Alternative promoters (APs) occur in >30% protein-coding genes and contribute to proteome diversity. However, large-scale analyses of AP regulation are lacking, and little is known about their potential physiopathologic significance. To better understand the transcriptomic impact of estrogens, which play a major role in breast cancer, we analyzed gene and AP regulation by estradiol in MCF7 cells using pan-genomic exon arrays. We thereby identified novel estrogen-regulated genes, and determined the regulation of AP-encoded transcripts in 150 regulated genes. In <30% cases, APs were regulated in a similar manner by estradiol, while in >70% cases, they were regulated differentially. The patterns of AP regulation correlated with the patterns of estrogen receptor (ER) and CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) binding sites at regulated gene loci. Interestingly, among genes with differentially regulated APs, we identified cases where estradiol regulated APs in an opposite manner, sometimes without affecting global gene expression levels. This promoter switch was mediated by the DDX5/DDX17 family of ER coregulators. Finally, genes with differentially regulated promoters were preferentially involved in specific processes (e.g., cell structure and motility, and cell cycle). We show in particular that isoforms encoded by the NET1 gene APs, which are inversely regulated by estradiol, play distinct roles in cell adhesion and cell cycle regulation, and that their expression is differentially associated with prognosis in ER+ breast cancer. Altogether, this study identifies the patterns of AP regulation in estrogen-regulated genes, demonstrates the contribution of AP-encoded isoforms to the estradiol-regulated transcriptome, as well as their physiopathologic significance in breast cancer.
Estrogen regulation and physiopathologic significance of alternative promoters in breast cancer.
Disease, Disease stage, Cell line, Time
View SamplesRNA helicases DDX5 and DDX17 are members of a large family of highly conserved proteins involved in gene expression regulation, although their in vivo targets and activities in biological processes like cell differentiation, that requires reprogramming of gene expression programs at multiple levels, are not well characterized. In this report, we uncovered a new mechanism by which DDX5 and DDX17 cooperate with hnRNP H/F splicing factors to define epithelial- and myoblast-specific splicing subprograms. We next observed that downregulation of DDX5 and DDX17 protein expression during epithelial to mesenchymal transdifferentiation and during myogenesis contributes to switching splicing programs during these processes. Remarkably, this downregulation is mediated by the production of microRNAs induced upon differentiation in a DDX5/DDX17-dependent manner. Since DDX5 and DDX17 also function as coregulators of master transcriptional regulators of differentiation, we propose to name these proteins master orchestrators of differentiation, that dynamically orchestrate several layers of gene expression.
RNA helicases DDX5 and DDX17 dynamically orchestrate transcription, miRNA, and splicing programs in cell differentiation.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesThe bovine chromaffin cell (BCC) is a unique modela highly homogeneous and accessible neuroendocrine cellin which to study gene regulation through first messenger-initiated signaling pathways that are specific to post-mitotic cells. BCCs were treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP), two critical regulators of neural cell transcriptional programming during inflammation that act on TNFR2 and PAC1 receptors, respectively, in post-mitotic neuroendocrine cells. Transcripts which were significantly up regulated by either or both first messenger were identified from microarray analysis using two bovine oligonucleotide arrays (Affymetrix and Agilent) followed by statistical analysis with Partek Genomic suite. Microarray data were combined from the two arrays using qRT-PCR sampling validation, and the first-messenger transcriptome derived from TNF and PACAP signaling were compared. More than 90 percent of the genes up regulated either by TNF or PACAP were specific to a single first messenger. BioBase suite, DIRE and Opossum were used to identify common promoter/enhancer response elements that control the expression of TNF- or PACAP-stimulated genes. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that distinct groups of transcription factors control the expression of genes up regulated by either TNF or PACAP . Most of the genes up regulated by TNF contained response elements for members of the Rel transcription factor family, suggesting TNF-TNFR2 signaling mainly through the NF-kB signaling pathway. On the other hand, the PACAP regulated genes showed no enrichment for any single response element, containing instead response elements for combinations of transcription factors allowing activation through multiple signaling pathways, including cAMP, calcium and ERK, in neuroendocrine cells. Pharmacological strategies for mimicking neuroprotection by either PACAP or TNF in the context of CNS injury or degeneration in disease might focus on individual downstream gene activation pathways to achieve greater specificity in vivo.
Neuropeptides, growth factors, and cytokines: a cohort of informational molecules whose expression is up-regulated by the stress-associated slow transmitter PACAP in chromaffin cells.
Specimen part
View SamplesRNA sequencing of duodenal polyps in FAP patients treated with plabebo or the drug combination, erlotinib + sulindac Overall design: 69 duodenal RNA sequencing datasets (17 baseline uninvolved from 17 FAP patients, 10 endpoint uninvolved and 16 polyp from 10 FAP patients on placebo, 10 endpont uninvolved and 16 polyp from 10 FAP patients on drug)
Chemoprevention with Cyclooxygenase and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Patients: mRNA Signatures of Duodenal Neoplasia.
Specimen part, Treatment, Subject, Time
View SamplesThe ability to generate defined null mutations in mice revolutionized the analysis of gene function in mammals. However, gene-deficient mice generated by using 129-derived embryonic stem (ES) cells may carry large segments of 129 DNA, even when extensively backcrossed to reference strains, such as C57BL/6J, and this may confound interpretation of experiments performed in these mice. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), encoded by the PLAT gene, is a fibrinolytic serine protease that is widely expressed in the brain. A large number of neurological abnormalities have been reported in tPA-deficient mice. The studies here compare genes differentially expressed in the brains of Plat-/- mice from two independent Plat-/- mouse derivations to wild-type C57BL/6J mice. One strain denoted “Old” was constructed in ES cells from a 129 mouse and backcrossed extensively to C57BL/6J, and one denoted “New” Plat-/- mouse was constructed using zinc finger nucleases directly in the C57BL/6J-Plat-/- mouse strain. We identify a significant set of genes that are differentially expressed in the brains of Old Plat-/- mice that preferentially cluster in the vicinity of Plat on chromosome 8, apparently linked to more than 20 Mbp of DNA flanking Plat being of 129 origin. No such clustering is seen in the New Plat-/- mice. Overall design: Whole-transcriptome profiling of the cerebral cortex of wild-type control C57BL/6J mice and two independent Plat-/- mice strains on the C57BL/6J background.
Passenger mutations and aberrant gene expression in congenic tissue plasminogen activator-deficient mouse strains.
Age, Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesDominantly inherited expanded repeat neurodegenerative diseases are typically caused by the expansion of existing variable copy number tandem repeat sequences in otherwise unrelated genes. Repeats located in translated regions encode polyglutamine that is thought to be the toxic agent, however in several instances the expanded repeat is in an untranslated region, necessitating multiple pathogenic pathways or an alternative common toxic agent. As numerous clinical features are shared by several of these diseases, and expanded repeat RNA is a common intermediary, RNA has been proposed as a common pathogenic agent. Various forms of repeat RNA are toxic in animal models, by multiple distinct pathways. In Drosophila, repeat-containing double-stranded RNA (rCAG.rCUG~100) toxicity is dependent on Dicer processing evident with the presence of single-stranded rCAG7, which have been detected in affected HD brains. Microarray analysis of Drosophila rCAG.rCUG~100 repeat RNA toxicity revealed perturbation of several pathways including innate immunity. Recent reports of elevated circulating cytokines prior to clinical onset, and age-dependent increased inflammatory signaling and microglia activation in the brain, suggest that immune activation precedes neuronal toxicity. Since the Toll pathway is activated by certain forms of RNA, we assessed the role of this pathway in RNA toxicity. We find that rCAG.rCUG~100 activates Toll signaling and that RNA toxicity is dependent on this pathway. The sensitivity of RNA toxicity to autophagy further implicates innate immune activation. Expression of rCAG.rCUG~100 was therefore directed in glial cells and found to be sufficient to cause neuronal dysfunction. Non-autonomous toxicity due to expanded repeat-containing double-stranded RNA mediated activation of innate immunity is therefore proposed as a candidate pathway for this group of human genetic diseases.
Distinct roles for Toll and autophagy pathways in double-stranded RNA toxicity in a Drosophila model of expanded repeat neurodegenerative diseases.
Sex, Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesTo investigate the role of p53 and DICER in the induction of ER stress, wildtype, p53 knockout or DICER mutant HCT116 colon cancer cells were treated with the ER stress inducers tunicamycin or brefeldin A for 24 hours.
A close connection between the PERK and IRE arms of the UPR and the transcriptional regulation of autophagy.
Cell line, Treatment
View SamplesWe are investigating the transcriptional response of yeast to treatment with enediynes or gamma radiation, which generate different extents of double or single strand breaks in DNA.
The DNA-damage signature in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is associated with single-strand breaks in DNA.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesPro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) and interleukin-1beta/alpha (IL1beta/alpha) modulate catecholamine secretion, and long-term gene regulation, in chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. Interleukin-6 (IL6), also released during inflammation, affects transcriptional responses in primary chromaffin cells, and may coordinate immune and autonomic adrenomedullary responses via an autocrine mechanism, as TNFalpha itself strongly induces IL6 expression in chromaffin cells, which in turn express receptors responsive to IL6. We have examined the signaling mechanisms employed by IL6 to affect tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) enzymatic activation, and adrenomedullary gene transcription, in cultured bovine chromaffin cells. IL6 caused acute tyrosine/threonine phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), and serine phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), as do several other first messengers acting on the chromaffin cell, including histamine, nicotine and angiotensin II. IL6 uniquely activated tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT3. Consistent with a short-term ERK1/2 activation, IL6 treatment caused prompt regulation of TH phosphorylation, and up-regulation of genes encoding secreted proteins of the adrenal medulla including galanin, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) and parathyroid hormone-like hormone (PTHLH). We further examined the effects of IL6 treatment on the entire bovine chromaffin cell transcriptome. Of 90 genes up-regulated by IL6, only 16 of which are known targets of IL6 in the immune system. The remaining genes likely represent a combination of novel IL6/STAT3 targets, targets of ERK1/2 shared by other first messengers, and, potentially, IL6-dependent genes activated in a secondary cascade via transcription mediated by IL6-induced transcription factors, such as HIF-1alpha. Notably, genes induced by IL6 represent a cohort with a profile that includes both neuroendocrine-specific genes, including several that are activated by G-protein couple receptor (GPCR) signaling pathways initiated by histamine and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), and some transcripts also activated by cytokines including interferon-alpha (INFalpha and TNFalpha. These results suggest an integrative role for IL6 in overall fine-tuning of the chromaffin cell response to a wide range of physiological and paraphysiological stressors, particularly when immune and endocrine stimuli converge in the adrenal medulla.
Interleukin-6-mediated signaling in adrenal medullary chromaffin cells.
Specimen part
View SamplesWe are investigating the transcriptional response of Anc1 deficient yeast under basal and MMS exposed conditions
Anc1, a protein associated with multiple transcription complexes, is involved in postreplication repair pathway in S. cerevisiae.
No sample metadata fields
View Samples