title: Effects of RNAs on chromatin accessibility and gene expression suggest RNA-mediated activation.
abstract: The study of the interaction between RNA and DNA sequences in activating genes has important significance for understanding the mechanisms of RNA-mediated activation. Here, we used in vitro chromatin reconstitution approach to observe whether RNAs increase DNase I digestion, plasmid transfection to observe whether RNAs promote gene expression, and bioinformatics analysis to predict the binding ability of RNAs to centromere DNA (constitutive heterochromatin). Synthetic RNAs (23nt) that were complementary to mouse albumin gene and total liver RNA increased DNase I digestion sensitivity of mouse albumin gene, suggesting that RNAs can increase chromatin accessibility. Transcribed sense-antisense tandem Alu elements activated an enhanced green fluorescent protein reporter gene after stable transfection. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the binding strength of RNA population to centromere DNAs is significantly lower than that of their flanking sequences, which suggests that the centromere is not easily affected by RNAs produced from other transcribed regions and may be the reason why centromeres consist of constitutive heterochromatin. The results in this paper illustrate that RNAs complementary to DNA sequences play roles in activating genes. Since RNA is mainly produced from the cell's own DNA, the work presented in this paper suggests that RNAs transcribed from DNA create feedback that activates DNA transcription.
authors: Department of Genetics, Hebei Medical University, Hebei Key Lab of Laboratory Animal, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. Electronic address: wangxiufang@live.cn.
authors: Xiufang
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Genetics, Hebei Medical University, Hebei Key Lab of Laboratory Animal, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China; Clinical Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Tangshan, 21 North Jianshe Road, Tangshan, Hebei Province, China. Electronic address: 58591981@qq.com.
authors: Zhihong
authors: Z
authors: Ma
authors: Department of Genetics, Hebei Medical University, Hebei Key Lab of Laboratory Animal, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China; Clinical Laboratory, Hebei Chest Hospital, 372 Shengli North Street, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. Electronic address: 61682288@qq.com.
authors: Xianglong
authors: X
authors: Kong
authors: Department of Genetics, Hebei Medical University, Hebei Key Lab of Laboratory Animal, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. Electronic address: zhanjun_lv@hotmail.com.
authors: Zhanjun
authors: Z
authors: Lv
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002843:Chromatin / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D003850:Deoxyribonuclease I / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics*; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins; D002843:Chromatin; D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012313:RNA; D003850:Deoxyribonuclease I
keywords: Centromere; Chromatin accessibility; Chromatin reconstitution; RNA-mediated activation