Project description:Through an integration of genomic and proteomic approaches to advance understanding of long noncoding RNAs, we investigate the function of the telomeric transcript, TERRA. By identifying thousands of TERRA target sites in the mouse genome, we demonstrate that TERRA can bind both in cis to telomeres and in trans to genic targets. We then define a large network of interacting proteins, including epigenetic factors, telomeric proteins, and the RNA helicase, ATRX. TERRA and ATRX share hundreds of target genes and are functionally antagonistic at these loci: whereas TERRA activates, ATRX represses gene expression. At telomeres, TERRA competes with telomeric DNA for ATRX binding, suppresses ATRX localization, and ensures telomeric stability. Depleting TERRA increases telomerase activity and induces telomeric pathologies, including formation of telomere-induced DNA damage foci and loss or duplication of telomeric sequences. We conclude that TERRA functions as an epigenomic modulator in trans and as an essential regulator of telomeres in cis.
Project description:The genome consists of non-B-DNA structures such as G-quadruplexes (G4) that are involved in the regulation of genome stability and transcription. Telomeric-repeat containing RNA (TERRA) is capable of folding into G-quadruplex and interacting with chromatin remodeler ATRX. Here we show that TERRA modulates ATRX occupancy on repetitive sequences and over genes, and maintains DNA G-quadruplex structures at TERRA target and non-target sites in mouse embryonic stem cells. TERRA prevents ATRX from binding to subtelomeric regions and represses H3K9me3 formation. G4 ChIP-seq reveals that G4 abundance decreases at accessible chromatin regions, particularly at transcription start sites (TSS) after TERRA depletion; such G4 reduction at TSS is associated with elevated ATRX occupancy and differentially expressed genes. Loss of ATRX alleviates the effect of gene repression caused by TERRA depletion. Immunostaining analyses demonstrate that knockdown of TERRA diminishes DNA G4 signals, whereas silencing ATRX elevates G4 formation. Our results uncover an epigenetic regulation by TERRA that sequesters ATRX and preserves DNA G4 structures.
Project description:We characterize the TERRA transcriptome at normal and TRF2-depleted telomeres by RNA-seq and we demonstrate that TERRA upregulation is occurring at all transcribed telomeres upon depletion of TRF2.
Project description:Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) cancer cells are a subset of cancers that depend on the homologous recombination mechanism to extend their telomere length independent of telomerase. ALT cells contain elevated levels of the telomeric-repeat containing long noncoding RNA (TERRA), which is an RNA transcribed by RNA polymerase II and can form RNA:DNA (R-loops) hybrids at telomeres. Lines of evidence have shown that the formation of R-loops at telomeres could be one of the mechanisms to trigger DNA repair to lengthen telomeres. We perform iDRiP-MS, a method to capture specific RNA interacting protein by UV light crosslinking using antisense probe capture (Chu et al., 2017a; Minajigi et al., 2015), to explore the TERRA interactomes in human ALT cancer cell. Our TERRA interactome data reveals that TERRA interacts with an extensive subset of DNA repair proteins in ALT cells including the endonuclease XPF, suggesting that TERRA R-loops activate DDR via XPF to promote homologous recombination and telomere replication to drive ALT.
Project description:We characterize the TERRA transcriptome at normal and TRF2-depleted telomeres by RNA-seq and we demonstrate that TERRA upregulation is occurring at all transcribed telomeres upon depletion of TRF2. RNA-sequencing of HeLa mRNA, 4 samples: with or without TERRA enrichment by IP (respectively "IP" and "input"), with or without TFR-2 knock-down (respectively "_T" and "_EV").
Project description:At critically short telomeres TERRA RNA-DNA hybrids become stabilized and drive homology-directed repair (HDR) to delay replicative senescence. However, even at long- and intermediate-length telomeres, not subject to HDR, transient TERRA RNA-DNA hybrids form, suggestive of additional roles. Here, we report that hybrids at telomeres prevent resection by the Exo1 nuclease when telomeres become non-functional. We employed the well-characterized cdc13-1 allele, where telomere resection can be induced in a temperature dependent manner, to demonstrate that ssDNA generation at telomeres is either prevented or augmented when RNA-DNA hybrids are stabilized or destabilized, respectively. The viability of cdc13-1 cells is affected by the presence or absence of hybrids accordingly. These results give insights into an additional role of TERRA at dysfunctional telomeres suggesting that it not only affects replicative senescence rates through HDR activation at critically short telomeres, but may also affect resection rates at intermediate length telomeres in pre-senescent cells.
Project description:Telomere shortening rates must be regulated to prevent premature replicative senescence. TERRA R-loops become stabilized at critically short telomeres to promote their elongation through homology-directed repair (HDR), thereby counteracting senescence onset. Using a non-bias proteomic approach to identify telomere binding factors, we identified Npl3, an RNA-binding protein previously implicated in multiple RNA biogenesis processes. Using Chromatin- and RNA immunoprecipitation, we demonstrate that Npl3 interacts with TERRA and telomeres. Furthermore, we show that Npl3 associates to telomeres in an R-loop dependent manner, as changes in R-loop levels, e.g. at short telomeres, modulate the recruitment of Npl3 to chromosome ends. Through a series of genetic and biochemical approaches we demonstrate that Npl3 binds to TERRA and stabilizes R-loops at short telomeres, which in turn promotes HDR and prevents premature replicative senescence onset. This may have implications for diseases associated with excessive telomere shortening.
Project description:Telomere erosion causes cell mortality, suggesting that longer telomeres allow greater number of cell division. In telomerase-positive human cancer cells, however, telomeres are often kept shorter than the surrounding normal tissues. Recently, we have shown that telomere elongation in cancer cells represses innate immune genes and promotes their differentiation in vivo. This implies that short telomeres contribute to cancer malignancy, but it is unclear how such genetic repression is caused by long telomeres. Here we report that telomeric repeat-containing RNA (TERRA) induces genome-wide alteration of gene expression in telomere-elongated cancer cells in vivo. Using three different cell lines, we found that telomere elongation upregulates TERRA and downregulates innate immune genes in vivo xenograft tumors. Most of the suppressed genes belonged to innate immune system categories and were upregulated in various cancers. We propose that TERRA G4 counteracts cancer malignancy through suppression of innate immune genes. Four samples are telomere-elongated cells (PC3/LhTERTL, PC3/LhTERTL/cre, HBC4/hTERT and MKN74/hTERT), and the other four samples are control cell lines.
Project description:ATRX is a chromatin remodelling factor found at a wide range of tandemly repeated sequences including telomeres (TTAGGG)n. Acquired mutations in ATRX are found in nearly all tumours which maintain their telomeres via the alternative lengthening of telomere (ALT) pathway and ATRX is known to suppress this pathway. Here we show that recruitment of ATRX to telomeric repeats is dependent on their number, their orientation and, critically, on their transcription. Importantly, the transcribed telomeric repeats form RNA-DNA hybrids (R-loops) whose abundance correlates with the recruitment of ATRX. Here we show loss of ATRX is also associated with an increase in R-loop formation. These findings suggest that the presence of ATRX at telomeres may reflect a central role in suppressing deleterious DNA secondary structures which form at transcribed telomeric repeats, and this may account for the increases in DNA damage, stalling of replication and homology directed repair previously observed upon loss of ATRX function.
Project description:Telomerase deficiency and progressive telomere erosion in human somatic cells results in senescence. Small RNAs that target telomeres have been observed in diverse organisms but their functions are not well characterized. We define an endogenous small RNA pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans that promotes heterochromatin formation at telomeres via Dicer, the perinuclear Argonaute protein WAGO-1 and the nuclear Argonaute protein HRDE-1. Loss of telomerase induces biogenesis of siRNAs that target the telomeric lncRNA TERRA, whereas loss of both telomerase and small RNA-mediated telomeric silencing induces TERRA expression, DNA damage, and an accelerated sterility phenotype. The latter phenotypes can be rescued by exogenous telomeric siRNAs or by loss of the DNA damage response protein EXO-1. Thus, endogenous siRNAs interact with TERRA to promote heterochromatin formation in a manner that is critical for the stability of naturally eroding telomeres. We propose that small RNA-mediated heterochromatin defects could contribute to proliferative aging by promoting genome stability.