The Paramecium histone chaperone Spt16-1 is required for Pgm endonuclease function in programmed genome rearrangements.

In Paramecium tetraurelia, a large proportion of the germline genome is reproducibly removed from the somatic genome after sexual events via a process involving small (s)RNA-directed heterochromatin formation and DNA excision and repair. How germline limited DNA sequences are specifically recognized in the context of chromatin remains elusive. Here, we use a reverse genetics approach to identify factors involved in programmed genome rearrangements. We have identified a P. tetraurelia homolog of the highly conserved histone chaperone Spt16 subunit of the FACT complex, Spt16-1, and show its expression is developmentally regulated. A functional GFP-Spt16-1 fusion protein localized exclusively in the nuclei where genome rearrangements take place. Gene silencing of Spt16-1 showed it is required for the elimination of all germline-limited sequences, for the survival of sexual progeny, and for the accumulation of internal eliminated sequence (ies)RNAs, an sRNA population produced when elimination occurs. Normal accumulation of 25 nt scanRNAs and deposition of silent histone marks H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 indicated that Spt16-1 does not regulate the scanRNA-directed heterochromatin pathway involved in the early steps of DNA elimination. We further show that Spt16-1 is required for the correct nuclear localization of the PiggyMac (Pgm) endonuclease, which generates the DNA double-strand breaks required for DNA elimination. Thus, Spt16-1 is essential for Pgm function during programmed genome rearrangements. We propose a model in which Spt16-1 mediates interactions between the excision machinery and chromatin, facilitating endonuclease access to DNA cleavage sites during genome rearrangements

Local Effect of Enhancer of Zeste-Like Reveals Cooperation of Epigenetic and cis-Acting Determinants for Zygotic Genome Rearrangements

International audienceIn the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, differentiation of the somatic nucleus from the zygotic nucleus is characterized by massive and reproducible deletion of transposable elements and of 45,000 short, dispersed, single-copy sequences. A specific class of small RNAs produced by the germline during meiosis, the scnRNAs, are involved in the epigenetic regulation of DNA deletion but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we show that trimethylation of histone H3 (H3K27me3 and H3K9me3) displays a dynamic nuclear localization that is altered when the endonuclease required for DNA elimination is depleted. We identified the putative histone methyltransferase Ezl1 necessary for H3K27me3 and H3K9me3 establishment and show that it is required for correct genome rearrangements. Genome-wide analyses show that scnRNA-mediated H3 trimethylation is necessary for the elimination of long, repeated germline DNA, while single copy sequences display differential sensitivity to depletion of proteins involved in the scnRNA pathway, Ezl1-a putative histone methyltransferase and Dcl5-a protein required for iesRNA biogenesis. Our study reveals cis-acting determinants, such as DNA length, also contribute to the definition of germline sequences to delete. We further show that precise excision of single copy DNA elements, as short as 26 bp, requires Ezl1, suggesting that development specific H3K27me3 and H3K9me3 ensure specific demarcation of very short germline sequences from the adjacent somatic sequences

Secuelas por Accidente Cerebrovascular Isquémico en pacientes de 40-90 años, del servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Roberto Calderón Gutiérrez, de enero 2011 a diciembre 2014

Las secuelas neurológicas después del accidente cerebrovascular isquémico pueden impactar negativamente en la calidad de vida de las personas y ser factor determinante en la mortalidad de estas, existiendo datos limitados y variables en cuanto a la frecuencia de su desarrollo, siendo preponderante la investigación de este tópico. El presente estudio es de tipo descriptivo, retrospectivo y de corte transversal, en el cual se abordaron las Secuelas por Accidente Cerebrovascular Isquémico en pacientes de 40 – 90 años, del servicio de Medicina Interna, del Hospital Roberto Calderón Gutiérrez, de enero 2011 a diciembre 2014, que persigue describir las secuelas por esta patología en el grupo de estudio definido. El universo se conformó por 138 expedientes de pacientes con la patología, siendo la muestra de 103 expedientes, la fuente fue secundaria, conformada por la revisión de expedientes clínico, recopilando los datos por medio de la Ficha de recolección elaborada en base a los objetivos propuestos en el estudio. Los principales resultados reflejaron que el sexo predominante fue el femenino, entre el grupo etario de 71 a 80 años. La Hipertensión Arterial representó el antecedente patológico más frecuente, siendo la arteria cerebral media la más afectada. La parálisis / paresia de las extremidades contralaterales fue la secuela predominante. Por tanto, se recomienda hacer insistencia en la atención integral en salud brindada a los usuarios, logrando reconocer factores de riesgo patológico y no patológico incidiendo así en su control o eliminación y de esta forma mitigando el desarrollo de esta enfermedad. Palabras Claves: Secuelas, accidente cerebrovascular, isquemia

Functional specialization of Piwi proteins in Paramecium tetraurelia from post-transcriptional gene silencing to genome remodelling

Proteins of the Argonaute family are small RNA carriers that guide regulatory complexes to their targets. The family comprises two major subclades. Members of the Ago subclade, which are present in most eukaryotic phyla, bind different classes of small RNAs and regulate gene expression at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Piwi subclade members appear to have been lost in plants and fungi and were mostly studied in metazoa, where they bind piRNAs and have essential roles in sexual reproduction. Their presence in ciliates, unicellular organisms harbouring both germline micronuclei and somatic macronuclei, offers an interesting perspective on the evolution of their functions. Here, we report phylogenetic and functional analyses of the 15 Piwi genes from Paramecium tetraurelia. We show that four constitutively expressed proteins are involved in siRNA pathways that mediate gene silencing throughout the life cycle. Two other proteins, specifically expressed during meiosis, are required for accumulation of scnRNAs during sexual reproduction and for programmed genome rearrangements during development of the somatic macronucleus. Our results indicate that Paramecium Piwi proteins have evolved to perform both vegetative and sexual functions through mechanisms ranging from post-transcriptional mRNA cleavage to epigenetic regulation of genome rearrangements

ParameciumDB in 2011: new tools and new data for functional and comparative genomics of the model ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia

ParameciumDB is a community model organism database built with the GMOD toolkit to integrate the genome and biology of the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia. Over the last four years, post-genomic data from proteome and transcriptome studies has been incorporated along with predicted orthologs in 33 species, annotations from the community and publications from the scientific literature. Available tools include BioMart for complex queries, GBrowse2 for genome browsing, the Apollo genome editor for expert curation of gene models, a Blast server, a motif finder, and a wiki for protocols, nomenclature guidelines and other documentation. In-house tools have been developed for ontology browsing and evaluation of off-target RNAi matches. Now ready for next-generation deep sequencing data and the genomes of other Paramecium species, this open-access resource is available at http://paramecium.cgm.cnrs-gif.fr

The Polycomb protein Ezl1 mediates H3K9 and H3K27 methylation to repress transposable elements in Paramecium.

In animals and plants, the H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 chromatin silencing marks are deposited by different protein machineries. H3K9me3 is catalyzed by the SET-domain SU(VAR)3-9 enzymes, while H3K27me3 is catalyzed by the SET-domain Enhancer-of-zeste enzymes, which are the catalytic subunits of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). Here, we show that the Enhancer-of-zeste-like protein Ezl1 from the unicellular eukaryote Paramecium tetraurelia, which exhibits significant sequence and structural similarities with human EZH2, catalyzes methylation of histone H3 in vitro and in vivo with an apparent specificity toward K9 and K27. We find that H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 co-occur at multiple families of transposable elements in an Ezl1-dependent manner. We demonstrate that loss of these histone marks results in global transcriptional hyperactivation of transposable elements with modest effects on protein-coding gene expression. Our study suggests that although often considered functionally distinct, H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 may share a common evolutionary history as well as a common ancestral role in silencing transposable elements

Silencing-associated and meiosis-specific small RNA pathways in Paramecium tetraurelia

Distinct small RNA pathways are involved in the two types of homology-dependent effects described in Paramecium tetraurelia, as shown by a functional analysis of Dicer and Dicer-like genes and by the sequencing of small RNAs. The siRNAs that mediate post-transcriptional gene silencing when cells are fed with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) were found to comprise two subclasses. DCR1-dependent cleavage of the inducing dsRNA generates ∼23-nt primary siRNAs from both strands, while a different subclass of ∼24-nt RNAs, characterized by a short untemplated poly-A tail, is strictly antisense to the targeted mRNA, suggestive of secondary siRNAs that depend on an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. An entirely distinct pathway is responsible for homology-dependent regulation of developmental genome rearrangements after sexual reproduction. During early meiosis, the DCL2 and DCL3 genes are required for the production of a highly complex population of ∼25-nt scnRNAs from all types of germline sequences, including both strands of exons, introns, intergenic regions, transposons and Internal Eliminated Sequences. A prominent 5′-UNG signature, and a minor fraction showing the complementary signature at positions 21–23, indicate that scnRNAs are cleaved from dsRNA precursors as duplexes with 2-nt 3′ overhangs at both ends, followed by preferential stabilization of the 5′-UNG strand

The Pathway to Detangle a Scrambled Gene

Programmed DNA elimination and reorganization frequently occur during cellular differentiation. Development of the somatic macronucleus in some ciliates presents an extreme case, involving excision of internal eliminated sequences (IESs) that interrupt coding DNA segments (macronuclear destined sequences, MDSs), as well as removal of transposon-like elements and extensive genome fragmentation, leading to 98% genome reduction in Stylonychia lemnae. Approximately 20-30% of the genes are estimated to be scrambled in the germline micronucleus, with coding segment order permuted and present in either orientation on micronuclear chromosomes. Massive genome rearrangements are therefore critical for development.To understand the process of DNA deletion and reorganization during macronuclear development, we examined the population of DNA molecules during assembly of different scrambled genes in two related organisms in a developmental time-course by PCR. The data suggest that removal of conventional IESs usually occurs first, accompanied by a surprising level of error at this step. The complex events of inversion and translocation seem to occur after repair and excision of all conventional IESs and via multiple pathways.This study reveals a temporal order of DNA rearrangements during the processing of a scrambled gene, with simpler events usually preceding more complex ones. The surprising observation of a hidden layer of errors, absent from the mature macronucleus but present during development, also underscores the need for repair or screening of incorrectly-assembled DNA molecules

Highly Precise and Developmentally Programmed Genome Assembly in Paramecium Requires Ligase IV–Dependent End Joining

During the sexual cycle of the ciliate Paramecium, assembly of the somatic genome includes the precise excision of tens of thousands of short, non-coding germline sequences (Internal Eliminated Sequences or IESs), each one flanked by two TA dinucleotides. It has been reported previously that these genome rearrangements are initiated by the introduction of developmentally programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which depend on the domesticated transposase PiggyMac. These DSBs all exhibit a characteristic geometry, with 4-base 5′ overhangs centered on the conserved TA, and may readily align and undergo ligation with minimal processing. However, the molecular steps and actors involved in the final and precise assembly of somatic genes have remained unknown. We demonstrate here that Ligase IV and Xrcc4p, core components of the non-homologous end-joining pathway (NHEJ), are required both for the repair of IES excision sites and for the circularization of excised IESs. The transcription of LIG4 and XRCC4 is induced early during the sexual cycle and a Lig4p-GFP fusion protein accumulates in the developing somatic nucleus by the time IES excision takes place. RNAi–mediated silencing of either gene results in the persistence of free broken DNA ends, apparently protected against extensive resection. At the nucleotide level, controlled removal of the 5′-terminal nucleotide occurs normally in LIG4-silenced cells, while nucleotide addition to the 3′ ends of the breaks is blocked, together with the final joining step, indicative of a coupling between NHEJ polymerase and ligase activities. Taken together, our data indicate that IES excision is a “cut-and-close” mechanism, which involves the introduction of initiating double-strand cleavages at both ends of each IES, followed by DSB repair via highly precise end joining. This work broadens our current view on how the cellular NHEJ pathway has cooperated with domesticated transposases for the emergence of new mechanisms involved in genome dynamics