Heat Shock in C. elegans Induces Downstream of Gene Transcription and Accumulation of Double-stranded RNA

• Main Author: Melnick, Marko
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2018
• Subjects: Bioinformatics; Biology
• ISBN: 9780438442962; 0438442962

Heat shock of Caenorhabditis elegans leads to the formation of nuclear double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) foci, detectable with a dsRNA-specific monoclonal antibody. These foci significantly overlap with nuclear HSF-1 granules. To investigate the molecular mechanism(s) underlying dsRNA foci formation, we used RNA-seq to globally characterize total RNA and immunoprecipitated dsRNA from control and heat-shocked worms. A subset of transcripts enriched in the dsRNA pool by heat shock overlaps with dsRNA transcripts enriched by deletion of tdp-1, which encodes the C. elegans ortholog of TDP-43. Interestingly, transcripts involved in translation are over-represented in this overlapping dsRNA transcript set. To validate these observations, we focused on eif-3b, a broadly expressed elongation factor for which high levels of antisense transcripts are observed after heat shock.