Walser Marcel, Pellaux Rene, Meyer Andreas, Bechtold Matthias, Vanderschuren Herve, Reinhardt Richard, Magyar Joseph, Panke Sven, Held Martin.
Nucleic Acids Research, Advance Access | doi:10.1093/nar/gkp160 | PMID:19282448
We introduce a technology for the rapid identification and sequencing of conserved DNA elements employing a novel suspension array based on nanoliter (nl)-reactors made from alginate. The reactors have a volume of 35 nl and serve as reaction compartments during monoseptic growth of microbial library clones, colony lysis, thermocycling and screening for sequence motifs via semi-quantitative fluorescence analyses. nl-Reactors were kept in suspension during all high-throughput steps which allowed performing the protocol in a highly space-effective fashion and at negligible expenses of consumables and reagents. As a first application, 11 high-quality microsatellites for polymorphism studies in cassava were isolated and sequenced out of a library of 20 000 clones in 2 days. The technology is widely scalable and we envision that throughputs for nl-reactor based screenings can be increased up to 100 000 and more samples per day thereby efficiently complementing protocols based on established deep-sequencing technologies.
Iuliana Ionita-Laza, Christoph Lange, Nan M. Laird.
PNAS 106, 5008-5013 (2009) | doi:10.1073/pnas.0807815106 | PMID:19276111
The different genetic variation discovery projects (The SNP Consortium, the International HapMap Project, the 1000 Genomes Project, etc.) aim to identify as much as possible of the underlying genetic variation in various human populations. The question we address in this article is how many new variants are yet to be found. This is an instance of the species problem in ecology, where the goal is to estimate the number of species in a closed population. We use a parametric beta-binomial model that allows us to calculate the expected number of new variants with a desired minimum frequency to be discovered in a new dataset of individuals of a specified size. The method can also be used to predict the number of individuals necessary to sequence in order to capture all (or a fraction of) the variation with a specified minimum frequency. We apply the method to three datasets: the ENCODE dataset, the SeattleSNPs dataset, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences SNPs dataset. Consistent with previous descriptions, our results show that the African population is the most diverse in terms of the number of variants expected to exist, the Asian populations the least diverse, with the European population in-between. In addition, our results show a clear distinction between the Chinese and the Japanese populations, with the Japanese population being the less diverse. To find all common variants (frequency at least 1%) the number of individuals that need to be sequenced is small (∼350) and does not differ much among the different populations; our data show that, subject to sequence accuracy, the 1000 Genomes Project is likely to find most of these common variants and a high proportion of the rarer ones (frequency between 0.1 and 1%). The data reveal a rule of diminishing returns: a small number of individuals (∼150) is sufficient to identify 80% of variants with a frequency of at least 0.1%, while a much larger number (> 3,000 individuals) is necessary to find all of those variants. Finally, our results also show a much higher diversity in environmental response genes compared with the average genome, especially in African populations.
Daniel A. Gilchrist, David C. Fargo, Karen Adelman.
Methods, Article in Press | doi:10.1016/j.ymeth.2009.02.024 | PMID:19275938
Transcription is a sophisticated multi-step process in which RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcribes a DNA template into RNA in concert with a broad array of transcription initiation, elongation, capping, termination, and histone modifying factors. Recent global analyses of Pol II distribution have indicated that many genes are regulated during the elongation phase, shedding light on a previously underappreciated mechanism for controlling gene expression. Understanding how various factors regulate transcription elongation in living cells has been greatly aided by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) studies, which can provide spatial and temporal resolution of protein–DNA binding events. The coupling of ChIP with DNA microarray and high-throughput sequencing technologies (ChIP-chip and ChIP-seq) has significantly increased the scope of ChIP studies and genome-wide maps of Pol II or elongation factor binding sites can now be readily produced. However, while ChIP-chip/ChIP-seq data allow for high-resolution localization of protein–DNA binding sites, they are not sufficient to dissect protein function. Here we describe techniques for coupling ChIP-chip/ChIP-seq with genetic, chemical, and experimental manipulation to obtain mechanistic insight from genome-wide protein–DNA binding studies. We have employed these techniques to discern immature promoter-proximal Pol II from productively elongating Pol II, and infer a critical role for the transition between initiation and full elongation competence in regulating development and gene induction in response to environmental signals.
Nicholas Hurt, Hongyun Wang, Mark Akeson, Kate R. Lieberman.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 3772–3778 (2009) | DOI:10.1021/ja809663f | PMID:19275265
Nanoscale pores are a tool for single molecule analysis of DNA or RNA processing enzymes. Monitoring catalytic activity in real time using this technique requires that these enzymes retain function while held atop a nanopore in an applied electric field. Using an α-hemolysin nanopore, we measured the dwell time for complexes of DNA with the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (KF) as a function of the concentration of deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) substrate. We analyzed these dwell time measurements in the framework of a two-state model for captured complexes (DNA－KF binary and DNA－KF－dNTP ternary states). Average nanopore dwell time increased without saturating as a function of correct dNTP concentration across 4 orders of magnitude. This arises from two factors that are proportional to dNTP concentration: (1) The fraction of complexes that are in the ternary state when initially captured predominantly affects dwell time at low dNTP concentrations. (2) The rate of binding and rebinding of dNTP to captured complexes affects dwell time at higher dNTP concentrations. Thus there are two regimes that display a linear relationship between average dwell time and dNTP concentration. The transition from one linear regime to the other occurs near the equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) for dNTP binding to KF－DNA complexes in solution. We conclude from the combination of titration experiments and modeling that DNA－KF complexes captured atop the nanopore retain iterative, sequence-specific dNTP binding, as required for catalysis and fidelity in DNA synthesis.
Zhen Wang, James Tollervey, Michael Briese, Daniel Turner, Jernej Ule.
Methods, Article in Press | doi:10.1016/j.ymeth.2009.02.021 | PMID:19272451
UV cross-linking and immunoprecipitation assay (CLIP) can identify direct interaction sites between RNA-binding proteins and RNAs in vivo, and has been used to study several proteins in tissues and cell cultures. The main challenge of the method is to specifically amplify the low amount of isolated RNA. The current protocol is optimised for efficient RNA purification and ligation of barcoded RNA adapters. High-throughput sequencing of the multiplexed cDNA library allows for a comprehensive coverage of the target sequences.
