Pandey, Rajesh ; Bhattacharya, Aniket ; Bhardwaj, Vivek ; Jha, Vineet ; Mandal, Amit K. ; Mukerji, Mitali (2016) Alu-miRNA interactions modulate transcript isoform diversity in stress response and reveal signatures of positive selection Scientific Reports, 6 . Article ID 32348, 18 pages. ISSN 2045-2322
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Official URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep32348
Related URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep32348
Abstract
Primate-specific Alus harbor different regulatory features, including miRNA targets. In this study, we provide evidence for miRNA-mediated modulation of transcript isoform levels during heat-shock response through exaptation of Alu-miRNA sites in mature mRNA. We performed genome-wide expression profiling coupled with functional validation of miRNA target sites within exonized Alus, and analyzed conservation of these targets across primates. We observed that two miRNAs (miR-15a-3p and miR-302d-3p) elevated in stress response, target RAD1, GTSE1, NR2C1, FKBP9 and UBE2I exclusively within Alu. These genes map onto the p53 regulatory network. Ectopic overexpression of miR-15a-3p downregulates GTSE1 and RAD1 at the protein level and enhances cell survival. This Alu-mediated fine-tuning seems to be unique to humans as evident from the absence of orthologous sites in other primate lineages. We further analyzed signatures of selection on Alu-miRNA targets in the genome, using 1000 Genomes Phase-I data. We found that 198 out of 3177 Alu-exonized genes exhibit signatures of selection within Alu-miRNA sites, with 60 of them containing SNPs supported by multiple evidences (global-FST > 0.3, pair-wise-FST > 0.5, Fay-Wu’s H<−20, iHS> 2.0, high ΔDAF) and implicated in p53 network. We propose that by affecting multiple genes, Alu-miRNA interactions have the potential to facilitate population-level adaptations in response to environmental challenges.
Item Type: | Article |
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Source: | Copyright of this article belongs to Nature Publishing Group. |
ID Code: | 103655 |
Deposited On: | 13 Mar 2017 09:32 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jul 2017 12:34 |
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