Detection of Ago1 bound small RNAs in RNAi and Heterochromatin Mutants
High throughput sequencing reveals 3’ end processing of siRNAs by Nucleotidyl tranferases
Heterochromatin independent siRNA generation from dg transcripts
piRNA primarily target centromeric repeats and require PAZ/MID domain for Ago binding
Role of piRNA in promoting H3K9 methylation
Ago1 bound siRNAs are trimmed after release of passenger strand
Final Model for initiation of siRNA generation and Hetrochromatin assembly
3. Introduction
• Fission yeast A.K.A Schizosaccharomyces pombe
• siRNAs and miRNAs Translation inhibition and RNAi
dsRNA
DICER
siRNA Argonuate
RITS
or
RDRC
Specific sequences
Inactivation of target
RNAsRNAi
triggers
guides
4. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• RITS complx = Argonuate + Tas3 + Chp1
• Tas3 = GW motif protein linking Chp1 and Ago
• Chp1 = chromodomain containing ptn that interacts
with H3K9 methylated nucleosomes
• RITS associates with chromatin via
i. siRNA in Ago1 with nascent transcripts
ii. Chp1 with H3K9 methylated nucleosomes
• This association leads to CLRC recruitment to swi6
and Chp2
• CLRC = Clr4 Rik1 Cul4 methyltransferase/Ub ligase
Complx
• Swi6 and Chp2 = chromodomain ptns
6. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• In addition to RITS, Fission yeast contains ARC.
• ARC = Argonuate siRNA Chaperone Complex
• ARC = Ago1 + Arb1 + Arb2 + duplex siRNA
• Silencing activity is amplified by RdRP
• RdRP = RNA dependent RNA Polymerase
• Fission yeast RdRP is Rdp1
• RDRC = RNA dependent RNA Polymerase complex
• RDRC = Rdp1 + Hrr1 + Cid12
• Hrr1 = Dead box RNA helicase
• Cid12 = Nucleotidyl transferase domain containing ptn
7. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
It is suggested that trigger siRNAs are
produced from centromeric transcripts
8. Models for Biogenesis of intial siRNA from centromeric
repeats
Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
9. GOAL
EVIDENCE:
• Ago1 associated small RNAs target RDRC to centromeric transcripts.
• priRNAs act through argonaute in H3K9 methylation triggering siRNA
amplification.
• siRNAs undergo processing at their 3’ ends which involves Cid12 and Cid14
nucleotransferases and trimming mediated by exosome.
Examine the mechanisms that mediate small RNA generation
from the fission yeast centromeric repeat sequences.
Results suggests : A transcriptome surveillance mechanism based on the
random association of small RNAs with Argonautes triggers RNA- mediated
heterochromatin formation with DNA repeats.
Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
10. RESULTS
Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
• Distinguish models
• Determine siRNA levels
• Radioactive labelling of
Ligation Oligont
• Small RNA, Lig Oligont
and Bridge
mixed, denatured and
anealed with T4 DNA
Ligase
• Excess Oligont is
dephosphorylated
• Detected by PAGE
11. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• Detect Centromeric small
RNAs in WT and mutant
cells by splinted ligation
• Diff amt of Ago asso.
Small RNAs = Relative
input
• 50 fold more sensitive
that N.Blot
12. Contd…
Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
• >100 fold reduction
• dcr1r and rdp1r levels
are similar
No siRNAs are produced from
dsRNA through sense-
antisense pairing
• Presence of small RNAs
in dcr1r
Existence of DICER
independent small RNA
generation
13. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• Small RNAs in WT & Mutant cells plotted on cnt region
of chromosome 1
• Cid12r 10 fold more siRNA present
Low levels of siRNA generated in a Cid12 Indepenfent fashion
14. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• Rdp1 over expn restores the dg and dh siRNAs to WT
levels
15. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
Essential role of cid12
in RNAi
• Silencing Assay by
growth on complete
selective (EMMC-Leu) and
5-Fluoroorotic acid (FOA)
medium, respectively
• Rdp1 over expn
i. Rescues cid12 loss of
silencing phenotype
of a imr1R::ura4+
reporter gene
ii. Fails to restore IRC3
16. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Concise RESULTS section -1
Cl4r cells dg siRNA
if10 folds
H3K9 Independent
H.C. Independent
Dicer Dependent
RDRC Dependent
swi6r cells dh siRNA
dg siRNA
Reduced by more than 10 fold
Modest reduction ~2 fold
arb1r cells
arb2r cells Similar to swi6r cells
dg repeats
dh repeats
H.C. Independent siRNA generation
H.C. Dependent siRNA generation
17. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• Chp1 subunit is not required for dg siRNA
accumulation
• Tas3 is required
rules out a requirement for the full RITS complex in heterochromatin
independent siRNA generation
18. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• Ago1D580A has a loss of
slicer activity
• dg RNAs produced in the
lanes containing
Ago1D580A are similar to
dcr1r cells and less than
that of the Cl4r cells
Heterochromatin independent dg RNAs amplification
involves Ago mediated slicing or recognition of dg templates
as in Model 2 and also implies the requirement of triggering
dg small RNAs
19. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• total number of small RNAs was similar in dcr1r and
rdp1r cells
Sense and Antisense strands do not form high levels of dsRNA that
can be processed by DICER.
20. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Concise RESULTS section -2
• High level of antisense txn is unique in S. pombe
• Antisense small RNA per mRNA is negligible compare to
Antisense small RNA per dg/dh repeats
• In addition the majority of priRNAs mapping to coding
regions showed a striking enrichment toward the 30
ends of annotated transcripts, often overlapping 30
untranslated sequences or regions just after
transcription termination
Existence of a relationship between priRNA biogenesis at
these regions and RNA processing events associated with
transcription termination and also provide further support
for the proposal that priRNAs originate from degradation
products of single stranded transcripts
21. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• PAZ/MID mutants are
termed Ago1 A3
• Staining for all RNAs
with Sybr Green showed
that 21–24 nt small
RNAs and 30–40 nt small
RNAs were enriched in
Ago1 from dcr1r cells
• Ago1A3 cells abolished
H.C. dependent gene
silencing of reporter
gene.
Association of dcr1 independent small RNA with Ago1
22. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Concise RESULTS section -3
• The DICER independent small RNAs are termed as
priRNAs (Primal RNAs)
• ago1r cells shown greater H3K9 methylation defect
than dcr1r cells and rdp1r cells
• H3K9 methylation in ago1r cells were generally close
to clr4r cells
RNAi independent H3K9 methylation is Ago1 dependent
• In dcr1r cells it is found that only priRNAs are present
priRNA promote low levels of H3K9 methylation
23. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• To determine whether Ago1-
dependent, but Dcr1-
independent, H3K9 methylation
required the PAZ and MID
domains of Ago1, which were
required for priRNA binding
• Ago1A3 present, H3K9
methylation was similar to Ago1r
cells present, H3K9 methylation
Ago1 promote DICER indepencent methylation which requires small
RNA binding domain.
24. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Concise RESULTS section -4
• Ago1D580A has
i. Inactive slicer
ii. Dominant –ve effect on H.C. formation
iii. Inhibits H3K9 methylation
iv. Do not promote dcr1 independent methylation
v. ds siRNA do not release passenger strand
• Centromeric siRNA associated with Ago1D580A had
broad size from 21 – 27 nt
• Ago1 can bind larger precursors and then be trimmed to
22nt siRNAs after the release of the passenger strand
which is a similar case as to priRNAs
• 3’ end mismatch of WT was similar to that of 3’end
mismatch of the mutant suggesting that nucleotidyl
activity is not required for large size
25. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• priRNA mediated H3K9 meth requires RITS or not???
• In ago1r cells, Chp1r cells and Tas3r cells are
studied
26. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Contd…
• Chp1r, Tas3r-dcr1r & Tas3r cells shows higher
methylation than Ago1r cells & equal to dcr1r cells
Ago1 promote H3K9 methylation indepencent of RITS
27. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Concise RESULTS section -5
Cell Type 1 Cell Type 2 priRNA level Inference
Ago1D580A dcr1r SIMILAR
Slicer based
mechanism
not involved
dcr1r cells
Dcr1r
rdp1r
SIMILAR
Rdp1 is not
involved
- eri+ cells Unaffected
priRNA are ss
& generated
from ss
precursors.eri is a ds specific ribonuclease.
28. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
Concise RESULTS section -6
• dh (–) strand transcript ∞ priRNA (–) strand levels
• cid14 helps in the RNA degradation or processing of
RNA to exosome
• degradation of small RNAs is at least partly mediated by
the exosome
• Sequencing of Ago1 bound small RNAs from
Dis3Mutdcr1+ shows the similarity to WT but 3% of them
had longer transcripts and from Dis3Mutdcr1r shows
the presence of priRNAs but their levels are lower than
dcr1r cells
An exosome may be involved
30. RESULTS – KEY POINTS
Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
• Detection of Ago1 bound small RNAs in RNAi and
Heterochromatin Mutants
• High throughput sequencing reveals 3’ end processing
of siRNAs by Nucleotidyl tranferases
• Heterochromatin independent siRNA generation from dg
transcripts
• piRNA primarily target centromeric repeats and require
PAZ/MID domain for Ago binding
• Role of piRNA in promoting H3K9 methylation
• Ago1 bound siRNAs are trimmed after release of
passenger strand
• Final Model for initiation of siRNA generation and
Hetrochromatin assembly
31. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
PROCEDURES INVOLVED
• Protein Affinity Purification, RNA Synthesis, and Cid12
Activity Assays
• siRNA Purification and Detection by immunoaffinity
purification of FLAG-Ago1 with an M2 affinity resin
• Strain Construction
• Chromatin Immunoprecipitation
• Statistical significance was calculated with the
Student’s t test
• The ligated reaction was gel purified and used for first-
strand complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesis. cDNA
was amplified with PCR
• Analysis by Maq (http://maq.sourceforge.net/) and/or
Novoalign (http://www.novocraft.com/)
32. Dicer-Independent Primal RNAs Trigger RNAi and Heterochromatin Formation by Mario Halic and Danesh Moazed
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The Piwi-piRNA pathway provides an adaptive defense
in the transposon arms race. Science 318, 761–764.
• Baulcombe, D. (2004). RNA silencing in plants. Nature
431, 356–363.
• Bu¨ hler, M., Verdel, A., and Moazed, D. (2006).
Tethering RITS to a nascent transcript initiates RNAi-
and heterochromatin-dependent gene silencing Cell
125, 873–886.