The DYRK1A protein kinase is recruited to a subset of ribosomal protein gene promoters in human and mouse cells [ChIP-seq]

Ribosomal protein genes (RPGs) coding sequences are highly conserved along evolution; however, promoter features and the machinery involved in their transcriptional regulation are not. In eukaryotes, the main genomic elements and players involved in RPG transcriptional regulation have been mostly characterized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, given the lack of evolutionary conservation of the yeast factors, studies in higher eukaryotes have focused on searching for differential enrichment of transcription factor-binding motifs within the RPG promoters. Among them, the palindromic motif TCTCGCGAGA, which is currently acknowledged as a ZBTB33/KAISO motif, also matches the genomic sequence bound by the protein kinase DYRK1A. DYRK1A, a member of the human family of DYRK kinases, fulfills many diverse functions by phosphorylating a broad set of proteins involved in different cellular processes. One of such functions is to be a chromatin-associated kinase capable of regulating gene expression. Here, we analyze in-depth the presence of DYRK1A at the promoters of human and mouse RPGs and explore its functional consequences. Our results indicate that DYRK1A is a positive regulator of RPGs’ expression at the transcriptional level, and further expand the functional spectrum of the kinase as a contributor to the regulation of cell growth in mammalian cells. Profiling the occupancy of DYRK1A, RNAPOLII and ZBTB33/KAISO in different cell lines and tissues