Retrotransposon LINE1 is the only autonomous mobile genetic element still active in humans. It accounts for up to 17% of the human genome and helps mobilize nonautonomous retrotransposons. LINE1 element contains open reading frames for 3 proteins, namely ORF1p, ORF2p and ORF0p. ORF1p is an RNA-binding protein that acts as a nucleic acid chaperone, ORF2p is an endonuclease and a reverse transcriptase, whereas the function of ORF0p is not yet fully understood. Increased levels of LINE1 retrotransposition have been associated with several diseases, with a growing number of research linking LINE1 to certain neurodegenerative diseases. A comprehensive understanding of LINE1 retrotransposition is essential for the development of potential therapeutics. Therefore, it is important to discover new proteins and RNA molecules that interact with LINE1 components (especially ORF1p) and modulate retrotransposition.
In the first part of this master's thesis we demonstrated by retrotransposition assay and flow cytometry that RNY4 and vtRNA1-1 have a statistically significant inhibitory effect on LINE1 retrotransposition. Both RNA molecules exhibited the same inhibitory effect in HeLa and HEK293T cell lines, decreasing the LINE1 retrotransposition by approximately 25%. In the second part of this master's thesis we analyzed the mass spectrometry results of biotin identification of ORF1p interaction partners. Using immunodetection after western blotting, we detected the presence of 5 potential ORF1p interaction partners (IGF2BP1, TDP-43, ELAVL1, FUS, hnRNPK) in ORF1p-BioID2- HA eluates from pull-down assays. Thus, these 5 proteins are true ORF1p interactors. IGF2BP1 and ELAVL1 colocalized with transiently expressed ORF1p, mostly at the edges of ring-shaped ORF1p formations. These formations could represent an initial phase of granulophagy or endosomes. Gene ontology term enrichment analysis revealed that potential ORF1p interaction partners are localized in stress granules, cytoplasm, nucleus, and nucleoli, just like ORF1p. Most of them are RNA-binding proteins involved in various steps of RNA metabolism. Our results contribute to a better understanding of LINE1 and the factors regulating retrotransposition.
|