Project description:The Drosha-DGCR8 complex (Microprocessor) is required for microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis. DGCR8 contains two double-stranded RNA binding motifs that recognize the RNA substrate, whereas Drosha functions as the endonuclease. We have used high-throughput sequencing of RNAs isolated by crosslinking immunoprecipitation (HITS-CLIP) to identify endogenous RNA targets of DGCR8 in mammalian cells. Unexpectedly, miRNAs were not the most abundant targets. DGCR8-bound RNAs comprised several hundred mRNAs as well as snoRNAs and long non-coding RNAs. We found that DGCR8 together with Drosha controls the abundance of several mRNAs, as well as long non-coding RNAs, such as MALAT-1. By contrast, the DGCR8-mediated cleavage of snoRNAs is independent of Drosha, suggesting the involvement of DGCR8 in cellular complexes with other endonucleases. Interestingly, binding of DGCR8 to cassette exons, acts as a novel mechanism to regulate the relative abundance of alternatively spliced isoforms. Collectively, these data provide new insights in the complex role of DGCR8 in controlling the fate of several classes of RNAs.
Project description:The Drosha-DGCR8 complex (Microprocessor) is required for microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis. DGCR8 contains two double-stranded RNA binding motifs that recognize the RNA substrate, whereas Drosha functions as the endonuclease. We have used high-throughput sequencing of RNAs isolated by crosslinking immunoprecipitation (HITS-CLIP) to identify endogenous RNA targets of DGCR8 in mammalian cells. Unexpectedly, miRNAs were not the most abundant targets. DGCR8-bound RNAs comprised several hundred mRNAs as well as snoRNAs and long non-coding RNAs. We found that DGCR8 together with Drosha controls the abundance of several mRNAs, as well as long non-coding RNAs, such as MALAT-1. By contrast, the DGCR8-mediated cleavage of snoRNAs is independent of Drosha, suggesting the involvement of DGCR8 in cellular complexes with other endonucleases. Interestingly, binding of DGCR8 to cassette exons, acts as a novel mechanism to regulate the relative abundance of alternatively spliced isoforms. Collectively, these data provide new insights in the complex role of DGCR8 in controlling the fate of several classes of RNAs. Comparison of RNAs associated to both endogenous (D8) and overexpressed (T7) DGCR8 in HEK293T cells
Project description:Drosha is a type III RNAse, which plays a critical role in miRNA biogenesis. Drosha and its double-stranded RNA-binding partner protein Pasha/DGCR8 likely recognize and cleave miRNA precursor RNAs or pri-miRNA hairpins co-transcriptionally. To identify RNAs processed by Drosha, we used tiling microarrays to examine transcripts after depletion of drosha mRNA with dsRNA in Drosophila Schneider S2 cells. This strategy identified 137 Drosha-regulated RNAs, including 11 putative pri-miRNAs comprising 15 annotated miRNAs. Most of the identified pri-miRNAs seem extremely large, >10 kilobases as revealed by both the Drosha knock down strategy and by RNA PolII chromatin IP followed by Drosophila tiling microarrays. Surprisingly, more than a hundred additional RNAs not annotated as miRNAs are under Drosha control and are likely to be direct targets of Drosha action. This is because many of them encode annotated genes, and unlike bona fide pri-miRNAs, they are not affected by depletion of the miRNA processing factor, dicer-1. Moreover, application of the evofold analysis software indicates that at least 25 of the Drosha-regulated RNAs contain evolutionarily conserved hairpins similar to those recognized by the Drosha-Pasha/DGCR8 complex in pri-miRNAs. One of these hairpins is located in the 5′ UTR of both pasha and mammalian DGCR8. These observations suggest that a negative feedback loop acting on pasha mRNA may regulate the miRNA-biogenesis pathway: i.e., excess Drosha cleaves pasha/DGCR8 primary transcripts and leads to a reduction in pasha/DGCR8 mRNA levels and Pasha/DGCR8 synthesis. Keywords: time course, ChIP-chip
Project description:The Microprocessor complex (DGCR8/Drosha) is required for microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis but also binds and regulates the stability of several types of cellular RNAs. Of particular interest, DGCR8 controls the stability of mature small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) transcripts independently of Drosha, suggesting the existence of alternative DGCR8 complex/es with other nucleases to process a variety of cellular RNAs. Here, we found that DGCR8 co-purifies with subunits of the nuclear exosome, preferentially associating with its hRRP6-containing nucleolar form. Importantly, we demonstrate that DGCR8 is essential for the recruitment of the exosome to snoRNAs and to human telomerase RNA. In addition, we show that the DGCR8/exosome complex controls the stability of the human telomerase RNA component (hTR/TERC). Altogether, these data suggests that DGCR8 acts as a novel adaptor to recruit the exosome complex to structured RNAs and induce their degradation.
Project description:The Microprocessor complex (DGCR8/Drosha) is required for microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis but also binds and regulates the stability of several types of cellular RNAs. Of particular interest, DGCR8 controls the stability of mature small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) transcripts independently of Drosha, suggesting the existence of alternative DGCR8 complex/es with other nucleases to process a variety of cellular RNAs. Here, we found that DGCR8 co-purifies with subunits of the nuclear exosome, preferentially associating with its hRRP6-containing nucleolar form. Importantly, we demonstrate that DGCR8 is essential for the recruitment of the exosome to snoRNAs and to human telomerase RNA. In addition, we show that the DGCR8/exosome complex controls the stability of the human telomerase RNA component (hTR/TERC). Altogether, these data suggests that DGCR8 acts as a novel adaptor to recruit the exosome complex to structured RNAs and induce their degradation. [i] Examination of the RNA binding profile of hRRP6 (also known as EXOSC10) via iCLIP. [ii] HeLa cells were transiently depleted of hRRP6 or DGCR8 using siRNAs. For a control an non-targetting (siNon) siRNA was used. Three biological replicates of each samples were sent for RNA sequencing.