Molecular Biology and Genetics / Moleküler Biyoloji ve Genetik
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/9
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Research Project tRNA'lardan kökenlenen küçük RNA fragmanlarının etkileştiği komplekslerin tanımlanması ve gelişim üzerine etkilerinin araştırılması(TÜBİTAK - Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu, 2014) Akgül, Bünyamin; Nalbant Aldanmaz, AytenBir dizi genom projesinin tamamlanması ve sekanslama teknolojisinin gelişmesine paralel olarak ökaryotik bir hücrede bulunan transkriptomu algılayışımız oldukça değişmiştir. 15-26 nükleotit uzunluğunda küçük RNA’ları sekanslamaya imkan veren bu teknoloji sayesinde daha önce “çöp DNA” olarak ileri sürülen genomik bölgelerden endojen siRNA’ların üretildiği tespit edilmiştir. Detaylı analizler, ökaryotik hücrelerde yapısal olarak bilinen mRNA, rRNA, snoRNA ve tRNA’lardan da küçük RNA’ların üretildiğini göstermiştir. Drozofila embriyonik gelişiminin model olarak kullanıldığı bu projede drozofila embriyo ve S2 hücre hattı sitozolik ekstraktları translasyonal statülerine göre fraksiyonlara ayrılarak tRNA’lardan kökenlenen fragmanların etkileştikleri komplekslerin tanımlanması amaçlanmıştır. Aşırı ifade ve in situ hibridizasyon yöntemleri kullanılarak ilgili tRNA fragmanlarının hücre içi konumları belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, embriyolara mikroenjeksiyon ve mutant sineklerde fragman analizleri yapılarak tRNA fragmanlarının gelişim üzerine etkileri incelenmiştir.Article Citation - WoS: 11Citation - Scopus: 14Categorization of Species Based on Their Micrornas Employing Sequence Motifs, Information-Theoretic Sequence Feature Extraction, and K-Mers(Springer Verlag, 2017) Yousef, Malik; Nigatu, Dawit; Levy, Dalit; Allmer, Jens; Henkel, WernerBackground: Diseases like cancer can manifest themselves through changes in protein abundance, and microRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in the modulation of protein quantity. MicroRNAs are used throughout all kingdoms and have been shown to be exploited by viruses to modulate their host environment. Since the experimental detection of miRNAs is difficult, computational methods have been developed. Many such tools employ machine learning for pre-miRNA detection, and many features for miRNA parameterization have been proposed. To train machine learning models, negative data is of importance yet hard to come by; therefore, we recently started to employ pre-miRNAs from one species as positive data versus another species’ pre-miRNAs as negative examples based on sequence motifs and k-mers. Here, we introduce the additional usage of information-theoretic (IT) features. Results: Pre-miRNAs from one species were used as positive and another species’ pre-miRNAs as negative training data for machine learning. The categorization capability of IT and k-mer features was investigated. Both feature sets and their combinations yielded a very high accuracy, which is as good as the previously suggested sequence motif and k-mer based method. However, for obtaining a high performance, a sufficiently large phylogenetic distance between the species and sufficiently high number of pre-miRNAs in the training set is required. To examine the contribution of the IT and k-mer features, an information gain-based feature ranking was performed. Although the top 3 are IT features, 80% of the top 100 features are k-mers. The comparison of all three individual approaches (motifs, IT, and k-mers) shows that the distinction of species based on their pre-miRNAs k-mers are sufficient. Conclusions: IT sequence feature extraction enables the distinction among species and is less computationally expensive than motif calculations. However, since IT features need larger amounts of data to have enough statistics for producing highly accurate results, future categorization into species can be effectively done using k-mers only. The biological reasoning for this is the existence of a codon bias between species which can, at least, be observed in exonic miRNAs. Future work in this direction will be the ab initio detection of pre-miRNA. In addition, prediction of pre-miRNA from RNA-seq can be done.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 7Master Regulators of Posttranscriptional Gene Expression Are Subject To Regulation(Humana Press, 2014) Hamid, Syed Muhammad; Akgül, BünyaminMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs of 17-25 nt in length that control gene expression posttranscriptionally. As master regulators of posttranscriptional gene expression, miRNAs themselves are subject to tight regulation at multiple steps. The most common mechanisms include miRNA transcription, processing, and localization. Additionally, intricate feedback loops between miRNAs and transcription factors result in unidirectional, reciprocal, or self-directed elegant control mechanisms. In this chapter, we focus on the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms that generate miRNAs whose sequence might be slightly different from the miRNA-coding sequences. Hopefully, this information will be helpful in the discovery of novel miRNAs as well as in the analysis of deep-sequencing data and ab initio prediction of miRNAs. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014.Article Citation - WoS: 156Citation - Scopus: 163Progesterone/Rankl Is a Major Regulatory Axis in the Human Breast(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2013) Tanos, Tamara; Sflomos, George; Echeverria, Pablo C.; Ayyanan, Ayyakkannu; Gutierrez, Maria; Delaloye, Jean-Francois; Raffoul, Wassim; Fiche, Maryse; Dougall, William; Schneider, Pascal; Yalçın Özuysal, Özden; Brisken, CathrinEstrogens and progesterones are major drivers of breast development but also promote carcinogenesis in this organ. Yet, their respective roles and the mechanisms underlying their action in the human breast are unclear. Receptor activator of nuclear factor kB ligand (RANKL) has been identified as a pivotal paracrine mediator of progesterone function in mouse mammary gland development and mammary carcinogenesis. Whether the factor has the same role in humans is of clinical interest because an inhibitor for RANKL, denosumab, is already used for the treatment of bone disease and might benefit breast cancer patients. We show that progesterone receptor (PR) signaling failed to induce RANKL in PR + breast cancer cell lines and in dissociated, cultured breast epithelial cells. In clinical specimens from healthy donors and intact breast tissue microstructures, hormone response was maintained and RANKL expression was under progesterone control, which increased RNA stability. RANKL was sufficient to trigger cell proliferation and was required for progesterone-induced proliferation. The findings were validated in vivo where RANKL protein expression in the breast epithelium correlated with serum progesterone levels and the protein was expressed in a subset of luminal cells that express PR. Thus, important hormonal control mechanisms are conserved across species, making RANKL a potential target in breast cancer treatment and prevention. Copyright 2013 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved.Conference Object Citation - WoS: 6Citation - Scopus: 8Comparison of Four Ab Initio Microrna Prediction Tools(SciTePress, 2013) Saçar, Müşerref Duygu; Allmer, JensMicroRNAs are small RNA sequences of 18-24 nucleotides in length, which serve as templates to drive post transcriptional gene silencing. The canonical microRNA pathway starts with transcription from DNA and is followed by processing by the Microprocessor complex, yielding a hairpin structure. This is then exported into the cytosol where it is processed by Dicer and next incorporated into the RNA induced silencing complex. All of these biogenesis steps add to the overall specificity of miRNA production and effect. Unfortunately, experimental detection of miRNAs is cumbersome and therefore computational tools are necessary. Homology-based miRNA prediction tools are limited by fast miRNA evolution and by the fact that they are template driven. Ab initio miRNA prediction methods have been proposed but they have not been analyzed competitively so that their relative performance is largely unknown. Here we implement the features proposed in four miRNA ab initio studies and evaluate them on two data sets. Using the features described in Bentwich 2008 leads to the highest accuracy but still does not provide enough confidence into the results to warrant experimental validation of all predictions in a larger genome like the human genome. Copyright © 2013 SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications.Conference Object Citation - Scopus: 17Systematic Computational Analysis of Potential Rnai Regulation in Toxoplasma Gondii(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2010) Çakır, Mehmet Volkan; Allmer, JensRNA interference (RNAi) is the mechanism through which RNA interferes with the production of other RNAs in a sequence specific manner. Micro RNA (miRNA) is a type of RNA which is transcribed as pri-miRNAs and processed to premiRNAs in the nucleus. These pre-miRNAs are then exported from the nucleus and processed in the cytoplasm to double stranded RNA with one strand providing target specificity.. Toxoplasma gondii is a parasitic apicomplexan which causes several diseases. T. gondii is a good candidate for computational efforts with its small and publicly available genome files and extensive information about its gene structure. Although the existence of RNA interference in T. gondii is being debated, establishment of its complete potential RNAi regulatory network may be beneficial for further investigations into the topic. ©2009 IEEE.Article Citation - WoS: 10Citation - Scopus: 14Garlic Accelerates Red Blood Cell Turnover and Splenic Erythropoietic Gene Expression in Mice: Evidence for Erythropoietin-Independent Erythropoiesis(Public Library of Science, 2010) Akgül, Bünyamin; Lin, Kai-Wei; Yang, Hui-Mei Ou; Chen, Yen-Hui; Lu, Tzu-Huan; Chen, Chien-Hsiun; Kikuchi, Tateki; Chen, Yuan-Tsong; Tu, Chen-Pei D.Garlic (Allium sativum) has been valued in many cultures both for its health effects and as a culinary flavor enhancer. Garlic's chemical complexity is widely thought to be the source of its many health benefits, which include, but are not limited to, anti-platelet, procirculatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, neuro-protective, and anti-cancer effects. While a growing body of scientific evidence strongly upholds the herb's broad and potent capacity to influence health, the common mechanisms underlying these diverse effects remain disjointed and relatively poorly understood. We adopted a phenotypedriven approach to investigate the effects of garlic in a mouse model. We examined RBC indices and morphologies, spleen histochemistry, RBC half-lives and gene expression profiles, followed up by qPCR and immunoblot validation. The RBCs of garlic-fed mice register shorter half-lives than the control. But they have normal blood chemistry and RBC indices. Their spleens manifest increased heme oxygenase 1, higher levels of iron and bilirubin, and presumably higher CO, a pleiotropic gasotransmitter. Heat shock genes and those critical for erythropoiesis are elevated in spleens but not in bone marrow. The garlic-fed mice have lower plasma erythropoietin than the controls, however. Chronic exposure to CO of mice on garlic-free diet was sufficient to cause increased RBC indices but again with a lower plasma erythropoietin level than air-treated controls. Furthermore, dietary garlic supplementation and CO treatment showed additive effects on reducing plasma erythropoietin levels in mice. Thus, garlic consumption not only causes increased energy demand from the faster RBC turnover but also increases the production of CO, which in turn stimulates splenic erythropoiesis by an erythropoietinindependent mechanism, thus completing the sequence of feedback regulation for RBC metabolism. Being a pleiotropic gasotransmitter, CO may be a second messenger for garlic's other physiological effects.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 4Pentobarbital-Mediated Regulation of Alternative Polyadenylation in Drosophila Glutathione S-Transferase D21 Mrnas(American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biolog, 2004) Akgül, Bünyamin; Tu, Chen-Pei D.Two nearly identical, gstD21(L) and gstD21(S) mRNAs whose polyadenylation sites differ by 19 nucleotides, are transcribed from the intronless glutathione S-transferase D21 gene in Drosophila. Both mRNAs are intrinsically very labile, but exposure to pentobarbital renders them stabilized beyond what can be attributed to transcriptional activation. We have reconstituted this PB-mediated mRNA stabilization in a transgene (D21L) that contains the full-length gstD21(L) sequence. We have also constructed a similar transgene (D21L-UTR), which matches D21L but excluded the native 3′-UTR. D21L-UTR produces a relatively stable RNA, whose stability is unaffected by pentobarbital. Following pentobarbital treatment of wild-type flies, the levels of gstD21(L) and gstD21(S) mRNAs hold at a relatively constant ratio (L/S) of 1.4 ± 0.2. In transgenic flies, heat shock induction of D21L mRNA changed the L/S ratio to 0.6 ± 0.1, and it was further reduced to 0.3 ± 0.1 as D21L mRNA accumulated in the presence of PB. The ratio returned nearly normal (1.1 ± 0.1) as the D21L mRNA decayed over 12 h after terminating induction. In constrast, when D21L-UTR was present, the ratio remained constant (1.7 ± 0.2) even under various induction conditions and during recovery. Thus, the 3′-UTR, which was the critical difference between these two transgenes, must have some role in determining the L/S ratio. Induced D21L mRNA alone is not sufficient to cause reversible changes in the ratio. Such changes require the presence of pentobarbital. Therefore, pentobarbital may regulate this L/S ratio by affecting the choice of polyadenylation sites for the gstD21 mRNAs through sensing the concentrations of the native 3′-UTR sequences.Article Citation - WoS: 90Citation - Scopus: 93Purification and Characterization of Three Members of the Photolyase/Cryptochrome Family Blue-Light Photoreceptors From Vibrio Cholerae(American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2003) Worthington, Erin N.; Kavaklı, İ. Halil; Berrocal-Tito, Gloria M.; Bondo, Bruce; Sancar, AzizThe sequence of Vibrio cholerae genome revealed three genes belonging to the photolyase/cryptochrome blue-light photoreceptor family. The proteins encoded by the three genes were purified and characterized. All three proteins contain folate and flavin cofactors and have absorption peaks in the range of 350-500 nm. Only one of the three, VcPhr, is a photolyase specific for cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers. The other two are cryptochromes and were designated VcCry1 and VcCry2, respectively. Mutation of phr abolishes photoreactivation of UV-induced killing, whereas mutations in cry1 and cry2 do not affect photorepair activity. VcCry1 exhibits some unique features. Of all cryptochromes characterized to date, it is the only one that contains stoichiometric amounts of both chromophores and retains its flavin cofactor in the two-electron reduced FADH2 form. In addition, VcCry1 exhibits RNA binding activity and copurifies with an RNA of 60-70 nucleotides in length.Article Citation - WoS: 5Citation - Scopus: 5Evidence for a Stabilizer Element in the Untranslated Regions of Drosophila Glutathione S-Transferase D1 Mrna(American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Inc., 2002) Akgül, Bünyamin; Tu, Chen-Pei D.The neighboring genes gstD1 and gstD21 share 70% sequence identity, gstD1 encodes a 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis-(P-chlorophenyl)ethane dehydrochlorinase; gstD21, a ligandin. Both of their mRNAs are inducible by pentobarbital but otherwise behave very differently. Intact gstD21 mRNA is intrinsically labile, but becomes stabilized when separated from its native untranslated region (UTR). In contrast, whereas gstD1 mRNA is very stable in its entirety, without its native UTRs it becomes even more labile than that of gstD21. Decay patterns from four chimeric D1-D21 mRNAs, designed to reveal the individual importance of each molecular region to stability, strongly indicate the presence of destabilizing elements in the coding region ofgstD1 mRNA. Thus, the UTRs of this molecule must contain a dominant stabilizer element that overrides the destabilizing influence of the coding region and confers overall stability to the entire molecule. The suspected presence of such a stabilizer element in gstD1 mRNA extends a concept from mRNA metabolism in yeast and cultured mammalian cells to include a multicellular organism, Drosophila melanogaster. The complementary presence of destabilizing and stabilizer elements on the same mRNA reveals a regulatory mechanism by which an abundant mRNA can be further induced by a chemical stimulus, or otherwise be returned to normal levels during recovery.