Hyeshik Chang

by Toni Kazic

by David Bednar, Koen Beerens, Eva Sebestova, Jaroslav Bendl, Sagar Khare, Radka Chaloupkova, Zbynek Prokop, Jan Brezovsky, David Baker, Jiri Damborsky

There is great interest in increasing proteins’ stability to enhance their utility as biocatalysts, therapeutics, diagnostics and nanomaterials. Directed evolution is a powerful, but experimentally strenuous approach. Computational methods offer attractive alternatives. However, due to the limited reliability of predictions and potentially antagonistic effects of substitutions, only single-point mutations are usually predicted in silico, experimentally verified and then recombined in multiple-point mutants. Thus, substantial screening is still required. Here we present FireProt, a robust computational strategy for predicting highly stable multiple-point mutants that combines energy- and evolution-based approaches with smart filtering to identify additive stabilizing mutations. FireProt’s reliability and applicability was demonstrated by validating its predictions against 656 mutations from the ProTherm database. We demonstrate that thermostability of the model enzymes haloalkane dehalogenase DhaA and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane dehydrochlorinase LinA can be substantially increased (ΔT_m = 24°C and 21°C) by constructing and characterizing only a handful of multiple-point mutants. FireProt can be applied to any protein for which a tertiary structure and homologous sequences are available, and will facilitate the rapid development of robust proteins for biomedical and biotechnological applications.

Publication date: 3 December 2015
Source:Cell, Volume 163, Issue 6
Author(s): Dario Riccardo Valenzano, Bérénice A. Benayoun, Param Priya Singh, Elisa Zhang, Paul D. Etter, Chi-Kuo Hu, Mathieu Clément-Ziza, David Willemsen, Rongfeng Cui, Itamar Harel, Ben E. Machado, Muh-Ching Yee, Sabrina C. Sharp, Carlos D. Bustamante, Andreas Beyer, Eric A. Johnson, Anne Brunet
Lifespan is a remarkably diverse trait ranging from a few days to several hundred years in nature, but the mechanisms underlying the evolution of lifespan differences remain elusive. Here we de novo assemble a reference genome for the naturally short-lived African turquoise killifish, providing a unique resource for comparative and experimental genomics. The identification of genes under positive selection in this fish reveals potential candidates to explain its compressed lifespan. Several aging genes are under positive selection in this short-lived fish and long-lived species, raising the intriguing possibility that the same gene could underlie evolution of both compressed and extended lifespans. Comparative genomics and linkage analysis identify candidate genes associated with lifespan differences between various turquoise killifish strains. Remarkably, these genes are clustered on the sex chromosome, suggesting that short lifespan might have co-evolved with sex determination. Our study provides insights into the evolutionary forces that shape lifespan in nature.

Graphical abstract

Teaser

The genome of the African turquoise killifish, an exceptionally short-lived fish, is a useful resource to explore the genetic principles and the evolution of unique traits in lifespan and embryonic diapause. Linkage analysis suggests that short lifespan could have co-evolved with sex determination.

Pinpointing RNA-protein crosslinks with site-specific stable isotope labeled oligonucleotides.

J Am Chem Soc. 2015 Nov 19;

Authors: Lelyveld VS, Bjorkbom A, Ransey E, Sliz P, Szostak JW

Abstract
High affinity RNA-protein interactions are critical to cellular function, but directly identifying the determinants of binding within these complexes is often difficult. Here, we introduce a stable isotope mass labeling technique to assign specific interacting nucleotides in an oligonucleotide-protein complex by photocrosslinking. The method relies on generating site-specific oxygen-18 labeled phosphodiester linkages in oligonucleotides, such that covalent peptide-oligonucleotide crosslink sites arising from ultraviolet irradiation can be assigned to specific sequence positions in both RNA and protein simultaneously by mass spectrometry. Using Lin28A and a let-7 pre-element RNA, we demonstrate that mass labeling permits unambiguous identification of the crosslinked sequence positions in the RNA-protein complex.

PMID: 26583201 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Genetically identical cells exposed to the same environment display variability in gene expression (noise), with important consequences for the fidelity of cellular regulation and biological function. Although population average gene expression is tightly coupled to growth rate, the effects of changes in environmental conditions on expression variability are not known. Here, we measure the single-cell expression distributions of approximately 900 Saccharomyces cerevisiae promoters across four environmental conditions using flow cytometry, and find that gene expression noise is tightly coupled to the environment and is generally higher at lower growth rates. Nutrient-poor conditions, which support lower growth rates, display elevated levels of noise for most promoters, regardless of their specific expression values. We present a simple model of noise in expression that results from having an asynchronous population, with cells at different cell-cycle stages, and with different partitioning of the cells between the stages at different growth rates. This model predicts non-monotonic global changes in noise at different growth rates as well as overall higher variability in expression for cell-cycle–regulated genes in all conditions. The consistency between this model and our data, as well as with noise measurements of cells growing in a chemostat at well-defined growth rates, suggests that cell-cycle heterogeneity is a major contributor to gene expression noise. Finally, we identify gene and promoter features that play a role in gene expression noise across conditions. Our results show the existence of growth-related global changes in gene expression noise and suggest their potential phenotypic implications.

Both intrinsic cell state changes and variations in the composition of stem cell populations have been implicated as contributors to aging. We used single-cell RNA-seq to dissect variability in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) and hematopoietic progenitor cell populations from young and old mice from two strains. We found that cell cycle dominates the variability within each population and that there is a lower frequency of cells in the G1 phase among old compared with young long-term HSCs, suggesting that they traverse through G1 faster. Moreover, transcriptional changes in HSCs during aging are inversely related to those upon HSC differentiation, such that old short-term (ST) HSCs resemble young long-term (LT-HSCs), suggesting that they exist in a less differentiated state. Our results indicate both compositional changes and intrinsic, population-wide changes with age and are consistent with a model where a relationship between cell cycle progression and self-renewal versus differentiation of HSCs is affected by aging and may contribute to the functional decline of old HSCs.

Author: John F. Foley

Publication date: 3 December 2015
Source:Molecular Cell, Volume 60, Issue 5
Author(s): Alexander P. Fields, Edwin H. Rodriguez, Marko Jovanovic, Noam Stern-Ginossar, Brian J. Haas, Philipp Mertins, Raktima Raychowdhury, Nir Hacohen, Steven A. Carr, Nicholas T. Ingolia, Aviv Regev, Jonathan S. Weissman
A fundamental goal of genomics is to identify the complete set of expressed proteins. Automated annotation strategies rely on assumptions about protein-coding sequences (CDSs), e.g., they are conserved, do not overlap, and exceed a minimum length. However, an increasing number of newly discovered proteins violate these rules. Here we present an experimental and analytical framework, based on ribosome profiling and linear regression, for systematic identification and quantification of translation. Application of this approach to lipopolysaccharide-stimulated mouse dendritic cells and HCMV-infected human fibroblasts identifies thousands of novel CDSs, including micropeptides and variants of known proteins, that bear the hallmarks of canonical translation and exhibit translation levels and dynamics comparable to that of annotated CDSs. Remarkably, many translation events are identified in both mouse and human cells even when the peptide sequence is not conserved. Our work thus reveals an unexpected complexity to mammalian translation suited to provide both conserved regulatory or protein-based functions.

Graphical abstract

Teaser

Fields et al. describe a ribosome profiling-based approach for empirical annotation of protein-coding regions of the genome. Of the thousands of previously unknown translated ORFs they identify in mouse and human, many are conserved or dynamically regulated. Surprisingly, a considerable subset is translated in both species despite weak sequence conservation.

Nature Protocols 10, 1915 (2015). doi:10.1038/nprot.2015.120

Authors: Maximiliano M Portal, Valeria Pavet, Cathie Erb & Hinrich Gronemeyer

High-throughput transcriptional analysis has unveiled a myriad of novel RNAs. However, technical constraints in RNA sequencing library preparation and platform performance hamper the identification of rare transcripts contained within the RNA repertoire. Herein we present targeted-RNA directional sequencing (TARDIS), a hybridization-based method that allows subsets

Nature Methods 12, 1197 (2015). doi:10.1038/nmeth.3619

Authors: Vince Z Beachley, Matthew T Wolf, Kaitlyn Sadtler, Srikanth S Manda, Heather Jacobs, Michael R Blatchley, Joel S Bader, Akhilesh Pandey, Drew Pardoll & Jennifer H Elisseeff

Nature Methods 12, 1191 (2015). doi:10.1038/nmeth.3626

Authors: Lucia R Wu, Juexiao Sherry Wang, John Z Fang, Emily R Evans, Alessandro Pinto, Irena Pekker, Richard Boykin, Celine Ngouenet, Philippa J Webster, Joseph Beechem & David Yu Zhang

Nature Methods 12, 1112 (2015). doi:10.1038/nmeth.3678

Author: Allison Doerr

Researchers develop an approach based on solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study the structure of an intrinsically disordered protein under near-native conditions.

Nature Methods 12, 1099 (2015). doi:10.1038/nmeth.3686

Assessing papers that report (or use) computational methods is demanding for referees, but peer review of these methods and related software is crucial for biological research.

Researchers wrestle with co-authorship

Nature 528, 7580 (2015). doi:10.1038/528011f

Author: Dalmeet Singh Chawla

The prickly topic of how to assign credit to scientists flares up on social media.

Employment terms: California postdocs win new rights

Nature 528, 7580 (2015). doi:10.1038/nj7580-156a

Author: Helen Shen

Career development a priority in university contract.

Nature advance online publication 02 December 2015. doi:10.1038/nature15742

Authors: Long V. Nguyen, Davide Pellacani, Sylvain Lefort, Nagarajan Kannan, Tomo Osako, Maisam Makarem, Claire L. Cox, William Kennedy, Philip Beer, Annaick Carles, Michelle Moksa, Misha Bilenky, Sneha Balani, Sonja Babovic, Ivan Sun, Miriam Rosin, Samuel Aparicio, Martin Hirst & Connie J. Eaves

Most human breast cancers have diversified genomically and biologically by the time they become clinically evident. Early events involved in their genesis and the cellular context in which these events occur have thus been difficult to characterize. Here we present the first formal evidence of the shared and independent ability of basal cells and luminal progenitors, isolated from normal human mammary tissue and transduced with a single oncogene (KRASG12D), to produce serially transplantable, polyclonal, invasive ductal carcinomas within 8 weeks of being introduced either subrenally or subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice. DNA barcoding of the initial cells revealed a dramatic change in the numbers and sizes of clones generated from them within 2 weeks, and the first appearance of many ‘new’ clones in tumours passaged into secondary recipients. Both primary and secondary tumours were phenotypically heterogeneous and primary tumours were categorized transcriptionally as ‘normal-like’. This system challenges previous concepts that carcinogenesis in normal human epithelia is necessarily a slow process requiring the acquisition of multiple driver mutations. It also presents the first description of initial events that accompany the genesis and evolution of malignant human mammary cell populations, thereby contributing new understanding of the rapidity with which heterogeneity in their properties can develop.

Publication date: December 2015
Source:Trends in Cell Biology, Volume 25, Issue 12
Author(s): Rob Phillips
The pace of modern science is staggering. The quantities of data now flowing from DNA sequencers, fluorescence and electron microscopes, mass spectrometers, and other mind-blowing instruments leave us faced with information overload. This explosion in data has brought on its heels a concomitant need for efforts at the kinds of synthesis and unification we see in theoretical physics. Often in cell biology, when theoretical modeling takes place, it is as a figure 7 reflection on experiments that have already been done, with data fitting providing a metric of success. Figure 1 theory, by way of contrast, is about living dangerously by turning our thinking into formal mathematical predictions and confronting that math with experiments that have not yet been done.

Publication date: 16 November 2015
Source:Current Biology, Volume 25, Issue 22
Author(s): Peter Newmark

Two-step PCR procedures are an efficient and well established way to generate amplicon libraries for NGS sequencing. However, there is a high risk of cross-contamination by carry-over of amplicons from first to second amplification rounds, potentially leading to severe misinterpretation of results. Here we describe a new method able to prevent and/or to identify carry-over contaminations by introducing the K-box, a series of three synergistically acting short sequence elements. Our K-boxes are composed of (i) K1 sequences for suppression of contaminations, (ii) K2 sequences for detection of possible residual contaminations and (iii) S sequences acting as separators to avoid amplification bias. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method we analyzed two-step PCR NGS libraries derived from a multiplex PCR system for detection of T-cell receptor beta gene rearrangements. We used this system since it is of high clinical relevance and may be affected by very low amounts of contaminations. Spike-in contaminations are effectively blocked by the K-box even at high rates as demonstrated by ultra-deep sequencing of the amplicons. Thus, we recommend implementation of the K-box in two-step PCR-based NGS systems for research and diagnostic applications demanding high sensitivity and accuracy.

Amanda Warr, Christelle Robert, David Hume, Alan L. Archibald, Nader Deeb, Mick Watson

In eukaryotic cells, RNAs exist as ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs). Despite the importance of these complexes in many biological processes, including splicing, polyadenylation, stability, transportation, localization, and translation, their compositions are largely unknown. We affinity-purified 20 distinct RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) from cultured Drosophila melanogaster cells under native conditions and identified both the RNA and protein compositions of these RNP complexes. We identified "high occupancy target" (HOT) RNAs that interact with the majority of the RBPs we surveyed. HOT RNAs encode components of the nonsense-mediated decay and splicing machinery, as well as RNA-binding and translation initiation proteins. The RNP complexes contain proteins and mRNAs involved in RNA binding and post-transcriptional regulation. Genes with the capacity to produce hundreds of mRNA isoforms, ultracomplex genes, interact extensively with heterogeneous nuclear ribonuclear proteins (hnRNPs). Our data are consistent with a model in which subsets of RNPs include mRNA and protein products from the same gene, indicating the widespread existence of auto-regulatory RNPs. From the simultaneous acquisition and integrative analysis of protein and RNA constituents of RNPs, we identify extensive cross-regulatory and hierarchical interactions in post-transcriptional control.

Many high-throughput small RNA next-generation sequencing protocols use 5' preadenylylated DNA oligonucleotide adapters during cDNA library preparation. Preadenylylation of the DNA adapter's 5' end frees from ATP-dependence the ligation of the adapter to RNA collections, thereby avoiding ATP-dependent side reactions. However, preadenylylation of the DNA adapters can be costly and difficult. The currently available method for chemical adenylylation of DNA adapters is inefficient and uses techniques not typically practiced in laboratories profiling cellular RNA expression. An alternative enzymatic method using a commercial RNA ligase was recently introduced, but this enzyme works best as a stoichiometric adenylylating reagent rather than a catalyst and can therefore prove costly when several variant adapters are needed or during scale-up or high-throughput adenylylation procedures. Here, we describe a simple, scalable, and highly efficient method for the 5' adenylylation of DNA oligonucleotides using the thermostable RNA ligase 1 from bacteriophage TS2126. Adapters with 3' blocking groups are adenylylated at >95% yield at catalytic enzyme-to-adapter ratios and need not be gel purified before ligation to RNA acceptors. Experimental conditions are also reported that enable DNA adapters with free 3' ends to be 5' adenylylated at >90% efficiency.

Publication date: 3 December 2015
Source:Cell, Volume 163, Issue 6
Author(s): Gaowen Liu, Mei Yun Jacy Yong, Marina Yurieva, Kandhadayar Gopalan Srinivasan, Jaron Liu, John Soon Yew Lim, Michael Poidinger, Graham Daniel Wright, Francesca Zolezzi, Hyungwon Choi, Norman Pavelka, Giulia Rancati
Gene essentiality is typically determined by assessing the viability of the corresponding mutant cells, but this definition fails to account for the ability of cells to adaptively evolve to genetic perturbations. Here, we performed a stringent screen to assess the degree to which Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells can survive the deletion of ∼1,000 individual “essential” genes and found that ∼9% of these genetic perturbations could in fact be overcome by adaptive evolution. Our analyses uncovered a genome-wide gradient of gene essentiality, with certain essential cellular functions being more “evolvable” than others. Ploidy changes were prevalent among the evolved mutant strains, and aneuploidy of a specific chromosome was adaptive for a class of evolvable nucleoporin mutants. These data justify a quantitative redefinition of gene essentiality that incorporates both viability and evolvability of the corresponding mutant cells and will enable selection of therapeutic targets associated with lower risk of emergence of drug resistance.

Graphical abstract

Teaser

Challenging the notion that genes are either essential or not for an organism’s survival, a set of genes in budding yeast previously thought to be essential are instead found to be “evolvable,” as given time to adapt, the cell, often via aneuploidy, can deploy alternative means of survival without the gene.

Publication date: 24 September 2015
Source:Cell, Volume 163, Issue 1
Author(s): Pau Creixell, Erwin M. Schoof, Craig D. Simpson, James Longden, Chad J. Miller, Hua Jane Lou, Lara Perryman, Thomas R. Cox, Nevena Zivanovic, Antonio Palmeri, Agata Wesolowska-Andersen, Manuela Helmer-Citterich, Jesper Ferkinghoff-Borg, Hiroaki Itamochi, Bernd Bodenmiller, Janine T. Erler, Benjamin E. Turk, Rune Linding
Cancer cells acquire pathological phenotypes through accumulation of mutations that perturb signaling networks. However, global analysis of these events is currently limited. Here, we identify six types of network-attacking mutations (NAMs), including changes in kinase and SH2 modulation, network rewiring, and the genesis and extinction of phosphorylation sites. We developed a computational platform (ReKINect) to identify NAMs and systematically interpreted the exomes and quantitative (phospho-)proteomes of five ovarian cancer cell lines and the global cancer genome repository. We identified and experimentally validated several NAMs, including PKCγ M501I and PKD1 D665N, which encode specificity switches analogous to the appearance of kinases de novo within the kinome. We discover mutant molecular logic gates, a drift toward phospho-threonine signaling, weakening of phosphorylation motifs, and kinase-inactivating hotspots in cancer. Our method pinpoints functional NAMs, scales with the complexity of cancer genomes and cell signaling, and may enhance our capability to therapeutically target tumor-specific networks.

Graphical abstract

Teaser

A systematic classification of genomic variants in cancer reveals the many ways in which signaling networks can be perturbed, including rewiring and the creation or destruction of phosphorylation sites.

Nature advance online publication 02 September 2015. doi:10.1038/nature14874

Authors: Yun Mou, Jiun-Yann Yu, Timothy M. Wannier, Chin-Lin Guo & Stephen L. Mayo

Biomolecular self-assemblies are of great interest to nanotechnologists because of their functional versatility and their biocompatibility. Over the past decade, sophisticated single-component nanostructures composed exclusively of nucleic acids, peptides and proteins have been reported, and these nanostructures have been used in a wide range of applications, from drug delivery to molecular computing. Despite these successes, the development of hybrid co-assemblies of nucleic acids and proteins has remained elusive. Here we use computational protein design to create a protein–DNA co-assembling nanomaterial whose assembly is driven via non-covalent interactions. To achieve this, a homodimerization interface is engineered onto the Drosophila Engrailed homeodomain (ENH), allowing the dimerized protein complex to bind to two double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecules. By varying the arrangement of protein-binding sites on the dsDNA, an irregular bulk nanoparticle or a nanowire with single-molecule width can be spontaneously formed by mixing the protein and dsDNA building blocks. We characterize the protein–DNA nanowire using fluorescence microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray crystallography, confirming that the nanowire is formed via the proposed mechanism. This work lays the foundation for the development of new classes of protein–DNA hybrid materials. Further applications can be explored by incorporating DNA origami, DNA aptamers and/or peptide epitopes into the protein–DNA framework presented here.

MicroRNA-122 (miR-122), which is expressed at high levels in hepatocytes, is selectively stabilized by 3'-adenylation mediated by the cytoplasmic poly(A) polymerase GLD-2. Here, we report that poly(A)-specific ribonuclease (PARN) is responsible for the deadenylation and destabilization of miR-122. The 3'-oligoadenylated variant of miR-122 was detected in Huh7 cells when PARN was down-regulated. In addition, both the steady-state level and stability of miR-122 were increased in PARN knockdown cells. We also demonstrate that CUG-binding protein 1 (CUGBP1) specifically interacts with miR-122 and other UG-rich miRNAs, and promotes their destabilization. Overexpression of CUGBP1 or PARN in Huh7 cells reduced the steady-state levels of these miRNAs. Because CUGBP1 interacts directly with PARN, we hypothesized that it specifically recruits PARN to miR-122. In fact, CUGBP1 enhanced PARN-mediated deadenylation and degradation of miR-122 in a dose-dependent manner in vitro. These results indicate that the cellular level of miR-122 is determined by the balance between the opposing effects of GLD-2 and PARN/CUGBP1 on the metabolism of its 3'-terminus.

Publication date: 13 August 2015
Source:Cell, Volume 162, Issue 4
Author(s): Peng Du, Longfei Wang, Piotr Sliz, Richard I. Gregory
The precise control of miR-17∼92 microRNA (miRNA) is essential for normal development, and overexpression of certain miRNAs from this cluster is oncogenic. Here, we find that the relative expression of the six miRNAs processed from the primary (pri-miR-17∼92) transcript is dynamically regulated during embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation. Pri-miR-17∼92 is processed to a biogenesis intermediate, termed “progenitor-miRNA” (pro-miRNA). Pro-miRNA is an efficient substrate for Microprocessor and is required to selectively license production of pre-miR-17, pre-miR-18a, pre-miR-19a, pre-miR-20a, and pre-miR-19b from this cluster. Two complementary cis-regulatory repression domains within pri-miR-17∼92 are required for the blockade of miRNA processing through the formation of an autoinhibitory RNA conformation. The endonuclease CPSF3 (CPSF73) and the spliceosome-associated ISY1 are responsible for pro-miRNA biogenesis and expression of all miRNAs within the cluster except miR-92. Thus, developmentally regulated pro-miRNA processing is a key step controlling miRNA expression and explains the posttranscriptional control of miR-17∼92 expression in development.

Graphical abstract

Teaser

cis-acting sequences within a cluster-derived pri-miRNA can dynamically regulate expression of the constituent miRNAs and allow the uncoupled production of individual miRNAs from within the cluster during development.

A role of uridylation pathway for blockade of let-7 microRNA biogenesis by Lin28B.

Cancer Sci. 2015 Jun 17;

Authors: Suzuki HI, Katsura A, Miyazono K

Abstract
The precise control of microRNA (miRNA) biosynthesis is crucial for gene regulation. Lin28A and Lin28B are selective inhibitors of biogenesis of let-7 miRNAs involved in development and tumorigenesis. Lin28A selectively inhibits let-7 biogenesis through cytoplasmic uridylation of precursor let-7 by TUT4 terminal uridyl transferase and subsequent degradation by Dis3l2 exonuclease. On the other hand, a role of this uridylation pathway remains unclear in let-7 blockade by Lin28B, a paralog of Lin28A, while Lin28B is reported to engage a distinct mechanism in the nucleus to suppress let-7. Here we revisit a functional link between Lin28B and the uridylation pathway with a focus on let-7 metabolism in cancer cells. Both Lin28A and Lin28B interacted with Dis3l2 in the cytoplasm, and silencing of Dis3l2 upregulated uridylated pre-let-7 in both Lin28A- and Lin28B-expressing cancer cell lines. Additionally, we found that amounts of let-7 precursors influenced intracellular localization of Lin28B. Furthermore, we found that MCPIP1 (Zc3h12a) ribonuclease was also involved in degradation of both non-uridylated and uridylated pre-let-7. Cancer transcriptome analysis showed association of expression levels of Lin28B and uridylation pathway components, TUT4 and Dis3l2, in various human cancer cells and hepatocellular carcinoma. Collectively, these results suggest that cytoplasmic uridylation pathway actively participates in blockade of let-7 biogenesis by Lin28B. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID: 26080928 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]