chapters 6,7 Flashcards
What are the 7 steps at which gene expression can be controlled?
- Transcriptional control
- RNA processing control
- RNA transport and localization control
- Translational control
- mRNA degradation control
- Protein degradation control
- Protein activity control
mechanisms that create and maintain specialized cell types
- transcription regulators
- extracellular signals (activate transcription regulators)
- combinational gene control
- Reprogramming differentiated cells to become pluripotent
- Master transcription regulations
- Transcriptional circuits
what are transcriptional regulators and where are they located?
- proteins that bind to specific DNA sequences (cis-regulatory element) to regulate gene expression
- are distributed unevenly within the cytoplasm providing positional information to distinguish between different parts of the embryo
- ex: glugocorticoid hormone bindind to its receptor can promote expression of multiple genes depending on starvation/stress
Syncytium
multiple nuclei contained in a common cytoplasm
What is combinatorial gene control?
- can make many cell types with few starting things through lots of combinations
- have to be together to elicit effect
- ex: 3 neuron-specific transcription regulators in cultured liver cells converted them into neuronal cells by activation of neuron-specific genes and repression of liver-specific genes
master transcription regulators
- Oct4, Sox2, Klf4
- enough to trigger a change in cell identity
even-skipped (Eve)
- a gene critical for embryonic development in Drosophilia Combinatorial regulation of Eve promoter region by transcription regulators will devetermine the stripe expression and position
- witout this gene, embryo will die early on
induced pulipotent stem cells (iPS cells)
- expression of the 3 transcription regulators Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 in fully differentiated cells will produce cells that adopt characteristics of pluripotent cells derived from embryo
- if you over-express the 3 genes in differentiated cells, you can turn them into iPS cells
- erases identity completetly for something new to be added
what is cell memory?
- a pattern of gene expression within a given cell that is responsible for maintaining that cell’s identity and is passed on to a daughter cell upon division
- follows positive feedback loop (ensures continous gene transcription in the absence of initital signal)
Mechanisms involved in maintaining cell memory
- DNA methylation/ dense DNA methylation
- CG islands
- x chromosome inactivation
- x chromosome dosage compensation
What are transcriptional circuits? What is an example of it?
- gene regulatory switches that produce different outcomes on cell function and development
- network motif: a type of gene expression switching arrangement (small, repeating pattern of connections within a complex network)
- positive, negative feedback loop, feed-forward loop, flip-flop device
what is DNA methylation?
- addition of methyl group to cytosine when in sequence with guanine (CG)
- for genomic imprinting (only 1 copy from 1 parent expressed, and the other one is silenced- methylated)
- can repress gene transcription
histone modification
trimethylation on lysine promotes nucleosome compaction and heterochromatin formation
dense DNA methylation process
- methylated Cs can interfere with binding of transcription regulators/factors for transcription initiation
- DNA methyl binding proteins + histone modifying enzyme+ DNA methylase enzymes = induce heterochromatin formation
if packed in heterocromatin region –> not transcribed –> not expressed
When does DNA demethylation occur? And what enzyme removes them?
occurs shortly after fertilization, where most methyl groups are removed by DNA demethylase
maintenance methyl transferase
- enzyme adds methyl group to C when in sequence CG that are base paried with methylated CG sequences
- allows methylation pattern to be inherited after DNA replication
- old strand methylated
- ensures methylation pattern is inherited
What is genomic imprinting?
- expresion of maternal or paternal inherited gene, while the other is silenced
- genes to be imprinted are methylated in the embryo
- methylated genes are typically silenced
- only 1 copy from 1 parent expressed, and the other one is silenced- methylated
what is x inactivation?
- where one of the X chromosomes is silenced in mammalian females
- random producing females with a mosaic of clonal groups of cells with either maternal or paternal X silenced
CG island
- CG-rich regions unevenly distributed in the genome
- area of many gene promoters
- deamination of C turns into T
- throughout evolution, majority of methylated CG sequences were lost due to deamination of C to T
- remain unmethylated by binding specizalized proteins that methylate histone H3and repel de novo methylases
what is dosage compensation?
- a process to ensure similar levels of gene expression in males and females
- differes across multiple species
- mammals: random inactivation
- fly: increase expression on X to match levels in female
- marsupials: inactivation of paternal
- nematode: decreased of all
what is x chromosome inactivation triggered by?
- synthesis of long noncoding RNA Xist
- synthesized by one of the 2 X chromosomes
- contains binding sites for multiple proteins like DNa methylases and histone-modifying enzymes, promoting fomraiton of compact DNA structure and silencing gene transcription
monoallelic gene expression
in a diploid organism, only one copy of the gene is expressed
epigenetic inheritence
heritable change in the cell’s phenotype that does not result in a change in teh nucleotidde sequence of DNA
Posttranscriptional controls
- transcription attenuation aborting gene expression
- riboswitches- abort transcription in response to a signal
- alternative splicing
- RNA cleavage and poly-A addition
- RNA nucleotides can be covalently modified
- regulation of nuclear transport
What are P bodies?
- membraneless aggregates of RNA proteins
- storage facilities for mRNA, which can be stored for later used or degraded
What are stress granules?
- membraneless organelle that forms in response to starvation or stress when translation is suddenly blocked
- mRNA accumulates in stress granules and are released to the cyctosol to be translated when stress is alleviated
Describe the mechanism by which the HIV virus promotes nuclear transport of its RNA into the cytosol
- transcription attenuation
- HIV virus DNA is integrated into the host genome and is transcribed by RNA polymerase. Normally, transcription terminates due to attenuation preventing viral genome transcription
- HIV protein Tat is translated and promoted transcription by using host cell’s normal mechanisms that RNA transcription will continue
transcription attenuation
- premature termination of transcription by RNA polymerase
- attenuation is removed by regulatory proteins that bind the newly made RNA chain to promote transcription
riboswitch
- a short RNA sequence near the 5’ end of mRNAs (the beginning of it)
- blocks trascription by RNA polymerase when bound to a regulatory molecule
- ex: control of purine synthesis in bacteria (when G is abundant, it binds the riboswitch, causing it to undergo conformation that forces RNA polymerase to stop transcription of genes needed for purine synthesis)
alternative splicing
- selective removal/retention of introns and extrons to produce different mRNA sequences out of the same transcript
- can be positively or negatively regulated
alternative cleavage and polyadenylation site
- selective truncation of mRNA at different sites to alter C terminal
- will impact alternative splicing if cleavage site is within an introl
what do RNA cleavage and poly-A addition do?
- alter C terminus of protein
- work on nonfuncitonal mRNA sequences
RNA covalent modificattion
- deamination of Adenine to produce inosine (A –> I)
- deaminatino of Cytosine to produce uracil (C–>U)
I-C
U-T
regulation of nuclear transport
- retention and degradation in nucleus
- viral protein Rev binds to RRE site on viral RNA to enable interaction with nuclear transporter and transport into the cytosol (viral RNA has lots of introns so it can’t leave the nucleus)
- in latent state, Rev is generated in low levels, which prevent viral RNA export
- goes back into nucleus, binds on transporters to let viral RNA pass out of the nucelus. Now must go to a specific part of the cell to make protein right there
controls once out of the nucelus (translational)
- localizing mRNA to specific compartments prior to translation
- mechanisms (Shine-Dalgarmo squence, temperate control, riboswitch, microRNA binds to RNA)
- RNA stability
localizing mRNA
- allows for concentrating specific RNAs at cellular compartments to generate asymmetry
- allows cell to independently control translation in different cellular compartments
- localization signal is often located at 4’ UTR
RNA interfernce (RNAi)
job is to reduce transcription of specific RNAs
miRNA
- in the genome
- downregulates translation of the mRNA or sequestration to P bodies
- cropped, cleaved in cytosol by Dicer, loaded onto RISC complex with Argonaute,
siRNA
- NOT in the genome
1. double-stranded RNA recuits Dicer, which clevaes RNA into siRNA,
2. siRNA loaded onto RISC to idnetify intruder RNAs and degrade them
3. loaded onto RITS comlpex to bind complementary sequences as they are transcribed and recruit enzymes to promote histone and DNA methylation to silence transcription of the viral DNA