In silico identification of G-quadruplex structure in the STAT-۶ gene sequence

Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STAT) are a family of transcriptionfactors that regulate a variety of cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, and survival.The STAT۶ gene is located on chromosome ۱۲q۱۳.۳ with ۲۳ exons and ۱۵۹۵۵ nucleotides. It isexpressed in almost all organs of the body and may act as a T helper type ۲ (Th۲) inducingtranscriptional activator [۱,۲]. Therefore, STAT۶ is involved in the pathophysiology of numerousallergic diseases. Nevertheless, it is similarly complicated in several tumor developments, especiallylymphomas and solitary fibrous tumors, and contributes to the regulation of the tumormicroenvironment [۲]. Therefore, regulating its gene expression is important for disease treatment. Oneof the ways to control the expression of this gene is to induce G-quadruplex structures, which act as abarrier to the gene expression apparatus [۳]. Interestingly, there is a database that lists quadruplexformingG-rich sequences (QGRS) (http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/greglist/) [۴]. The sequence of the STAT۶gene was obtained from GenBank at NCBI. We used a web-based server, QGRS Mapper, which predictsquadruplex-forming G-rich sequences (QGRS) in nucleic acid sequences(http://bioinformatics.ramapo.edu/QGRS/) [۵]. STAT۶ was a large gene and the GC content of itssequence was very high, based on the data of the online software, we found ۱۳۱ sequences prone to Gquadruplexformation, among which ۱۳ regions had a score above ۳۵, which indicates that theprobability of the structure formation in these regions is very high. According to the recent evidence forthe in vivo location and role of DNA G-quadruplexes in several cellular pathways including DNAreplication and gene expression, effective treatment strategies can be defined for drug design andtargeted treatment of the diseases.

کلیدواژه ها:

STAT۶ ، Regulation of gene expression ، G-quadruplex structure ، In Silico analysis