Reduced RNA turnover as a driver of cellular senescence

Accumulation of senescent cells is an important contributor to chronic inflammation upon aging.Whilecytoplasmic DNA was shown to drivethe inflammatory phenotype of senescent cells, an equivalent role for RNA has never been explored.Here, we show that cellular senescence correlates with reduced expression ofRNA exosomesubunitsand coincident accumulation of promoter RNAs and immature RNA transcripts.Forced accumulation of these RNAs by inactivation of the Exosc3exosome subunit induces expression of senescence markersand reduced mitochondrial gene expression. Reciprocally, mitochondrial suffering and oxidative stress results in reduced RNA decay, suggestive of a feedback loop betweenRNA decay and mitochondrial activity. As severalof the accumulating RNAsare also produced during normal activation of immune cells and contain Alu sequences known to trigger an innate immune response, we propose that stabilizing immature and unstable RNAs participate in driving andmaintaining the permanent inflammatory state characteristic of cellular senescence

Reduced RNA turnover as a driver of cellular senescence

Accumulation of senescent cells is an important contributor to chronic inflammation upon aging. The inflammatory phenotype of senescent cells was previously shown to be driven by cytoplasmic DNA. Here, we propose that cytoplasmic double-stranded RNA has a similar effect. We find that several cell types driven into senescence by different routes share an accumulation of long promoter RNAs and 3' gene extensions rich in retrotransposon sequences. Accordingly, these cells display increased expression of genes involved in response to double stranded RNA of viral origin downstream of the interferon pathway. The RNA accumulation is associated with evidence of reduced RNA turnover, including in some cases, reduced expression of RNA exosome subunits. Reciprocally, depletion of RNA exosome subunit EXOSC3 accelerated expression of multiple senescence markers. A senescence-like RNA accumulation was also observed in cells exposed to oxidative stress, an important trigger of cellular senescence. Altogether, we propose that in a subset of senescent cells, repeat-containing transcripts stabilized by oxidative stress or reduced RNA exosome activity participate in driving and maintaining the permanent inflammatory state characterizing cellular senescence

A Broad Set of Chromatin Factors Influences Splicing

Several studies propose an influence of chromatin on pre-mRNA splicing, but it is still unclear how widespread and how direct this phenomenon is. We find here that when assembled in vivo, the U2 snRNP co-purifies with a subset of chromatin-proteins, including histones and remodeling complexes like SWI/SNF. Yet, an unbiased RNAi screen revealed that the outcome of splicing is influenced by a much larger variety of chromatin factors not all associating with the spliceosome. The availability of this broad range of chromatin factors impacting splicing further unveiled their very context specific effect, resulting in either inclusion or skipping, depending on the exon under scrutiny. Finally, a direct assessment of the impact of chromatin on splicing using an in vitro co-transcriptional splicing assay with pre-mRNAs transcribed from a nucleosomal template, demonstrated that chromatin impacts nascent pre-mRNP in their competence for splicing. Altogether, our data show that numerous chromatin factors associated or not with the spliceosome can affect the outcome of splicing, possibly as a function of the local chromatin environment that by default interferes with the efficiency of splicing

Impact of Gephyrin alternative splicing on inhibitory synapses function

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Interaction of HP1 and Brg1/Brm with the Globular Domain of Histone H3 Is Required for HP1-Mediated Repression

The heterochromatin-enriched HP1 proteins play a critical role in regulation of transcription. These proteins contain two related domains known as the chromo- and the chromoshadow-domain. The chromo-domain binds histone H3 tails methylated on lysine 9. However, in vivo and in vitro experiments have shown that the affinity of HP1 proteins to native methylated chromatin is relatively poor and that the opening of chromatin occurring during DNA replication facilitates their binding to nucleosomes. These observations prompted us to investigate whether HP1 proteins have additional histone binding activities, envisioning also affinity for regions potentially occluded by the nucleosome structure. We find that the chromoshadow-domain interacts with histone H3 in a region located partially inside the nucleosomal barrel at the entry/exit point of the nucleosome. Interestingly, this region is also contacted by the catalytic subunits of the human SWI/SNF complex. In vitro, efficient SWI/SNF remodeling requires this contact and is inhibited in the presence of HP1 proteins. The antagonism between SWI/SNF and HP1 proteins is also observed in vivo on a series of interferon-regulated genes. Finally, we show that SWI/SNF activity favors loading of HP1 proteins to chromatin both in vivo and in vitro. Altogether, our data suggest that HP1 chromoshadow-domains can benefit from the opening of nucleosomal structures to bind chromatin and that HP1 proteins use this property to detect and arrest unwanted chromatin remodeling

Cell cycle-regulated expression of the muscle determination factor Myf5 in proliferating myoblasts.

Myf5 is the earliest-known muscle-specific factor to be expressed in vivo and its expression is associated with determination of the myoblast lineage. In C2 cells, we show by immunocytolocalization that Myf5 disappears rapidly from cells in which the differentiation program has been initiated. In proliferating myoblasts, the levels of Myf5 and MyoD detected from cell to cell are very heterogeneous. We find that some of the heterogeneity of Myf5 expression arises from a posttranscriptional regulation of Myf5 by the cell cycle. Immunoblotting of extracts from synchronized cultures reveals that Myf5 undergoes periodic fluctuations during the cell cycle and is absent from cells blocked early in mitosis by use of nocodazole. The disappearance of Myf5 from mitotic cells involves proteolytic degradation of a phosphorylated form of Myf5 specific to this phase of the cell cycle. In contrast, MyoD levels are not depleted in mitotic C2 cells. The mitotic destruction of Myf5 is the first example of a transcription factor showing cell cycle-regulated degradation. These results may be significant in view of the possible role of Myf5 in maintaining the determination of proliferating cells and in timing the onset of differentiation

Non-coding murine centromeric transcripts associate with and potentiate Aurora B kinase

Non-coding RNAs are emerging as key players in many fundamental biological processes, including specification of higher-order chromatin structure. We examined the implication of RNA transcribed from mouse centromeric minor satellite repeats in the formation and function of centromere-associated complexes. Here we show that the levels of minor satellite RNA vary during cell-cycle progression, peaking in G2/M phase, concomitant with accumulation of proteins of the chromosomal passenger complex near the centromere. Consistent with this, we describe that murine minor satellite RNA are components of CENP-A-associated centromeric fractions and associate with proteins of the chromosomal passenger complex Aurora B and Survivin at the onset of mitosis. Interactions of endogenous Aurora B with CENP-A and Survivin are sensitive to RNaseA. Likewise, the kinase activity of Aurora B requires an RNA component. More importantly, Aurora B kinase activity can be potentiated by minor satellite RNA. In addition, decreased Aurora B activity after RNA depletion can be specifically rescued by restitution of these transcripts. Together, our data provide new functional evidence for minor satellite transcripts as key partners and regulators of the mitotic kinase Aurora B

The adenovirus E4orf4 protein targets PP2A to the ACF chromatin-remodeling factor and induces cell death through regulation of SNF2h-containing complexes

The adenovirus E4 open-reading-frame 4 (E4orf4) protein regulates the progression of viral infection and when expressed individually it induces non-classical apoptosis in transformed cells. Here we show that E4orf4 associates with the ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling factor ACF that consists of a sucrose non fermenting-2h (SNF2h) ATPase and an Acf1 regulatory subunit. Furthermore, E4orf4 targets protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) to this complex and to chromatin. Obstruction of SNF2h activity inhibits E4orf4-induced cell death, whereas knockdown of Acf1 results in enhanced E4orf4-induced toxicity in both mammalian and yeast cells, and Acf1 overexpression inhibits E4orf4′s ability to downregulate early adenovirus gene expression in the context of viral infection. Knockdown of the Acf1 homolog, WSTF, inhibits E4orf4-induced cell death. Based on these results we suggest that the E4orf4–PP2A complex inhibits ACF and facilitates enhanced chromatin-remodeling activities of other SNF2h-containing complexes, such as WSTF–SNF2h. The resulting switch in chromatin remodeling determines life versus death decisions and contributes to E4orf4 functions during adenovirus infection