Project description:Vessel maturation is dependent on platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), which signals via tyrosine kinase receptors and facilitates recruitment of pericytes. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate endothelial and smooth muscle cell properties, but their role in pericyte function is unclear. Using RNA sequencing, we identify the hypoxia induced lncRNA “Tyrosine kinase receptor inducing lncRNA” (TYKRIL) as a species conserved lncRNA which regulates pericyte function by controlling PDGF receptor beta (PDGFRß) expression in vitro, in vivo and in human disease. TYKRIL preferentially binds to the N-terminus of p53, thereby acting as a p53 decoy molecule that prevents the interaction with its co-activator p300, which augments the expression of the known p53 target PDGFRß. In summary, our results identify TYKRIL as a key regulator of pericyte function by acting as a previously unknown modulator of p53 activity which may enable to develop novel therapeutic concepts in PDGFRß and p53 dependent disease states.
Project description:Pericytes are essential for vessel maturation and endothelial barrier function. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate endothelial cell function, but their role in pericyte biology remains unexplored. Here we characterize the human pericyte transcriptome following knockdown of lncRNA HypERrlnc (RP11-65J21.3).
Project description:Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as new players in gene expression regulation. Whether and how lncRNAs might control hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function remains largely unknown. Here, we profiled the transcriptome of purified long-term HSCs by deep RNA-sequencing and identified thousands of un-annotated transcripts of which 323 are predicted to be lncRNAs. Comparison of their expression in differentiated lineages represented by B cells (B220+) and Granulocytes (Gr1+), revealed that 159 are likely to be HSC-specific. Knockdown of two such non-coding genes (LincHSC-1 and LincHSC-2) indicated that they regulate HSC lineage differentiation, possibly via targeting cell cycle regulators and chromatin modification enzymes. Taken together, we comprehensively identify lncRNAs in HSC and show to examples that play important roles in HSC function.
Project description:Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as new players in gene expression regulation. Whether and how lncRNAs might control hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function remains largely unknown. Here, we profiled the transcriptome of purified long-term HSCs by deep RNA-sequencing and identified thousands of un-annotated transcripts of which 323 are predicted to be lncRNAs. Comparison of their expression in differentiated lineages represented by B cells (B220+) and Granulocytes (Gr1+), revealed that 159 are likely to be HSC-specific. Knockdown of two such non-coding genes (LncHSC-2 and LncHSC-1) indicated that they regulate HSC lineage differentiation, possibly via targeting cell cycle regulators and chromatin modification enzymes. Taken together, we comprehensively identify lncRNAs in HSC and show to examples that play important roles in HSC function.
Project description:Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently emerged as new players in gene expression regulation. Whether and how lncRNAs might control hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function remains largely unknown. Here, we profiled the transcriptome of purified long-term HSCs by deep RNA-sequencing and identified thousands of un-annotated transcripts of which 323 are predicted to be lncRNAs. Comparison of their expression in differentiated lineages represented by B cells (B220+) and Granulocytes (Gr1+), revealed that 159 are likely to be HSC-specific. Knockdown of two such non-coding genes (LincHSC-1 and LincHSC-2) indicated that they regulate HSC lineage differentiation, possibly via targeting cell cycle regulators and chromatin modification enzymes. Taken together, we comprehensively identify lncRNAs in HSC and show to examples that play important roles in HSC function.
Project description:Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are generated by back-splicing and control cellular signaling and phenotypes. Pericytes stabilize the capillary structure and play an important role in the formation and maintenance of new blood vessels. Here, we characterized hypoxia-regulated circRNAs in human pericytes and showed that circPLOD2 is induced by hypoxia and regulates pericyte functions. Silencing of circPLOD2 increased pericyte proliferation, endothelial-pericyte interactions and tube formation. Transcriptional profiling of circPLOD2-depleted cells and epigenomic analyses revealed widespread changes in gene expression and identified the regulation of the transcription factor KLF4 as a key effector of these changes. Importantly, overexpression of KLF4 was sufficient to reverse the effects on pericyte proliferation and endothelial-pericyte interactions observed after circPLOD2 depletion. Together, these data reveal a novel function of circPLOD2 in the control of pericyte proliferation and capillary formation and show that circPLOD2-mediated regulation of KLF4 significantly contributes to the transcriptional response to hypoxia.
Project description:Accumulating evidence highlights the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) in cellular homeostasis, and their dysregulation in disease settings. Most lncRNAs function by interacting with proteins or protein complexes. While several orthogonal methods have been developed to identify these proteins, each method has its inherent strengths and limitations. Here, we combine two RNA-centric methods ChIRP-MS and RNA-BioID to obtain a comprehensive list of proteins that interact with the well-known lncRNA HOTAIR. Overexpression of HOTAIR has been associated with a metastasis-promoting phenotype in various cancers. Although HOTAIR is known to bind with PRC2 and LSD1 protein complexes, an unbiased and comprehensive method to map its interactome has not yet been performed. Both ChIRP-MS and RNA-BioID data sets show an association of HOTAIR with mitoribosomes, suggesting HOTAIR has functions independent of its (post-)transcriptional mode-of-action.
Project description:Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are defined as non-protein-coding transcripts that are at least 200 nucleotides long. They are known to play pivotal roles in regulating gene expression, especially during stress responses in plants. We used a large collection of in-house transcriptome data from various soybean (Glycine max and Glycine soja) tissues treated under different conditions to perform a comprehensive identification of soybean lncRNAs. We also retrieved publicly available soybean transcriptome data that were of sufficient quality and sequencing depth to enrich our analysis. In total, RNA-seq data of 332 samples were used for this analysis. An integrated reference-based, de novo transcript assembly was developed that identified ~69,000 lncRNA gene loci. We showed that lncRNAs are distinct from both protein-coding transcripts and genomic background noise in terms of length, number of exons, transposable element composition, and sequence conservation level across legume species. The tissue-specific and time-specific transcriptional responses of the lncRNA genes under some stress conditions may suggest their biological relevance. The transcription start sites of lncRNA gene loci tend to be close to their nearest protein-coding genes, and they may be transcriptionally related to the protein-coding genes, particularly for antisense and intronic lncRNAs. A previously unreported subset of small peptide-coding transcripts was identified from these lncRNA loci via tandem mass spectrometry, which paved the way for investigating their functional roles. Our results also highlight the current inadequacy of the bioinformatic definition of lncRNA, which excludes those lncRNA gene loci with small open reading frames (ORFs) from being regarded as protein-coding.