GSE108986 PKR senses nuclear and mitochondrial signals by interacting with endogenous double-stranded RNAs

Contributors : Yoosik Kim ; Joha Park ; V N KimSeries Type : Expression profiling by high throughput sequencingOrganism : Homo sapiensProtein kinase RNA-activated (PKR) induces immune response by sensing viral double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). However, growing evidence suggests that PKR can also be activated by endogenously expressed dsRNAs. Here, we capture these dsRNAs by formaldehyde-mediated crosslinking and immunoprecipitation-sequencing and find that various noncoding RNAs interact with PKR. Surprisingly, the majority of the PKR-interacting RNA repertoire is occupied by mitochondrial RNAs (mtRNAs). MtRNAs can form intermolecular dsRNAs owing to bidirectional transcription of mitochondrial genome and regulate PKR and eIF2 α phosphorylation to control cell signaling and translation. Moreover, PKR activation by mtRNAs is counteracted by PKR phosphatases, disruption of which causes apoptosis from PKR overactivation even in uninfected cells. Our work unveils dynamic regulation of PKR even without infection and establish es PKR as a sensor for nuclear and mitochondrial signaling cues in regulating cellular metabolism.

Source: GEO: Gene Expression Omnibus - July 18, 2018 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Tags: Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing Homo sapiens Source Type: research