Person: Jambhekar, Ashwini
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Jambhekar
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Ashwini
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Jambhekar, Ashwini
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Publication m6A RNA methylation regulates the UV-induced DNA damage response(2017) Xiang, Yang; Laurent, Benoit; Hsu, Chih-Hung; Nachtergaele, Sigrid; Lu, Zhike; Sheng, Wanqiang; Xu, Chuanyun; Chen, Hao; Ouyang, Jian; Wang, Siqing; Ling, Dominic; Hsu, Pang-Hung; Zou, Lee; Jambhekar, Ashwini; He, Chuan; Shi, YangCell proliferation and survival require the faithful maintenance and propagation of genetic information, which are threatened by the ubiquitous sources of DNA damage present intracellularly and in the external environment. A system of DNA repair, called the DNA damage response (DDR), detects and repairs damaged DNA and prevents cell division until the repair is complete. Here we report that methylation at the 6 position of adenosine (m6A) in RNA is rapidly (within 2 minutes) and transiently induced at DNA damage sites in response to UV. This modification occurs on numerous poly(A)+ transcripts and is regulated by the methyltransferase METTL31 and the demethylase FTO2. In the absence of METTL3 catalytic activity, cells showed delayed repair of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine (CPD) adducts and elevated sensitivity to UV, demonstrating the importance of m6A in the UV-responsive DDR. Multiple DNA polymerases are involved in the UV response, some of which resynthesize DNA after the lesion has been excised by the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway3, while others participate in trans-lesion synthesis (TLS) to allow replication past damaged lesions in S phase4. DNA polymerase κ (Pol κ), which has been implicated in both NER and TLS5,6, required the catalytic activity of METTL3 for immediate localization to UV-induced DNA damage sites. Importantly, Pol κ over-expression qualitatively suppressed the CPD removal defect associated with METTL3 loss. Taken together, we have uncovered a novel function for RNA m6A modification in the UV-induced DDR, and our findings collectively support a model whereby m6A RNA serves as a beacon for the selective, rapid recruitment of Pol κ to damage sites to facilitate repair and cell survival.Publication Combining Different mRNA Capture Methods to Analyze the Transcriptome: Analysis of the Xenopus laevis Transcriptome(Public Library of Science, 2013) Blower, Michael; Jambhekar, Ashwini; Schwarz, Dianne S.; Toombs, James A.mRNA sequencing (mRNA-seq) is a commonly used technique to survey gene expression from organisms with fully sequenced genomes. Successful mRNA-seq requires purification of mRNA away from the much more abundant ribosomal RNA, which is typically accomplished by oligo-dT selection. However, mRNAs with short poly-A tails are captured poorly by oligo-dT based methods. We demonstrate that combining mRNA capture via oligo-dT with mRNA capture by the 5’ 7-methyl guanosine cap provides a more complete view of the transcriptome and can be used to assay changes in mRNA poly-A tail length on a genome-wide scale. We also show that using mRNA-seq reads from both capture methods as input for de novo assemblers provides a more complete reconstruction of the transcriptome than either method used alone. We apply these methods of mRNA capture and de novo assembly to the transcriptome of Xenopus laevis, a well-studied frog that currently lacks a finished sequenced genome, to discover transcript sequences for thousands of mRNAs that are currently absent from public databases. The methods we describe here will be broadly applicable to many organisms and will provide insight into the transcriptomes of organisms with sequenced and unsequenced genomes.Publication RNA Stimulates Aurora B Kinase Activity during Mitosis(Public Library of Science, 2014) Jambhekar, Ashwini; Emerman, Amy Beth; Schweidenback, Caterina T. H.; Blower, MichaelAccurate chromosome segregation is essential for cell viability. The mitotic spindle is crucial for chromosome segregation, but much remains unknown about factors that regulate spindle assembly. Recent work implicates RNA in promoting proper spindle assembly independently of mRNA translation; however, the mechanism by which RNA performs this function is currently unknown. Here, we show that RNA regulates both the localization and catalytic activity of the mitotic kinase, Aurora-B (AurB), which is present in a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex with many mRNAs. Interestingly, AurB kinase activity is reduced in Xenopus egg extracts treated with RNase, and its activity is stimulated in vitro by RNA binding. Spindle assembly defects following RNase-treatment are partially rescued by inhibiting MCAK, a microtubule depolymerase that is inactivated by AurB-dependent phosphorylation. These findings implicate AurB as an important RNA-dependent spindle assembly factor, and demonstrate a translation-independent role for RNA in stimulating AurB.Publication The MAP kinase pathway coordinates crossover designation with disassembly of synaptonemal complex proteins during meiosis(eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2016) Nadarajan, Saravanapriah; Mohideen, Firaz; Tzur, Yonatan B; Ferrandiz, Nuria; Crawley, Oliver; Montoya, Alex; Faull, Peter; Snijders, Ambrosius P; Cutillas, Pedro R; Jambhekar, Ashwini; Blower, Michael; Martinez-Perez, Enrique; Harper, J Wade; Colaiacovo, MonicaAsymmetric disassembly of the synaptonemal complex (SC) is crucial for proper meiotic chromosome segregation. However, the signaling mechanisms that directly regulate this process are poorly understood. Here we show that the mammalian Rho GEF homolog, ECT-2, functions through the conserved RAS/ERK MAP kinase signaling pathway in the C. elegans germline to regulate the disassembly of SC proteins. We find that SYP-2, a SC central region component, is a potential target for MPK-1-mediated phosphorylation and that constitutively phosphorylated SYP-2 impairs the disassembly of SC proteins from chromosomal domains referred to as the long arms of the bivalents. Inactivation of MAP kinase at late pachytene is critical for timely disassembly of the SC proteins from the long arms, and is dependent on the crossover (CO) promoting factors ZHP-3/RNF212/Zip3 and COSA-1/CNTD1. We propose that the conserved MAP kinase pathway coordinates CO designation with the disassembly of SC proteins to ensure accurate chromosome segregation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12039.001Publication Genetic interactions between a phospholipase A2 and the Rim101 pathway components in S. cerevisiae reveal a role for this pathway in response to changes in membrane composition and shape(Springer-Verlag, 2010) Mattiazzi, M.; Jambhekar, Ashwini; Kaferle, P.; DeRisi, J. L.; Križaj, I.; Petrovič, U.Modulating composition and shape of biological membranes is an emerging mode of regulation of cellular processes. We investigated the global effects that such perturbations have on a model eukaryotic cell. Phospholipases A[sub]2 (PLA[sub]2s), enzymes that cleave one fatty acid molecule from membrane phospholipids, exert their biological activities through affecting both membrane composition and shape. We have conducted a genome-wide analysis of cellular effects of a PLA[sub]2 in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system. We demonstrate functional genetic and biochemical interactions between PLA[sub]2 activity and the Rim101 signaling pathway in S. cerevisiae. Our results suggest that the composition and/or the shape of the endosomal membrane affect the Rim101 pathway. We describe a genetically and functionally related network, consisting of components of the Rim101 pathway and the prefoldin, retromer and SWR1 complexes, and predict its functional relation to PLA[sub]2 activity in a model eukaryotic cell. This study provides a list of the players involved in the global response to changes in membrane composition and shape in a model eukaryotic cell, and further studies are needed to understand the precise molecular mechanisms connecting them.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00438-010-0533-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.