Integrating protein-protein interaction networks with phenotypes reveals signs of interactions

A major objective of systems biology is to organize molecular interactions as networks and to characterize information-flow within networks. We describe a computational framework to integrate protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and genetic screens to predict the “signs” of interactions (i.e. activation/inhibition relationships). We constructed a Drosophila melanogaster signed PPI network, consisting of 6,125 signed PPIs connecting 3,352 proteins that can be used to identify positive and negative regulators of signaling pathways and protein complexes. We identified an unexpected role for the metabolic enzymes Enolase and Aldo-keto reductase as positive and negative regulators of proteolysis, respectively. Characterization of the activation/inhibition relationships between physically interacting proteins within signaling pathways will impact our understanding of many biological functions, including signal transduction and mechanisms of disease

Genome-Wide Analysis of Self-Renewal in Drosophila Neural Stem Cells by Transgenic RNAi

The balance between stem cell self-renewal and differentiation is precisely controlled to ensure tissue homeostasis and prevent tumorigenesis. Here we use genome-wide transgenic RNAi to identify 620 genes potentially involved in controlling this balance in Drosophila neuroblasts. We quantify all phenotypes and derive measurements for proliferation, lineage, cell size, and cell shape. We identify a set of transcriptional regulators essential for self-renewal and use hierarchical clustering and integration with interaction data to create functional networks for the control of neuroblast self-renewal and differentiation. Our data identify key roles for the chromatin remodeling Brm complex, the spliceosome, and the TRiC/CCT-complex and show that the alternatively spliced transcription factor Lola and the transcriptional elongation factors Ssrp and Barc control self-renewal in neuroblast lineages. As our data are strongly enriched for genes highly expressed in murine neural stem cells, they are likely to provide valuable insights into mammalian stem cell biology as well

A Combination of CRISPR/Cas9 and Standardized RNAi as a Versatile Platform for the Characterization of Gene Function

Traditional loss-of-function studies in Drosophila suffer from a number of shortcomings, including off-target effects in the case of RNA interference (RNAi) or the stochastic nature of mosaic clonal analysis. Here, we describe minimal in vivo GFP interference (miGFPi) as a versatile strategy to characterize gene function and to conduct highly stringent, cell type-specific loss-of-function experiments in Drosophila. miGFPi combines CRISPR/Cas9-mediated tagging of genes at their endogenous locus with an immunotag and an exogenous 21 nucleotide RNAi effector sequence with the use of a single reagent, highly validated RNAi line targeting this sequence. We demonstrate the utility and time effectiveness of this method by characterizing the function of the Polymerase I (Pol I)-associated transcription factor Tif-1a, and the previously uncharacterized gene MESR4, in the Drosophila female germline stem cell lineage. In addition, we show that miGFPi serves as a powerful technique to functionally characterize individual isoforms of a gene. We exemplify this aspect of miGFPi by studying isoform-specific loss-of-function phenotypes of the longitudinals lacking (lola) gene in neural stem cells. Altogether, the miGFPi strategy constitutes a generalized loss-of-function approach that is amenable to the study of the function of all genes in the genome in a stringent and highly time effective manner

Genome-wide RNAi Screen Identifies Networks Involved in Intestinal Stem Cell Regulation in Drosophila

The intestinal epithelium is the most rapidly self-renewing tissue in adult animals and maintained by intestinal stem cells (ISCs) in both Drosophila and mammals. To comprehensively identify genes and pathways that regulate ISC fates, we performed a genome-wide transgenic RNAi screen in adult Drosophila intestine and identified 405 genes that regulate ISC maintenance and lineage-specific differentiation. By integrating these genes into publicly available interaction databases, we further developed functional networks that regulate ISC self-renewal, ISC proliferation, ISC maintenance of diploid status, ISC survival, ISC-to-enterocyte (EC) lineage differentiation, and ISC-to-enteroendocrine (EE) lineage differentiation. By comparing regulators among ISCs, female germline stem cells, and neural stem cells, we found that factors related to basic stem cell cellular processes are commonly required in all stem cells, and stem-cell-specific, niche-related signals are required only in the unique stem cell type. Our findings provide valuable insights into stem cell maintenance and lineage-specific differentiation

Genetic dependencies associated with transcription factor activities in human cancer cell lines

Summary: Transcription factors (TFs) are important mediators of aberrant transcriptional programs in cancer cells. In this study, we focus on TF activity (TFa) as a biomarker for cell-line-selective anti-proliferative effects, in that high TFa predicts sensitivity to loss of function of a given gene (i.e., genetic dependencies [GDs]). Our linear-regression-based framework identifies 3,047 pan-cancer and 3,952 cancer-type-specific candidate TFa-GD associations from cell line data, which are then cross-examined for impact on survival in patient cohorts. One of the most prominent biomarkers is TEAD1 activity, whose associations with its predicted GDs are validated through experimental evidence as proof of concept. Overall, these TFa-GD associations represent an attractive resource for identifying innovative, biomarker-driven hypotheses for drug discovery programs in oncology

Human intellectual disability genes form conserved functional modules in Drosophila

Contains fulltext : 124936.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Intellectual Disability (ID) disorders, defined by an IQ below 70, are genetically and phenotypically highly heterogeneous. Identification of common molecular pathways underlying these disorders is crucial for understanding the molecular basis of cognition and for the development of therapeutic intervention strategies. To systematically establish their functional connectivity, we used transgenic RNAi to target 270 ID gene orthologs in the Drosophila eye. Assessment of neuronal function in behavioral and electrophysiological assays and multiparametric morphological analysis identified phenotypes associated with knockdown of 180 ID gene orthologs. Most of these genotype-phenotype associations were novel. For example, we uncovered 16 genes that are required for basal neurotransmission and have not previously been implicated in this process in any system or organism. ID gene orthologs with morphological eye phenotypes, in contrast to genes without phenotypes, are relatively highly expressed in the human nervous system and are enriched for neuronal functions, suggesting that eye phenotyping can distinguish different classes of ID genes. Indeed, grouping genes by Drosophila phenotype uncovered 26 connected functional modules. Novel links between ID genes successfully predicted that MYCN, PIGV and UPF3B regulate synapse development. Drosophila phenotype groups show, in addition to ID, significant phenotypic similarity also in humans, indicating that functional modules are conserved. The combined data indicate that ID disorders, despite their extreme genetic diversity, are caused by disruption of a limited number of highly connected functional modules