Project description:In response to viral pathogens, the host upregulates antiviral genes that suppress translation of viral mRNAs. However, induction of such antiviral responses may not be exclusive to viruses as the pathways lie at the intersection of broad inflammatory networks that can also be induced by bacterial pathogens. Using a model of Gram-negative sepsis, we show that propagation of kidney damage initiated by a bacterial origin ultimately involves antiviral responses that result in host translation shutdown. We determined that activation of the Eif2ak2-Eif2α axis is the key mediator of translation initiation block in late phase sepsis. Reversal of this axis mitigated kidney injury. Furthermore, temporal profiling of the kidney translatome revealed that multiple genes involved in formation of the initiation complex were translationally altered during bacterial sepsis. Collectively, our findings implicate that translation shutdown is indifferent to the specific initiating pathogen and is an important determinant of tissue injury in sepsis.
Project description:In response to viral pathogens, the host upregulates antiviral genes that suppress translation of viral mRNAs. However, induction of such antiviral responses may not be exclusive to viruses as the pathways lie at the intersection of broad inflammatory networks that can also be induced by bacterial pathogens. Using a model of Gram-negative sepsis, we show that propagation of kidney damage initiated by a bacterial origin ultimately involves antiviral responses that result in host translation shutdown. We determined that activation of the Eif2ak2-Eif2α axis is the key mediator of translation initiation block in late phase sepsis. Reversal of this axis mitigated kidney injury. Furthermore, temporal profiling of the kidney translatome revealed that multiple genes involved in formation of the initiation complex were translationally altered during bacterial sepsis. Collectively, our findings implicate that translation shutdown is indifferent to the specific initiating pathogen and is an important determinant of tissue injury in sepsis.
Project description:Clinical sepsis is a highly dynamic state that progresses at variable rates and has life-threatening consequences. Staging patients along the sepsis timeline requires a thorough knowledge of the evolution of cellular and molecular events at the tissue level. Here, we investigated the kidney, an organ central to the pathophysiology of sepsis. Single cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics revealed the involvement of various cell populations in injury and repair to be temporally organized and highly orchestrated. We identified key changes in gene expression that altered cellular functions and can explain features of clinical sepsis. These changes converged towards a remarkable global cell-cell communication failure and organ shutdown at a well-defined point in the sepsis timeline. Importantly, this time point was also a transition towards the emergence of recovery pathways. This rigorous spatial and temporal definition of murine sepsis will uncover precise biomarkers and targets that can help stage and treat human sepsis.
Project description:In response to foreign and endogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), protein kinase R (PKR) and ribonuclease L (RNase L) reprogram translation in mammalian cells. PKR inhibits translation initiation through eIF2 phosphorylation, which triggers stress granule (SG) formation and promotes translation of stress responsive mRNAs. The mechanisms of RNase L-driven translation repression, its contribution to SG assembly, and its regulation of dsRNA stress-induced mRNAs are unknown. We demonstrate that RNase L drives translational shut-off in response to dsRNA by promoting widespread turnover of mRNAs. This alters stress granule assembly and reprograms translation by only allowing for the translation of mRNAs resistant to RNase L degradation, including numerous antiviral mRNAs such as IFN- . Individual cells differentially activate dsRNA responses revealing variation that can affect cellular outcomes. This identifies bulk mRNA degradation and the resistance of antiviral mRNAs as the mechanism by which RNaseL reprograms translation in response to dsRNA.
Project description:Mitochondria are descendants of endosymbiotic bacteria and retain essential prokaryotic features such as a compact circular genome. Consequently, in mammals, mitochondrial DNA is subjected to bidirectional transcription that generates overlapping transcripts capable of forming long double-stranded RNA structures. However, to our knowledge, mitochondrial double-stranded RNA has not been previously characterized in vivo. Here, we describe the presence of a highly unstable native mitochondrial double-stranded RNA species at single cell level and identify keyroles for the degradosome components, mitochondrial dsRNA helicase SUV3 and polynucleotide phosphorylase PNPase in restricting the levels of mitochondrial double-stranded RNA. Loss of either enzyme results in massive accumulation of mitochondrial double-stranded RNA that escapes into the cytoplasm in a PNPase-dependent manner. This process engages an MDA5-driven antiviral signalling pathway that triggers a type I interferon response. Consistent with these data, patients carrying hypomorphic mutations in the gene PNPT1, which encodes PNPase, display mitochondrial double-stranded RNA accumulation coupled with upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes and other markers of immune activation. The localization of PNPase to the mitochondrial inter-membrane space and matrix suggests that it has a dual role in preventing the formation and release of mitochondrial double-stranded RNA into the cytoplasm. This in turn prevents the activation of potent innate immune defence mechanisms evolved to protect vertebrates against microbial and viral attack.
Project description:In animals, the piRNA pathway preserves the integrity of gametic genomes, guarding them against the activity of mobile genetic elements. This innate immune mechanism relies on distinct genomic loci, termed piRNA clusters, to provide a molecular definition of transposons, enabling their discrimination from genes. piRNA clusters give rise to long, single-stranded precursors which are processed into primary piRNAs through an unknown mechanism. These can engage in an adaptive amplification loop, the ping-pong cycle, to optimize the content of small RNA populations via the generation of secondary piRNAs. Many proteins have been ascribed functions in either primary biogenesis or the ping- pong cycle, though for the most part the molecular functions of proteins implicated in these pathways remain obscure. Here, we link shutdown, a gene previously shown to be required for fertility in Drosophila, to the piRNA pathway. Analysis of knockdown phenotypes in both the germ line and somatic compartments of the ovary demonstrate important roles for shutdown in both primary biogenesis and the ping-pong cycle. shutdown is a member of the FKBP family of immunophilins, with domains implicated in peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity and in the binding of HSP90-family chaperones. Though the relevance of these domains to piRNA biogenesis is unknown, evolutionary comparisons raise questions about the integrity of these functions in the shutdown protein. Examination of small RNA levels from nos-GAL4 or tj-GAL4 driven UAS-dsRNA knockdowns of white, shu and piwi in ovaries of Drosophila melanogaster by deep sequencing (using Illumina GAII).