Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Machine Design, Engineering Design and Product Development, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 5;8(1):13267. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31596-y.
The gravitational force has been constant throughout Earth's evolutionary history. Since the cell nucleus is subjected to permanent forces induced by Earth's gravity, we addressed the question, if gene expression homeostasis is constantly shaped by the gravitational force on Earth. We therefore investigated the transcriptome in force-free conditions of microgravity, determined the time frame of initial gravitational force-transduction to the transcriptome and assessed the role of cation channels. We combined a parabolic flight experiment campaign with a suborbital ballistic rocket experiment employing the human myelomonocytic cell line U937 and analyzed the whole gene transcription by microarray, using rigorous controls for exclusion of effects not related to gravitational force and cross-validation through two fully independent research campaigns. Experiments with the wide range ion channel inhibitor SKF-96365 in combination with whole transcriptome analysis were conducted to study the functional role of ion channels in the transduction of gravitational forces at an integrative level. We detected profound alterations in the transcriptome already after 20 s of microgravity or hypergravity. In microgravity, 99.43% of all initially altered transcripts adapted after 5 min. In hypergravity, 98.93% of all initially altered transcripts adapted after 75 s. Only 2.4% of all microgravity-regulated transcripts were sensitive to the cation channel inhibitor SKF-96365. Inter-platform comparison of differentially regulated transcripts revealed 57 annotated gravity-sensitive transcripts. We assume that gravitational forces are rapidly and constantly transduced into the nucleus as omnipresent condition for nuclear and chromatin structure as well as homeostasis of gene expression.
在地球的进化历史中,重力一直保持不变。由于细胞核受到地球引力产生的持续力的作用,我们提出了这样一个问题,即基因表达的内稳态是否一直受到地球引力的影响。因此,我们在微重力的无重力条件下研究了转录组,确定了初始重力转换到转录组的时间框架,并评估了阳离子通道的作用。我们结合了抛物线飞行实验和亚轨道弹道火箭实验,使用人髓单核细胞系 U937,通过微阵列分析了整个基因转录,严格控制排除与重力无关的影响,并通过两个完全独立的研究实验进行了交叉验证。我们进行了广泛的离子通道抑制剂 SKF-96365 的实验,并结合全转录组分析,研究了离子通道在整合水平上传递重力的功能作用。我们发现,在微重力或超重的情况下,仅 20 秒后,转录组就发生了深刻的变化。在微重力下,99.43%的最初改变的转录本在 5 分钟后适应。在超重情况下,98.93%的最初改变的转录本在 75 秒后适应。只有 2.4%的微重力调节转录本对阳离子通道抑制剂 SKF-96365 敏感。差异调节转录本的平台间比较显示出 57 个注释的重力敏感转录本。我们假设重力作为核和染色质结构以及基因表达内稳态的普遍条件,会迅速而持续地传递到细胞核中。