Biology subjects

Aggarwal, A. K.

Publications and source records attributed to Aggarwal, A. K..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Recruitment of CTCF to the SIRT1 promoter after Oxidative Stress mediates Cardioprotective Transcription

Because most DNA-binding transcription factors (dbTFs), including the architectural regulator CTCF, bind RNA and exhibit di-/multimerization, a central conundrum is whether these distinct properties are regulated post-transcriptionally to modulate transcriptional programs. Here, investigating stress-dependent activation of SIRT1, encoding an evolutionarily-conserved protein deacetylase, we show that induced phosphorylation of CTCF acts as a rheostat to permit CTCF occupancy of low-affinity promoter DNA sites to precisely the levels necessary. This CTCF recruitment to the SIRT1 promoter is eliciting a cardioprotective cardiomyocyte transcriptional activation program and provides resilience against the stress of the beating heart in vivo. Mice harboring a mutation in the conserved low-affinity CTCF promoter binding site exhibit an altered, cardiomyocyte-specific transcriptional program and a systolic heart failure phenotype. This transcriptional role for CTCF reveals that a covalent dbTF modification regulating signal-dependent transcription serves as a previously unsuspected component of the oxidative stress response.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Nucleic Acid Mediated Activation of a Short Prokaryotic Argonaute Immune System

The continual pressure of invading DNA has led bacteria to develop numerous immune systems, including a short prokaryotic Argonaute (pAgo) TIR-APAZ system (SPARTA) that is activated by invading DNA to unleash its TIR domain for NAD(P)+ hydrolysis. To gain a molecular understanding of this activation process, we resolved a crystal structure of SPARTA heterodimer in the absence of guide RNA/target ssDNA at 2.66[A] resolution and a cryo-EM structure of the SPARTA oligomer (tetramer of heterodimers) bound to guide RNA/target ssDNA at nominal 3.15-3.35[A] resolution. The crystal structure provides a high-resolution view of the TIR-APAZ protein and the MID-PIWI domains of short pAgo - wherein, the APAZ domain emerges as equivalent to the N, L1 and L2 regions of long pAgos and the MID domain has a unique insertion (insert57). A comparison to cryo-EM structure reveals regions of the PIWI (loop10-9) and APAZ (helix N) domains that reconfigure to relieve auto-inhibition to permit nucleic acid binding and transition to an active oligomer. Oligomerization is accompanied by the nucleation of the TIR domains in a parallel-strands arrangement for catalysis. Together, the structures provide a visualization of SPARTA before and after RNA/ssDNA binding and reveal the basis of SPARTAs active assembly leading to NAD(P)+ degradation and abortive infection.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2023

Multivalent interactions of the disordered regions of XLF and XRCC4 foster robust cellular NHEJ and drive the formation of ligation-boosting condensates in vitro

In mammalian cells, DNA double-strand breaks are predominantly repaired by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). During repair, the Ku70/80 heterodimer (Ku), XRCC4 in complex with DNA Ligase 4 (X4L4), and XLF form a flexible scaffold that holds the broken DNA ends together. Insights into the architectural organization of the NHEJ scaffold and its regulation by the DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) have recently been obtained by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy analysis. However, several regions, especially the C-terminal regions (CTRs) of the XRCC4 and XLF scaffolding proteins, have largely remained unresolved in experimental structures, which hampers the understanding of their functions. Here, we used magnetic resonance techniques and biochemical assays to comprehensively characterize the interactions and dynamics of the XRCC4 and XLF CTRs at atomic resolution. We show that the CTRs of XRCC4 and XLF are intrinsically disordered and form a network of multivalent heterotypic and homotypic interactions that promotes robust cellular NHEJ activity. Importantly, we demonstrate that the multivalent interactions of these CTRs led to the formation of XLF and X4L4 condensates in vitro which can recruit relevant effectors and critically stimulate DNA end ligation. Our work highlights the role of disordered regions in the mechanism and dynamics of NHEJ and lays the groundwork for the investigation of NHEJ protein disorder and its associated condensates inside cells with implications in cancer biology, immunology and the development of genome editing strategies.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2019

Mechanism of action of rigosertib does not involve tubulin binding

Rigosertib is a novel benzyl styryl sulfone that inhibits the growth of a wide variety of human tumor cells in vitro and in vivo and is currently in Phase III clinical trials. We recently provided structural and biochemical evidence to show that rigosertib acts as a RAS-mimetic by binding to Ras Binding Domains (RBDs) of the RAF and PI3K family proteins and disrupts their binding to RAS. In a recent study, Jost et al (2017) attributed the mechanism of action of rigosertib to microtubule-binding. In these studies, rigosertib was obtained from a commercial vendor. We have been unable to replicate the reported results with clinical grade rigosertib, and hence compared the purity of clinical grade and commercially sourced rigosertib. We find that the commercially sourced rigosertib contains approximately 5% ON01500, a potent inhibitor of tubulin polymerization. Clinical grade rigosertib, which is free of this impurity, does not exhibit tubulin binding activity. In vivo, cell lines that express mutant {beta}-tubulin (TUBBL240F) were also reported to be resistant to the effects of rigosertib. However, our studies showed that both wild-type and TUBBL240F-expressing cells failed to proliferate in the presence of rigosertib at concentrations that are lethal to wild-type cells. Morphologically, we find that rigosertib, at lethal concentrations, induced a senescence-like phenotype in the small percentage of both wild-type and TUBBL240F-expressing cells that survive in the presence of rigosertib. Our results suggest that TUBBL240F expressing cells are more prone to undergo senescence in the presence of rigosertib as well as BI2536, an unrelated ATP-competitive pan-PLK inhibitor. The appearance of these senescent cells could be incorrectly scored as resistant cells in flow cytometric assays using short term cultures.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Epigenomic landscape of the human pathogen Clostridium difficile

Clostridioides difficile is a leading cause of health care-associated infections. Although significant progress has been made in the understanding of its genome, the epigenome of C. difficile and its functional impact has not been systematically explored. Here, we performed the first comprehensive DNA methylome analysis of C. difficile using 36 human isolates and observed great epigenomic diversity. We discovered an orphan DNA methyltransferase with a well-defined specificity whose corresponding gene is highly conserved across our dataset and in all ~300 global C. difficile genomes examined. Inactivation of the methyltransferase gene negatively impacted sporulation, a key step in C. difficile disease transmission, consistently supported by multi-omics data, genetic experiments, and a mouse colonization model. Further experimental and transcriptomic analysis also suggested that epigenetic regulation is associated with cell length, biofilm formation, and host colonization. These findings open up a new epigenetic dimension to characterize medically relevant biological processes in this critical pathogen. This work also provides a set of methods for comparative epigenomics and integrative analysis, which we expect to be broadly applicable to bacterial epigenomics studies.

genomics↗