Diurnal regulation of RNA polymerase III transcription is under the control of both the feeding-fasting response and the circadian clock.

RNA polymerase III (Pol III) synthesizes short noncoding RNAs, many of which are essential for translation. Accordingly, Pol III activity is tightly regulated with cell growth and proliferation by factors such as MYC, RB1, TRP53, and MAF1. MAF1 is a repressor of Pol III transcription whose activity is controlled by phosphorylation; in particular, it is inactivated through phosphorylation by the TORC1 kinase complex, a sensor of nutrient availability. Pol III regulation is thus sensitive to environmental cues, yet a diurnal profile of Pol III transcription activity is so far lacking. Here, we first use gene expression arrays to measure mRNA accumulation during the diurnal cycle in the livers of (1) wild-type mice, (2) arrhythmic javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement@59c2c50e knockout mice, (3) mice fed at regular intervals during both night and day, and (4) mice lacking the javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement@160cb27a gene, and so provide a comprehensive view of the changes in cyclic mRNA accumulation occurring in these different systems. We then show that Pol III occupancy of its target genes rises before the onset of the night, stays high during the night, when mice normally ingest food and when translation is known to be increased, and decreases in daytime. Whereas higher Pol III occupancy during the night reflects a MAF1-dependent response to feeding, the rise of Pol III occupancy before the onset of the night reflects a circadian clock-dependent response. Thus, Pol III transcription during the diurnal cycle is regulated both in response to nutrients and by the circadian clock, which allows anticipatory Pol III transcription

Genomic Study of RNA Polymerase II and III SNAPc-Bound Promoters Reveals a Gene Transcribed by Both Enzymes and a Broad Use of Common Activators

SNAP(c) is one of a few basal transcription factors used by both RNA polymerase (pol) II and pol III. To define the set of active SNAP(c)-dependent promoters in human cells, we have localized genome-wide four SNAP(c) subunits, GTF2B (TFIIB), BRF2, pol II, and pol III. Among some seventy loci occupied by SNAP(c) and other factors, including pol II snRNA genes, pol III genes with type 3 promoters, and a few un-annotated loci, most are primarily occupied by either pol II and GTF2B, or pol III and BRF2. A notable exception is the RPPH1 gene, which is occupied by significant amounts of both polymerases. We show that the large majority of SNAP(c)-dependent promoters recruit POU2F1 and/or ZNF143 on their enhancer region, and a subset also recruits GABP, a factor newly implicated in SNAP(c)-dependent transcription. These activators associate with pol II and III promoters in G1 slightly before the polymerase, and ZNF143 is required for efficient transcription initiation complex assembly. The results characterize a set of genes with unique properties and establish that polymerase specificity is not absolute in vivo

Widespread occurrence of non-canonical transcription termination by human RNA polymerase III

Human RNA polymerase (Pol) III-transcribed genes are thought to share a simple termination signal constituted by four or more consecutive thymidine residues in the coding DNA strand, just downstream of the RNA 3′-end sequence. We found that a large set of human tRNA genes (tDNAs) do not display any T≥4 stretch within 50 bp of 3′-flanking region. In vitro analysis of tDNAs with a distanced T≥4 revealed the existence of non-canonical terminators resembling degenerate T≥5 elements, which ensure significant termination but at the same time allow for the production of Pol III read-through pre-tRNAs with unusually long 3′ trailers. A panel of such non-canonical signals was found to direct transcription termination of unusual Pol III-synthesized viral pre-miRNA transcripts in gammaherpesvirus 68-infected cells. Genome-wide location analysis revealed that human Pol III tends to trespass into the 3′-flanking regions of tDNAs, as expected from extensive terminator read-through. The widespread occurrence of partial termination suggests that the Pol III primary transcriptome in mammals is unexpectedly enriched in 3′-trailer sequences with the potential to contribute novel functional ncRNA

Cycles of gene expression and genome response during mammalian tissue regeneration.

Compensatory liver hyperplasia-or regeneration-induced by two-thirds partial hepatectomy (PH) permits the study of synchronized activation of mammalian gene expression, particularly in relation to cell proliferation. Here, we measured genomic transcriptional responses and mRNA accumulation changes after PH and sham surgeries. During the first 10-20 h, the PH- and sham-surgery responses were very similar, including parallel early activation of cell-division-cycle genes. After 20 h, however, whereas post-PH livers continued with a robust and coordinate cell-division-cycle gene-expression response before returning to the resting state by 1 week, sham-surgery livers returned directly to a resting gene-expression state. Localization of RNA polymerase II (Pol II), and trimethylated histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4me3) and 36 (H3K36me3) on genes dormant in the resting liver and activated during the PH response revealed a general de novo promoter Pol II recruitment and H3K4me3 increase during the early 10-20 h phase followed by Pol II elongation and H3K36me3 accumulation in gene bodies during the later proliferation phase. H3K36me3, generally appearing at the first internal exon, was preceded 5' by H3K36me2; 3' of the first internal exon, in about half of genes H3K36me3 predominated and in the other half H3K36me2 and H3K36me3 co-existed. Further, we observed some unusual gene profiles with abundant Pol II but little evident H3K4me3 or H3K36me3 modification, indicating that these modifications are neither universal nor essential partners to Pol II transcription. PH and sham surgical procedures on mice reveal striking early post-operatory gene expression similarities followed by synchronized mRNA accumulation and epigenetic histone mark changes specific to PH

Identification and removal of low-complexity sites in allele-specific analysis of ChIP-seq data

Motivation: High-throughput sequencing technologies enable the genome-wide analysis of the impact of genetic variation on molecular phenotypes at unprecedented resolution. However, although powerful, these technologies can also introduce unexpected artifacts. Results: We investigated the impact of library amplification bias on the identification of allele-specific (AS) molecular events from high-throughput sequencing data derived from chromatin immunoprecipitation assays (ChIP-seq). Putative AS DNA binding activity for RNA polymerase II was determined using ChIP-seq data derived from lymphoblastoid cell lines of two parent-daughter trios. We found that, at high-sequencing depth, many significant AS binding sites suffered from an amplification bias, as evidenced by a larger number of clonal reads representing one of the two alleles. To alleviate this bias, we devised an amplification bias detection strategy, which filters out sites with low read complexity and sites featuring a significant excess of clonal reads. This method will be useful for AS analyses involving ChIP-seq and other functional sequencing assays. Availability: The R package absfilter for library clonality simulations and detection of amplification-biased sites is available from http://updepla1srv1.epfl.ch/waszaks/absfilter Contact: [email protected] or [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics onlin

Transcriptional regulatory logic of the diurnal cycle in the mouse liver.

Many organisms exhibit temporal rhythms in gene expression that propel diurnal cycles in physiology. In the liver of mammals, these rhythms are controlled by transcription-translation feedback loops of the core circadian clock and by feeding-fasting cycles. To better understand the regulatory interplay between the circadian clock and feeding rhythms, we mapped DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHSs) in the mouse liver during a diurnal cycle. The intensity of DNase I cleavages cycled at a substantial fraction of all DHSs, suggesting that DHSs harbor regulatory elements that control rhythmic transcription. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq), we found that hypersensitivity cycled in phase with RNA polymerase II (Pol II) loading and H3K27ac histone marks. We then combined the DHSs with temporal Pol II profiles in wild-type (WT) and Bmal1-/- livers to computationally identify transcription factors through which the core clock and feeding-fasting cycles control diurnal rhythms in transcription. While a similar number of mRNAs accumulated rhythmically in Bmal1-/- compared to WT livers, the amplitudes in Bmal1-/- were generally lower. The residual rhythms in Bmal1-/- reflected transcriptional regulators mediating feeding-fasting responses as well as responses to rhythmic systemic signals. Finally, the analysis of DNase I cuts at nucleotide resolution showed dynamically changing footprints consistent with dynamic binding of CLOCK:BMAL1 complexes. Structural modeling suggested that these footprints are driven by a transient heterotetramer binding configuration at peak activity. Together, our temporal DNase I mappings allowed us to decipher the global regulation of diurnal transcription rhythms in the mouse liver

Widespread occurrence of non-canonical transcription termination by human RNA polymerase III

Human RNA polymerase (Pol) III-transcribed genes are thought to share a simple termination signal constituted by four or more consecutive thymidine residues in the coding DNA strand, just downstream of the RNA 3′-end sequence. We found that a large set of human tRNA genes (tDNAs) do not display any T≥4 stretch within 50 bp of 3′-flanking region. In vitro analysis of tDNAs with a distanced T≥4 revealed the existence of non-canonical terminators resembling degenerate T≥5 elements, which ensure significant termination but at the same time allow for the production of Pol III read-through pre-tRNAs with unusually long 3′ trailers. A panel of such non-canonical signals was found to direct transcription termination of unusual Pol III-synthesized viral pre-miRNA transcripts in gammaherpesvirus 68-infected cells. Genome-wide location analysis revealed that human Pol III tends to trespass into the 3′-flanking regions of tDNAs, as expected from extensive terminator read-through. The widespread occurrence of partial termination suggests that the Pol III primary transcriptome in mammals is unexpectedly enriched in 3′-trailer sequences with the potential to contribute novel functional ncRNAs

Redox Signaling by the RNA Polymerase III TFIIB-Related Factor Brf2.

TFIIB-related factor 2 (Brf2) is a member of the family of TFIIB-like core transcription factors. Brf2 recruits RNA polymerase (Pol) III to type III gene-external promoters, including the U6 spliceosomal RNA and selenocysteine tRNA genes. Found only in vertebrates, Brf2 has been linked to tumorigenesis but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. We have solved crystal structures of a human Brf2-TBP complex bound to natural promoters, obtaining a detailed view of the molecular interactions occurring at Brf2-dependent Pol III promoters and highlighting the general structural and functional conservation of human Pol II and Pol III pre-initiation complexes. Surprisingly, our structural and functional studies unravel a Brf2 redox-sensing module capable of specifically regulating Pol III transcriptional output in living cells. Furthermore, we establish Brf2 as a central redox-sensing transcription factor involved in the oxidative stress pathway and provide a mechanistic model for Brf2 genetic activation in lung and breast cancer

Quantifying ChIP-seq data:A spiking method providing an internal reference for sample-to-sample normalization

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) experiments are widely used to determine, within entire genomes, the occupancy sites of any protein of interest, including, for example, transcription factors, RNA polymerases, or histones with or without various modifications. In addition to allowing the determination of occupancy sites within one cell type and under one condition, this method allows, in principle, the establishment and comparison of occupancy maps in various cell types, tissues, and conditions. Such comparisons require, however, that samples be normalized. Widely used normalization methods that include a quantile normalization step perform well when factor occupancy varies at a subset of sites, but may miss uniform genome-wide increases or decreases in site occupancy. We describe a spike adjustment procedure (SAP) that, unlike commonly used normalization methods intervening at the analysis stage, entails an experimental step prior to immunoprecipitation. A constant, low amount from a single batch of chromatin of a foreign genome is added to the experimental chromatin. This "spike" chromatin then serves as an internal control to which the experimental signals can be adjusted. We show that the method improves similarity between replicates and reveals biological differences including global and largely uniform changes

Maf1, a New Player in the Regulation of Human RNA Polymerase III Transcription

BACKGROUND: Human RNA polymerase III (pol III) transcription is regulated by several factors, including the tumor suppressors P53 and Rb, and the proto-oncogene c-Myc. In yeast, which lacks these proteins, a central regulator of pol III transcription, called Maf1, has been described. Maf1 is required for repression of pol III transcription in response to several signal transduction pathways and is broadly conserved in eukaryotes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We show that human endogenous Maf1 can be co-immunoprecipitated with pol III and associates in vitro with two pol III subunits, the largest subunit RPC1 and the α-like subunit RPAC2. Maf1 represses pol III transcription in vitro and in vivo and is required for maximal pol III repression after exposure to MMS or rapamycin, treatments that both lead to Maf1 dephosphorylation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data suggest that Maf1 is a major regulator of pol III transcription in human cells