Genome-wide analysis of RNAs translationally regulated upon BRCA1 depletion in human mammary epithelial cells

Loss of function of the tumor suppressor BRCA1 (Breast Cancer 1) protein is responsible for numerous familial and sporadic breast cancers. We previously identified PABP1 as a novel BRCA1 partner and showed that BRCA1 modulates translation through its interaction with PABP1. We showed that the global translation was diminished in BRCA1-depleted cells and increased in BRCA1-overexpressing cells. Our findings raised the question whether BRCA1 affects translation of all cytoplasmic cellular mRNAs or whether it specifically targets a subset of mRNAs. In the present study, we investigated which mRNAs are regulated by BRCA1 using a microarray analysis of polysome-associated RNAs from BRCA1-depleted MCF7 cells, a human breast cancer cell line. We isolated mRNAs from the high-molecular-weight polysomes (fractions 12 to 18) and total cellular cytoplasmic mRNAs from the cytoplasmic fraction of MCF7 cells transiently expressing either siRNA directed against BRCA1 or control siRNA. Since we were interested in identifying the mRNAs that were translationally regulated by BRCA1, we determined the relative translatability of each mRNA. The relative translatability of an mRNA was determined by normalizing the change in abundance in polysomal mRNA to the change in abundance in total cytoplasmic mRNA for each mRNA.