Skip to main content

High-Resolution Gene Expression Profiling of RNA Synthesis, Processing, and Decay by Metabolic Labeling of Newly Transcribed RNA Using 4-Thiouridine

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Eukaryotic Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Gene Expression Regulation

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1507))

Abstract

Cellular RNA levels are orchestrated by highly regulated processes involving RNA synthesis (transcription), processing (e.g., splicing, polyadenylation, transport), and degradation. Profiling these changes provides valuable information on the regulation of gene expression. Total cellular RNA is a poor template for revealing short-term changes in gene expression, alterations in RNA decay rates, and the kinetics of RNA processing as well as the differentiation thereof. Here, we describe the metabolic labeling and purification of newly transcribed RNA with 4-thiouridine, by which these limitations are overcome.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Lee TI, Young RA (2013) Transcriptional regulation and its misregulation in disease. Cell 152(6):1237–1251. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2013.02.014

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Licatalosi DD, Darnell RB (2010) RNA processing and its regulation: global insights into biological networks. Nat Rev Genet 11(1):75–87. doi:10.1038/nrg2673

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Mendell JT, Sharifi NA, Meyers JL, Martinez-Murillo F, Dietz HC (2004) Nonsense surveillance regulates expression of diverse classes of mammalian transcripts and mutes genomic noise. Nat Genet 36(10):1073–1078. doi:10.1038/ng1429, ng1429 [pii]

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Tay Y, Rinn J, Pandolfi PP (2014) The multilayered complexity of ceRNA crosstalk and competition. Nature 505(7483):344–352. doi:10.1038/nature12986

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Wang Z, Gerstein M, Snyder M (2009) RNA-Seq: a revolutionary tool for transcriptomics. Nat Rev Genet 10(1):57–63

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Yang E, van Nimwegen E, Zavolan M, Rajewsky N, Schroeder M, Magnasco M, Darnell JE Jr (2003) Decay rates of human mRNAs: correlation with functional characteristics and sequence attributes. Genome Res 13(8):1863–1872

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Dolken L, Ruzsics Z, Radle B, Friedel CC, Zimmer R, Mages J, Hoffmann R, Dickinson P, Forster T, Ghazal P, Koszinowski UH (2008) High-resolution gene expression profiling for simultaneous kinetic parameter analysis of RNA synthesis and decay. RNA 14(9):1959–1972

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Melvin WT, Milne HB, Slater AA, Allen HJ, Keir HM (1978) Incorporation of 6-thioguanosine and 4-thiouridine into RNA. Application to isolation of newly synthesised RNA by affinity chromatography. Eur J Biochem 92(2):373–379

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Cleary MD, Meiering CD, Jan E, Guymon R, Boothroyd JC (2005) Biosynthetic labeling of RNA with uracil phosphoribosyltransferase allows cell-specific microarray analysis of mRNA synthesis and decay. Nat Biotechnol 23(2):232–237

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Kenzelmann M, Maertens S, Hergenhahn M, Kueffer S, Hotz-Wagenblatt A, Li L, Wang S, Ittrich C, Lemberger T, Arribas R, Jonnakuty S, Hollstein MC, Schmid W, Gretz N, Grone HJ, Schutz G (2007) Microarray analysis of newly synthesized RNA in cells and animals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104(15):6164–6169

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Miller C, Schwalb B, Maier K, Schulz D, Dumcke S, Zacher B, Mayer A, Sydow J, Marcinowski L, Dolken L, Martin DE, Tresch A, Cramer P (2011) Dynamic transcriptome analysis measures rates of mRNA synthesis and decay in yeast. Mol Syst Biol 7:458

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Schwanhausser B, Busse D, Li N, Dittmar G, Schuchhardt J, Wolf J, Chen W, Selbach M (2011) Global quantification of mammalian gene expression control. Nature 473(7347):337–342. doi:10.1038/nature10098, nature10098 [pii]

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Rabani M, Levin JZ, Fan L, Adiconis X, Raychowdhury R, Garber M, Gnirke A, Nusbaum C, Hacohen N, Friedman N, Amit I, Regev A (2011) Metabolic labeling of RNA uncovers principles of RNA production and degradation dynamics in mammalian cells. Nat Biotechnol 29(5):436–442. doi:10.1038/nbt.1861

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Marcinowski L, Lidschreiber M, Windhager L, Rieder M, Bosse JB, Radle B, Bonfert T, Gyory I, de Graaf M, Prazeres da Costa O, Rosenstiel P, Friedel CC, Zimmer R, Ruzsics Z, Dolken L (2012) Real-time transcriptional profiling of cellular and viral gene expression during lytic cytomegalovirus infection. PLoS Pathog 8(9), e1002908. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002908, PPATHOGENS-D-12-00468 [pii]

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Ingolia NT, Ghaemmaghami S, Newman JR, Weissman JS (2009) Genome-wide analysis in vivo of translation with nucleotide resolution using ribosome profiling. Science 324(5924):218–223

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Rutkowski AJ, Erhard F, L’Hernault A, Bonfert T, Schilhabel M, Crump C, Rosenstiel P, Efstathiou S, Zimmer R, Friedel CC, Dolken L (2015) Widespread disruption of host transcription termination in HSV-1 infection. Nat Commun 6:7126. doi:10.1038/ncomms8126

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Friedel CC, Dolken L, Ruzsics Z, Koszinowski UH, Zimmer R (2009) Conserved principles of mammalian transcriptional regulation revealed by RNA half-life. Nucleic Acids Res 37(17), e115. doi:10.1093/nar/gkp542, gkp542 [pii]

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Dolken L, Malterer G, Erhard F, Kothe S, Friedel CC, Suffert G, Marcinowski L, Motsch N, Barth S, Beitzinger M, Lieber D, Bailer SM, Hoffmann R, Ruzsics Z, Kremmer E, Pfeffer S, Zimmer R, Koszinowski UH, Grasser F, Meister G, Haas J (2010) Systematic analysis of viral and cellular microRNA targets in cells latently infected with human gamma-herpesviruses by RISC immunoprecipitation assay. Cell Host Microbe 7(4):324–334

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Windhager L, Bonfert T, Burger K, Ruzsics Z, Krebs S, Kaufmann S, Malterer G, L’Hernault A, Schilhabel M, Schreiber S, Rosenstiel P, Zimmer R, Eick D, Friedel CC, Dolken L (2012) Ultrashort and progressive 4sU-tagging reveals key characteristics of RNA processing at nucleotide resolution. Genome Res 22(10):2031–2042. doi:10.1101/gr.131847.111

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Miller MR, Robinson KJ, Cleary MD, Doe CQ (2009) TU-tagging: cell type-specific RNA isolation from intact complex tissues. Nat Methods 6(6):439–441

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Duffy EE, Rutenberg-Schoenberg M, Stark CD, Kitchen RR, Gerstein MB, Simon MD (2015) Tracking distinct RNA populations using efficient and reversible covalent chemistry. Mol Cell 59(5):858–866. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2015.07.023

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Chomczynski P, Mackey K (1995) Short technical reports. Modification of the TRI reagent procedure for isolation of RNA from polysaccharide- and proteoglycan-rich sources. Biotechniques 19(6):942–945

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by MRC fellowship grant G1002523 and NHSBT grant WP11-05 to L.D.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lars Dölken .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Rutkowski, A.J., Dölken, L. (2017). High-Resolution Gene Expression Profiling of RNA Synthesis, Processing, and Decay by Metabolic Labeling of Newly Transcribed RNA Using 4-Thiouridine. In: Wajapeyee, N., Gupta, R. (eds) Eukaryotic Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Gene Expression Regulation. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1507. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6518-2_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6518-2_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6516-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6518-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics