SHAPE reveals transcript-wide interactions, complex structural domains, and protein interactions across the Xist lncRNA in living cells.
The 18-kb Xist long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is essential for X-chromosome inactivation during female eutherian mammalian development. Global structural architecture, cell-induced conformational changes, and protein-RNA interactions within Xist are poorly understood. We used selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension and mutational profiling (SHAPE-MaP) to examine these features of Xist at single-nucleotide resolution both in living cells and ex vivo. The Xist RNA forms complex well-defined secondary structure domains and the cellular environment strongly modulates the RNA structure, via motifs spanning one-half of all Xist nucleotides. The Xist RNA structure modulates protein interactions in cells via multiple mechanisms. For example, repeat-containing elements adopt accessible and dynamic structures that function as landing pads for protein cofactors. Structured RNA motifs create interaction domains for specific proteins and also sequester other motifs, such that only a subset of potential binding sites forms stable interactions. This work creates a broad quantitative framework for understanding structure-function interrelationships for Xist and other lncRNAs in cells.
['Smola|Matthew J|MJ|0000-0002-2123-9681', 'Christy|Thomas W|TW|', 'Inoue|Kaoru|K|', 'Nicholson|Cindo O|CO|', 'Friedersdorf|Matthew|M|', 'Keene|Jack D|JD|', 'Lee|David M|DM|', 'Calabrese|J Mauro|JM|', 'Weeks|Kevin M|KM|']
D000215:Acylation D000818:Animals D005260:Female D051379:Mice D009154:Mutation D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins D014960:X Chromosome D049951:X Chromosome Inactivation
SHAPE-MaP RNA structure RNA–protein interaction X-inactivation