Ten percent of conserved miRNA-binding sites in vertebrates are misaligned

MiRNAs are small endogenous noncoding RNAs that inhibit protein expression at the translation level via complementary binding to a specific site in the mRNA. Most of the functional binding sites (miRNA nucleotides 2–7) located within the 3' untranslated region are conserved. These sites are predicted using the methods of comparative genomics, primarily, multiple sequence alignment. However, multiple sequence alignments are prone to accumulating errors due to strong divergence of species. Moreover, in the course of evolution, binding sites can migrate along the sequence. The aim of this work was to estimate the portion of conserved miRNA-binding sites that cannot be predicted using the existing tools because of these phenomena. The concept of L-conserved sites is introduced: a site is termed L-conserved if it is present in each sequence in the alignment within a frame of length L. We observed a significant increase in the number of additionally detected conserved sites without loss of sensitivity. The effect of species divergence on this increase was also evaluated.     

Characterization of a Labile Naloxone Binding Site (λ Site) in Rat Brain

A high-affinity binding site selective for naloxone and other 4,5-epoxymorphinans (lambda site) has been previously described in rat brain. Following homogenization of freshly dissected brain, the lambda sites convert from a high-affinity to a low-affinity state. When measured with [3H]naloxone, the decay is very rapid at 20 degrees C (t 1/2 less than 2 min), whereas it is progressively slowed at lower temperatures. Proteinase inhibitors, antoxidants, and sulfhydryl group-protecting agents failed to prevent this conversion. Kinetic measurements of mu and lambda binding at varying temperatures demonstrated that the decrease in lambda binding does not coincide with the concurrent increase in mu binding and that the loss of high-affinity lambda binding at 20 degrees C can be partially restored when the temperature is lowered to 0 degrees C. The low-affinity state of the lambda site is rather stable in the Tris buffer homogenates and is susceptible to digestion by a protease. The (-)-isomer of WIN 44,441, a benzomorphan drug, binds to lambda sites with moderate affinity (dissociation constant, KD = 63 nM), whereas the (+)-isomer does not (KD greater than 10,000 nM), thus establishing stereoselectivity of the binding process. Neither the high-affinity nor the low-affinity state of lambda binding is significantly affected by the presence of 100 mM sodium chloride or 50 microM Gpp(NH)p, (a GTP analog), which is in contrast to the dramatic effect of these agents on the established opioid receptor system. Naltrexone, naloxone, nalorphine, and morphine (in this order of decreasing potency) bind to the lambda site in vivo in intact rat brain over dosage ranges that are commonly employed in pharmacological studies.     

Surveying phylogenetic footprints in large gene clusters: applications to Hox cluster duplications

Evolutionarily conserved non-coding genomic sequences represent a potentially rich source for the discovery of gene regulatory regions. Since these elements are subject to stabilizing selection they evolve much more slowly than adjacent non-functional DNA. These so-called phylogenetic footprints can be detected by comparison of the sequences surrounding orthologous genes in different species. Therefore the loss of phylogenetic footprints as well as the acquisition of conserved non-coding sequences in some lineages, but not in others, can provide evidence for the evolutionary modification of cis-regulatory elements. We introduce here a statistical model of footprint evolution that allows us to estimate the loss of sequence conservation that can be attributed to gene loss and other structural reasons. This approach to studying the pattern of cis-regulatory element evolution, however, requires the comparison of relatively long sequences from many species. We have therefore developed an efficient software tool for the identification of corresponding footprints in long sequences from multiple species. We apply this novel method to the published sequences of HoxA clusters of shark, human, and the duplicated zebrafish and Takifugu clusters as well as the published HoxB cluster sequences. We find that there is a massive loss of sequence conservation in the intergenic region of the HoxA clusters, consistent with the finding in [Chiu et al., PNAS 99 (2002) 5492]. The loss of conservation after cluster duplication is more extensive than expected from structural reasons. This suggests that binding site turnover and/or adaptive modification may also contribute to the loss of sequence conservation.     

Purified mu EBP-E binds to immunoglobulin enhancers and promoters.

We describe the purification to apparent homogeneity of the murine immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) enhancer-binding protein mu EBP-E from murine plasmacytoma cells by ion exchange and affinity chromatography. Glycerol gradient sedimentation, UV cross-linking, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis confirm that mu EBP-E is a 45-kilodalton molecular mass protein. Orthophenanthroline-copper chemical nuclease footprinting with purified protein has identified high-affinity binding sites for mu EBP-E within the IgH enhancer at the previously identified site E and at sites within IgH promoters and in the kappa light-chain enhancer. Equilibrium binding studies indicate that the dissociation constants for mu EBP-E binding to site E within the enhancer and to a binding site within the V1 heavy-chain promoter are quite low, about 2 x 10(-11) M. Comparison of four mu EBP-E recognition sequences detects only limited sequence similarity among binding sites.     

Slow molecular clocks in Old World monkeys,apes, and humans

Two longstanding issues on the molecular clock hypothesis are studied in this article. First, is there a global molecular clock in mammals? Although many authors have observed unequal rates of nucleotide substitution among mammalian lineages, some authors have proposed a global clock for all eutherians, i.e., a single global rate of 2.2 x 10(-9) substitutions per nucleotide site per year. We reexamine this issue using noncoding, nonrepetitive DNA from Old World monkeys (OWMs), chimpanzee, and human. First, using the minimal date of 6 MYA for the human-chimpanzee divergence and more than 2.5 million base pairs of genomic sequences from human and chimpanzee, we estimate a maximal rate of 0.99 x 10(-9) for noncoding, nonrepetitive genomic regions for these two species. This estimate is less than half of the proposed global rate and much smaller than the commonly used rate (3.5 x 10(-9)) for eutherians. Further, using a minimal date of 23 MYA for the human-OWM divergence, we estimate a maximal rate of 1.5 x 10(-9) for both introns and fourfold degenerate sites in humans and OWMs. In addition, with the New World monkey (NWM) lineage as an outgroup, we estimate that the rate of substitution in introns is 30% higher in the OWM lineage than in the human lineage. Clearly, there is no global molecular clock in eutherians. Second, although many studies have indicated considerable variation in the mutation rate among regions of the mammalian genome, a recent study proposed a uniform rate. Using new and existing intron sequence data from higher primates, we find significant rate variation among genomic regions and a positive correlation between the rate of substitution and the GC content, refuting the claim of a uniform rate.