skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Promoter analysis reveals globally differential regulation of human long non-coding RNA and protein-coding genes

Journal Article · · PLoS ONE
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5]
  1. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudi Arabia)
  2. Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI (United States). Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics.
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Department of Genome Dynamics, Life Sciences Division.
  4. Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI (United States). Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics and Dept. of Neurology.
  5. Universita` degli Studi di Milano (Italy)

Transcriptional regulation of protein-coding genes is increasingly well-understood on a global scale, yet no comparable information exists for long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes, which were recently recognized to be as numerous as protein-coding genes in mammalian genomes. We performed a genome-wide comparative analysis of the promoters of human lncRNA and protein-coding genes, finding global differences in specific genetic and epigenetic features relevant to transcriptional regulation. These two groups of genes are hence subject to separate transcriptional regulatory programs, including distinct transcription factor (TF) proteins that significantly favor lncRNA, rather than coding-gene, promoters. We report a specific signature of promoter-proximal transcriptional regulation of lncRNA genes, including several distinct transcription factor binding sites (TFBS). Experimental DNase I hypersensitive site profiles are consistent with active configurations of these lncRNA TFBS sets in diverse human cell types. TFBS ChIP-seq datasets confirm the binding events that we predicted using computational approaches for a subset of factors. For several TFs known to be directly regulated by lncRNAs, we find that their putative TFBSs are enriched at lncRNA promoters, suggesting that the TFs and the lncRNAs may participate in a bidirectional feedback loop regulatory network. Accordingly, cells may be able to modulate lncRNA expression levels independently of mRNA levels via distinct regulatory pathways. Our results also raise the possibility that, given the historical reliance on protein-coding gene catalogs to define the chromatin states of active promoters, a revision of these chromatin signature profiles to incorporate expressed lncRNA genes is warranted in the future.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Institute of Health
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1212466
Journal Information:
PLoS ONE, Vol. 9, Issue 10; ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 61 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (77)

Tsix, a gene antisense to Xist at the X-inactivation centre journal April 1999
Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome journal February 2001
The GENCODE v7 catalog of human long noncoding RNAs: Analysis of their gene structure, evolution, and expression journal September 2012
Genome-wide computational identification and manual annotation of human long noncoding RNA genes journal June 2010
An integrated encyclopedia of DNA elements in the human genome journal September 2012
Long non-coding antisense RNA controls Uchl1 translation through an embedded SINEB2 repeat journal October 2012
lncRNAs transactivate STAU1-mediated mRNA decay by duplexing with 3′ UTRs via Alu elements journal February 2011
Polycomb group protein-mediated repression of transcription journal June 2010
Balanced gene regulation by an embryonic brain ncRNA is critical for adult hippocampal GABA circuitry journal July 2009
Noncoding RNA Gas5 Is a Growth Arrest- and Starvation-Associated Repressor of the Glucocorticoid Receptor journal February 2010
lncRNA-dependent mechanisms of androgen-receptor-regulated gene activation programs journal August 2013
Conserved long noncoding RNAs transcriptionally regulated by Oct4 and Nanog modulate pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells journal December 2009
The Oct4 and Nanog transcription network regulates pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells journal March 2006
Regulation of neural macroRNAs by the transcriptional repressor REST journal November 2008
Activity-Dependent Human Brain Coding/Noncoding Gene Regulatory Networks journal September 2012
CPC: assess the protein-coding potential of transcripts using sequence features and support vector machine journal July 2007
Screening non-coding RNAs in transcriptomes from neglected species using PORTRAIT: case study of the pathogenic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis journal August 2009
Distinguishing Protein-Coding from Non-Coding RNAs through Support Vector Machines journal January 2006
iSeeRNA: identification of long intergenic non-coding RNA transcripts from transcriptome sequencing data journal February 2013
Ribosome Profiling Provides Evidence that Large Noncoding RNAs Do Not Encode Proteins journal July 2013
Long noncoding RNAs are rarely translated in two human cell lines journal September 2012
Long non-coding RNA identification over mouse brain development by integrative modeling of chromatin and genomic features journal September 2013
EMdeCODE: a novel algorithm capable of reading words of epigenetic code to predict enhancers and retroviral integration sites and to identify H3R2me1 as a distinctive mark of coding versus non-coding genes journal December 2012
A genome-wide analysis of CpG dinucleotides in the human genome distinguishes two distinct classes of promoters journal January 2006
The human genome-wide distribution of DNA palindromes journal March 2007
CpG islands - ‘A rough guide’ journal April 2009
Intergenic, gene terminal, and intragenic CpG islands in the human genome journal January 2010
Orphan CpG Islands Identify Numerous Conserved Promoters in the Mammalian Genome journal September 2010
Abundant novel transcriptional units and unconventional gene pairs on human chromosome 22 journal December 2005
HOCOMOCO: a comprehensive collection of human transcription factor binding sites models journal November 2012
Activating gene expression in mammalian cells with promoter-targeted duplex RNAs journal January 2007
Involvement of argonaute proteins in gene silencing and activation by RNAs complementary to a non-coding transcript at the progesterone receptor promoter journal July 2010
Combined Analysis of MicroRNome and 3′-UTRome Reveals a Species-specific Regulation of Progesterone Receptor Expression in the Endometrium of Rhesus Monkey journal February 2012
Nkx2.2 antisense RNA overexpression enhanced oligodendrocytic differentiation journal August 2008
Long non-coding RNA HOTAIR reprograms chromatin state to promote cancer metastasis journal April 2010
HOX antisense lincRNA HOXA-AS2 is an apoptosis repressor in all Trans retinoic acid treated NB4 promyelocytic leukemia cells : lincRNA HOXA-AS2 suppresses apoptosis in NB4 cells journal August 2013
DNMT1-interacting RNAs block gene-specific DNA methylation journal October 2013
The evolution of lncRNA repertoires and expression patterns in tetrapods journal January 2014
A census of human transcription factors: function, expression and evolution journal April 2009
Highly scalable ab initio genomic motif identification
  • Marchand, Benoît; Bajic, Vladimir B.; Kaushik, Dinesh K.
  • Proceedings of 2011 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis on - SC '11 https://doi.org/10.1145/2063384.2063459
conference January 2011
Genome-wide analysis of ETS-family DNA-binding in vitro and in vivo journal June 2010
Mutations and Binding Sites of Human Transcription Factors journal January 2012
Annotation of functional variation in personal genomes using RegulomeDB journal September 2012
Mapping and analysis of chromatin state dynamics in nine human cell types journal March 2011
Long Noncoding RNAs with Enhancer-like Function in Human Cells journal October 2010
A Bivalent Chromatin Structure Marks Key Developmental Genes in Embryonic Stem Cells journal April 2006
A double take on bivalent promoters journal June 2013
HIstome--a relational knowledgebase of human histone proteins and histone modifying enzymes journal December 2011
Histone H3 Lysine 9 Methylation and HP1γ Are Associated with Transcription Elongation through Mammalian Chromatin journal August 2005
Transcription-coupled deposition of histone modifications during MHC class II gene activation journal May 2007
An epigenetic road map for histone lysine methylation journal June 2003
Molecular basis of histone H3K36me3 recognition by the PWWP domain of Brpf1 journal April 2010
Combinatorial patterns of histone acetylations and methylations in the human genome journal June 2008
Human genes with CpG island promoters have a distinct transcription-associated chromatin organization journal January 2012
Modeling gene expression using chromatin features in various cellular contexts journal January 2012
A unification of mosaic structures in the human genome journal October 2003
The accessible chromatin landscape of the human genome journal September 2012
Sequence features and chromatin structure around the genomic regions bound by 119 human transcription factors journal September 2012
Complex Loci in Human and Mouse Genomes journal January 2006
Profiling of human CD4+ T-cell subsets identifies the TH2-specific noncoding RNA GATA3-AS1 journal October 2013
Systematic Localization of Common Disease-Associated Variation in Regulatory DNA journal September 2012
Integrative annotation of human large intergenic noncoding RNAs reveals global properties and specific subclasses journal September 2011
X-chromosome inactivation: a hypothesis linking ontogeny and phylogeny journal April 2005
GENCODE: The reference human genome annotation for The ENCODE Project journal September 2012
GenBank journal January 1997
Integrative analysis of the human cis -antisense gene pairs, miRNAs and their transcription regulation patterns journal November 2009
Genome-wide analysis of mammalian promoter architecture and evolution journal April 2006
Regional differences in gene expression and promoter usage in aged human brains journal July 2013
Transcriptional Regulatory Elements in the Human Genome journal September 2006
Mapping and quantifying mammalian transcriptomes by RNA-Seq journal May 2008
Transcriptome genetics using second generation sequencing in a Caucasian population journal March 2010
MacroRNA underdogs in a microRNA world: Evolutionary, regulatory, and biomedical significance of mammalian long non-protein-coding RNA journal September 2010
Searching Chromatin for Stem Cell Identity journal April 2006
LncRNAs have a say in protein translation journal December 2012
Histone H3 Lysine 9 Methylation and HP1γ Are Associated with Transcription Elongation through Mammalian Chromatin. journal November 2005
Sense-antisense gene pairs: sequence, transcription, and structure are not conserved between human and mouse journal January 2013
Long and noncoding RNAs (lnc-RNAs) determine androgen receptor dependent gene expression in prostate cancer growth in vivo journal January 2014

Cited By (33)

History, Discovery, and Classification of lncRNAs book January 2017
High-throughput annotation of full-length long noncoding RNAs with capture long-read sequencing journal November 2017
Long non-coding antisense RNA KRT7-AS is activated in gastric cancers and supports cancer cell progression by increasing KRT7 expression journal February 2016
A MAFG-lncRNA axis links systemic nutrient abundance to hepatic glucose metabolism journal January 2020
Computational identification of putative lincRNAs in mouse embryonic stem cell journal October 2016
Prediction of lncRNAs and their interactions with nucleic acids: benchmarking bioinformatics tools journal April 2018
Characterization and identification of long non-coding RNAs based on feature relationship journal January 2019
EpiFactors: a comprehensive database of human epigenetic factors and complexes journal January 2015
Modeling the relationship of epigenetic modifications to transcription factor binding journal March 2015
HOCOMOCO: towards a complete collection of transcription factor binding models for human and mouse via large-scale ChIP-Seq analysis journal November 2017
Long Non-Coding RNAs: A Novel Paradigm for Toxicology journal November 2016
lncRNAs in development and disease: from functions to mechanisms journal July 2017
Chromatin environment, transcriptional regulation, and splicing distinguish lincRNAs and mRNAs journal December 2016
ASSA: Fast identification of statistically significant interactions between long RNAs journal February 2018
Long Noncoding RNAs as Biomarkers in Cancer journal January 2017
The bright side of dark matter: lncRNAs in cancer journal August 2016
Detection of long non–coding RNA homology, a comparative study on alignment and alignment–free metrics journal November 2018
Coordinate regulation of long non-coding RNAs and protein-coding genes in germ-free mice journal November 2018
Preservation of methylated CpG dinucleotides in human CpG islands journal March 2016
Practical Guidance in Genome-Wide RNA:DNA Triple Helix Prediction journal January 2020
Long Non-Coding RNA as the Newest Perspective Biomarkers in Cancer journal June 2019
Induction of a Long Noncoding RNA Transcript, NR_045064, Promotes Defense Gene Transcription and Facilitates Intestinal Epithelial Cell Responses against Cryptosporidium Infection journal November 2018
Chromatin environment, transcriptional regulation, and splicing distinguish lincRNAs and mRNAs journal November 2016
High-throughput annotation of full-length long noncoding RNAs with Capture Long-Read Sequencing journal October 2017
lncRNAs in development and disease: from functions to mechanisms text January 2017
Characterization and identification of long non-coding RNAs based on feature relationship journal May 2018
High-throughput annotation of full-length long noncoding RNAs with capture long-read sequencing. text January 2017
A Comprehensive Characterization of the Function of LincRNAs in Transcriptional Regulation Through Long-Range Chromatin Interactions journal November 2016
HOCOMOCO: expansion and enhancement of the collection of transcription factor binding sites models journal November 2015
Discriminative identification of transcriptional responses of promoters and enhancers after stimulus journal October 2016
Cancer subtypes classification using long non-coding RNA journal June 2016
Single nucleotide polymorphisms in ZNRD1-AS1 increase cancer risk in an Asian population journal December 2016
Analysis of Genomic Sequence Motifs for Deciphering Transcription Factor Binding and Transcriptional Regulation in Eukaryotic Cells journal February 2016