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Linger RJ, Belikoff EJ, Yan Y, Li F, Wantuch HA, Fitzsimons HL, Scott MJ. Towards next generation maggot debridement therapy: transgenic Lucilia sericata larvae that produce and secrete a human growth factor. BMC Biotechnol 2016; 16:30. [PMID: 27006073 PMCID: PMC4804476 DOI: 10.1186/s12896-016-0263-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2015] [Accepted: 03/17/2016] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Diabetes and its concurrent complications impact a significant proportion of the population of the US and create a large financial burden on the American health care system. FDA-approved maggot debridement therapy (MDT), the application of sterile laboratory-reared Lucilia sericata (green bottle fly) larvae to wounds, is a cost-effective and successful treatment for diabetic foot ulcers and other medical conditions. Human platelet derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) is a secreted dimeric peptide growth factor that binds the PDGF receptor. PDGF-BB stimulates cell proliferation and survival, promotes wound healing, and has been investigated as a possible topical treatment for non-healing wounds. Genetic engineering has allowed for expression and secretion of human growth factors and other proteins in transgenic insects. Here, we present a novel concept in MDT technology that combines the established benefits of MDT with the power of genetic engineering to promote healing. The focus of this study is to create and characterize strains of transgenic L. sericata that express and secrete PDGF-BB at detectable levels in adult hemolymph, whole larval lysate, and maggot excretions/ secretions (ES), with potential for clinical utility in wound healing. RESULTS We have engineered and confirmed transgene insertion in several strains of L. sericata that express human PDGF-BB. Using a heat-inducible promoter to control the pdgf-b gene, pdgf-b mRNA was detected via semi-quantitative PCR upon heat shock. PDGF-BB protein was also detectable in larval lysates and adult hemolymph but not larval ES. An alternative, tetracycline-repressible pdgf-b system mediated expression of pdgf-b mRNA when maggots were raised on diet that lacked tetracycline. Further, PDGF-BB protein was readily detected in whole larval lysate as well as larval ES. CONCLUSIONS Here we show robust, inducible expression and production of human PDGF-BB protein from two conditional expression systems in transgenic L. sericata larvae. The tetracycline-repressible system appears to be the most promising as PDGF-BB protein was detectable in larval ES following induction. Our system could potentially be used to deliver a variety of growth factors and anti-microbial peptides to the wound environment with the aim of enhancing wound healing, thereby improving patient outcome in a cost-effective manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca J Linger
- Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA
| | - Esther J Belikoff
- Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA
| | - Ying Yan
- Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA
| | - Fang Li
- Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA
| | - Holly A Wantuch
- Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA
| | - Helen L Fitzsimons
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Maxwell J Scott
- Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7613, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7613, USA.
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Sze SH, Dunham JP, Carey B, Chang PL, Li F, Edman RM, Fjeldsted C, Scott MJ, Nuzhdin SV, Tarone AM. A de novo transcriptome assembly of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) with predicted alternative splices, single nucleotide polymorphisms and transcript expression estimates. INSECT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2012; 21:205-221. [PMID: 22283785 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2011.01127.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
The blow fly Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) (Meigen) is a nonmodel organism with no reference genome that is associated with numerous areas of research spanning the ecological, evolutionary, medical, veterinary and forensic sciences. To facilitate scientific discovery in this species, the transcriptome was assembled from more than six billion bases of Illumina and twenty-one million bases of 454 sequence derived from embryonic, larval, pupal, adult and larval salivary gland libraries. The assembly was carried out in a manner that enabled identification of putative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and alternative splices, and that provided expression estimates for various life history stages and for salivary tissue. The assembled transcriptome was also used to identify transcribed transposable elements in L. sericata. The results of this study will enable blow fly biologists, dipterists and comparative genomicists to more rapidly develop and test molecular and genetic hypotheses, especially those regarding blow fly development and salivary gland biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- S-H Sze
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
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Tarone AM, Foran DR. Gene expression during blow fly development: improving the precision of age estimates in forensic entomology. J Forensic Sci 2010; 56 Suppl 1:S112-22. [PMID: 21155802 DOI: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01632.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Forensic entomologists use size and developmental stage to estimate blow fly age, and from those, a postmortem interval. Since such estimates are generally accurate but often lack precision, particularly in the older developmental stages, alternative aging methods would be advantageous. Presented here is a means of incorporating developmentally regulated gene expression levels into traditional stage and size data, with a goal of more precisely estimating developmental age of immature Lucilia sericata. Generalized additive models of development showed improved statistical support compared to models that did not include gene expression data, resulting in an increase in estimate precision, especially for postfeeding third instars and pupae. The models were then used to make blind estimates of development for 86 immature L. sericata raised on rat carcasses. Overall, inclusion of gene expression data resulted in increased precision in aging blow flies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron M Tarone
- Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, USA
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Dejima K, Murata D, Mizuguchi S, Nomura KH, Izumikawa T, Kitagawa H, Gengyo-Ando K, Yoshina S, Ichimiya T, Nishihara S, Mitani S, Nomura K. Two Golgi-resident 3'-Phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphosulfate transporters play distinct roles in heparan sulfate modifications and embryonic and larval development in Caenorhabditis elegans. J Biol Chem 2010; 285:24717-28. [PMID: 20529843 PMCID: PMC2915708 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m109.088229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2009] [Revised: 04/23/2010] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Synthesis of extracellular sulfated molecules requires active 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphosulfate (PAPS). For sulfation to occur, PAPS must pass through the Golgi membrane, which is facilitated by Golgi-resident PAPS transporters. Caenorhabditis elegans PAPS transporters are encoded by two genes, pst-1 and pst-2. Using the yeast heterologous expression system, we characterized PST-1 and PST-2 as PAPS transporters. We created deletion mutants to study the importance of PAPS transporter activity. The pst-1 deletion mutant exhibited defects in cuticle formation, post-embryonic seam cell development, vulval morphogenesis, cell migration, and embryogenesis. The pst-2 mutant exhibited a wild-type phenotype. The defects observed in the pst-1 mutant could be rescued by transgenic expression of pst-1 and hPAPST1 but not pst-2 or hPAPST2. Moreover, the phenotype of a pst-1;pst-2 double mutant were similar to those of the pst-1 single mutant, except that larval cuticle formation was more severely defected. Disaccharide analysis revealed that heparan sulfate from these mutants was undersulfated. Gene expression reporter analysis revealed that these PAPS transporters exhibited different tissue distributions and subcellular localizations. These data suggest that pst-1 and pst-2 play different physiological roles in heparan sulfate modification and development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katsufumi Dejima
- From the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences 33, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Daisuke Murata
- From the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences 33, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Souhei Mizuguchi
- From the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences 33, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Kazuko H. Nomura
- From the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences 33, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Tomomi Izumikawa
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
- the Department of Biochemistry, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8558, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Kitagawa
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
- the Department of Biochemistry, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8558, Japan
| | - Keiko Gengyo-Ando
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
- the Department of Physiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan, and
| | - Sawako Yoshina
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
- the Department of Physiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan, and
| | - Tomomi Ichimiya
- the Laboratory of Cell Biology, Department of Bioinformatics, Faculty of Engineering, Soka University, 1-236 Tangi-cho, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan
| | - Shoko Nishihara
- the Laboratory of Cell Biology, Department of Bioinformatics, Faculty of Engineering, Soka University, 1-236 Tangi-cho, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan
| | - Shohei Mitani
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
- the Department of Physiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University School of Medicine, Tokyo 162-8666, Japan, and
| | - Kazuya Nomura
- From the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences 33, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
- the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 4-1-8 Hon-cho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
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Tarone AM, Jennings KC, Foran DR. Aging blow fly eggs using gene expression: a feasibility study. J Forensic Sci 2008; 52:1350-4. [PMID: 18093065 DOI: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2007.00587.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Forensic entomology can aid death investigations by using predictable developmental changes to estimate the ages of flies associated with a body. In developmental stages that do not increase in size however, including the egg and pupa, it can be difficult to objectively refine an age estimate beyond the limits of the stage duration. Gene transcript levels, changing throughout development, represent a potential data source useful for objectively identify smaller units of developmental time. The expression of three genes (bcd, sll, cs) was profiled throughout the maturation of blow fly eggs to determine the feasibility of predicting age, identifying significant linear trends in expression during their development. Models estimating egg age made predictions within 2 h of true age when all expression data were available, while the presence/absence of cs transcripts identified two age classes, together indicating that gene expression can be used to more precisely predict blow fly age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron M Tarone
- Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
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Marcellini S, Simpson P. Two or four bristles: functional evolution of an enhancer of scute in Drosophilidae. PLoS Biol 2007; 4:e386. [PMID: 17105353 PMCID: PMC1635746 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2006] [Accepted: 09/14/2006] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Changes in cis-regulatory sequences are proposed to underlie much of morphological evolution. Yet, little is known about how such modifications translate into phenotypic differences. To address this problem, we focus on the dorsocentral bristles of Drosophilidae. In Drosophila melanogaster, development of these bristles depends on a cis-regulatory element, the dorsocentral enhancer, to activate scute in a cluster of cells from which two bristles on the posterior scutum arise. A few species however, such as D. quadrilineata, bear anterior dorsocentral bristles as well as posterior ones, a derived feature. This correlates with an anterior expansion of the scute expression domain. Here, we show that the D. quadrilineata enhancer has evolved, and is now active in more anterior regions. When used to rescue scute expression in transgenic D. melanogaster, the D. quadrilineata enhancer is able to induce anterior bristles. Importantly, these properties are not displayed by homologous enhancers from control species bearing only two posterior bristles. We also provide evidence that upstream regulation of the enhancer, by the GATA transcription factor Pannier, has been evolutionarily conserved. This work illustrates how, in the context of a conserved trans-regulatory landscape, evolutionary tinkering of pre-existing enhancers can modify gene expression patterns and contribute to morphological diversification. Evolutionary change in function of the dorsocentral enhancer (DCE) of scute has resulted in altered bristle formation between two species of Drosophila.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvain Marcellini
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
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