Enriched G4 Forming Repeats in the Human Genome Are Associated With Robust Well-Coordinated Transcription and Reduced Cancer Transcriptome Variation

Authors

Ruth B De-Paula
Albino Bacolla
Aleem Syed
John A Tainer

Publication Date

11-1-2024

Journal

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Abstract

Non-B DNA G-quadruplex (G4) structures with guanine (G) runs of 2 to 4 repeats can trigger opposing experimental transcriptional impacts. Here, we used bioinformatic algorithms to comprehensively assess correlations of steady-state RNA transcript levels with all putative G4 sequence (pG4) locations genome-wide in three mammalian genomes and in normal and tumor human tissues. The human pG4-containing gene set displays higher expression levels than the set without pG4, supporting and extending some prior observations. pG4 enrichment at transcription start sites (TSSs) in human, but not chimpanzee and mouse genomes, suggests possible positive selection pressure for pG4 at human TSS, potentially driving genome rewiring and gene expression divergence between human and chimpanzee. Comprehensive bioinformatic analyses revealed lower pG4-containing gene set variability in humans and among different pG4 genes in tumors. As G4 stabilizers are under therapeutic consideration for cancer and pathogens, such distinctions between human normal and tumor G4s along with other species merit attention. Furthermore, in germline and cancer sequences, the most mutagenic pG4 mapped to regions promoting alternative DNA structures. Overall findings establish high pG4 at TSS as a human genome attribute statistically associated with robust well-coordinated transcription and reduced cancer transcriptome variation with implications for biology, model organisms, and medicine.

Keywords

Humans, Neoplasms, Genome, Human, G-Quadruplexes, Animals, Transcriptome, Transcription, Genetic, Mice, Pan troglodytes, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Transcription Initiation Site

DOI

10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107822

PMID

39341500

PMCID

PMC11532954

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-26-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes