Innate immune responses rely on rapid and precise gene regulation mediated by accessibility of regulatory regions to transcription factors (TFs). In natural killer (NK) cells and other innate ...lymphoid cells, competent enhancers are primed during lineage acquisition, and formation of de novo enhancers characterizes the acquisition of innate memory in activated NK cells and macrophages. Here, we investigated how primed and de novo enhancers coordinate to facilitate high-magnitude gene induction during acute activation. Epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses of regions near highly induced genes (HIGs) in NK cells both in vitro and in a model of Toxoplasma gondii infection revealed de novo chromatin accessibility and enhancer remodeling controlled by signal-regulated TFs STATs. Acute NK cell activation redeployed the lineage-determining TF T-bet to de novo enhancers, independent of DNA-sequence-specific motif recognition. Thus, acute stimulation reshapes enhancer function through the combinatorial usage and repurposing of both lineage-determining and signal-regulated TFs to ensure an effective response.
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•Inducible high-density p300 enhancers form in proximity to highly dynamic genes•Strong transcriptional induction occurs with both primed and non-primed enhancers•De novo enhancers form in vivo during NK cell response to Toxoplasma gondii infection•STATs initiate chromatin opening with T-bet redeployment to non-canonical sites
During development, innate lymphocytes acquire defined sets of primed enhancers facilitating the rapid immune response. In this issue of Immunity, Sciumè et al. delineate the epigenetic changes occurring during acute NK cell activation, revealing the formation of de novo enhancers and repurposing of both lineage-determining and signal-regulated transcription factors.
Rising demand for food and bioenergy makes it imperative to breed for increased crop yield. Vegetative plant growth could be driven by resource acquisition or developmental programs. Metabolite ...profiling in 94 Arabidopsis accessions revealed that biomass correlates negatively with many metabolites, especially starch. Starch accumulates in the light and is degraded at night to provide a sustained supply of carbon for growth. Multivariate analysis revealed that starch is an integrator of the overall metabolic response. We hypothesized that this reflects variation in a regulatory network that balances growth with the carbon supply. Transcript profiling in 21 accessions revealed coordinated changes of transcripts of more than 70 carbon-regulated genes and identified 2 genes (myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase, a Kelch-domain protein) whose transcripts correlate with biomass. The impact of allelic variation at these 2 loci was shown by association mapping, identifying them as candidate lead genes with the potential to increase biomass production.
The transcriptional landscape of polyploid wheat Ramírez-González, R H; Borrill, P; Lang, D ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2018, Letnik:
361, Številka:
6403
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The coordinated expression of highly related homoeologous genes in polyploid species underlies the phenotypes of many of the world's major crops. Here we combine extensive gene expression datasets to ...produce a comprehensive, genome-wide analysis of homoeolog expression patterns in hexaploid bread wheat. Bias in homoeolog expression varies between tissues, with ~30% of wheat homoeologs showing nonbalanced expression. We found expression asymmetries along wheat chromosomes, with homoeologs showing the largest inter-tissue, inter-cultivar, and coding sequence variation, most often located in high-recombination distal ends of chromosomes. These transcriptionally dynamic genes potentially represent the first steps toward neo- or subfunctionalization of wheat homoeologs. Coexpression networks reveal extensive coordination of homoeologs throughout development and, alongside a detailed expression atlas, provide a framework to target candidate genes underpinning agronomic traits in wheat.
cis-regulatory elements (CREs) encode the genomic blueprints of spatiotemporal gene expression programs enabling highly specialized cell functions. Using single-cell genomics in six maize organs, we ...determined the cis- and trans-regulatory factors defining diverse cell identities and coordinating chromatin organization by profiling transcription factor (TF) combinatorics, identifying TFs with non-cell-autonomous activity, and uncovering TFs underlying higher-order chromatin interactions. Cell-type-specific CREs were enriched for enhancer activity and within unmethylated long terminal repeat retrotransposons. Moreover, we found cell-type-specific CREs are hotspots for phenotype-associated genetic variants and were targeted by selection during modern maize breeding, highlighting the biological implications of this CRE atlas. Through comparison of maize and Arabidopsis thaliana developmental trajectories, we identified TFs and CREs with conserved and divergent chromatin dynamics, showcasing extensive evolution of gene regulatory networks. In addition to this rich dataset, we developed single-cell analysis software, Socrates, which can be used to understand cis-regulatory variation in any species.
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•Human selection and retrotransposons shaped the maize cis-regulatory landscape•Analysis of 92 patterns of single-cell chromatin accessibility from six maize organs•Transcription factors underlying chromatin interactions and non-cell autonomy•Evolution of cis-regulatory dynamics during Z. mays and A. thaliana development
Identification of cis-regulatory dynamics in the maize genome at single-cell and cell-type resolution by single-cell sequencing of assay for transposase accessible chromatin.
Defining the transcriptional dynamics of a temporal process such as cell differentiation is challenging owing to the high variability in gene expression between individual cells. Time-series gene ...expression analyses of bulk cells have difficulty distinguishing early and late phases of a transcriptional cascade or identifying rare subpopulations of cells, and single-cell proteomic methods rely on a priori knowledge of key distinguishing markers. Here we describe Monocle, an unsupervised algorithm that increases the temporal resolution of transcriptome dynamics using single-cell RNA-Seq data collected at multiple time points. Applied to the differentiation of primary human myoblasts, Monocle revealed switch-like changes in expression of key regulatory factors, sequential waves of gene regulation, and expression of regulators that were not known to act in differentiation. We validated some of these predicted regulators in a loss-of function screen. Monocle can in principle be used to recover single-cell gene expression kinetics from a wide array of cellular processes, including differentiation, proliferation and oncogenic transformation.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Flowering time and plant height are key agronomic traits that directly affect soybean (Glycine max) yield. APETALA1 (AP1) functions as a class A gene in the ABCE model for floral organ development, ...helping to specify carpel, stamen, petal, and sepal identities. There are four AP1 homologs in soybean, all of which are mainly expressed in the shoot apex. Here, we used clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) – CRISPR‐associated protein 9 technology to generate a homozygous quadruple mutant, gmap1, with loss‐of‐function mutations in all four GmAP1 genes. Under short‐day (SD) conditions, the gmap1 quadruple mutant exhibited delayed flowering, changes in flower morphology, and increased node number and internode length, resulting in plants that were taller than the wild type. Conversely, overexpression of GmAP1a resulted in early flowering and reduced plant height compared to the wild type under SD conditions. The gmap1 mutant and the overexpression lines also exhibited altered expression of several genes related to flowering and gibberellic acid metabolism, thereby providing insight into the role of GmAP1 in the regulatory networks controlling flowering time and plant height in soybean. Increased node number is the trait with the most promise for enhancing soybean pod number and grain yield. Therefore, the mutant alleles of the four AP1 homologs described here will be invaluable for molecular breeding of improved soybean yield.
Flowering time and plant height are key agronomic traits that directly affect soybean yield. Here, we used CRISPR‐Cas9 technology to generate a homozygous quadruple mutant, gmap1, with loss‐of‐function mutations in all four GmAP1 genes. We reported that soybean AP1 homologs change in flower morphology, flowering time and plant height.
Quantitative PCR (qPCR) has become the gold standard technique to measure cDNA and gDNA levels but the resulting data can be highly variable, artifactual and non-reproducible without appropriate ...verification and validation of both samples and primers. The root cause of poor quality data is typically associated with inadequate dilution of residual protein and chemical contaminants that variably inhibit Taq polymerase and primer annealing. The most susceptible, frustrating and often most interesting samples are those containing low abundant targets with small expression differences of 2-fold or lower. Here, Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) and qPCR platforms were directly compared for gene expression analysis using low amounts of purified, synthetic DNA in well characterized samples under identical reaction conditions. We conclude that for sample/target combinations with low levels of nucleic acids (Cq ≥ 29) and/or variable amounts of chemical and protein contaminants, ddPCR technology will produce more precise, reproducible and statistically significant results required for publication quality data. A stepwise methodology is also described to choose between these complimentary technologies to obtain the best results for any experiment.
The expression profiles and spatial distributions of RNAs regulate many cellular functions. Image-based transcriptomic approaches provide powerful means to measure both expression and spatial ...information of RNAs in individual cells within their native environment. Among these approaches, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH) has achieved spatially resolved RNA quantification at transcriptome scale by massively multiplexing single-molecule FISH measurements. Here, we increased the gene throughput of MERFISH and demonstrated simultaneous measurements of RNA transcripts from ∼10,000 genes in individual cells with ∼80% detection efficiency and ∼4% misidentification rate. We combined MERFISH with cellular structure imaging to determine subcellular compartmentalization of RNAs. We validated this approach by showing enrichment of secretome transcripts at the endoplasmic reticulum, and further revealed enrichment of long noncoding RNAs, RNAs with retained introns, and a subgroup of protein-coding mRNAs in the cell nucleus. Leveraging spatially resolved RNA profiling, we developed an approach to determine RNA velocity in situ using the balance of nuclear versus cytoplasmic RNA counts. We applied this approach to infer pseudotime ordering of cells and identified cells at different cell-cycle states, revealing ∼1,600 genes with putative cell cycle-dependent expression and a gradual transcription profile change as cells progress through cell-cycle stages. Our analysis further revealed cell cycle-dependent and cell cycle-independent spatial heterogeneity of transcriptionally distinct cells. We envision that the ability to perform spatially resolved, genome-wide RNA profiling with high detection efficiency and accuracy by MERFISH could help address a wide array of questions ranging from the regulation of gene expression in cells to the development of cell fate and organization in tissues.
Background: Dynamin related protein-1 (DRP1) mediates mitochondrial fission in diverse tissues, including skeletal muscle. Previously we have investigated the metabolic effects of a skeletal ...musclespecific knockout of (DRP1 KO) in C57 mice. DRP1 KO mice are resistant to weight gain induced by high fat diet related to a reduction in adipose tissue, and are more tolerant to glucose challenge associated with lower insulin levels. Gene expression of ATF-4, a transcription factor associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress activation was elevated in DRP KO mice. Furthermore, DRP1 KO mice have increased gene expression and plasma levels of GDF15 and FGF21, which we hypothesized was downstream from an increase in ER stress. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we chronically treated wildtype and DRP1 KO mice with tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), which is a bile acid that has been shown to alleviate ER stress. Results: As opposed to the anticipated results, TUDCA did not rescue the weight phenotype in DRP1 KO mice and indeed substantially protected wild type mice from weight gain and glucose intolerance associated with high fat diet for 12 weeks. Conclusions: We now hypothesize that ER stress might have a bidirectional effect on weight and gluco-homeostasis. It is possible that different pathways of the ER stress response might have distinct impacts on adiposity regulation.
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