Project description:The multi-layered nucleolus serves as the primary site of ribosome biogenesis, where successive maturation of small (SSU) and large (LSU) ribosomal subunit precursors occur. However, the spatio-functional relationship between pre-rRNA processing and nucleolar substructures and how this adapts to changing cellular physiological demands have remained incompletely understood. Here, our spatiotemporal analyses revealed a compartment-specific ribosomal subunit processing in human nucleoli, with SSU processomes maintained in fibrillar center/dense fibrillar component/periphery dense fibrillar component (FC/DFC/PDFC) domains while LSU pre-rRNAs largely transited to PDFC/granular component (GC) regions. Slow proliferating cells exhibited unexpected 5' external transcribed space (5' ETS)-centered SSU processing impairment, accompanied by FC/DFC structural remodeling and retarded SSU outflux. Direct 5' ETS processing perturbation at least partially recapitulated these FC/DFC alterations, supporting the functional interdependence between SSU processing and nucleolar architecture. Notably, anamniote bipartite nucleoli with merged FC/DFC compartments, exhibited distinct 5' ETS distribution and slower pre-rRNA flux compared to multi-layered nucleoli in amniotes. Introducing a FC/DFC interface to bipartite nucleoli enhanced processing efficiency, indicating that evolutionary emergence of nested FC/DFC may have optimized pre-rRNA processing. Collectively, depicting the spatiotemporal distribution of pre-rRNAs revealed an essential role of 5' ETS-centered SSU processing in maintaining nucleolar substructures and suggested a possible evolutionary advantage of the multi-layered structure in amniotes.
Project description:The transcription factor BMAL1 is a core element of the circadian clock that contributes to cyclic control of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II. By using biochemical cellular fractionation and immunofluorescence analyses we reveal a previously uncharacterized nucleolar localization for BMAL1. We used an unbiased approach to determine the BMAL1 interactome by mass spectrometry and identified NOP58 as a prominent nucleolar interactor. NOP58, a core component of the box C/D small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein complex, associates with Snord118 to control specific pre-ribosomal RNA (rRNA) processing steps. These results suggest a non-canonical role of BMAL1 in rRNA regulation. Indeed, we show that BMAL1 controls NOP58-associated Snord118 nucleolar levels and cleavage of unique pre-rRNA intermediates. Our findings identify an unsuspected function of BMAL1 in the nucleolus that appears distinct from its canonical role in the circadian clock system
Project description:We report the application of Chromosome Conformation Capture Carbon-copy (5C) to a 4.5 Mb stretch of the mouse X chromosome encompassing the X inactivation center locus. We uncover a series of discrete 200kb-1Mb topologically associating domains (TADs). These align with several domain-wide epigenomic features as well as co-regulated gene clusters. 5C analysis in EED and G9A mutants reveal that this segmental organisation in TADs does not relie on the underlying H3K27me3 or H3K9me2 blocks. Deletion of a boundary between two TADs leads to ectopic chromosomal contacts between them. Analysis of mESCs, mNPCs and MEFs suggest that the positioning of TADs on the chromosome is stable during cell differentiation though their internal organisation changes. Comparison of male (XY) and female (XX) differentiated cells highlights that the long-range chromosomal contacts within TADs are dampened on the inactive X compared to the active X. 5C oligonucleotides were designed around HindIII restriction site following an alternative scheme
Project description:Ribosomes translate mRNA into proteins and are essential for every living organism. In eukaryotes both ribosomal subunits are rapidly assembled in a strict hierarchical order, starting in the nucleolus with transcription of a common precursor ribosomal RNA (pre-rRNA). This pre-rRNA encodes three of the four mature rRNAs which are formed by several, consecutive endonucleolytic and exonucleolytic processing steps. Historically, Northern Blots are used to analyze the variety of different pre-rRNA species, only allowing rough length estimations. Although this limitation can be overcome with Primer Extension, both approaches often use radioactivity and are time consuming and costly. Here we present “Riboprobing” a reverse transcription-based workflow extended by linker ligation for easy and fast detection and characterization of various pre-rRNA species and their 5` as well as 3` ends. Using standard molecular biology lab equipment, our technique allows reliable discrimination of pre-rRNA species not resolved by Northern Blotting (e.g.: 27SA2, 27SA3 and 27SB). The method can be successfully used for analysis of total cell extracts as well as purified pre-ribosomes for a straightforward evaluation of the impact of mutant gene versions or inhibitors. In the course of method development, we identified and characterized a hitherto undescribed aberrant pre-rRNA, arising from LiCl inhibition. This pre-rRNA fragment spans from processing site A1 to E, forming a small RNP that is lacking most early joining assembly factors. This finding expands our knowledge of how the cell deals with severe pre-rRNA processing defects and demonstrates the strict requirement for the 5’ETS for the assembly process.
Project description:Ribosome small subunit (SSU) is assembled by the SSU processome which contains approximately 70 non-ribosomal protein factors. The biochemical mechanism for the SSU processome in 18S rRNA processing and maturation has been extensively studied, however, how the SSU processome components enter to the nucleolus has not been systematically investigated. Here we checked the nucleolar localization of 50 human SSU processome components and find that UTP3 and other 24 proteins enter to the nucleolus autonomously. For the remaining 25 proteins we find that UTP3/SAS10 assists the nucleolar localization of five proteins, namely MPP10, UTP25, EMG1 and two UTP-B components UTP12 and UTP13, and this ferry function of UTP3 is conserved in zebrafish. We also find that knockdown of human UTP3 impairs the cleavage at A0-site while loss-of-function of either utp3/sas10 or utp13/tbl3 in zebrafish causes an accumulation of the processed products containing the 5′ETS, supporting the crucial role of UTP3 in mediating the 5′ETS processing and degradation. Moreover, UTP3 directly interacts with and delivers EXOSC10 into the nucleolus, suggesting that UTP3 may play a direct role in recruiting the nuclear exosome to the SSU processome for degradation of the processed 5′ETS. These findings lay the ground for studying the mechanism of cytoplasm-to-nucleolus trafficking of the SSU processome components and the multifaceted roles of UTP3 during pre-rRNA processing.
Project description:We report the application of Chromosome Conformation Capture Carbon-copy (5C) to a 4.5 Mb stretch of the mouse X chromosome encompassing the X inactivation center locus. We uncover a series of discrete 200kb-1Mb topologically associating domains (TADs). These align with several domain-wide epigenomic features as well as co-regulated gene clusters. 5C analysis in EED and G9A mutants reveal that this segmental organisation in TADs does not relie on the underlying H3K27me3 or H3K9me2 blocks. Deletion of a boundary between two TADs leads to ectopic chromosomal contacts between them. Analysis of mESCs, mNPCs and MEFs suggest that the positioning of TADs on the chromosome is stable during cell differentiation though their internal organisation changes. Comparison of male (XY) and female (XX) differentiated cells highlights that the long-range chromosomal contacts within TADs are dampened on the inactive X compared to the active X.
Project description:Nucleolus plays a key role in organizing global nuclear structure and facilitating gene regulation, but the three dimensional information within the nucleolus associated chromatins are still unknown, so here we development the Nucleolus Hi-C (NHi-C) experimental technique, which combines the nucleolus isolation with Hi-C experiment, and study the interactions within and surrounding nucleolus in human cells with a high resolution. With NHi-C experiment, we report how the nucleolus-associated chromatin regions interact at genome scale, and how these interactions organize the repressive nucleus architecture.
Project description:Background Segmental duplications (SDs) are not evenly distributed along chromosomes. The reasons for this biased susceptibility to SD insertion are poorly understood. Accumulation of SDs is associated with increased genomic instability, which can lead to structural variants and genomic disorders such as the Williams-Beuren syndrome. Despite these adverse effects, SDs have become fixed in the human genome. Focusing on chromosome 7, which is particularly rich in interstitial SDs, we have investigated the distribution of SDs in the context of evolution and the three dimensional organisation of the chromosome in order to gain insights into the mutual relationship of SDs and chromatin topology. Results Intrachromosomal SDs preferentially accumulate in those segments of chromosome 7 that are homologous to marmoset chromosome 2. Although this formerly compact segment has been re-distributed to three different sites during primate evolution, we can show by means of public data on long distance chromatin interactions that these three intervals, and consequently the paralogous SDs mapping to them, have retained their spatial proximity in the nucleus. Focusing on SD clusters implicated in the aetiology of the Williams-Beuren syndrome locus we demonstrate by cross-species comparison that these SDs have inserted at the borders of a topological domain and that they flank regions with distinct DNA conformation. Conclusions Our study suggests a link of nuclear architecture and the propagation of SDs across chromosome 7, either by promoting regional SD insertion or by contributing to the establishment of higher order chromatin organisation themselves. The latter could compensate for the high risk of structural rearrangements and thus may have contributed to their evolutionary fixation in the human genome. 2 cell lines-5 samples: 2x DNA fragmentation during apoptosis; 3x ChIP (2x H4K8ac, 1x H3) IMR90: 1x DNA fragmentation during apoptosis; 1x H4K8ac ChIP. Both hybridized on a custom designed 4x 180k oligonucleotide microarray
Project description:Background Segmental duplications (SDs) are not evenly distributed along chromosomes. The reasons for this biased susceptibility to SD insertion are poorly understood. Accumulation of SDs is associated with increased genomic instability, which can lead to structural variants and genomic disorders such as the Williams-Beuren syndrome. Despite these adverse effects, SDs have become fixed in the human genome. Focusing on chromosome 7, which is particularly rich in interstitial SDs, we have investigated the distribution of SDs in the context of evolution and the three dimensional organisation of the chromosome in order to gain insights into the mutual relationship of SDs and chromatin topology. Results Intrachromosomal SDs preferentially accumulate in those segments of chromosome 7 that are homologous to marmoset chromosome 2. Although this formerly compact segment has been re-distributed to three different sites during primate evolution, we can show by means of public data on long distance chromatin interactions that these three intervals, and consequently the paralogous SDs mapping to them, have retained their spatial proximity in the nucleus. Focusing on SD clusters implicated in the aetiology of the Williams-Beuren syndrome locus we demonstrate by cross-species comparison that these SDs have inserted at the borders of a topological domain and that they flank regions with distinct DNA conformation. Conclusions Our study suggests a link of nuclear architecture and the propagation of SDs across chromosome 7, either by promoting regional SD insertion or by contributing to the establishment of higher order chromatin organisation themselves. The latter could compensate for the high risk of structural rearrangements and thus may have contributed to their evolutionary fixation in the human genome.