Project description:In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the kinase Rio1 regulates rDNA transcription and segregation, pre-rRNA cleavage, and 40S ribosomal subunit maturation. Other roles are unknown. Human orthologue RIOK1; which is frequently overexpressed in malignancies, drives tumor growth and metastasis. Again, also RIOK1 biology is poorly understood. In this study, we charted the global activity of Rio1 in budding yeast. By producing and systems-integrating its protein-interaction, gene-transcription, and chromatin-binding maps we generated Rio1's multi-layered activity network, which controls protein synthesis and turnover, metabolism, growth, proliferation, and genetic stability. Rio1 regulates itself at the transcriptional level, and manages its network both directly and indirectly, via a battery of regulators and transcription factors, including Gcn4. We experimentally confirmed the network and show that Rio1 commands its downstream circuit depending on the growth conditions encountered. We also find that Rio1 and RIOK1 activities are functionally equivalent. Our data suggest that pathological RIOK1 expression may deregulate its network and fuel promiscuous transcription and ribosome production, uncontrolled metabolism, growth, proliferation, and chromosomal instability; well-known contributors to cancer initiation, maintenance and metastasis.
Project description:Human BET family members are promising targets in the therapy of cancer and immunoinflammatory diseases, but their mechanism of action and functional redundancies are poorly understood. Yeast BET factors Bdf1/2 were previously proposed to act as anchors for coactivator TFIID. We investigated their genome wide roles in transcription and found that, while they cooperate with TFIID at many genes, their contributions to transcription are often significantly different. Bdf1/2 co-occupy the majority of yeast promoters and affect preinitiation complex formation by participating in recruitment of TFIID, Mediator and basal factors to chromatin. Surprisingly, we discovered that hypersensitivity of genes to Bdf1/2 depletion results from combined defects in initiation of transcription and early elongation. Bdf1/2 are critical components of yeast transcriptional machinery with many functional similarities to human BET proteins, most notably Brd4.
Project description:Human BET family members are promising targets in the therapy of cancer and immunoinflammatory diseases, but their mechanism of action and functional redundancies are poorly understood. Yeast BET factors Bdf1/2 were previously proposed to act as anchors for coactivator TFIID. We investigated their genome wide roles in transcription and found that, while they cooperate with TFIID at many genes, their contributions to transcription are often significantly different. Bdf1/2 co-occupy the majority of yeast promoters and affect preinitiation complex formation by participating in recruitment of TFIID, Mediator and basal factors to chromatin. Surprisingly, we discovered that hypersensitivity of genes to Bdf1/2 depletion results from combined defects in initiation of transcription and early elongation. Bdf1/2 are critical components of yeast transcriptional machinery with many functional similarities to human BET proteins, most notably Brd4.