Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Translation initiation sites'

Recombinant DNA technology has been commonly used in a number of fields to synthesize new products or generate products with a new pathway. Conventional cloning methods are expensive and require significant time and labor; λ-PCR, a new cloning method developed in the Senger lab, has a number of advantages compared to other cloning processes due to its employment of relatively inexpensive and widely available materials and time-efficiency. While the amount of lab work required for the cloning process is minimal, the importance of accurate primer design cannot be overstated. The target of this study was to create an effective procedure for λ-PCR primer design that ensures accurate cloning reactions. Additionally, synthetic ribosome binding sites (RBS) were included in the primer designs to test heterologous protein expression of the cyan fluorescent reporter with different RBS strengths. These RBS sequences were designed with an online tool, the RBS Calculator. A chimeric primer design procedure for λ-PCR was developed and shown to effectively create primers used for accurate cloning with λ-PCR; this method was used to design primers for CFP cloning in addition to two enzymes cloned in the Senger lab. A total of five strains of BL21(DE3) with pET28a + CFP were constructed, each with the same cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) reporter but different RBS sequences located directly upstream of the start codon of the CFP gene. Expression of the protein was measured using both whole-cell and cell-free systems to determine which system yields higher protein concentrations. A number of other factors were tested to optimize conditions for high protein expression, including: induction time, IPTG concentration, temperature, and media (for the cell-free experiments only). Additionally, expression for each synthetic RBS sequence was investigated to determine an accurate method for predicting protein translation. NUPACK and the Salis Lab RBS Calculator were both used to evaluate the effects of these different synthetic RBS sequences. The results of the plate reader experiments with the 5 CFP strains revealed a number of factors to be statistically significant when predicting protein expression, including: IPTG concentration, induction time, and in the cell-free experiments, type of media. The whole-cell system consistently produced higher amounts of protein than the cell-free system. Lastly, contrasts between the CFP strains showed each strain's performance did not match the predictions from the RBS Calculator. Consequently, a new method for improving protein expression with synthetic RBS sequences was developed using relationships between Gibbs free energy of the RBS-rRNA complex and expression levels obtained through experimentation. Additionally, secondary structure present at the RBS in the mRNA transcript was modeled with strain expression since these structures cause deviations in the relationship between Gibbs free energy of the mRNA-rRNA complex and CFP expression.
Master of Science
Recombinant DNA technology has been used to genetically enhance organisms to produce greater amounts of a product already made by the organism or to make an organism synthesize a new product. Genes are commonly modified in organisms using cloning practices which typically involves inserting a target gene into a plasmid and transforming the plasmid into the organism of interest. A new cloning process developed in the Senger lab, λ-PCR, improves the cloning process compared to other methods due to its use of relatively inexpensive materials and high efficiency. A primary goal of this study was to develop a procedure for λ-PCR primer design that allows for accurate use of the cloning method. Additionally, this study investigated the use of synthetic ribosome binding sites to control and improve expression of proteins cloned into an organism. Ribosome binding sites are sequences located upstream of the gene that increase the molecule’s affinity for the rRNA sequence on the ribosome, bind to the ribosome just upstream of the beginning of the gene, and initiate expression of the gene. Tools have been developed that create synthetic ribosome binding sites designed to produce specific amounts of protein. For example, the tools can increase or decrease expression of a gene depending on the application. These tools, the Salis Lab RBS Calculator and NUPACK, were used to design and evaluate the effects of the synthetic ribosome binding sites. Additionally, a new method was created to design synthetic ribosome binding sites since the methods used during the design process yielded inaccuracies. Each strain of E. coli contained the same gene, a cyan fluorescent protein (CFP), but had different RBS sequences located upstream of the gene. Expression of CFP was controlled via induction, meaning the addition of a particular molecule, IPTG in this system, triggered expression of CFP. Each of the CFP strains were tested with a variety of v conditions in order to find the conditions most suitable for protein expression; the variables tested include: induction time, IPTG (inducer) concentration, and temperature. Media was also tested for the cell-free systems, meaning the strains were grown overnight for 18 hours and lysed, a process where the cell membrane is broken in order to utilize the cell’s components for protein expression; the cell lysate was resuspended in new media for the experiments. ANOVA and multiple linear regression revealed IPTG concentration, induction time, and media to be significant factors impacting protein expression. This analysis also showed each CFP strain did not perform as the RBS Calculator predicted. Modeling each strain’s CFP expression using the RBS-rRNA binding strengths and secondary structures present in the RBS allowed for the creation of a new model for predicting and designing RBS sequences.

Les microARN (miARN) sont de petits ARN non-codants qui contrôlent l’expression génique, en s’hybridant, le plus souvent, de manière imparfaite à des séquences spécifiques qui se trouvent généralement dans la région non traduite en 3' (3’UTR) de transcrits cibles. Les miARN guident sur l’ARN messager (ARNm) un complexe protéique appelé RNA-induced Silencing Complex (RISC), composé des protéines Argonaute et TNRC6, qui perturbe l’initiation de la traduction et provoque la déadénylation et la dégradation du transcrit. C'est l’interaction entre le RISC et le complexe de pré-initiation de la traduction 43S (composé de la petite sous-unité ribosomique 40S et des facteurs d’initiation associés) qui entraîne la répression traductionnelle de l’ARNm ciblé. Des résultats récents ont démontré que le RISC perturbe le balayage de la région non traduite en 5’ (5’UTR) par le ribosome, étape qui requiert la présence de 2 facteurs d’initiation qui sont eIF4F qui reconnaît et lie la coiffe ainsi que la protéine PABP, fixée le long de la queue poly(A). Toutefois, les miARN peuvent également induire la stimulation de la traduction des transcrits cibles dans les cellules quiescentes, dans un lysat d’embryons de drosophiles ou encore dans les ovocytes de Xénope. Le mécanisme moléculaire de stimulation de l’expression par les miARN est encore mal connu mais requiert l’absence de queue poly(A) en 3’ des ARN cible et de TNRC6 au sein du complexe RISC. Le Virus de l’Hépatite C (VHC) possède en 5’ de son ARNg un site d’entrée interne du ribosome (IRES) qui recrute la petite sous-unité ribosomique 40S, sans nécessiter la reconnaissance de la coiffe par eIF4F, ni la protéine PABP, ni le balayage de la 5’UTR par le ribosome. Ces caractéristiques singulières nous ont conduits à rechercher l'impact du complexe RISC fixé en 3’ de l’ARNm sur l’initiation de la traduction du VHC. Pour cela, nous avons utilisé des transcrits contenant l'IRES du VHC en 5' et des sites d’hybridation du miARN let-7 en 3’. Ces ARNm ont ensuite été transfectés dans des lignées cellulaires hépatocytaires, ou non. A notre grande surprise, nous avons observé que la fixation du miARN let-7 sur la région 3' du transcrit stimulait fortement l’expression dirigée par l’IRES de VHC. Toutefois, l’augmentation de l’expression n’est pas due à la stabilisation du transcrit mais bien à une hausse significative de la synthèse protéique indépendamment d’un quelconque effet de miR-122. En utilisant d’autres IRES dites 'HCV-like', nous avons pu confirmer ces résultats et démontrer que, l’ajout d’une queue poly(A) en 3’ du transcrit, capable de fixer la PABP, annule cet effet stimulateur suggérant que l’absence de cette protéine est nécessaire pour que le complexe RISC stimule la traduction du VHC
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non coding RNAs which control gene expression by recognizing and hybridizing to a specific sequence generally located in the 3’UTR of targeted messenger RNA (mRNA). miRNAs serve as a guide for the RNA-Induced Silencing Complex (RISC) that is composed by, at least, the Argonaute proteins and TNRC6. Recent studies have suggested that translation inhibition occurs first and is then followed by deadenylation and degradation of the targeted transcript. The miRNA-induced inhibition of protein synthesis occurs at the level of translation initiation during the ribosomal scanning step and it requires the presence of both the initiation factor eIF4G and the poly(A) Binding Protein (PABP). In this process, the RISC interacts with both PABP and 43S pre-initiation complex (composed by initiation factors and ribosome) and it results in the disruption of linear scanning of the ribosome along the 5’ Untranslated Region (5’UTR). In some specific cases, the binding of miRNAs to their target sequences can upregulate translation initiation. This has notably been demonstrated in G0 quiescent cells, drosophila embryos and Xenopus oocytes. Although the molecular mechanism by which upregulation occurs remains to be precisely determined, it appears that the absence of a poly(A) tail and the lack of availability of the TNRC6 proteins are amongst the major determinants. In the particular case of the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), the genomic RNA is uncapped and non polyadenylated and harbors an Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) which directly binds to the ribosome with no need for cap-recognition, PABP binding and ribosome scanning. These peculiar features of the HCV IRES prompted us to investigate how viral translation can be regulated by the miRNA machinery. In order to do that, we have used a mRNA that contains the HCV IRES in 5’ and 4 let-7 binding sites in its 3’ extremity. To most of our surprise, we have observed a strong stimulation of the expression of the HCV IRES when the construct is bearing the let-7 sites. This effect is not due to any interference with the miR-122 binding sites although the magnitude of stimulation reached the same level. Our data show that it is the presence of the RISC on the 3' end of the transcript that can stimulate internal ribosome entry at the 5' end. By using other HCV-like IRESes, we could confirm these data and further showed that the absence of a poly(A) tail was an absolute requirement for the stimulation to occur. These effects are not due to an increase of mRNA stability and are rather exerted at the level of translation

Multidrug resistance protein 2 (MRP2) is the second member the C subfamily in the superfamily of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette (ABC) efflux transporters. MRP2 is a critical player for generation of bile acidindependent bile flow and biliary excretion of glutathione, glucuronate and sulfate conjugates of endo- and xenobiotics. Dysfunctional expression of MRP2 is associated with Dubin-Johnson Syndrome. Pathological and physiological states or xenobiotics change the MRP2 expression level. Under some conditions, expression of the human MRP2 and rat Mrp2 proteins are regulated at the translation level. There are several transcription initiation sites in MRP2/Mrp2 gene. The 5’ untranslated regions (5’UTRs) of MRP2/Mrp2 contains multiple translation start codons. The focus of this study, therefore, was investigation of the translational regulatory mechanisms mediated by the upstream open reading frames (uORF) of MRP2/Mrp2. Using in vitro translation assays and transient cotransfection assays in HepG2 cells, we showed that the rat uORF1 starting at position -109 (relative to the ATG of Mrp2) and the human uORF2 starting at position -105 (relative to the ATG of MRP2) are two major cis-acting inhibitors of translation among the rat and human multiple uORFs, respectively. Translational regulation mediated by the uORFs in the rat Mrp2 mRNA is a combined effect of the leaky scanning model and the reinitiation model, and also results from interaction of the multiple uORFs. In addition, by Ribonuclease Protection Assays (RPA), we detected multiple transcription initiation sites of MRP2/Mrp2 gene in tissues. We also found that the relative abundance of the rat Mrp2 mRNA isoforms with different 5’UTRs differed in the rat liver, kidney, jejunum, ileum, placenta, and lung. This is the first study on the translational regulatory mechanisms of the MRP2/Mrp2 gene.

Eukaryotic translation initiation is a complex and highly regulated process involving the ribosome, mRNA and proteins called eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs). The overall aim of translation initiation is to position the ribosome at the initiation codon of the mRNA. eIF2, in its GTP-bound conformation, binds the initiator tRNA (Met-tRNAiMet) and delivers it to the 40S ribosomal subunit. When the anticodon of the tRNA is bound to the initiation codon, the GTP on eIF2 is hydrolysed to GDP. The guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) eIF2B regenerates eIF2-GTP. eIF2 and eIF2B are multisubunit/multidomain protein complexes. Because information regarding the interface between each complex is limited, particularly the interface on the eIF2γ subunit, which binds the guanine-nucleotides and Met-tRNAiMet, interactions between the minimal GEF domain of eIF2Bε, εGEF, and eIF2 were mapped using mutagenesis and an in vitro cysteine cross-linking approach, with the cross-linker Mts-Atf-Biotin. Site-directed mutagenesis (SDM) was used to mutate five N-terminal and five C-terminal surface-exposed εGEF residues to cysteines. The mutant alleles were analysed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and it was found that the gcd6-R574C allele was lethal and the gcd6-T572C was Gcd-. Further gcd6-R574 mutant alleles were also found to be lethal in yeast but expressed in vivo.εGEF-R574C has dramatically reduced GEF activity in vitro and binding assays showed that this mutant has significantly reduced affinity for eIF2. The εGEF-T572C and εGEF-S576C mutants also have severe and minor eIF2-binding defects respectively, while the C-terminal εGEF-Cys mutants have slightly reduced affinity for eIF2. The N-terminal εGEF-Cys mutants cross-link specifically to eIF2γ, while the C-terminal εGEF-Cys mutants interact predominantly with eIF2β. From the data obtained in this study, we propose a new model for eIF2B-mediated guanine-nucleotide exchange that reduces the importance of eIF2β and suggests εGEF resembles other GEFs in binding primarily to its G protein partner eIF2γ.

Chez les animaux, les microARNs (miARNs) régulent l'expression des gènes en s'hybridant au niveau de la region 3' non traduite (3'UTR) des ARN messagers (ARNm) et en réduisant sa traduction et/ou sa stabilité. En dépit de nombreux efforts pour disséquer les mécanismes responsables de l'inhibition de la traduction induite par les miARNs, ces derniers demeurent largement incompris. Ici, nous décrivons un nouveau système in vitro qui utilise le lysat de réticulocytes de lapins non traité (RRL) et qui est capable de récapituler de façon physiologique, la répression traductionelle causé par des miARNs endogènes. En effet, grâce à l'utilisation de puces "microarray" contenant des sondes pour l'ensemble des miARNs connus chez les mammifères, nous avons caractérisé la prèsence de nombreux miARNs dans le RRL. Parmi ceux-ci, nous avons detecté de grandes quantités de let-7 et de miR-451 (un miARN spécifique à la lignée erythroïde). Par ailleurs, nous avons aussi mis en évidence, dans le RRL, la présence de plusieurs composant du "RNA-induced Silencing Complex" (ou RISC), tels que Argonaute 2 et TNR6CA, ainsi que Dicer. En utilisant, une série d'ARNm rapporteurs, nous montrons que les miARNs endogènes du RRL sont fonctionnels dans la répression de la traduction (dans le cas d'une complémentarité imparfaite avec l'ARN cible, mais étaient aussi capables d'induire le clivage de ce dernier (dans le cas d'une complémentarité parfaite). De façon intéresante, la répression traductionelle induite par les miARNs dans le RRL a lieu à des temps très courts et n'est pas liée à la déadénylation ou la dégradation des ARNm ciblés. En utilisant le RRL, nous avons entrepris l'étude des mécanismes moléculaires responsables de la répression traductionelle induite par les miARNs. Tout d'abord, nous avons montré que la répression traductionelle dépend d'un environnement compétitif pour la traduction, puisque le RRL préalablement traité à la nucléase microccocale (pour le débarasser des ARNm endogènes), ne récapitule pas l'effet miARN, bien qu'ayant les mêmes quantités de miARN endogènes. De façon intéresante, l'ajout d'ARN poly(A) suffit a elle seule, pour activer la réponse miARN dans le RRL non traité en laissant penser à un rôle de la protéine PABP dans la voie miARN. En acord avec cette hypothèse, la dépletion ou dégradation du PABP endogène du RRL conduisent à une perte de l'activité miARN. Dans un effort pour comprendre le rôle de PABP dans le mécanisme de répression des miARNs, nos résultats suggèrent que les miARNs agissent en inhibant le balayage des sous-unités 40S au niveau de l'initiation de la traduction. Un tel mécanisme pourrait s'expliquer par l'inhibition de l'activité hélicase du facteur d'initiation eIF4A dont l'activité est régulée par PABP et eIF4B (co-facteur de eIF4A). De façon surprenante, la reconaissance de la coiffe, ainsi que le recrutment de la sous-unité 60S (deux étapes décrites dans la litérature comme étant régulées par les miARNS) ne semblent pas régulées par les miARNs dans notre système d'étude
In animals, microRNAs (miRNAs) generally regulate gene expression by binding to the 3’ untranslated region (3’UTR) of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and reducing their translation and/or stability. However, despite strong efforts carried out to dissect the mechanisms responsible for translational repression, the latter remains largely unknown. Here, we describe a new in vitro cell-free extract, which is based on the use of untreated rabbit reticulocyte lysate (RRL) and that faithfully recapitulates miRNA-mediated translational repression mediated by endogenous miRNAs. By performing microarray analysis of RNAs present within the untreated RRL we were able to characterize the presence of many endogenous miRNAs. Among these, we detected high amounts of let-7, as well as miR-451 (an erythroid specific miRNA). In addition to miRNAs, we also showed that RISC components such as Argonaute 2 and TNR6CA, together with Dicer, were present within the lysate. Using a series of reporter RNAs, we further showed that endogenous miRNAs were functional in repressing translation (in the case of partially complementarity target sites) but also in inducing the cleavage of target mRNAs (in the case of fully complementary target sites). Interestingly, translational repression occurred at very early times and was not linked to deadenylation or degradation of the target RNAs. Using this system, we undertook the study of the molecular mechanisms of translational repression mediated by miRNAs. We first, showed that translational repression was dependent on a competitive environment since nuclease-treated RRL, which also contains endogenous miRNAs, but lacks endogenous messenger RNAs, was not functional in mediating translational repression by miRNAs. Interestingly, addition of free poly(A) RNA was enough to restore a potent miRNA response in nuclease-treated RRL thus pointing out to the poly(A)-binding protein as a potential regulator of translational repression mediated by miRNAs. In agreement with this, removal or cleavage of PABP both led to a relief of translational repression in untreated RRL. In an attempt to understand the role of PABP in the repression pathway, our results further suggested that miRNAs impair ribosomal scanning in order to repress translation of target mRNAs. This regulation could occur through the disruption of the interaction between PABP and eIF4B (the initiator factor that stimulates the Helicase activity of eIF4A). Surprisingly, recognition of the cap structure, as well as the joining of 60S ribosomal subunits, two stages that have been previously described as regulated by miRNAs, did not appear to be targeted by miRNAs in our system

This work uses genetic algorithms (GA) to reduce the complexity of the artificial neural networks (ANNs) and decision trees (DTs) for the accurate recognition of translation initiation sites (TISs) in Arabidopsis Thaliana. The Arabidopsis data was extracted directly from genomic DNA sequences. Methods derived in this work resulted in both reduced complexity of the predictors, as well as in improvement in prediction accuracy (generalization). Optimization through use of GA is generally a computationally intensive task. One of the approaches to overcome this problem is to use parallelization of code that implements GA, thus allowing computation on multiprocessing infrastructure. However, further improvement in performance GA implementation could be achieved through modification done to GA basic operations such as selection, crossover and mutation. In this work we explored two such improvements, namely evolutive mutation and GA-Simplex crossover operation. In this thesis we studied the benefit of these modifications on the problem of TISs recognition. Compared to the non-modified GA approach, we reduced the number of weights in the resulting model's neural network component by 51% and the number of nodes in the model's DTs component by 97% whilst improving the model's accuracy at the same time. Separately, we developed another methodology for reducing the complexity of prediction models by optimizing the composition of training data subsets in bootstrap aggregation (bagging) methodology. This optimization is achieved by applying a new GA-based bagging methodology in order to optimize the composition of each of the training data subsets. This approach has shown in our test cases to considerably enhance the accuracy of the TIS prediction model compared to the original bagging methodology. Although these methods are applied to the problem of accurate prediction of TISs we believe that these methodologies have a potential for wider scope of application.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
微生物學研究所
89
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) open reading frame BGLF4 was identified as a ser/thr protein kinase based on the homology alignment to the conserved motifs of known protein kinases. In a previous study, by using an EBNA-1 tag, the immunoprecipitated BGLF4 was demonstrated for its abilities of autophosphorylation and phosphorylating casein, histone, and EBV early-antigen diffuse type (EA-D). According to the EBV genome map, BGLF4 is located at nt 123,692-122,328 of B95-8 EBV. Since no in frame ATG was identified at 123,692, the first in frame ATG at 123,614 was used to express the BGLF4 protein in our previous studies. One major goal of this study was to characterize the transcription and translation initiation sites of BGLF4. Therefore, 5'-RACE was used to map the 5' end of BGLF4 containing transcripts. Two populations of cDNA clones containing -201 and -255 upstream of the first in frame ATG were identified. Since both transcription initiation sites are relatively far away from the first in frame ATG, the possibilities of the 5'-end region can function as an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and facilitate a non-ATG translation initiation were also investigated in this study. The possible contributions of the ATG-upstream sequence on BGLF4 protein kinase activity were examined in immuno-complex (IP) autophosphorylation assay and the transphosphorylation effect on EBV early antigen (EA-D) in co-transfected cells. Result of these experiments revealed that an-EBNA-1 tagged BGLF4 protein containing the -78 upstream region demonstrated stronger phosphorylation signals in IP-kinase assay. Finally, this study also demonstrated that, in comparing with HSV-TK, BGLF4 confers relative lower ganciclovir sensitivity in transient transfected 293T cells .

Machine-learning (ML) techniques have been widely applied to solve different problems in biology. However, biological data are large and complex, which often result in extremely intricate ML models. Frequently, these models may have a poor performance or may be computationally unfeasible. This study presents a set of novel computational methods and focuses on the application of genetic algorithms (GAs) for the simplification and optimization of ML models and their applications to biological problems. The dissertation addresses the following three challenges. The first is to develop a generalizable classification methodology able to systematically derive competitive models despite the complexity and nature of the data. Although several algorithms for the induction of classification models have been proposed, the algorithms are data dependent. Consequently, we developed OmniGA, a novel and generalizable framework that uses different classification models in a treeXlike decision structure, along with a parallel GA for the optimization of the OmniGA structure. Results show that OmniGA consistently outperformed existing commonly used classification models. The second challenge is the prediction of translation initiation sites (TIS) in plants genomic DNA. We performed a statistical analysis of the genomic DNA and proposed a new set of discriminant features for this problem. We developed a wrapper method based on GAs for selecting an optimal feature subset, which, in conjunction with a classification model, produced the most accurate framework for the recognition of TIS in plants. Finally, results demonstrate that despite the evolutionary distance between different plants, our approach successfully identified conserved genomic elements that may serve as the starting point for the development of a generic model for prediction of TIS in eukaryotic organisms. Finally, the third challenge is the accurate prediction of polyadenylation signals in human genomic DNA. To achieve this, we analyzed genomic DNA sequences for the 12 most frequent polyadenylation signal variants and proposed a new set of features that may contribute to the understanding of the polyadenylation process. We derived Omni-PolyA, a model, and tool based on OmniGA for the prediction of the polyadenylation signals. Results show that Omni-PolyA significantly reduced the average classification error rate compared to the state-of-the-art results.

Modifications of ribosomal RNA are present in every livivng organism. The function of rRNA modifications could be studied only when the process of modifications was described. Currently, scientists study not only individual modifications but also the importance of global level of modifications for maturation and function of ribosome. This thesis deals with the influence of 2'-O-methylation of citidine 1639 and adenosine 100 in 18S rRNA and uridine 2729 in 25S rRNA on initiation in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae with special attention of translation controlled by internal ribosome entry site (IRES). Strains with deletion in genes snR51, snR70 and duoble deletion in both genes were successfully created during my master study. Pilot experiments showed the importance of products of both genes in translation initiation.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a worldwide spread pathogen infecting up to 3 % of the human population. Nowadays, research of new drugs against this virus is focused on the individual steps in its life cycle, including the translation initiation. In the case of HCV translation initiation is dependent on the internal ribosome entry site (IRES). Besides of components of the translational machinery also other components of the cell, so called IRES trans-acting factors (ITAF), contribute to its proper progress. This work continues in previous research of our laboratory focused on searching for new ITAF. In order to search for potential ITAF increasing HCV IRES activity new recombinant plasmid vectors and reference strains were prepared and selection conditions of the selection system were optimized. The differences in the growth characteristics of the reference strains were analyzed and quantified under selective and non-selective conditions. A set of pilot high efficiency transformations of the yeast strain pJ69-4A carrying bicistronic construct with HCV IRES were conducted using human expression cDNA library in order to optimize the efficiency of transformation and selection conditions and to attempt to identify new ITAF. Several dozens of randomly selected clones from these transformations obtained under...