A novel RNA-mediated mechanism causing down-regulation of insulating promoter interactions in human embryonic stem cells

Liu, Yingjuan, Williams, Simon G, Jones, Hayden R, Keavney, Bernard D and Choy, Mun-Kit ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3998-0774 (2021) A novel RNA-mediated mechanism causing down-regulation of insulating promoter interactions in human embryonic stem cells. Scientific Reports, 11 (1). 23233. ISSN 2045-2322

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02373-1

Abstract

The genome-wide promoter interactome is primarily maintained and regulated by architectural proteins such as CTCF and cohesin. However, some studies suggest a role for non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in this process. We aimed to characterise the regulatory role of RNA-mediated promoter interactions in the control of gene expression. We integrated genome-wide datasets of RNA-chromatin and promoter-genome interactions in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to identify putative RNA-mediated promoter interactions. We discovered that CTCF sites were enriched in RNA-PIRs (promoter interacting regions co-localising with RNA-chromatin interaction sites) and genes interacting with RNA-PIRs containing CTCF sites showed higher expression levels. One of the long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) expressed in hESCs, Syntaxin 18-Antisense 1 (STX18-AS1), appeared to be involved in an insulating promoter interaction with the neighbouring gene, MSX1. By knocking down STX18-AS1, the MSX1 promoter-PIR interaction was intensified and the target gene (MSX1) expression was down-regulated. Conversely, reduced MSX1 promoter-PIR interactions, resulting from CRISPR-Cas9 deletion of the PIR, increased the expression of MSX1. We conclude that STX18-AS1 RNA antagonised local CTCF-mediated insulating promoter interactions to augment gene expression. Such down-regulation of the insulating promoter interactions by this novel mechanism may explain the higher expression of genes interacting with RNA-PIRs linked to CTCF sites.

Item Type:	Article (Article)
Peer-reviewed:	Yes
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2023 14:14
Publisher:	Nature Portfolio
Additional Information:	This is an open access article which originally appeared in Scientific Reports
Divisions:	Faculties > Science and Engineering
Subject terms:	Chromatin, Humans, RNA, Antisense, Gene Expression Regulation, Insulator Elements, Promoter Regions, Genetic, RNA, Long Noncoding, Human Embryonic Stem Cells, CCCTC-Binding Factor, CCCTC-Binding Factor, Chromatin, Gene Expression Regulation, Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Humans, Insulator Elements, Promoter Regions, Genetic, RNA, Antisense, RNA, Long Noncoding
Report number:	23233
URI:	https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/632788
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02373-1
ISSN	2045-2322
e-ISSN	2045-2322

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