hSSB1 (NABP2/OBFC2B) modulates the DNA damage and androgen-induced transcriptional response in prostate cancer.

Background: Activation and regulation of androgen receptor (AR) signaling and the DNA damage response impact the prostate cancer (PCa) treatment modalities of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and radiotherapy. Here, we have evaluated a role for human single-strand binding protein 1 (hSSB1/NABP2) in modulation of the cellular response to androgens and ionizing radiation (IR). hSSB1 has defined roles in transcription and maintenance of genome stability, yet little is known about this protein in PCa.

Reconstructed cell fate-regulatory programs in stem cells reveal hierarchies and key factors of neurogenesis.

Cell lineages, which shape the body architecture and specify cell functions, derive from the integration of a plethora of cell intrinsic and extrinsic signals. These signals trigger a multiplicity of decisions at several levels to modulate the activity of dynamic gene regulatory networks (GRNs), which ensure both general and cell-specific functions within a given lineage, thereby establishing cell fates. Significant knowledge about these events and the involved key drivers comes from homogeneous cell differentiation models.

A quality control system for profiles obtained by ChIP sequencing.

The absence of a quality control (QC) system is a major weakness for the comparative analysis of genome-wide profiles generated by next-generation sequencing (NGS). This concerns particularly genome binding/occupancy profiling assays like chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP-seq) but also related enrichment-based studies like methylated DNA immunoprecipitation/methylated DNA binding domain sequencing, global run on sequencing or RNA-seq. Importantly, QC assessment may significantly improve multidimensional comparisons that have great promise for extracting information from combinatorial analyses of the global profiles established for chromatin modifications, the bindings of epigenetic and chromatin-modifying enzymes/machineries, RNA polymerases and transcription factors and total, nascent or ribosome-bound RNAs.