Comparative transcriptome analysis of basal gene expression in Wild-type and Sen1ΔN mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Sen1 is a 252-kDa, nuclear superfamily-1 RNA/DNA helicase that encoded by an essential gene SEN1 (Senataxin). It is an important component of the Nrd1p-Nab3p-Sen1p (NRD1) complex that regulates the transcriptional termination of most non-coding and some coding transcripts at RNA polymerase pause sites. Sen1 specifically interacts with Rnt1p (RNase III), an endoribonuclease, and with Rpb1p (Rpo21p), a subunit of RNA polymerase II, through its N-terminal domain (NTD), which is a critical element of the RNA-processing machinery. Moreover, mutations in the N-terminal tail of SETX, a human ortholog of yeast Senataxin (Sen1) reported in neurological disorders. In one of the earlier studies, we have reported that the loss of dispensable NTD in yeast Sen1 resulted in flocculation and slow growing phenotypes along with defective DNA damage repair mechanisms. So, we attempted to explore the molecular basis of functional impairment associated with the loss of Sen1 N-terminal domain through global oligonucleotide microarray analysis. Also, we investigated for functionally enriched pathways based on the altered basal level gene expression profiles upon NTD loss of Sen1. The microarray data were validated by quantitative real-time PCR wherever necessary. Wild-type (BY4741) and Sen1ΔN mutant yeast cells were inoculated to an OD600 of 0.4 in fresh synthetic complete liquid media and then the cells were further allowed to grow until reaches to exponential phase (OD600-1.5). Two independent experiments were performed for each experiment (WT or Sen1ΔN). Total RNAs were extracted and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.