• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8247-8252
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• 2016

Background: The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) degrades a variety of proteins which attach to specific signals. The ubiquitination pathway facilitates degradation of damaged proteins and regulates growth and stress responses. This pathway is altered in various cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and breast cancer. Recently it has been reported that expression of newly characterized human genes, UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2, putative members of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family (E2), has been also changed in colorectal cancer. Epigenetics is one of the fastest-growing areas of science and nowadays has become a central issue in biological studies of diseases. According to the lack of information about the role of epigenetic changes on gene expression profiling of UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2, and the presence of CpG islands in the promoter of these two human genes, we decided to evaluate the promoter methylation status of these genes as a first step. Materials and Methods: The promoter methylation status of UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2 was studied by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) in tumor samples of 60 colorectal cancer patients compared to adjacent normal tissues and 20 non-malignant controls. The frequency of the methylation for each gene was analyzed by chi-square method. Results: MSP results revealed that UBE2Q2 gene promoter were more unmethylated, while a higher level of methylated allele was observed for UBE2Q1 in tumor tissues compared to the adjacent normal tissues and the non malignant controls. Conclusions: UBE2Q1 and UBE2Q2 genes show different methylation profiles in CRC cases.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3723-3727
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• 2015

The p53 tumor suppressor protein is a principal mediator of growth arrest, senescence, and apoptosis in response to a broad array of cellular damage. p53 is a substrate for the ubiquitin-proteasome system, however, the ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s) involved in p53 ubiquitination have not been well studied. UBE2Q1 is a novel E2 ubiquitin conjugating enzyme gene. Here, we investigated the effect of UBE2Q1 overexpression on the level of p53 in the MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cell line as well as the interaction between UBE2Q1 and p53. By using a lipofection method, the p53 mutated breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-468, was transfected with the vector pCMV6-AN-GFP, containing UBE2Q1 ORF. Western blot analysis was employed to verify the overexpression of UBE2Q1 in MDA-MB-468 cells and to evaluate the expression level of p53 before and after cell transfection. Immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down protocols were used to investigate the binding of UBE2Q1 to p53. We established MDA-MB-468 cells that transiently expressed a GFP fusion proteins containing UBE2Q1 (GFP-UBE2Q1). Western blot analysis revealed that levels of p53 were markedly lower in UBE2Q1 transfected MDA-MB-468 cells as compared with control MDA-MB-468 cells. Both in vivo and in vitro data showed that UBE2Q1 co-precipitated with p53 protein. Our data for the first time showed that overexpression of UBE2Q1can lead to the repression of p53 in MDA-MB-468 cells. This repression of p53 may be due to its UBE2Q1 mediated ubiquitination and subsequent proteasome degradation, a process that may involve direct interaction of UBE2Q1with p53.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2018

To evaluate appropriate reference genes for the normalization of quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) data with embryonic and larval samples from Russian sturgeon Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, the expression stability of eight candidate housekeeping genes, including beta-actin (ACTB), elongation factor-1A (EF1A), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), histone 2A (H2A), ribosomal protein L5 (RPL5), ribosomal protein L7 (RPL7), succinate dehydrogenase (SDHA), and ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 (UBE2A), were tested using embryonic samples from 12 developmental stages and larval samples from 11 ontogenic stages. Based on the stability rankings from three statistic software packages, geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, the expression stability of the embryonic subset was ranked as UBE2A>H2A>SDHA>GAPDH>RPL5>EF1A>ACTB>RPL7. On the other hand, the ranking in the larval subset was determined as UBE2A>GAPDH>SDHA>RPL5>RPL7>H2A>EF1A>AC TB. When the two subsets were combined, the overall ranking was UBE2A>SDHA>H2A>RPL5>GAPDH>EF1A>ACTB>RPL7. Taken together, our data suggest that UBE2A and SDHA are recommended as suitable references for developmental and ontogenic samples of this sturgeon species, whereas traditional housekeepers such as ACTB and GAPDH may not be suitable candidates.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.21.1-21.11
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• 2016

Background: The evaluation of suitable reference genes as normalization controls is a prerequisite requirement for launching quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-qPCR)-based expression study. In order to select the stable reference genes in abalone Haliotis discus hannai tissues (gill and hepatopancreas) under heavy metal exposure conditions (Cu, Zn, and Cd), 12 potential candidate housekeeping genes were subjected to expression stability based on the comprehensive ranking while integrating four different statistical algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and ${\Delta}CT$ method). Results: Expression stability in the gill subset was determined as RPL7 > RPL8 > ACTB > RPL3 > PPIB > RPL7A > EF1A > RPL4 > GAPDH > RPL5 > UBE2 > B-TU. On the other hand, the ranking in the subset for hepatopancreas was RPL7 > RPL3 > RPL8 > ACTB > RPL4 > EF1A > RPL5 > RPL7A > B-TU > UBE2 > PPIB > GAPDH. The pairwise variation assessed by the geNorm program indicates that two reference genes could be sufficient for accurate normalization in both gill and hepatopancreas subsets. Overall, both gill and hepatopancreas subsets recommended ribosomal protein genes (particularly RPL7) as stable references, whereas traditional housekeepers such as ${\beta}-tubulin$ (B-TU) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) genes were ranked as unstable genes. The validation of reference gene selection was confirmed with the quantitative assay of MT transcripts. Conclusions: The present analysis showed the importance of validating reference genes with multiple algorithmic approaches to select genes that are truly stable. Our results indicate that expression stability of a given reference gene could not always have consensus across tissue types. The data from this study could be a good guide for the future design of RT-qPCR studies with respect to metal regulation/detoxification and other related physiologies in this abalone species.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.280-291
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• 2019

Potential utility of 14 candidate housekeeping genes as normalization reference for RT-qPCR analysis with developmental samples (fertilized eggs to late veliger larvae) in Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai was evaluated using four different statistical algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and comparative ΔCT method). Different algorithms identified different genes as the best candidates, and geometric mean-based final ranking from the most to the least stable expression was as follow: RPL5, RPL4, RPS18, RPL8, RPL7, UBE2, RPL7A, GAPDH, RPL36, PPIB, EF1A, ACTB and B-TU. The findings were further validated via relative quantification of metallothionein (MT) transcripts using the stable and unstable reference genes, and expression levels of MT were greatly influenced according to the choice of reference genes. In overall, our data suggest that RPL5 and RPS18, either singly or in combination, are appropriate for normalizing gene expression in developmental samples of this abalone species, whereas ACTB, B-TU and EF1A are less stable and not recommended. In addition, our findings propose that standard deviations in geometric ranking as well as geometric mean itself should also be taken into account for the final selection of reference gene(s). This study could be a useful basis to facilitate the generation of accurate and reliable RT-qPCR data with developmental samples in this abalone species.