Rapid Genome-wide Recruitment of RNA Polymerase II Drives Transcription, Splicing, and Translation Events during T Cell Responses

Davari, Kathrin; Lichti, Johannes; Gallus, Christian; Greulich, Franziska; Uhlenhaut, N. Henriette ; Heinig, Matthias; Friedel, Caroline C. and Glasmacher, Elke (2017): Rapid Genome-wide Recruitment of RNA Polymerase II Drives Transcription, Splicing, and Translation Events during T Cell Responses. In: Cell Reports, Vol. 19, No. 3: pp. 643-654

Abstract

Activation of immune cells results in rapid functional changes, but how such fast changes are accomplished remains enigmatic. By combining time courses of 4sU-seq, RNA-seq, ribosome profiling (RP), and RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) ChIP-seq during T cell activation, we illustrate genomewide temporal dynamics for similar to 10,000 genes. This approach reveals not only immediate-early and posttranscriptionally regulated genes but also coupled changes in transcription and translation for > 90% of genes. Recruitment, rather than release of paused RNA Pol II, primarily mediates transcriptional changes. This coincides with a genome-wide temporary slowdown in cotranscriptional splicing, even for polyadenylated mRNAs that are localized at the chromatin. Subsequent splicing optimization correlates with increasing Ser-2 phosphorylation of the RNA Pol II carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) and activation of the positive transcription elongation factor (pTEFb). Thus, rapid de novo recruitment of RNA Pol II dictates the course of events during T cell activation, particularly transcription, splicing, and consequently translation.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics > Computer Science
• Subjects: 000 Computer science, information and general works > 004 Data processing computer science
• ISSN: 2211-1247
• Language: English