Project description:Here we report Total RNA seq and RiboSeq on MEF cells treated with halofuginone. Halofuginone is a competitive inhibitor of the Prolyl-tRNA synthetase that results in an accumulation of uncharged Prolyl-tRNA upon treatment that leads to an activation of the protein kinase Gcn2.
Project description:Diverse environmental insults induce the integrated stress response (ISR), which features eIF2 phosphorylation and translational control that serves to restore protein homeostasis. The eIF2 kinase GCN2 is a first responder in the ISR that is activated by amino acid depletion and other unrelated stresses. Two processes are suggested to trigger an ordered process of GCN2 activation during stress: GCN2 monitoring stress via accumulating uncharged tRNAs or by stalled and colliding ribosomes. Our results suggest that while ribosomal collisions are indeed essential for GCN2 activation in response to translational elongation inhibitors, conditions that trigger deacylation of tRNAs activate GCN2 via its direct association with affected tRNAs. Both process require the GCN2 regulatory domain related to histidyl tRNA synthetases. GCN2 activation by UV irradiation features lowered amino acids and increased uncharged tRNAs and ribosome collisions are dispensable. We conclude that there are multiple mechanisms that activate GCN2 during diverse stresses.
Project description:La-related protein 1 (LARP1) has been identified as a key translational inhibitor of terminal oligopyrimidine tract (TOP) mRNAs downstream of the nutrient sensing protein kinase complex, mTORC1. LARP1 exerts this inhibitory effect on TOP mRNA translation by binding to the mRNA cap and the adjacent 5’TOP motif, resulting in the displacement of the eIF4E complex from TOP mRNAs. In the present study, we identify a second nutrient sensing kinase GCN2 that converges on LARP1 to control TOP mRNA translation. GCN2 inhibits TOP mRNA translation via ATF4-dependent transcriptional induction of LARP1 mRNAs and GCN1-mediated recruitment of LARP1 to stalled ribosomes. We performed ATF4 ChIP-seq experiments in both WT and GCN2 KO MEFs with or without leucine deprivation.
Project description:When eukaryotic cells are deprived of amino acids, uncharged tRNAs accumulate and activate the conserved GCN2 protein kinase. We examine how yeast growth and tRNA charging or aminoacylation is affected during amino acid depletion in the presence and absence of GCN2. tRNA charging is measured using a microarray technique which allows for simultaneous measurement of all cytosolic tRNAs. A fully prototrophic and its isogenic GCN2 deletion strain were used. We measured relative tRNA charging levels in yeast strains with an intact and deleted GCN2.
Project description:When eukaryotic cells are deprived of amino acids, uncharged tRNAs accumulate and activate the conserved GCN2 protein kinase. We examine how yeast growth and tRNA charging or aminoacylation is affected during amino acid depletion in the presence and absence of GCN2. tRNA charging is measured using a microarray technique which allows for simultaneous measurement of all cytosolic tRNAs. A fully prototrophic and its isogenic GCN2 deletion strain were used.
Project description:Circadian clocks are evolved to adapt to the daily environment changes under different conditions. The ability to maintain circadian clock functions in response to various stress and perturbations is important for organismal fitness. Here, we show that the nutrient sensing GCN2 signaling pathway is required for robust circadian clock function under amino acid starvation in Neurospora. The deletion of GCN2 pathway components disrupts rhythmic transcription of clock gene frq by suppressing WC complex binding at the frq promoter due to its reduced histone H3 acetylation levels. Under amino acid starvation, the activation of GCN2 kinase and its downstream transcription factor CPC-1 establish a proper chromatin state at the frq promoter by recruiting the histone acetyltransferase GCN-5. The arrhythmic phenotype of the GCN2 kinase mutants under amino acid starvation can be rescued by inhibiting histone deacetylation. Finally, genome-wide transcriptional analysis indicates that the GCN2 signaling pathway maintains robust rhythmic expression of metabolic genes under amino acid starvation. Together, these results uncover an essential role of GCN2 signaling pathway in maintaining robust circadian clock function in response to amino acid starvation and the importance of histone acetylation at the frq locus in rhythmic gene expression.
Project description:In eukaryotes, regulation of mRNA translation enables a fast, localized and finely tuned expression of gene products. Within the translation process, the first stage of translation initiation is most rigorously modulated by the actions of eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs) and their associated proteins. These 11 eIFs catalyze the joining of the tRNA, mRNA and rRNA into a functional translation complex. Their activity is influenced by a wide variety of extra- and intracellular signals, ranging from global, such as hormone signaling and unfolded proteins, to specific, such as single amino acid imbalance and iron deficiency. Their action is correspondingly comprehensive, in increasing or decreasing recruitment and translation of most cellular mRNAs, and specialized, in targeting translation of mRNAs with regulatory features such as a 5’ terminal oligopyrimidine tract (TOP), upstream open reading frames (uORFs), or an internal ribosomal entry site (IRES). In mammals, two major pathways are linked to targeted mRNA translation. The target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase induces translation of TOP and perhaps other subsets of mRNAs, whereas a family of eIF2 kinases does so with mRNAs containing uORFs or an IRES. TOR targets translation of mRNAs that code for proteins involved in translation, an action compatible with its widely accepted role in regulating cellular growth. The four members of the eIF2 kinase family increase translation of mRNAs coding for stress response proteins such as transcription factors and chaperones. Though all four kinases act on one main substrate, eIF2, published literature demonstrates both common and unique effects by each kinase in response to its specific activating stress. This suggests that the activated eIF2 kinases regulate the translation of both a global and a specific set of mRNAs. Up to now, few studies have attempted to test such a hypothesis; none has been done in mammals. We use array analysis to determine the global mRNA shift into polysomes following a stress response, and to compare the translational response following activation of GCN2 versus PERK, two of the four eIF2alpha kinases. Experiment Overall Design: Gcn2 wild-type or knockout mouse liver were perfused with complete amino acids media or media lacking methionine for RNA extraction and hybridization of Affymetrix microarrays. RNA was extracted from unfractionated liver samples and polysome fraction of samples separated on sucrose density gradient. To minimize biological variations, we pooled RNA from two perfused liver samples to use in each array analysis. The conditions were total and polysome fraction of Gcn2+/+, +Met or -Met; total and polysome fraction of Gcn2-/-, +Met or -Met. Each array analysis was done in duplicate.
Project description:Two nutrient sensing and regulatory pathways, the general amino acid control (GAAC) and the target of rapamycin (TOR), control yeast growth and metabolism in response to changes in nutrient availability. Starvation for amino acids activates the GAAC pathway, involving Gcn2p phosphorylation of eIF2 and preferential translation of GCN4, a transcription activator of genes involved in amino acid metabolism. TOR senses nitrogen availability and regulates gene expression through transcription factors, such as Gln3p. We used microarray analyses to address the integration of the GAAC and TOR pathways in directing the yeast transcriptome in response to amino acid starvation and rapamycin treatment. Of the ~2500 genes whose expression was changed by 2-fold or greater, Gcn4p and Gln3p were required for 542 and 657 genes, respectively. While Gcn4p activates a common core of 57 genes in response to amino acid starvation or rapamycin treatment, the different stress arrangements allow for variations in Gcn4p-directed transcription. With few exceptions, genes requiring Gcn2p eIF2 kinase for induced expression also required Gcn4p, emphasizing the role of Gcn2p as an upstream activator of Gcn4p-directed transcription. There is also significant coordination between the GAAC and TOR pathways, with Gcn4p being required for activation of more genes during rapamycin treatment than Gln3p. Importantly, TOR regulates the GAAC-directed transcription of genes required for assimilation of nitrogen sources, such as γ-amino-butyric acid. Therefore, yeast has integrated gene expression responses to amino acid abundance and nitrogen source quality through the control of Gcn2p phosphorylation of eIF2 and GCN4 translation. Keywords: gene expression In this study, we carried out microarray analyses in a collection of yeast strains deleted for GCN2, GCN4, and GLN3, individually or in combinations, to explore the importance of the TOR and GAAC pathways in directing the transcriptome in response to amino acid starvation and rapamycin treatment.
Project description:GCN2 is a stress response kinase that phosphorylates the translation initiation factor eIF2to inhibit general protein synthesis when activated by uncharged tRNA and stalled ribosomes. The presence of a HisRS-like domain in GCN2, normally associated with the ability to bind and aminoacylate tRNAs, led to the hypothesis that eIF2 kinase activity is regulated by the direct binding of this domain to uncharged tRNA. Here we solved the structure of the HisRS-like domain in the context of full-length GCN2 by cryoEM. Structure and function analysis shows the HisRS-like domain of GCN2 has lost tRNA charging, ATP binding, and histidine binding activity but retains the ability to bind tRNA. Hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HX-MS), site-directed mutagenesis and computational docking experiments support a tRNA binding model that overlaps with but is partially shifted from that employed by bona fide HisRS enzymes. These results demonstrate that the HisRS-like domain of GCN2 is a pseudoenzyme and advance our understanding of GCN2 regulation and function.