Reiff RE, etal., Hum Mol Genet. 2014 Jul 1;23(13):3456-66. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddu054. Epub 2014 Feb 5.
Whereas many genes associated with intellectual disability (ID) encode synaptic proteins, transcriptional defects leading to ID are less well understood. We studied a large, consanguineous pedigree of Arab origin with seven members affected with ID and mild dysmorphic features. Homozygosity mapping
and linkage analysis identified a candidate region on chromosome 17 with a maximum multipoint logarithm of odds score of 6.01. Targeted high-throughput sequencing of the exons in the candidate region identified a homozygous 4-bp deletion (c.169_172delCACT) in the METTL23 (methyltransferase like 23) gene, which is predicted to result in a frameshift and premature truncation (p.His57Valfs*11). Overexpressed METTL23 protein localized to both nucleus and cytoplasm, and physically interacted with GABPA (GA-binding protein transcription factor, alpha subunit). GABP, of which GABPA is a component, is known to regulate the expression of genes such as THPO (thrombopoietin) and ATP5B (ATP synthase, H+ transporting, mitochondrial F1 complex, beta polypeptide) and is implicated in a wide variety of important cellular functions. Overexpression of METTL23 resulted in increased transcriptional activity at the THPO promoter, whereas knockdown of METTL23 with siRNA resulted in decreased expression of ATP5B, thus revealing the importance of METTL23 as a regulator of GABPA function. The METTL23 mutation highlights a new transcriptional pathway underlying human intellectual function.
Ever since we developed mitochondria to generate ATP, eukaryotes required intimate mito-nuclear communication. In addition, since reactive oxygen species are a cost of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, this demands safeguards as protection from these harmful byproducts. Here we identified a c
ritical transcriptional integrator which eukaryotes share to orchestrate both nutrient-induced mitochondrial energy metabolism and stress-induced nuclear responses, thereby maintaining carbon-nitrogen balance, and preserving life span and reproductive capacity. Inhibition of nutrient-induced expression of CAPER arrests nutrient-dependent cell proliferation and ATP generation and induces autophagy-mediated vacuolization. Nutrient signaling to CAPER induces mitochondrial transcription and glucose-dependent mitochondrial respiration via coactivation of nuclear receptor ERR-alpha-mediated Gabpa transcription. CAPER is also a coactivator for NF-kappaB that directly regulates c-Myc to coordinate nuclear transcriptome responses to mitochondrial stress. Finally, CAPER is responsible for anaplerotic carbon flux into TCA cycles from glycolysis, amino acids and fatty acids in order to maintain cellular energy metabolism to counter mitochondrial stress. Collectively, our studies reveal CAPER as an evolutionarily conserved 'master' regulatory mechanism by which eukaryotic cells control vital homeostasis for both ATP and antioxidants via CAPER-dependent coordinated control of nuclear and mitochondrial transcriptomic programs and their metabolisms. These CAPER dependent bioenergetic programs are highly conserved, as we demonstrated that they are essential to preserving life span and reproductive capacity in human cells-and even in C. elegans.
He X, etal., G3 (Bethesda). 2015 Jul 16;5(9):1909-18. doi: 10.1534/g3.115.020248.
To achieve proper spatiotemporal control of gene expression, transcription factors cooperatively assemble onto specific DNA sequences. The ETS domain protein monomer of GABPalpha and the B-ZIP domain protein dimer of CREB1 cooperatively bind DNA only when the ETS ((C)/GCGGAA GT: ) and CRE ( GT: GACG
TCAC) motifs overlap precisely, producing the ETS<-->CRE motif ((C)/GCGGAA GT: GACGTCAC). We designed a Protein Binding Microarray (PBM) with 60-bp DNAs containing four identical sectors, each with 177,440 features that explore the cooperative interactions between GABPalpha and CREB1 upon binding the ETS<-->CRE motif. The DNA sequences include all 15-mers of the form (C)/GCGGA--CG-, the ETS<-->CRE motif, and all single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and occurrences in the human and mouse genomes. CREB1 enhanced GABPalpha binding to the canonical ETS<-->CRE motif CCGGAAGT two-fold, and up to 23-fold for several SNPs at the beginning and end of the ETS motif, which is suggestive of two separate and distinct allosteric mechanisms of cooperative binding. We show that the ETS-CRE array data can be used to identify regions likely cooperatively bound by GABPalpha and CREB1 in vivo, and demonstrate their ability to identify human genetic variants that might inhibit cooperative binding.
