BackgroundThousands of intragenic long interspersed element 1 sequences (LINE-1 elements or L1s) reside within genes. These intragenic L1 sequences are conserved and regulate the expression of their host genes. When L1 methylation is decreased, either through chemical induction or in cancer, the intragenic L1 transcription is increased. The resulting L1 mRNAs form RISC complexes with pre-mRNA to degrade the complementary mRNA. In this study, we screened for genes that are involved in intragenic L1 regulation networks.ResultsGenes containing L1s were obtained from L1Base (http://l1base.molgen.mpg.de). The expression profiles of 205 genes in 516 gene knockdown experiments were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo). The expression levels of the genes with and without L1s were compared using Pearson’s chi-squared test. After a permutation based statistical analysis and a multiple hypothesis testing, 73 genes were found to induce significant regulatory changes (upregulation and/or downregulation) in genes with L1s. In detail, 5 genes were found to induce both the upregulation and downregulation of genes with L1s, whereas 27 and 37 genes induced the downregulation and upregulation, respectively, of genes with L1s. These regulations sometimes differed depending on the cell type and the orientation of the intragenic L1s. Moreover, the siRNA-regulating genes containing L1s possess a variety of molecular functions, are responsible for many cellular phenotypes and are associated with a number of diseases.ConclusionsCells use intragenic L1s as cis-regulatory elements within gene bodies to modulate gene expression. There may be several mechanisms by which L1s mediate gene expression. Intragenic L1s may be involved in the regulation of several biological processes, including DNA damage and repair, inflammation, immune function, embryogenesis, cell differentiation, cellular response to external stimuli and hormonal responses. Furthermore, in addition to cancer, intragenic L1s may alter gene expression in a variety of diseases and abnormalities.

DNA methylation of specific genome locations contributes to the distinct functions of multicellular organisms. DNA methylation can be governed by RNA-dependent DNA methylation (RdDM). RdDM is carried out by endogenous small-RNA-guided epigenomic editing complexes that add a methyl group to a precise DNA location. In plants, the Argonaute 4 (AGO4) protein is one of the main catalytic components involved in RdDM. Although small interfering RNA or short hairpin RNA has been shown to be able to guide DNA methylation in human cells, AGO protein-regulated RdDM in humans has not yet been evaluated. This study aimed to identify a key regulatory AGO protein involved in human RdDM by bioinformatics and to explore its function in RdDM by a combination of AGO4 knockdown, Alu small interfering RNA transfection, AGO4-expressing plasmid transfection, chromatin immunoprecipitation, cell-penetrating peptide-tagged AGO4 combined Alu single-guide RNA transfection, and methylation analyses. We found that first, human AGO4 showed stronger genome-wide association with DNA methylation than AGO1–AGO3. Second, endogenous AGO4 depletion demethylated DNA of known AGO4 bound loci. Finally, exogenous AGO4 de novo methylated the bound DNA sequences. Therefore, we discovered that AGO4 plays a role in human RdDM.

A-repeats are the simplest form of tandem repeats and are found ubiquitously throughout genomes. These mononucleotide repeats have been widely believed to be non-functional ‘junk’ DNA. However, studies in yeasts suggest that A-repeats play crucial biological functions, and their role in humans remains largely unknown. Here, we showed a non-random pattern of distribution of sense A- and T-repeats within 20 kb around transcription start sites (TSSs) in the human genome. Different distributions of these repeats are observed upstream and downstream of TSSs. Sense A-repeats are enriched upstream, whereas sense T-repeats are enriched downstream of TSSs. This enrichment directly correlates with repeat size. Genes with different functions contain different lengths of repeats. In humans, tissue-specific genes are enriched for short repeats of <10 bp, whereas housekeeping genes are enriched for long repeats of ≥10 bp. We demonstrated that DICER1 and Argonaute proteins are required for the cis-regulatory role of A-repeats. Moreover, in the presence of a synthetic polymer that mimics an A-repeat, protein binding to A-repeats was blocked, resulting in a dramatic change in the expression of genes containing upstream A-repeats. Our findings suggest a length-dependent cis-regulatory function of A-repeats and that Argonaute proteins serve as trans-acting factors, binding to A-repeats.