/metabolism , Neoplasms/genetics , RNA Nucleotidyltransferases/metabolism , RNA Stability , Base Sequence , Cytosine/metabolism , Exoribonucleases/metabolism , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Gene Knockdown Techniques , High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing , Humans , MCF-7 Cells , MicroRNAs/chemistry , MicroRNAs/genetics , Models, Biological , Molecular Sequence Data , Neoplasms/pathology , Nucleic Acid Conformation , Protein Isoforms/chemistry , Protein Isoforms/genetics , Protein Isoforms/metabolism , Ribonuclease III/metabolism
18.
Blood ; 123(17): e58-67, 2014 Apr 24.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24671954

ABSTRACT

Mast cells (MCs) mature exclusively in peripheral tissues, hampering research into their developmental and functional programs. Here, we employed deep cap analysis of gene expression on skin-derived MCs to generate the most comprehensive view of the human MC transcriptome ever reported. An advantage is that MCs were embedded in the FANTOM5 project, giving the opportunity to contrast their molecular signature against a multitude of human samples. We demonstrate that MCs possess a unique and surprising transcriptional landscape, combining hematopoietic genes with those exclusively active in MCs and genes not previously reported as expressed by MCs (several of them markers of unrelated tissues). We also found functional bone morphogenetic protein receptors transducing activatory signals in MCs. Conversely, several immune-related genes frequently studied in MCs were not expressed or were weakly expressed. Comparing MCs ex vivo with cultured counterparts revealed profound changes in the MC transcriptome in in vitro surroundings. We also determined the promoter usage of MC-expressed genes and identified associated motifs active in the lineage. Befitting their uniqueness, MCs had no close relative in the hematopoietic network (also only distantly related with basophils). This rich data set reveals that our knowledge of human MCs is still limited, but with this resource, novel functional programs of MCs may soon be discovered.


Subject(s)
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods , Mast Cells/cytology , Sequence Analysis, DNA/methods , Transcriptome , Amino Acid Motifs , Bone Morphogenetic Proteins/metabolism , Cell Differentiation , Cell Lineage , Cluster Analysis , Databases, Factual , Genetic Markers , Hematopoiesis/genetics , Hematopoietic Stem Cells/cytology , Humans , Immune System , Multigene Family , Promoter Regions, Genetic , Skin/metabolism
19.
Blood ; 123(17): e79-89, 2014 Apr 24.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24671952

ABSTRACT

In development, epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation have been suggested to provide a cellular memory to maintain multipotency but also stabilize cell fate decisions and direct lineage restriction. In this study, we set out to characterize changes in DNA methylation and gene expression during granulopoiesis using 4 distinct cell populations ranging from the oligopotent common myeloid progenitor stage to terminally differentiated neutrophils. We observed that differentially methylated sites (DMSs) generally show decreased methylation during granulopoiesis. Methylation appears to change at specific differentiation stages and overlap with changes in transcription and activity of key hematopoietic transcription factors. DMSs were preferentially located in areas distal to CpG islands and shores. Also, DMSs were overrepresented in enhancer elements and enriched in enhancers that become active during differentiation. Overall, this study depicts in detail the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that occur during granulopoiesis and supports the role of DNA methylation as a regulatory mechanism in blood cell differentiation.


Subject(s)
DNA Methylation , Enhancer Elements, Genetic , Granulocytes/cytology , Transcriptome , Cell Differentiation , Cell Separation , CpG Islands , Cytosine/metabolism , Epigenesis, Genetic , Flow Cytometry , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation , Genomics , Humans , Neutrophils/metabolism , Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis , RNA/metabolism , Stem Cells/cytology , Transcription Factors/metabolism
20.
J Allergy Clin Immunol ; 136(3): 638-48, 2015 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25863981

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Children with problematic severe asthma have poor disease control despite high doses of inhaled corticosteroids and additional therapy, leading to personal suffering, early deterioration of lung function, and significant consumption of health care resources. If no exacerbating factors, such as smoking or allergies, are found after extensive investigation, these children are given a diagnosis of therapy-resistant (or therapy-refractory) asthma (SA). OBJECTIVE: We sought to deepen our understanding of childhood SA by analyzing gene expression and modeling the underlying regulatory transcription factor networks in peripheral blood leukocytes. METHODS: Gene expression was analyzed by using Cap Analysis of Gene Expression in children with SA (n = 13), children with controlled persistent asthma (n = 15), and age-matched healthy control subjects (n = 9). Cap Analysis of Gene Expression sequencing detects the transcription start sites of known and novel mRNAs and noncoding RNAs. RESULTS: Sample groups could be separated by hierarchical clustering on 1305 differentially expressed transcription start sites, including 816 known genes and several novel transcripts. Ten of 13 tested novel transcripts were validated by means of RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing. Expression of RAR-related orphan receptor A (RORA), which has been linked to asthma in genome-wide association studies, was significantly upregulated in patients with SA. Gene network modeling revealed decreased glucocorticoid receptor signaling and increased activity of the mitogen-activated protein kinase and Jun kinase cascades in patients with SA. CONCLUSION: Circulating leukocytes from children with controlled asthma and those with SA have distinct gene expression profiles, demonstrating the possible development of specific molecular biomarkers and supporting the need for novel therapeutic approaches.


Subject(s)
Asthma/drug therapy , Asthma/genetics , Drug Resistance/genetics , Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use , RNA, Messenger/genetics , Transcriptome , Adolescent , Asthma/pathology , Case-Control Studies , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Gene Expression Profiling , Genome-Wide Association Study , Humans , JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/genetics , Male , Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 1, Group F, Member 1/genetics , Receptors, Glucocorticoid/genetics , Severity of Illness Index
SELECTION OF CITATIONS
SEARCH DETAIL