The nature of mutations induced by replication­transcription collisions.

The DNA replication and transcription machineries share a common DNA template and thus can collide with each other co-directionally or head-on. Replication­transcription collisions can cause replication fork arrest, premature transcription termination, DNA breaks, and recombination intermediates threatening genome integrity. Collisions may also trigger mutations, which are major contributors to genetic disease and evolution. However, the nature and mechanisms of collision-induced mutagenesis remain poorly understood. Here we reveal the genetic consequences of replication­transcription collisions in actively dividing bacteria to be two classes of mutations: duplications/deletions and base substitutions in promoters. Both signatures are highly deleterious but are distinct from the previously well-characterized base substitutions in the coding sequence. Duplications/deletions are probably caused by replication stalling events that are triggered by collisions; their distribution patterns are consistent with where the fork first encounters a transcription complex upon entering a transcription unit. Promoter substitutions result mostly from head-on collisions and frequently occur at a nucleotide that is conserved in promoters recognized by the major σ factor in bacteria. This substitution is generated via adenine deamination on the template strand in the promoter open complex, as a consequence of head-on replication perturbing transcription initiation. We conclude that replication­transcription collisions induce distinct mutation signatures by antagonizing replication and transcription, not only in coding sequences but also in gene regulatory elements.

Histone deacetylases play a major role in the transcriptional regulation of the Plasmodium falciparum life cycle.

The apparent paucity of molecular factors of transcriptional control in the genomes of Plasmodium parasites raises many questions about the mechanisms of life cycle regulation in these malaria parasites. Epigenetic regulation has been suggested to play a major role in the stage specific gene expression during the Plasmodium life cycle. To address some of these questions, we analyzed global transcriptional responses of Plasmodium falciparum to a potent inhibitor of histone deacetylase activities (HDAC). The inhibitor apicidin induced profound transcriptional changes in multiple stages of the P. falciparum intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) that were characterized by rapid activation and repression of a large percentage of the genome. A major component of this response was induction of genes that are otherwise suppressed during that particular stage of the IDC or specific for the exo-erythrocytic stages. In the schizont stage, apicidin induced hyperacetylation of histone lysine residues H3K9, H4K8 and the tetra-acetyl H4 (H4Ac4) and demethylation of H3K4me3. Interestingly, we observed overlapping patterns of chromosomal distributions between H4K8Ac and H3K4me3 and between H3K9Ac and H4Ac4. There was a significant but partial association between the apicidin-induced gene expression and histone modifications, which included a number of stage specific transcription factors. Taken together, inhibition of HDAC activities leads to dramatic de-regulation of the IDC transcriptional cascade, which is a result of both disruption of histone modifications and up-regulation of stage specific transcription factors. These findings suggest an important role of histone modification and chromatin remodeling in transcriptional regulation of the Plasmodium life cycle. This also emphasizes the potential of P. falciparum HDACs as drug targets for malaria chemotherapy.