title: Genome-wide identification and characterization of transcription start sites and promoters in the tunicate Ciona intestinalis.
abstract: The tunicate Ciona intestinalis, an invertebrate chordate, has recently emerged as a powerful model organism for gene regulation analysis. However, few studies have been conducted to identify and characterize its transcription start sites (TSSs) and promoters at the genome-wide level. Here, using TSS-seq, we identified TSSs at the genome-wide scale and characterized promoters in C. intestinalis. Specifically, we identified TSS clusters (TSCs), high-density regions of TSS-seq tags, each of which appears to originate from an identical promoter. TSCs were found not only at known TSSs but also in other regions, suggesting the existence of many unknown transcription units in the genome. We also identified candidate promoters of 79 ribosomal protein (RP) genes, each of which had the major TSS in a polypyrimidine tract and showed a sharp TSS distribution like human RP gene promoters. Ciona RP gene promoters, however, did not appear to have typical TATA boxes, unlike human RP gene promoters. In Ciona non-RP promoters, two pyrimidine-purine dinucleotides, CA and TA, were frequently used as TSSs. Despite the absence of CpG islands, Ciona TATA-less promoters showed low expression specificity like CpG-associated human TATA-less promoters. By using TSS-seq, we also predicted trans-spliced gene TSSs and found that their downstream regions had higher G+T content than those of non-trans-spliced gene TSSs. Furthermore, we identified many putative alternative promoters, some of which were regulated in a tissue-specific manner. Our results provide valuable information about TSSs and promoter characteristics in C. intestinalis and will be helpful in future analysis of transcriptional regulation in chordates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8568, Japan;
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yokomori
authors.affiliation: Institute for Integrative Neurobiology, Graduate School of Natural Science, Konan University, Kobe 658-8501, Japan;
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimai
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life Science, University of Hyogo, Kamigori, Hyogo 678-1297, Japan;
authors.forename: Koki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishitsuji
authors.affiliation: Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8568, Japan;
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Institute for Integrative Neurobiology, Graduate School of Natural Science, Konan University, Kobe 658-8501, Japan; Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Konan University, Kobe 658-8501, Japan;
authors.forename: Takehiro G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Kusakabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8568, Japan; Institute for Integrative Neurobiology, Graduate School of Natural Science, Konan University, Kobe 658-8501, Japan; Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenta
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D005810:Multigene Family; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D020040:Trans-Splicing; D024363:Transcription Initiation Site