Project description:The NELF complex is a metazoan-specific factor essential for establishing transcription pausing. Although NELF has been implicated in cell fate regulation, the cellular regulation of NELF and its intrinsic role in specific lineage differentiation remains largely unknown. Using mammalian hematopoietic differentiation as a model system, here we identified a dynamic change of NELF-mediated transcription pausing as a novel mechanism regulating hematopoietic differentiation. We found a sharp decrease of NELF protein abundance during granulocytic differentiation with a consequent genome-wide reduction of transcription pausing. This loss of pausing coincides with activation of granulocyte-affiliated genes and diminished expression of progenitor markers. Functional studies revealed that sustained expression of NELF inhibits granulocytic differentiation, whereas NELF depletion in progenitor cells leads to premature differentiation towards the granulocytic lineage. Our results thus uncover a previously unrecognized regulation of transcription pausing by modulating NELF protein abundance to control cellular differentiation.
Project description:Recent studies have found that promoter-proximal pausing occurs at most Pol2-regulated genes. DSIF and NELF function as negative elongation factors and promote Pol2 pausing. P-TEFb, whose enzymatic activity lies in the kinase Cdk9, positively regulates the transition into productive elongation by phosphorylating subunits in DSIF, NELF and Pol2. To gain insights into the interplay between these factors in regulating transcriptional pause release, we tested if knockdown of either pausing factor could bypass P-TEFb function. We find that P-TEFb function is still required for transcriptional elongation after DSIF or NELF knockdown. mES cells were infected with a shRNA hairpin to knockdown Spt5, Spt4, NelfE or control. The resulting cells were then treated with flavopiridol (1uM for 60 minutes). DNA was enriched by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and analyzed by Solexa sequencing. A sample of whole cell extract was sequenced and used as the background to determine enrichment. ChIP was performed using an antibody against total RNA Pol2 (Rpb1 N-terminus, Santa Cruz sc-899).
Project description:Recent studies have found that promoter-proximal pausing occurs at most Pol2-regulated genes. DSIF and NELF function as negative elongation factors and promote Pol2 pausing. P-TEFb, whose enzymatic activity lies in the kinase Cdk9, positively regulates the transition into productive elongation by phosphorylating subunits in DSIF, NELF and Pol2. To gain insights into the interplay between these factors in regulating transcriptional pause release, we tested if knockdown of either pausing factor could bypass P-TEFb function. We find that P-TEFb function is still required for transcriptional elongation after DSIF or NELF knockdown.
Project description:Most metazoan promoters have RNA polymerase II (Pol II) paused slightly downstream of the transcription start site by NELF and DSIF. This pausing keeps these promoters available for rapid induction by P-TEFb, whose activity causes NELF to dissociate and Pol II and DSIF to elongate on the gene. ChIP-Seq data was generated for Pol II, NELF, and DSIF in HeLa cells and used to look at pausing downstream of unannotated promoters. 3x ChIP-Seq (Pol II, NELF, DSIF) in HeLa cells
Project description:NELF-A phosphorylation by P-TEFb is a key event in the pausing release. We conduct IMAC-LC-MS-MS to identified NELF-A phosphorylation site by activation P-TEFb kinase.
Project description:Negative elongation factor (NELF), a four-subunit protein complex in metazoan, plays an important role in regulating promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). Genetic studies demonstrate that the B subunit of mouse NELF (NELF-B) is critical for embryonic development and homeostasis in adult tissue. We report here that both human and mouse NELF-B proteins are translated from a non-AUG codon upstream of the annotated AUG. This non-AUG codon sequence is conserved in mammalian NELF-B but not NELF-B orthologs of lower metazoan. The full-length and a truncated NELF-B that starts at the first AUG codon interact with the other three NELF subunits with comparable efficiency. Furthermore, these two forms of NELF-B have a similar impact on the transcriptomics and proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These results strongly suggest that additional amino acid sequence upstream of the annotated AUG is dispensable for the essential function of NELF in supporting cell growth in vitro. While the majority of mouse adult tissues surveyed exclusively express the full-length NELF-B protein, mouse kidney only contains a truncated NELF-B protein with the same apparent size as the AUG-initiated version. This result raises the distinct possibility that translational initiation of mouse NELF-B is regulated in a tissue-dependent manner. triplicates for ATG-Nelf-B, triplicates for FL-Nelf-B
Project description:RNAPII pausing/termination shortly after initiation is a hallmark of gene regulation. However, the molecular mechanisms involved are still to be uncovered. Here, we show that NELF interacts with Integrator complex subunits (INTScom) forming a stable complex with RNPII and Spt5. The interaction between NELF and INTScom subunits is RNA and DNA independent. Using both HIV-1 promoter and genome wide analyses, we demonstrate that Integrator subunits specifically control NELF-mediated RNAPII pause/release at coding genes. The strength of RNAPII pausing is determined by the nature of the NELF-associated complex. Interestingly, in addition to controlling RNAPII pause release INTS11 catalytic subunit of the INTScom is required for the synthesis of full length mRNA. Finally, INTScom-target genes are enriched in HIV-1 TAR/ NELF-binding element and in a 3’box sequence required for snRNA biogenesis. Revealing these unexpected functions of INTScom in regulating RNAPII pausing/release and completion of mRNA synthesis of NELF-target genes will contribute to our understanding of the gene expression cycle. Genome-wide expression in HeLa cells in the absence of Integrator 11, or NELF or mock (control) depleted by strand-specific RNASeq (Illumina)
Project description:Many mammalian genes are occupied by paused RNA polymerase II (pol II) at promoter-proximal regions on both sides of transcription start sites (TSSs). However, the consequences of pol II pausing on gene expression and cell biology are not fully understood. Here we report that genetic ablation of the b subunit of mouse negative elongation factor (Nelf-b), a key pol II-pausing factor, results in slower progression at multiple cell cycle stages and increased apoptosis. Consistently, a whole-genome analysis indicates that growth and cell death-related genes are highly enriched among the direct target genes of Nelf-b. In particular, Nelf-b deletion increases pol II density in the promoter-distal region of stress response genes and their overall expression levels in the absence of any external stress signals. In addition, our work also reveals a previously unappreciated role of Nelf-b role in curbing TSS-upstream transcription of many mammalian genes. We suggest that Nelf-mediated pol II pausing balances the cellular needs for growth/survival and stress response by preventing excessive basal transcription of stress-induced genes. Examination of Nelf-b bindings sites on chromosomes in mouse embryonic fibroblasts
Project description:Pausing of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) during early transcription, mediated by the negative elongation factor (NELF) complex, allows cells to coordinate and appropriately respond to signals by modulating the rate of transcriptional pause release. Promoter proximal enrichment of Pol II occurs at uterine genes relevant to reproductive biology; thus, we hypothesized that pausing might impact endometrial response by coordinating hormonal signals involved in establishing and maintaining pregnancy.We deleted the NELF-B subunit in themouse uterus using PgrCre (NELF-B UtcKO).Resulting females were infertile.Uterine response to the initial decidual stimulus of NELF-B UtcKOwas similar to that of control mice; however, subsequent full decidual response was not observed. Cultured NELF-B UtcKO stromal cells exhibited perturbances in extracellular matrix components and also expressed elevated levels of the decidual prolactin Prl8a2, as well as altered levels of transcripts encoding enzymes involved in prostaglandin synthesis and metabolism. Because endometrial stromal cell decidualization is also critical to human reproductive health and fertility, we used small interfering to suppressNELF-B or NELF-E subunits in cultured human endometrial stromal cells, which inhibited decidualization, as reflected by the impaired induction of decidual markers PRL and IGFBP1. Overall, our study indicatesNELF-mediated pausing is essential to coordinate endometrial responses and that disruption impairs uterine decidual development during pregnancy.
Project description:RNAPII pausing/termination shortly after initiation is a hallmark of gene regulation. However, the molecular mechanisms involved are still to be uncovered. Here, we show that NELF interacts with Integrator complex subunits (INTScom) forming a stable complex with RNPII and Spt5. The interaction between NELF and INTScom subunits is RNA and DNA independent. Using both HIV-1 promoter and genome wide analyses, we demonstrate that Integrator subunits specifically control NELF-mediated RNAPII pause/release at coding genes. The strength of RNAPII pausing is determined by the nature of the NELF-associated complex. Interestingly, in addition to controlling RNAPII pause release INTS11 catalytic subunit of the INTScom is required for the synthesis of full length mRNA. Finally, INTScom-target genes are enriched in HIV-1 TAR/ NELF-binding element and in a 3’box sequence required for snRNA biogenesis. Revealing these unexpected functions of INTScom in regulating RNAPII pausing/release and completion of mRNA synthesis of NELF-target genes will contribute to our understanding of the gene expression cycle. Binding profiles of Integrator subunits in HeLa cells by ChIP-Seq (Illumina) Please note that the MACS14*.tar.gz contains MACS output bed and xls files and the 'readme.txt' contains a detailed description of each file.