Protein Abundance Control by Non-coding Antisense Transcription.
Stable unannotated transcripts (SUTs), some of which overlap protein-coding genes in antisense direction, are a class of non-coding RNAs. While case studies have reported important regulatory roles for several of such RNAs, their general impact on protein abundance regulation of the overlapping gene is not known. To test this, we employed seamless gene manipulation to repress antisense SUTs of 162 yeast genes by using a unidirectional transcriptional terminator and a GFP tag. We found that the mere presence of antisense SUTs was not sufficient to influence protein abundance, that observed effects of antisense SUTs correlated with sense transcript start site overlap, and that the effects were generally weak and led to reduced protein levels. Antisense regulated genes showed increased H3K4 di- and trimethylation and had slightly lower than expected noise levels. Our results suggest that the functionality of antisense RNAs has gene and condition-specific components.
Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Florian
F
Huber
Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Daria
D
Bunina
Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Ishaan
I
Gupta
Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Anton
A
Khmelinskii
Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Matthias
M
Meurer
Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Patrick
P
Theer
Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Stanford Genome Technology Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA; Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Lars M
LM
Steinmetz
Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: m.knop@zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de.
Michael
M
Knop
D001483:Base Sequence; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D015723:Gene Library; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D008239:Lysine / Q000378:metabolism; D008745:Methylation; D008853:Microscopy; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012331:RNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D024363:Transcription Initiation Site; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D006657:Histones; D011506:Proteins; D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012331:RNA, Fungal; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D008239:Lysine