Simultaneous measurement of nascent transcriptome and translatome using 4-thiouridine metabolic RNA labeling and translating ribosome affinity purification

Abstract

Regulation of gene expression in response to various biological processes, including extracellular stimulation and environmental adaptation requires de novo RNA synthesis and translation. Analysis of the coordinated and circular regulation of dynamic RNA synthesis and translation is required to determine functional protein production. However, reliable methods for the simultaneous measurement of nascent RNA synthesis and translation at the gene level are limited. Here, we developed a novel method for the simultaneous assessment of nascent RNA synthesis and translation by combining 4-thiouridine (4sU) metabolic RNA labeling and translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) using a monoclonal antibody against evolutionarily conserved ribosomal P-stalk proteins. The P-stalk-mediated TRAP (P-TRAP) technique recovered endogenous translating ribosomes, allowing easy translatome analysis of various eukaryotes. We validated this method in mammalian cells by demonstrating that acute unfolded protein response (UPR) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) induces dynamic reprograming of nascent RNA synthesis and translation. Our method can serve as a simple and powerful tool for analyzing the coordinated regulation of transcription and translation of individual genes in various eukaryotes.