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Advances in genomic sequencing have allowed the identification of a multitude of genes encoding putative transcriptional regulatory proteins. Lacking, often, is a fuller understanding of the biological roles played by these proteins, the genes they regulate or regulon. Conventionally this is achieved through a genetic approach involving putative transcription factor gene manipulation and observations of changes in an organism’s transcriptome. However, such an approach is not always feasible or can yield misleading findings. Here, we describe a biochemistry-centric approach, involving identification of preferred DNA-binding sequences for the Thermus thermophilus HB8 transcriptional repressor TTHA0973 using the selection method Restriction Endonuclease Protection, Selection and Amplification (REPSA), massively parallel sequencing, and bioinformatic analyses. We identified a consensus TTHA0973 recognition sequence of 5′–AACnAACGTTnGTT–3′ that exhibited nanomolar binding affinity. This sequence was mapped to several sites within the T. thermophilus HB8 genome, a subset of which corresponded to promoter regions regulating genes involved in phenylacetic acid degradation. These studies further demonstrate the utility of a biochemistry-centric approach for the facile identification of potential biological functions for orphan transcription factors in a variety of organisms.
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Accurate Identification of Transcription Regulatory Sequences and Genes in Coronaviruses
Abstract Transcription regulatory sequences (TRSs), which occur upstream of structural and accessory genes as well as the 5’ end of a coronavirus genome, play a critical role in discontinuous transcription in coronaviruses. We introduce two problems collectively aimed at identifying these regulatory sequences as well as their associated genes. First, we formulate the TRS Identification problem of identifying TRS sites in a coronavirus genome sequence with prescribed gene locations. We introduce CORSID-A, an algorithm that solves this problem to optimality in polynomial time. We demonstrate that CORSID-A outperforms existing motif-based methods in identifying TRS sites in coronaviruses. Second, we demonstrate for the first time how TRS sites can be leveraged to identify gene locations in the coronavirus genome. To that end, we formulate the TRS and Gene Identification problem of simultaneously identifying TRS sites and gene locations in unannotated coronavirus genomes. We introduce CORSID to solve this problem, which includes a web-based visualization tool to explore the space of near-optimal solutions. We show that CORSID outperforms stateof-the-art gene finding methods in coronavirus genomes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that CORSID enables de novo identification of TRS sites and genes in previously unannotated coronavirus genomes. CORSID is the first method to perform accurate and simultaneous identification of TRS sites and genes in coronavirus genomes without the use of any prior information.
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- PAR ID:
- 10333879
- Editor(s):
- Leitner, Thomas
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- ISSN:
- 0737-4038
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Alternative transcription initiation (ATI) appears to be a ubiquitous regulatory mechanism of gene expression in eukaryotes. However, the extent to which it affects the products of gene expression and how it evolves and is regulated remain unknown. Here, we report genome-wide identification and analysis of transcription start sites (TSSs) in various soybean (Glycine max) tissues using a survey of transcription initiation at promoter elements with high-throughput sequencing (STRIPE-seq). We defined 193,579 TSS clusters/regions (TSRs) in 37,911 annotated genes, with 56.5% located in canonical regulatory regions and 43.5% from start codons to 3′ untranslated regions, which were responsible for changes in open reading frames of 24,131 genes. Strikingly, 6,845 genes underwent ATI within coding sequences (CDSs). These CDS-TSRs were tissue-specific, did not have TATA-boxes typical of canonical promoters, and were embedded in nucleosome-free regions flanked by nucleosomes with enhanced levels of histone marks potentially associated with intragenic transcriptional initiation, suggesting that ATI within CDSs was epigenetically tuned and associated with tissue-specific functions. Overall, duplicated genes possessed more TSRs, exhibited lower degrees of tissue specificity, and underwent stronger purifying selection than singletons. This study highlights the significance of ATI and the genomic and epigenomic factors shaping the distribution of ATI in CDSs in a paleopolyploid eukaryote.more » « less
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Polen, Tino (Ed.)ABSTRACT Regulation of gene expression is a vital component of cellular biology. Transcription factor proteins often bind regulatory DNA sequences upstream of transcription start sites to facilitate the activation or repression of RNA polymerase. Research laboratories have devoted many projects to understanding the transcription regulatory networks for transcription factors, as these regulated genes provide critical insight into the biology of the host organism. Various in vivo and in vitro assays have been developed to elucidate transcription regulatory networks. Several assays, including SELEX-seq and ChIP-seq, capture DNA-bound transcription factors to determine the preferred DNA-binding sequences, which can then be mapped to the host organism’s genome to identify candidate regulatory genes. In this protocol, we describe an alternative in vitro , iterative selection approach to ascertaining DNA-binding sequences of a transcription factor of interest using restriction endonuclease, protection, selection, and amplification (REPSA). Contrary to traditional antibody-based capture methods, REPSA selects for transcription factor-bound DNA sequences by challenging binding reactions with a type IIS restriction endonuclease. Cleavage-resistant DNA species are amplified by PCR and then used as inputs for the next round of REPSA. This process is repeated until a protected DNA species is observed by gel electrophoresis, which is an indication of a successful REPSA experiment. Subsequent high-throughput sequencing of REPSA-selected DNAs accompanied by motif discovery and scanning analyses can be used for determining transcription factor consensus binding sequences and potential regulated genes, providing critical first steps in determining organisms’ transcription regulatory networks. IMPORTANCE Transcription regulatory proteins are an essential class of proteins that help maintain cellular homeostasis by adapting the transcriptome based on environmental cues. Dysregulation of transcription factors can lead to diseases such as cancer, and many eukaryotic and prokaryotic transcription factors have become enticing therapeutic targets. Additionally, in many understudied organisms, the transcription regulatory networks for uncharacterized transcription factors remain unknown. As such, the need for experimental techniques to establish transcription regulatory networks is paramount. Here, we describe a step-by-step protocol for REPSA, an inexpensive, iterative selection technique to identify transcription factor-binding sequences without the need for antibody-based capture methods.more » « less
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Abstract Plants respond to wounding stress by changing gene expression patterns and inducing the production of hormones including jasmonic acid. This wounding transcriptional response activates specialized metabolism pathways such as the glucosinolate pathways in Arabidopsis thaliana. While the regulatory factors and sequences controlling a subset of wound-response genes are known, it remains unclear how wound response is regulated globally. Here, we how these responses are regulated by incorporating putative cis-regulatory elements, known transcription factor binding sites, in vitro DNA affinity purification sequencing, and DNase I hypersensitive sites to predict genes with different wound-response patterns using machine learning. We observed that regulatory sites and regions of open chromatin differed between genes upregulated at early and late wounding time-points as well as between genes induced by jasmonic acid and those not induced. Expanding on what we currently know, we identified cis-elements that improved model predictions of expression clusters over known binding sites. Using a combination of genome editing, in vitro DNA-binding assays, and transient expression assays using native and mutated cis-regulatory elements, we experimentally validated four of the predicted elements, three of which were not previously known to function in wound-response regulation. Our study provides a global model predictive of wound response and identifies new regulatory sequences important for wounding without requiring prior knowledge of the transcriptional regulators.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac133
