Publication detail

Quadruplex DNA in long terminal repeats in maize LTR retrotransposons inhibits the expression of a reporter gene in yeast

TOKAN, V. PUTEROVÁ, J. LEXA, M. KEJNOVSKÝ, E.

Original Title

Quadruplex DNA in long terminal repeats in maize LTR retrotransposons inhibits the expression of a reporter gene in yeast

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Many studies have shown that guanine-rich DNA sequences form quadruplex structures in vitro but there is scarce evidence of guanine quadruplexes (G4) in vivo. The majority of potential quadruplex-forming sequences (PQS) are located in transposable elements (TEs), especially close to promoters within long terminal repeats of plant LTR retrotransposons.  In order to test the potential effect of G4s on retrotransposon expression, we cloned the long terminal repeats of selected maize LTR retrotransposons upstream of the lacZ reporter gene and measured its transcription and translation in yeast. We found that G4s had an inhibitory effect on translation in vivo since "mutants" (where guanines were replaced by adenines in PQS) showed higher expression levels than wild-types. In parallel, we confirmed by circular dichroism measurements that the selected sequences can indeed adopt G4 conformation in vitro. Analysis of RNA-Seq of polyA RNA in maize seedlings grown in the presence of a G4-stabilizing ligand (NMM) showed both inhibitory as well as stimulatory effects on the transcription of LTR retrotransposons. Our results demonstrate that quadruplex DNA located within long terminal repeats of LTR retrotransposons can be formed in vivo and that it plays a regulatory role in the LTR retrotransposon life-cycle, thus also affecting genome dynamics.

Keywords

G4 motif, Quadruplex DNA, Transposable elements, Maize LTR retrotransposons, Circular dichroism, NMM ligand

Authors

TOKAN, V.; PUTEROVÁ, J.; LEXA, M.; KEJNOVSKÝ, E.

Released

6. 3. 2018

ISBN

1471-2164

Periodical

BMC GENOMICS

Year of study

19

Number

1

State

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Pages from

1

Pages to

11

Pages count

11

URL

https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-018-4563-7

BibTex

@article{BUT147191,
  author="Viktor {Tokan} and Janka {Puterová} and Matej {Lexa} and Eduard {Kejnovský}",
  title="Quadruplex DNA in long terminal repeats in maize LTR retrotransposons inhibits the expression of a reporter gene in yeast",
  journal="BMC GENOMICS",
  year="2018",
  volume="19",
  number="1",
  pages="1--11",
  doi="10.1186/s12864-018-4563-7",
  issn="1471-2164",
  url="https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-018-4563-7"
}