1
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Takahi M, Hamazaki Y, Ohnuma K, Imamura M. Cardiac differentiation of chimpanzee induced pluripotent stem cell lines with different subspecies backgrounds. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim 2024; 60:555-562. [PMID: 38753247 DOI: 10.1007/s11626-024-00914-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
The comparative analysis between humans and non-human primates is an instrumental approach for elucidating the evolutional traits and disease propensity of humans. However, in primates, cross-species analyses of their developmental events have encountered constraints because of the ethical and technical limitations in available sample collection, sequential monitoring, and manipulations. In an endeavor to surmount these challenges, in recent years, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have garnered escalating interest as an in vitro tool for cross-species analyses between humans and non-human primates. Meanwhile, compared to humans, there is less information on in vitro differentiation of non-human primate iPSCs, and their genetic diversity including subspecies may cause different eligibility to in vitro differentiation methods. Therefore, antecedent to embarking on a comparative analysis to humans, it is a prerequisite to develop the efficacious methodologies for in vitro differentiation regardless of the intraspecies genetic background in non-human primates. In this study, we executed the in vitro differentiation of cardiomyocytes from four chimpanzee iPSC lines with different subspecies and individual backgrounds. To induce cardiomyocytes from chimpanzee iPSCs, we evaluated our methodology for in vitro cardiac differentiation of human iPSCs. Eventually, with minor alterations, our cardiac differentiation method was applicable to all chimpanzee iPSC lines tested as assessed by the expression of cardiac marker genes and the beating ability. Hence, our in vitro differentiation method will advance iPSC-based research of chimpanzee cardiac development and also hold possible utility to cross-species analyses among primate species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mika Takahi
- Department of Science of Technology Innovation, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, 940-2188, Japan.
| | - Yusuke Hamazaki
- Molecular Biology Section, Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
| | - Kiyoshi Ohnuma
- Department of Science of Technology Innovation, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, 940-2188, Japan
| | - Masanori Imamura
- Molecular Biology Section, Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
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2
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Shimada M, Omae Y, Kakita A, Gabdulkhaev R, Hitomi Y, Miyagawa T, Honda M, Fujimoto A, Tokunaga K. Identification of region-specific gene isoforms in the human brain using long-read transcriptome sequencing. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadj5279. [PMID: 38266094 PMCID: PMC10807796 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj5279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
In neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, different brain regions are affected, and differences in gene expression patterns could potentially explain this mechanism. However, limited studies have precisely explored gene expression in different regions of the human brain. In this study, we performed long-read RNA sequencing on three different brain regions of the same individuals: the cerebellum, hypothalamus, and temporal cortex. Despite stringent filtering criteria excluding isoforms predicted to be artifacts, over half of the isoforms expressed in multiple samples across multiple regions were found to be unregistered in the GENCODE reference. We then especially focused on genes with different major isoforms in each brain region, even with similar overall expression levels, and identified that many of such genes including GAS7 might have distinct roles in dendritic spine and neuronal formation in each region. We also found that DNA methylation might, in part, drive different isoform expressions in different regions. These findings highlight the significance of analyzing isoforms expressed in disease-relevant sites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihoko Shimada
- Genome Medical Science Project (Toyama), National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Tokyo, Japan
- Center for Clinical Sciences, National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Tokyo, Japan
- Sleep Disorders Project, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yosuke Omae
- Genome Medical Science Project (Toyama), National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Tokyo, Japan
| | - Akiyoshi Kakita
- Department of Pathology, Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan
| | - Ramil Gabdulkhaev
- Department of Pathology, Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan
| | - Yuki Hitomi
- Department of Human Genetics, Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Tokyo, Japan
| | - Taku Miyagawa
- Sleep Disorders Project, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Makoto Honda
- Sleep Disorders Project, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
- Japan Somnology Center and Seiwa Hospital, Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Akihiro Fujimoto
- Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Katsushi Tokunaga
- Genome Medical Science Project (Toyama), National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Tokyo, Japan
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3
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Suresh H, Crow M, Jorstad N, Hodge R, Lein E, Dobin A, Bakken T, Gillis J. Comparative single-cell transcriptomic analysis of primate brains highlights human-specific regulatory evolution. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:1930-1943. [PMID: 37667001 PMCID: PMC10627823 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02186-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
Enhanced cognitive function in humans is hypothesized to result from cortical expansion and increased cellular diversity. However, the mechanisms that drive these phenotypic innovations remain poorly understood, in part because of the lack of high-quality cellular resolution data in human and non-human primates. Here, we take advantage of single-cell expression data from the middle temporal gyrus of five primates (human, chimp, gorilla, macaque and marmoset) to identify 57 homologous cell types and generate cell type-specific gene co-expression networks for comparative analysis. Although orthologue expression patterns are generally well conserved, we find 24% of genes with extensive differences between human and non-human primates (3,383 out of 14,131), which are also associated with multiple brain disorders. To assess the functional significance of gene expression differences in an evolutionary context, we evaluate changes in network connectivity across meta-analytic co-expression networks from 19 animals. We find that a subset of these genes has deeply conserved co-expression across all non-human animals, and strongly divergent co-expression relationships in humans (139 out of 3,383, <1% of primate orthologues). Genes with human-specific cellular expression and co-expression profiles (such as NHEJ1, GTF2H2, C2 and BBS5) typically evolve under relaxed selective constraints and may drive rapid evolutionary change in brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hamsini Suresh
- Stanley Institute for Cognitive Genomics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
| | | | | | | | - Ed Lein
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Alexander Dobin
- Stanley Institute for Cognitive Genomics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
| | | | - Jesse Gillis
- Stanley Institute for Cognitive Genomics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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4
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Brand CM, Kuang S, Gilbertson EN, McArthur E, Pollard KS, Webster TH, Capra JA. Sequence-based machine learning reveals 3D genome differences between bonobos and chimpanzees. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.10.26.564272. [PMID: 37961120 PMCID: PMC10634871 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.26.564272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Phenotypic divergence between closely related species, including bonobos and chimpanzees (genus Pan), is largely driven by variation in gene regulation. The 3D structure of the genome mediates gene expression; however, genome folding differences in Pan are not well understood. Here, we apply machine learning to predict genome-wide 3D genome contact maps from DNA sequence for 56 bonobos and chimpanzees, encompassing all five extant lineages. We use a pairwise approach to estimate 3D divergence between individuals from the resulting contact maps in 4,420 1 Mb genomic windows. While most pairs were similar, ∼17% were predicted to be substantially divergent in genome folding. The most dissimilar maps were largely driven by single individuals with rare variants that produce unique 3D genome folding in a region. We also identified 89 genomic windows where bonobo and chimpanzee contact maps substantially diverged, including several windows harboring genes associated with traits implicated in Pan phenotypic divergence. We used in silico mutagenesis to identify 51 3D-modifying variants in these bonobo-chimpanzee divergent windows, finding that 34 or 66.67% induce genome folding changes via CTCF binding motif disruption. Our results reveal 3D genome variation at the population-level and identify genomic regions where changes in 3D folding may contribute to phenotypic differences in our closest living relatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin M. Brand
- Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA
| | - Shuzhen Kuang
- Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, San Francisco, CA
| | - Erin N. Gilbertson
- Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Evonne McArthur
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
| | - Katherine S. Pollard
- Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, San Francisco, CA
- Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA
| | | | - John A. Capra
- Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
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5
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Pollen AA, Kilik U, Lowe CB, Camp JG. Human-specific genetics: new tools to explore the molecular and cellular basis of human evolution. Nat Rev Genet 2023; 24:687-711. [PMID: 36737647 PMCID: PMC9897628 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-022-00568-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Our ancestors acquired morphological, cognitive and metabolic modifications that enabled humans to colonize diverse habitats, develop extraordinary technologies and reshape the biosphere. Understanding the genetic, developmental and molecular bases for these changes will provide insights into how we became human. Connecting human-specific genetic changes to species differences has been challenging owing to an abundance of low-effect size genetic changes, limited descriptions of phenotypic differences across development at the level of cell types and lack of experimental models. Emerging approaches for single-cell sequencing, genetic manipulation and stem cell culture now support descriptive and functional studies in defined cell types with a human or ape genetic background. In this Review, we describe how the sequencing of genomes from modern and archaic hominins, great apes and other primates is revealing human-specific genetic changes and how new molecular and cellular approaches - including cell atlases and organoids - are enabling exploration of the candidate causal factors that underlie human-specific traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex A Pollen
- Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Umut Kilik
- Institute of Human Biology (IHB), Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Craig B Lowe
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
| | - J Gray Camp
- Institute of Human Biology (IHB), Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
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6
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Barr KA, Rhodes KL, Gilad Y. The relationship between regulatory changes in cis and trans and the evolution of gene expression in humans and chimpanzees. Genome Biol 2023; 24:207. [PMID: 37697401 PMCID: PMC10496171 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03019-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Comparative gene expression studies in apes are fundamentally limited by the challenges associated with sampling across different tissues. Here, we used single-cell RNA sequencing of embryoid bodies to collect transcriptomic data from over 70 cell types in three humans and three chimpanzees. RESULTS We find hundreds of genes whose regulation is conserved across cell types, as well as genes whose regulation likely evolves under directional selection in one or a handful of cell types. Using embryoid bodies from a human-chimpanzee fused cell line, we also infer the proportion of inter-species regulatory differences due to changes in cis and trans elements between the species. Using the cis/trans inference and an analysis of transcription factor binding sites, we identify dozens of transcription factors whose inter-species differences in expression are affecting expression differences between humans and chimpanzees in hundreds of target genes. CONCLUSIONS Here, we present the most comprehensive dataset of comparative gene expression from humans and chimpanzees to date, including a catalog of regulatory mechanisms associated with inter-species differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth A Barr
- Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | | | - Yoav Gilad
- Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
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7
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King SB, Singh M. Primate protein-ligand interfaces exhibit significant conservation and unveil human-specific evolutionary drivers. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1010966. [PMID: 36952575 PMCID: PMC10035887 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the vast phenotypic differences observed across primates, their protein products are largely similar to each other at the sequence level. We hypothesized that, since proteins accomplish all their functions via interactions with other molecules, alterations in the sites that participate in these interactions may be of critical importance. To uncover the extent to which these sites evolve across primates, we built a structurally-derived dataset of ~4,200 one-to-one orthologous sequence groups across 18 primate species, consisting of ~68,000 ligand-binding sites that interact with DNA, RNA, small molecules, ions, or peptides. Using this dataset, we identify functionally important patterns of conservation and variation within the amino acid residues that facilitate protein-ligand interactions across the primate phylogeny. We uncover that interaction sites are significantly more conserved than other sites, and that sites binding DNA and RNA further exhibit the lowest levels of variation. We also show that the subset of ligand-binding sites that do vary are enriched in components of gene regulatory pathways and uncover several instances of human-specific ligand-binding site changes within transcription factors. Altogether, our results suggest that ligand-binding sites have experienced selective pressure in primates and propose that variation in these sites may have an outsized effect on phenotypic variation in primates through pleiotropic effects on gene regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean B King
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Mona Singh
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
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8
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Bastide P, Soneson C, Stern DB, Lespinet O, Gallopin M. A Phylogenetic Framework to Simulate Synthetic Interspecies RNA-Seq Data. Mol Biol Evol 2023; 40:6889356. [PMID: 36508357 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Revised: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Interspecies RNA-Seq datasets are increasingly common, and have the potential to answer new questions about the evolution of gene expression. Single-species differential expression analysis is now a well-studied problem that benefits from sound statistical methods. Extensive reviews on biological or synthetic datasets have provided the community with a clear picture on the relative performances of the available methods in various settings. However, synthetic dataset simulation tools are still missing in the interspecies gene expression context. In this work, we develop and implement a new simulation framework. This tool builds on both the RNA-Seq and the phylogenetic comparative methods literatures to generate realistic count datasets, while taking into account the phylogenetic relationships between the samples. We illustrate the usefulness of this new framework through a targeted simulation study, that reproduces the features of a recently published dataset, containing gene expression data in adult eye tissue across blind and sighted freshwater crayfish species. Using our simulated datasets, we perform a fair comparison of several approaches used for differential expression analysis. This benchmark reveals some of the strengths and weaknesses of both the classical and phylogenetic approaches for interspecies differential expression analysis, and allows for a reanalysis of the crayfish dataset. The tool has been integrated in the R package compcodeR, freely available on Bioconductor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Bastide
- IMAG, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France
| | - Charlotte Soneson
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.,SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - David B Stern
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Olivier Lespinet
- Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Mélina Gallopin
- Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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9
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Current advances in primate genomics: novel approaches for understanding evolution and disease. Nat Rev Genet 2023; 24:314-331. [PMID: 36599936 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-022-00554-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Primate genomics holds the key to understanding fundamental aspects of human evolution and disease. However, genetic diversity and functional genomics data sets are currently available for only a few of the more than 500 extant primate species. Concerted efforts are under way to characterize primate genomes, genetic polymorphism and divergence, and functional landscapes across the primate phylogeny. The resulting data sets will enable the connection of genotypes to phenotypes and provide new insight into aspects of the genetics of primate traits, including human diseases. In this Review, we describe the existing genome assemblies as well as genetic variation and functional genomic data sets. We highlight some of the challenges with sample acquisition. Finally, we explore how technological advances in single-cell functional genomics and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids will facilitate our understanding of the molecular foundations of primate biology.
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10
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Li J, Sun K, Dai W, Leng H, Li A, Feng J. Extensive Adaptive Variation in Gene Expression within and between Closely Related Horseshoe Bats (Chiroptera, Rhinolophus) Revealed by Three Organs. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12233432. [PMID: 36496954 PMCID: PMC9741297 DOI: 10.3390/ani12233432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Revised: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In the process of species differentiation and adaption, the relative influence of natural selection on gene expression variation often remains unclear (especially its impact on phenotypic divergence). In this study, we used differentially expressed genes from brain, cochlea, and liver samples collected from two species of bats to determine the gene expression variation forced by natural selection when comparing at the interspecific (Rhinolophus siamensis and R. episcopus episcopus) and the intraspecific (R. e. episcopus and R. episcopus spp.) levels. In both cases, gene expression variation was extensively adaptive (>66.0%) and mainly governed by directional selection, followed by stabilizing selection, and finally balancing selection. The expression variation related to acoustic signals (resting frequency, RF) and body size (forearm length, FA) was also widely governed by natural selection (>69.1%). Different functional patterns of RF- or FA-related adaptive expression variation were found between the two comparisons, which manifested as abundant immune-related regulations between subspecies (indicating a relationship between immune response and phenotypic adaption). Our study verifies the extensive adaptive expression variation between both species and subspecies and provides insight into the effects of natural selection on species differentiation and adaptation as well as phenotypic divergence at the expression level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Li
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China
| | - Keping Sun
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China
- Correspondence: (K.S.); (J.F.)
| | - Wentao Dai
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China
| | - Haixia Leng
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China
| | - Aoqiang Li
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China
| | - Jiang Feng
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resource Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
- College of Life Science, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China
- Correspondence: (K.S.); (J.F.)
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11
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Patoori S, Barnada SM, Large C, Murray JI, Trizzino M. Young transposable elements rewired gene regulatory networks in human and chimpanzee hippocampal intermediate progenitors. Development 2022; 149:276504. [PMID: 36052683 PMCID: PMC9641669 DOI: 10.1242/dev.200413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
The hippocampus is associated with essential brain functions, such as learning and memory. Human hippocampal volume is significantly greater than expected compared with that of non-human apes, suggesting a recent expansion. Intermediate progenitors, which are able to undergo multiple rounds of proliferative division before a final neurogenic division, may have played a role in evolutionary hippocampal expansion. To investigate the evolution of gene regulatory networks underpinning hippocampal neurogenesis in apes, we leveraged the differentiation of human and chimpanzee induced pluripotent stem cells into TBR2 (or EOMES)-positive hippocampal intermediate progenitor cells (hpIPCs). We found that the gene networks active in hpIPCs are significantly different between humans and chimpanzees, with ∼2500 genes being differentially expressed. We demonstrate that species-specific transposon-derived enhancers contribute to these transcriptomic differences. Young transposons, predominantly endogenous retroviruses and SINE-Vntr-Alus (SVAs), were co-opted as enhancers in a species-specific manner. Human-specific SVAs provided substrates for thousands of novel TBR2-binding sites, and CRISPR-mediated repression of these SVAs attenuated the expression of ∼25% of the genes that are upregulated in human intermediate progenitors relative to the same cell population in the chimpanzee.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sruti Patoori
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
| | - Samantha M. Barnada
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
| | - Christopher Large
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - John I. Murray
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Marco Trizzino
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA,Author for correspondence ()
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12
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Premont A, Saadeh K, Edling C, Lewis R, Marr CM, Jeevaratnam K. Cardiac ion channel expression in the equine model - In-silico prediction utilising RNA sequencing data from mixed tissue samples. Physiol Rep 2022; 10:e15273. [PMID: 35880716 PMCID: PMC9316921 DOI: 10.14814/phy2.15273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2021] [Revised: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding cardiomyocyte ion channel expression is crucial to understanding normal cardiac electrophysiology and underlying mechanisms of cardiac pathologies particularly arrhythmias. Hitherto, equine cardiac ion channel expression has rarely been investigated. Therefore, we aim to predict equine cardiac ion channel gene expression. Raw RNAseq data from normal horses from 9 datasets was retrieved from ArrayExpress and European Nucleotide Archive and reanalysed. The normalised (FPKM) read counts for a gene in a mix of tissue were hypothesised to be the average of the expected expression in each tissue weighted by the proportion of the tissue in the mix. The cardiac-specific expression was predicted by estimating the mean expression in each other tissues. To evaluate the performance of the model, predicted gene expression values were compared to the human cardiac gene expression. Cardiac-specific expression could be predicted for 91 ion channels including most expressed Na+ channels, K+ channels and Ca2+ -handling proteins. These revealed interesting differences from what would be expected based on human studies. These differences included predominance of NaV 1.4 rather than NaV 1.5 channel, and RYR1, SERCA1 and CASQ1 rather than RYR2, SERCA2, CASQ2 Ca2+ -handling proteins. Differences in channel expression not only implicate potentially different regulatory mechanisms but also pathological mechanisms of arrhythmogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antoine Premont
- Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of SurreyGuildfordSurreyUK
| | - Khalil Saadeh
- Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of SurreyGuildfordSurreyUK
- School of Clinical MedicineUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Charlotte Edling
- Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of SurreyGuildfordSurreyUK
| | - Rebecca Lewis
- Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of SurreyGuildfordSurreyUK
| | - Celia M. Marr
- Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of SurreyGuildfordSurreyUK
- School of Clinical MedicineUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
- Rossdales Equine Hospital and Diagnostic CentreExningSuffolkUK
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13
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Detecting signatures of selection on gene expression. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1035-1045. [PMID: 35551249 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01761-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
A substantial amount of phenotypic diversity results from changes in gene expression levels and patterns. Understanding how the transcriptome evolves is therefore a key priority in identifying mechanisms of adaptive change. However, in contrast to powerful models of sequence evolution, we lack a consensus model of gene expression evolution. Furthermore, recent work has shown that many of the comparative approaches used to study gene expression are subject to biases that can lead to false signatures of selection. Here we first outline the main approaches for describing expression evolution and their inherent biases. Next, we bridge the gap between the fields of phylogenetic comparative methods and transcriptomics to reinforce the main pitfalls of inferring selection on expression patterns and use simulation studies to show that shifts in tissue composition can heavily bias inferences of selection. We close by highlighting the multi-dimensional nature of transcriptional variation and identifying major unanswered questions in disentangling how selection acts on the transcriptome.
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14
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Preuss TM, Wise SP. Evolution of prefrontal cortex. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:3-19. [PMID: 34363014 PMCID: PMC8617185 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01076-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Subdivisions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) evolved at different times. Agranular parts of the PFC emerged in early mammals, and rodents, primates, and other modern mammals share them by inheritance. These are limbic areas and include the agranular orbital cortex and agranular medial frontal cortex (areas 24, 32, and 25). Rodent research provides valuable insights into the structure, functions, and development of these shared areas, but it contributes less to parts of the PFC that are specific to primates, namely, the granular, isocortical PFC that dominates the frontal lobe in humans. The first granular PFC areas evolved either in early primates or in the last common ancestor of primates and tree shrews. Additional granular PFC areas emerged in the primate stem lineage, as represented by modern strepsirrhines. Other granular PFC areas evolved in simians, the group that includes apes, humans, and monkeys. In general, PFC accreted new areas along a roughly posterior to anterior trajectory during primate evolution. A major expansion of the granular PFC occurred in humans in concert with other association areas, with modifications of corticocortical connectivity and gene expression, although current evidence does not support the addition of a large number of new, human-specific PFC areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Todd M Preuss
- Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA.
| | - Steven P Wise
- Olschefskie Institute for the Neurobiology of Knowledge, Bethesda, MD, 20814, USA
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15
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Muehlbauer AL, Richards AL, Alazizi A, Burns MB, Gomez A, Clayton JB, Petrzelkova K, Cascardo C, Resztak J, Wen X, Pique-Regi R, Luca F, Blekhman R. Interspecies variation in hominid gut microbiota controls host gene regulation. Cell Rep 2021; 37:110057. [PMID: 34818542 PMCID: PMC8647622 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2020] [Revised: 07/22/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The gut microbiome exhibits extreme compositional variation between hominid hosts. However, it is unclear how this variation impacts host physiology across species and whether this effect can be mediated through microbial regulation of host gene expression in interacting epithelial cells. Here, we characterize the transcriptional response of human colonic epithelial cells in vitro to live microbial communities extracted from humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. We find that most host genes exhibit a conserved response, whereby they respond similarly to the four hominid microbiomes. However, hundreds of host genes exhibit a divergent response, whereby they respond only to microbiomes from specific host species. Such genes are associated with intestinal diseases in humans, including inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease. Last, we find that inflammation-associated microbial species regulate the expression of host genes previously associated with inflammatory bowel disease, suggesting health-related consequences for species-specific host-microbiome interactions across hominids. Muehlbauer et al. investigate how variation between different hominid microbiomes drives host gene expression in colonic epithelial cell cultures. They find that host genes that respond only to microbiomes from a specific hominid species are linked to gastrointestinal diseases, suggesting implications for understanding how the microbiome can impact human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda L Muehlbauer
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Allison L Richards
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
| | - Adnan Alazizi
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
| | - Michael B Burns
- Department of Biology, Loyola University, Chicago, IL 60660, USA
| | - Andres Gomez
- Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, USA
| | - Jonathan B Clayton
- Department of Biology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NB, USA; Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NB, USA
| | - Klara Petrzelkova
- The Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Brno, Czech Republic; Liberec Zoo, Liberec, Czech Republic; The Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Parasitology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Camilla Cascardo
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
| | - Justyna Resztak
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
| | - Xiaoquan Wen
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Roger Pique-Regi
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
| | - Francesca Luca
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
| | - Ran Blekhman
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
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16
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Abstract
The human brain is characterized by the large size and intricate folding of its cerebral cortex, which are fundamental for our higher cognitive function and frequently altered in pathological dysfunction. Cortex folding is not unique to humans, nor even to primates, but is common across mammals. Cortical growth and folding are the result of complex developmental processes that involve neural stem and progenitor cells and their cellular lineages, the migration and differentiation of neurons, and the genetic programs that regulate and fine-tune these processes. All these factors combined generate mechanical stress and strain on the developing neural tissue, which ultimately drives orderly cortical deformation and folding. In this review we examine and summarize the current knowledge on the molecular, cellular, histogenic and mechanical mechanisms that are involved in and influence folding of the cerebral cortex, and how they emerged and changed during mammalian evolution. We discuss the main types of pathological malformations of human cortex folding, their specific developmental origin, and how investigating their genetic causes has illuminated our understanding of key events involved. We close our review by presenting the state-of-the-art animal and in vitro models of cortex folding that are currently used to study these devastating developmental brain disorders in children, and what are the main challenges that remain ahead of us to fully understand brain folding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucia Del Valle Anton
- Instituto de Neurociencias, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, San Juan de Alicante, Alicante, Spain
| | - Victor Borrell
- Instituto de Neurociencias, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, San Juan de Alicante, Alicante, Spain
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17
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Seppälä O, Çetin C, Cereghetti T, Feulner PGD, Adema CM. Examining adaptive evolution of immune activity: opportunities provided by gastropods in the age of 'omics'. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200158. [PMID: 33813886 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Parasites threaten all free-living organisms, including molluscs. Understanding the evolution of immune defence traits in natural host populations is crucial for predicting their long-term performance under continuous infection risk. Adaptive trait evolution requires that traits are subject to selection (i.e. contribute to organismal fitness) and that they are heritable. Despite broad interest in the evolutionary ecology of immune activity in animals, the understanding of selection on and evolutionary potential of immune defence traits is far from comprehensive. For instance, empirical observations are only rarely in line with theoretical predictions of immune activity being subject to stabilizing selection. This discrepancy may be because ecoimmunological studies can typically cover only a fraction of the complexity of an animal immune system. Similarly, molecular immunology/immunogenetics studies provide a mechanistic understanding of immunity, but neglect variation that arises from natural genetic differences among individuals and from environmental conditions. Here, we review the current literature on natural selection on and evolutionary potential of immune traits in animals, signal how merging ecological immunology and genomics will strengthen evolutionary ecological research on immunity, and indicate research opportunities for molluscan gastropods for which well-established ecological understanding and/or 'immune-omics' resources are already available. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Molluscan genomics: broad insights and future directions for a neglected phylum'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Otto Seppälä
- Research Department for Limnology, University of Innsbruck, Mondsee, Austria
| | - Cansu Çetin
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.,Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Teo Cereghetti
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.,Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Philine G D Feulner
- Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.,Division of Aquatic Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Coen M Adema
- Department of Biology, Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
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18
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Transcriptome profiling of Lymnaea stagnalis (Gastropoda) for ecoimmunological research. BMC Genomics 2021; 22:144. [PMID: 33648459 PMCID: PMC7919325 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-021-07428-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 02/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Host immune function can contribute to numerous ecological/evolutionary processes. Ecoimmunological studies, however, typically use one/few phenotypic immune assays and thus do not consider the complexity of the immune system. Therefore, "omics" resources that allow quantifying immune activity across multiple pathways are needed for ecoimmunological models. We applied short-read based RNAseq (Illumina NextSeq 500, PE-81) to characterise transcriptome profiles of Lymnaea stagnalis (Gastropoda), a multipurpose model snail species. We used a genetically diverse snail stock and exposed individuals to immune elicitors (injury, bacterial/trematode pathogens) and changes in environmental conditions that can alter immune activity (temperature, food availability). RESULTS Immune defence factors identified in the de novo assembly covered elements broadly described in other gastropods. For instance, pathogen-recognition receptors (PRR) and lectins activate Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway and cytokines that regulate cellular and humoral defences. Surprisingly, only modest diversity of antimicrobial peptides and fibrinogen related proteins were detected when compared with other taxa. Additionally, multiple defence factors that may contribute to the phenotypic immune assays used to quantify antibacterial activity and phenoloxidase (PO)/melanisation-type reaction in this species were found. Experimental treatments revealed factors from non-self recognition (lectins) and signalling (TLR pathway, cytokines) to effectors (e.g., antibacterial proteins, PO enzymes) whose transcription depended on immune stimuli and environmental conditions, as well as components of snail physiology/metabolism that may drive these effects. Interestingly, the transcription of many factors (e.g., PRR, lectins, cytokines, PO enzymes, antibacterial proteins) showed high among-individual variation. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate several uniform aspects of gastropod immunity, but also apparent differences between L. stagnalis and some previously examined taxa. Interestingly, in addition to immune defence factors that responded to immune elicitors and changes in environmental conditions, many factors showed high among-individual variation across experimental snails. We propose that such factors are highly important to be included in future ecoimmunological studies because they may be the key determinants of differences in parasite resistance among individuals both within and between natural snail populations.
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19
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Kanduc D. Lack of Molecular Mimicry between Nonhuman Primates and Infectious Pathogens: The Possible Genetic Bases. Glob Med Genet 2021; 8:32-37. [PMID: 33748822 PMCID: PMC7964256 DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1724106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, it was found that proteomes from poliovirus, measles virus, dengue virus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome-related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have high molecular mimicry at the heptapeptide level with the human proteome, while heptapeptide commonality is minimal or absent with proteomes from nonhuman primates, that is, gorilla, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque. To acquire more data on the issue, analyses here have been expanded to Ebola virus,
Francisella tularensis
, human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1),
Toxoplasma gondii
, Variola virus, and
Yersinia pestis
. Results confirm that heptapeptide overlap is high between pathogens and
Homo sapiens
, but not between pathogens and primates. Data are discussed in light of the possible genetic bases that differently model primate phenomes, thus possibly underlying the zero/low level of molecular mimicry between infectious agents and primates. Notably, this study might help address preclinical vaccine tests that currently utilize primates as animal models, since autoimmune cross-reactions and the consequent adverse events cannot occur
in absentia
of shared sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darja Kanduc
- Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies, and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari, Italy
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20
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Zuarez-Chamba M, Puma L, Bermeo J, Andrade E, Bermúdez-Puga SA, Naranjo-Briceño L. Genomic benchmarking studies reveal variations of the polyubiquitination domain of the PSD95 protein in Homo neanderthalensis and other primates of the Hominidae family: Possible implications in cognitive functions? BIONATURA 2021. [DOI: 10.21931/rb/2021.06.01.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Modern humans' unique cognitive abilities regarding Neanderthals and other primate's lineages are frequently attributed to the differences in brain size development and evolution. However, recent studies have established the critical role of genomic and genetic benchmarking in analyzing the cognitive evolution between modern humans and primates, focused mainly on searching for involved genes in neurogenesis. PSD95 protein (named PSD95p) has a key role in modulating synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory skills. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the possible variations of the PSD95 gene between modern humans, Neanderthals, and other hominid primate species using bioinformatics tools. The results showed 14 polymorphisms compared with the contemporary human PSD95 gene, of which 13 were silent mutations, and only one was a non-silent mutation at the nucleotide position 281. Despite polymorphisms found at the nucleotide sequences, the PSD95p of humans and chimpanzees are 100% identical. Likewise, the gorilla and orangutan PSD95p are 100% identical, although a 103-amino acid deletion characterizes them at the N-terminal end (1-103), suggesting that it behaves like a non-functional protein. Interestingly, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) found at position 281 in the Neanderthal PSD95 gene leads to a change of the E94 to valine V94 in the polyubiquitination domain (PEST) and variation in the three-dimensional structure of PSD95 protein. We prompt that this structural change in the PEST domain could induce a loss of PSD95p function and, therefore, an alteration in synaptic plasticity forms such as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). These findings open a possible hypothesis supporting the idea that humans' cognitive evolution after separating our last common ancestor with Neanderthals lineage could have been accompanied by discrete changes in the PSD95p polyubiquitination domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Zuarez-Chamba
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Ingeniería en Biotecnología. Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, vía Muyuna, km. 7, CP 150150, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Luis Puma
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Ingeniería en Biotecnología. Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, vía Muyuna, km. 7, CP 150150, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Jorge Bermeo
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Ingeniería en Biotecnología. Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, vía Muyuna, km. 7, CP 150150, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Eugenio Andrade
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Ingeniería en Biotecnología. Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, vía Muyuna, km. 7, CP 150150, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Stalin A. Bermúdez-Puga
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Ingeniería en Biotecnología. Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, vía Muyuna, km. 7, CP 150150, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Leopoldo Naranjo-Briceño
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Ingeniería en Biotecnología. Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, vía Muyuna, km. 7, CP 150150, Tena, Ecuador
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21
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Gualtieri CT. Genomic Variation, Evolvability, and the Paradox of Mental Illness. Front Psychiatry 2021; 11:593233. [PMID: 33551865 PMCID: PMC7859268 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.593233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 11/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Twentieth-century genetics was hard put to explain the irregular behavior of neuropsychiatric disorders. Autism and schizophrenia defy a principle of natural selection; they are highly heritable but associated with low reproductive success. Nevertheless, they persist. The genetic origins of such conditions are confounded by the problem of variable expression, that is, when a given genetic aberration can lead to any one of several distinct disorders. Also, autism and schizophrenia occur on a spectrum of severity, from mild and subclinical cases to the overt and disabling. Such irregularities reflect the problem of missing heritability; although hundreds of genes may be associated with autism or schizophrenia, together they account for only a small proportion of cases. Techniques for higher resolution, genomewide analysis have begun to illuminate the irregular and unpredictable behavior of the human genome. Thus, the origins of neuropsychiatric disorders in particular and complex disease in general have been illuminated. The human genome is characterized by a high degree of structural and behavioral variability: DNA content variation, epistasis, stochasticity in gene expression, and epigenetic changes. These elements have grown more complex as evolution scaled the phylogenetic tree. They are especially pertinent to brain development and function. Genomic variability is a window on the origins of complex disease, neuropsychiatric disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders in particular. Genomic variability, as it happens, is also the fuel of evolvability. The genomic events that presided over the evolution of the primate and hominid lineages are over-represented in patients with autism and schizophrenia, as well as intellectual disability and epilepsy. That the special qualities of the human genome that drove evolution might, in some way, contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders is a matter of no little interest.
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22
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Varón-González C, Whelan S, Klingenberg CP. Estimating Phylogenies from Shape and Similar Multidimensional Data: Why It Is Not Reliable. Syst Biol 2021; 69:863-883. [PMID: 31985800 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syaa003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Revised: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
In recent years, there has been controversy whether multidimensional data such as geometric morphometric data or information on gene expression can be used for estimating phylogenies. This study uses simulations of evolution in multidimensional phenotype spaces to address this question and to identify specific factors that are important for answering it. Most of the simulations use phylogenies with four taxa, so that there are just three possible unrooted trees and the effect of different combinations of branch lengths can be studied systematically. In a comparison of methods, squared-change parsimony performed similarly well as maximum likelihood, and both methods outperformed Wagner and Euclidean parsimony, neighbor-joining and UPGMA. Under an evolutionary model of isotropic Brownian motion, phylogeny can be estimated reliably if dimensionality is high, even with relatively unfavorable combinations of branch lengths. By contrast, if there is phenotypic integration such that most variation is concentrated in one or a few dimensions, the reliability of phylogenetic estimates is severely reduced. Evolutionary models with stabilizing selection also produce highly unreliable estimates, which are little better than picking a phylogenetic tree at random. To examine how these results apply to phylogenies with more than four taxa, we conducted further simulations with up to eight taxa, which indicated that the effects of dimensionality and phenotypic integration extend to more than four taxa, and that convergence among internal nodes may produce additional complications specifically for greater numbers of taxa. Overall, the simulations suggest that multidimensional data, under evolutionary models that are plausible for biological data, do not produce reliable estimates of phylogeny. [Brownian motion; gene expression data; geometric morphometrics; morphological integration; squared-change parsimony; phylogeny; shape; stabilizing selection.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Ceferino Varón-González
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
| | - Simon Whelan
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.,Department of Evolutionary Biology, EBC, Uppsala University, Norbyägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Christian Peter Klingenberg
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
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23
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Endo S, Motomura K, Tsuhako M, Kakazu Y, Nakamura M, M. Otaki J. Search for Human-Specific Proteins Based on Availability Scores of Short Constituent Sequences: Identification of a WRWSH Protein in Human Testis. Comput Biol Chem 2020. [DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.89653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Little is known about protein sequences unique in humans. Here, we performed alignment-free sequence comparisons based on the availability (frequency bias) of short constituent amino acid (aa) sequences (SCSs) in proteins to search for human-specific proteins. Focusing on 5-aa SCSs (pentats), exhaustive comparisons of availability scores among the human proteome and other nine mammalian proteomes in the nonredundant (nr) database identified a candidate protein containing WRWSH, here called FAM75, as human-specific. Examination of various human genome sequences revealed that FAM75 had genomic DNA sequences for either WRWSH or WRWSR due to a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). FAM75 and its related protein FAM205A were found to be produced through alternative splicing. The FAM75 transcript was found only in humans, but the FAM205A transcript was also present in other mammals. In humans, both FAM75 and FAM205A were expressed specifically in testis at the mRNA level, and they were immunohistochemically located in cells in seminiferous ducts and in acrosomes in spermatids at the protein level, suggesting their possible function in sperm development and fertilization. This study highlights a practical application of SCS-based methods for protein searches and suggests possible contributions of SNP variants and alternative splicing of FAM75 to human evolution.
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24
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Liu J, Robinson-Rechavi M. Robust inference of positive selection on regulatory sequences in the human brain. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:6/48/eabc9863. [PMID: 33246961 PMCID: PMC7695467 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc9863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 10/16/2020] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
A longstanding hypothesis is that divergence between humans and chimpanzees might have been driven more by regulatory level adaptations than by protein sequence adaptations. This has especially been suggested for regulatory adaptations in the evolution of the human brain. We present a new method to detect positive selection on transcription factor binding sites on the basis of measuring predicted affinity change with a machine learning model of binding. Unlike other methods, this approach requires neither defining a priori neutral sites nor detecting accelerated evolution, thus removing major sources of bias. We scanned the signals of positive selection for CTCF binding sites in 29 human and 11 mouse tissues or cell types. We found that human brain-related cell types have the highest proportion of positive selection. This result is consistent with the view that adaptive evolution to gene regulation has played an important role in evolution of the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jialin Liu
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marc Robinson-Rechavi
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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25
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Liu Y, Konopka G. An integrative understanding of comparative cognition: lessons from human brain evolution. Integr Comp Biol 2020; 60:991-1006. [PMID: 32681799 PMCID: PMC7608741 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icaa109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
A comprehensive understanding of animal cognition requires the integration of studies on behavior, electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, development, and genomics. Although studies of comparative cognition are receiving increasing attention from organismal biologists, most current studies focus on the comparison of behaviors and anatomical structures to understand their adaptative values. However, to understand the most potentially complex cognitive program of the human brain a greater synthesis of a multitude of disciplines is needed. In this review, we start with extensive neuroanatomic comparisons between humans and other primates. One likely specialization of the human brain is the expansion of neocortex, especially in regions for high-order cognition (e.g., prefrontal cortex). We then discuss how such an expansion can be linked to heterochrony of the brain developmental program, resulting in a greater number of neurons and enhanced computational capacity. Furthermore, alteration of gene expression in the human brain has been associated with positive selection in DNA sequences of gene regulatory regions. These results not only imply that genes associated with brain development are a major factor in the evolution of cognition, but also that high-quality whole-genome sequencing and gene manipulation techniques are needed for an integrative and functional understanding of comparative cognition in non-model organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuxiang Liu
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
| | - Genevieve Konopka
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
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26
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Grieneisen L, Muehlbauer AL, Blekhman R. Microbial control of host gene regulation and the evolution of host-microbiome interactions in primates. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 375:20190598. [PMID: 32772669 PMCID: PMC7435160 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent comparative studies have found evidence consistent with the action of natural selection on gene regulation across primate species. Other recent work has shown that the microbiome can regulate host gene expression in a wide range of relevant tissues, leading to downstream effects on immunity, metabolism and other biological systems in the host. In primates, even closely related host species can have large differences in microbiome composition. One potential consequence of these differences is that host species-specific microbial traits could lead to differences in gene expression that influence primate physiology and adaptation to local environments. Here, we will discuss and integrate recent findings from primate comparative genomics and microbiome research, and explore the notion that the microbiome can influence host evolutionary dynamics by affecting gene regulation across primate host species. This article is part of the theme issue 'The role of the microbiome in host evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Grieneisen
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Amanda L. Muehlbauer
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Ran Blekhman
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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27
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Jallet AJ, Le Rouzic A, Genissel A. Evolution and Plasticity of the Transcriptome Under Temperature Fluctuations in the Fungal Plant Pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:573829. [PMID: 33042084 PMCID: PMC7517895 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.573829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Most species live in a variable environment in nature. Yet understanding the evolutionary processes underlying molecular adaptation to fluctuations remains a challenge. In this study we investigate the transcriptome of the fungal wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici after experimental evolution under stable or fluctuating temperature, by comparing ancestral and evolved populations simultaneously. We found that temperature regimes could have a large and pervasive effect on the transcriptome evolution, with as much as 38% of the genes being differentially expressed between selection regimes. Although evolved lineages showed different changes of gene expression based on ancestral genotypes, we identified a set of genes responding specifically to fluctuation. We found that transcriptome evolution in fluctuating conditions was repeatable between parallel lineages initiated from the same genotype for about 60% of the differentially expressed genes. Further, we detected several hotspots of significantly differentially expressed genes in the genome, in regions known to be enriched in repetitive elements, including accessory chromosomes. Our findings also evidenced gene expression evolution toward a gain of robustness (loss of phenotypic plasticity) associated with the fluctuating regime, suggesting robustness is adaptive in changing environment. This work provides valuable insight into the role of transcriptional rewiring for rapid adaptation to abiotic changes in filamentous plant pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur J. Jallet
- UMR BIOGER, Université Paris Saclay – INRAE – AgroParisTech, Thiverval-Grignon, France
| | - Arnaud Le Rouzic
- UMR Évolution, Génomes, Comportement et Écologie, Université Paris-Saclay – CNRS – IRD, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Anne Genissel
- UMR BIOGER, Université Paris Saclay – INRAE – AgroParisTech, Thiverval-Grignon, France
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28
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Suntsova MV, Buzdin AA. Differences between human and chimpanzee genomes and their implications in gene expression, protein functions and biochemical properties of the two species. BMC Genomics 2020; 21:535. [PMID: 32912141 PMCID: PMC7488140 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-020-06962-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Chimpanzees are the closest living relatives of humans. The divergence between human and chimpanzee ancestors dates to approximately 6,5-7,5 million years ago. Genetic features distinguishing us from chimpanzees and making us humans are still of a great interest. After divergence of their ancestor lineages, human and chimpanzee genomes underwent multiple changes including single nucleotide substitutions, deletions and duplications of DNA fragments of different size, insertion of transposable elements and chromosomal rearrangements. Human-specific single nucleotide alterations constituted 1.23% of human DNA, whereas more extended deletions and insertions cover ~ 3% of our genome. Moreover, much higher proportion is made by differential chromosomal inversions and translocations comprising several megabase-long regions or even whole chromosomes. However, despite of extensive knowledge of structural genomic changes accompanying human evolution we still cannot identify with certainty the causative genes of human identity. Most structural gene-influential changes happened at the level of expression regulation, which in turn provoked larger alterations of interactome gene regulation networks. In this review, we summarized the available information about genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees and their potential functional impacts on differential molecular, anatomical, physiological and cognitive peculiarities of these species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria V Suntsova
- Institute for personalized medicine, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Trubetskaya 8, Moscow, Russia
| | - Anton A Buzdin
- Institute for personalized medicine, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Trubetskaya 8, Moscow, Russia. .,Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Miklukho-Maklaya, 16/10, Moscow, Russia. .,Omicsway Corp, Walnut, CA, USA. .,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), 141700, Moscow, Russia.
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29
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Selection against archaic hominin genetic variation in regulatory regions. Nat Ecol Evol 2020; 4:1558-1566. [PMID: 32839541 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01284-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Traces of Neandertal and Denisovan DNA persist in the modern human gene pool, but have been systematically purged by natural selection from genes and other functionally important regions. This implies that many archaic alleles harmed the fitness of hybrid individuals, but the nature of this harm is poorly understood. Here, we show that enhancers contain less Neandertal and Denisovan variation than expected given the background selection they experience, suggesting that selection acted to purge these regions of archaic alleles that disrupted their gene regulatory functions. We infer that selection acted mainly on young archaic variation that arose in Neandertals or Denisovans shortly before their contact with humans; enhancers are not depleted of older variants found in both archaic species. Some types of enhancer appear to have tolerated introgression better than others; compared with tissue-specific enhancers, pleiotropic enhancers show stronger depletion of archaic single-nucleotide polymorphisms. To some extent, evolutionary constraint is predictive of introgression depletion, but certain tissues' enhancers are more depleted of Neandertal and Denisovan alleles than expected given their comparative tolerance to new mutations. Foetal brain and muscle are the tissues whose enhancers show the strongest depletion of archaic alleles, but only brain enhancers show evidence of unusually stringent purifying selection. We conclude that epistatic incompatibilities between human and archaic alleles are needed to explain the degree of archaic variant depletion from foetal muscle enhancers, perhaps due to divergent selection for higher muscle mass in archaic hominins compared with humans.
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30
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Anderson JA, Vilgalys TP, Tung J. Broadening primate genomics: new insights into the ecology and evolution of primate gene regulation. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2020; 62:16-22. [PMID: 32569794 PMCID: PMC7483836 DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2020.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Revised: 05/05/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Comparative analyses have played a key role in understanding how gene regulatory evolution contributes to primate phenotypic diversity. Recently, these studies have expanded to include a wider range of species, within-population as well as interspecific analyses, and research on wild as well as captive individuals. This expansion provides context for understanding genetic and environmental effects on gene regulation in humans, including the importance of the pathogen and social environments. Although taxonomic representation remains biased, inclusion of more species has also begun to reveal the evolutionary processes that explain whether and when gene regulation is conserved. Together, this work highlights how studies in other primates contribute to understanding evolution in our own lineage, and we conclude by identifying promising avenues for future work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan A Anderson
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Tauras P Vilgalys
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | - Jenny Tung
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00502, Kenya; Duke Population Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
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31
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Khrameeva E, Kurochkin I, Han D, Guijarro P, Kanton S, Santel M, Qian Z, Rong S, Mazin P, Sabirov M, Bulat M, Efimova O, Tkachev A, Guo S, Sherwood CC, Camp JG, Pääbo S, Treutlein B, Khaitovich P. Single-cell-resolution transcriptome map of human, chimpanzee, bonobo, and macaque brains. Genome Res 2020; 30:776-789. [PMID: 32424074 PMCID: PMC7263190 DOI: 10.1101/gr.256958.119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2019] [Accepted: 04/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Identification of gene expression traits unique to the human brain sheds light on the molecular mechanisms underlying human evolution. Here, we searched for uniquely human gene expression traits by analyzing 422 brain samples from humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and macaques representing 33 anatomical regions, as well as 88,047 cell nuclei composing three of these regions. Among 33 regions, cerebral cortex areas, hypothalamus, and cerebellar gray and white matter evolved rapidly in humans. At the cellular level, astrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitors displayed more differences in the human evolutionary lineage than the neurons. Comparison of the bulk tissue and single-nuclei sequencing revealed that conventional RNA sequencing did not detect up to two-thirds of cell-type-specific evolutionary differences.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ilia Kurochkin
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia
| | - Dingding Han
- Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Patricia Guijarro
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, 200031, China
| | - Sabina Kanton
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Malgorzata Santel
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Zhengzong Qian
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, 200031, China
| | - Shen Rong
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, 200031, China
| | - Pavel Mazin
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia.,Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 127051, Russia
| | - Marat Sabirov
- Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119334, Russia
| | - Matvei Bulat
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia
| | - Olga Efimova
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia
| | - Anna Tkachev
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia.,Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 127051, Russia
| | - Song Guo
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia.,CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, 200031, China
| | - Chet C Sherwood
- Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - J Gray Camp
- Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology, Basel, 4057, Switzerland
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Barbara Treutlein
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Basel, 4058, Switzerland
| | - Philipp Khaitovich
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, 143028, Russia.,CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, 200031, China.,Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.,Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China
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32
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Blake LE, Roux J, Hernando-Herraez I, Banovich NE, Perez RG, Hsiao CJ, Eres I, Cuevas C, Marques-Bonet T, Gilad Y. A comparison of gene expression and DNA methylation patterns across tissues and species. Genome Res 2020; 30:250-262. [PMID: 31953346 PMCID: PMC7050529 DOI: 10.1101/gr.254904.119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2019] [Accepted: 01/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Previously published comparative functional genomic data sets from primates using frozen tissue samples, including many data sets from our own group, were often collected and analyzed using nonoptimal study designs and analysis approaches. In addition, when samples from multiple tissues were studied in a comparative framework, individuals and tissues were confounded. We designed a multitissue comparative study of gene expression and DNA methylation in primates that minimizes confounding effects by using a balanced design with respect to species, tissues, and individuals. We also developed a comparative analysis pipeline that minimizes biases attributable to sequence divergence. Thus, we present the most comprehensive catalog of similarities and differences in gene expression and DNA methylation levels between livers, kidneys, hearts, and lungs, in humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques. We estimate that overall, interspecies and inter-tissue differences in gene expression levels can only modestly be accounted for by corresponding differences in promoter DNA methylation. However, the expression pattern of genes with conserved inter-tissue expression differences can be explained by corresponding interspecies methylation changes more often. Finally, we show that genes whose tissue-specific regulatory patterns are consistent with the action of natural selection are highly connected in both gene regulatory and protein–protein interaction networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren E Blake
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Julien Roux
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.,Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 4031 Basel, Switzerland
| | | | - Nicholas E Banovich
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Raquel Garcia Perez
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, 88 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Chiaowen Joyce Hsiao
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Ittai Eres
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Claudia Cuevas
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Tomas Marques-Bonet
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, 88 08003 Barcelona, Spain.,Passeig de Lluís Companys, Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies, 23 08010 Barcelona, Spain.,Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Centre for Genomic Regulation, 88 08003 Barcelona, Spain.,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Yoav Gilad
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.,Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
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33
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Genome-wide human brain eQTLs: In-depth analysis and insights using the UKBEC dataset. Sci Rep 2019; 9:19201. [PMID: 31844111 PMCID: PMC6915738 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-55590-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2019] [Accepted: 11/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the complexity of the human brain transcriptome architecture is one of the most important human genetics study areas. Previous studies have applied expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis at the genome-wide level of the brain to understand the underlying mechanisms relating to neurodegenerative diseases, primarily at the transcript level. To increase the resolution of our understanding, the current study investigates multi/single-region, transcript/exon-level and cis versus trans-acting eQTL, across 10 regions of the human brain. Some of the key findings of this study are: (i) only a relatively small proportion of eQTLs will be detected, where the sensitivity is under 5%; (ii) when an eQTL is acting in multiple regions (MR-eQTL), it tends to have very similar effects on gene expression in each of these regions, as well as being cis-acting; (iii) trans-acting eQTLs tend to have larger effects on expression compared to cis-acting eQTLs and tend to be specific to a single region (SR-eQTL) of the brain; (iv) the cerebellum has a very large number of eQTLs that function exclusively in this region, compared with other regions of the brain; (v) importantly, an interactive visualisation tool (Shiny app) was developed to visualise the MR/SR-eQTL at transcript and exon levels.
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34
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Yang J, Ruan H, Xu W, Gu X. TreeExp2: An Integrated Framework for Phylogenetic Transcriptome Analysis. Genome Biol Evol 2019; 11:3276-3282. [PMID: 31609424 PMCID: PMC6934891 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evz222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/10/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent innovations of next-generation sequencing such as RNA-seq have generated an enormous amount of comparative transcriptome data, which have shed lights on our understanding of the complexity of transcriptional regulatory systems. Despite numerous RNA-seq analyses, statistical methods and computational tools designed for phylogenetic transcriptome analysis and evolution have not been well developed. In response to this need, we developed software TreeExp2 specifically for RNA-seq data. The R-package TreeExp2 has implemented a suite of advanced, recently developed methods for transcriptome evolutionary analysis. Its main functions include the ancestral transcriptome inference, estimation of the strength of expression conservation, new expression distance, and the relative expression rate test. TreeExp2 provides an integrated, statistically sound framework for phylogenetic transcriptome analysis. It will considerably enhance our analytical capability for exploring the evolution and selection at the transcriptome level. The current version of TreeExp2 is available under GPLv3 license at the Github developer site https://github.com/jingwyang/TreeExp; last accessed November 12, 2019, and its online tutorial which describes the biological theories in details and fully worked case studies with real data can be found at https://jingwyang.github.io/TreeExp-Tutorial; last accessed November 12, 2019.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingwen Yang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.,Human Phenome Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Hang Ruan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston-McGovern Medical School
| | - Wenjie Xu
- MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xun Gu
- Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University
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35
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Bentz AB, Thomas GWC, Rusch DB, Rosvall KA. Tissue-specific expression profiles and positive selection analysis in the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) using a de novo transcriptome assembly. Sci Rep 2019; 9:15849. [PMID: 31676844 PMCID: PMC6825141 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-52312-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2019] [Accepted: 10/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) are one of the most commonly studied wild birds in North America. They have advanced numerous research areas, including life history, physiology, and organismal responses to global change; however, transcriptomic resources are scarce. To further advance the utility of this system for biologists across disciplines, we generated a transcriptome for the tree swallow using six tissues (brain, blood, ovary, spleen, liver, and muscle) collected from breeding females. We de novo assembled 207,739 transcripts, which we aligned to 14,717 high confidence protein-coding genes. We then characterized each tissue with regard to its unique genes and processes and applied this transcriptome to two fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and endocrinology. First, we analyzed 3,015 single-copy orthologs and identified 46 genes under positive selection in the tree swallow lineage, including those with putative links to adaptations in this species. Second, we analyzed tissue-specific expression patterns of genes involved in sex steroidogenesis and processing. Enzymes capable of synthesizing these behaviorally relevant hormones were largely limited to the ovary, whereas steroid binding genes were found in nearly all other tissues, highlighting the potential for local regulation of sex steroid-mediated traits. These analyses provide new insights into potential sources of phenotypic variation in a free-living female bird and advance our understanding of fundamental questions in evolutionary and organismal biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra B Bentz
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA. .,Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.
| | - Gregg W C Thomas
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.,Department of Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
| | - Douglas B Rusch
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.,Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
| | - Kimberly A Rosvall
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.,Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
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36
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Humans and Chimpanzees Display Opposite Patterns of Diversity in Arylamine N-Acetyltransferase Genes. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2019; 9:2199-2224. [PMID: 31068377 PMCID: PMC6643899 DOI: 10.1534/g3.119.400223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Among the many genes involved in the metabolism of therapeutic drugs, human arylamine N-acetyltransferases (NATs) genes have been extensively studied, due to their medical importance both in pharmacogenetics and disease epidemiology. One member of this small gene family, NAT2, is established as the locus of the classic human acetylation polymorphism in drug metabolism. Current hypotheses hold that selective processes favoring haplotypes conferring lower NAT2 activity have been operating in modern humans’ recent history as an adaptation to local chemical and dietary environments. To shed new light on such hypotheses, we investigated the genetic diversity of the three members of the NAT gene family in seven hominid species, including modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. Little polymorphism sharing was found among hominids, yet all species displayed high NAT diversity, but distributed in an opposite fashion in chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan genus) compared to modern humans, with higher diversity in Pan species at NAT1 and lower at NAT2, while the reverse is observed in humans. This pattern was also reflected in the results returned by selective neutrality tests, which suggest, in agreement with the predicted functional impact of mutations detected in non-human primates, stronger directional selection, presumably purifying selection, at NAT1 in modern humans, and at NAT2 in chimpanzees. Overall, the results point to the evolution of divergent functions of these highly homologous genes in the different primate species, possibly related to their specific chemical/dietary environment (exposome) and we hypothesize that this is likely linked to the emergence of controlled fire use in the human lineage.
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37
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Gu X, Ruan H, Yang J. Estimating the strength of expression conservation from high throughput RNA-seq data. Bioinformatics 2019; 35:5030-5038. [DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btz405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2018] [Revised: 04/06/2019] [Accepted: 05/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Motivation
Evolution of gene across species is usually subject to the stabilizing selection to maintain the optimal expression level. While it is generally accepted that the resulting expression conservation may vary considerably among genes, statistically reliable estimation remains challenging, due to few species included in current comparative RNA-seq data with high number of unknown parameters.
Results
In this paper, we develop a gamma distribution model to describe how the strength of expression conservation (denoted by W) varies among genes. Given the high throughput RNA-seq datasets from multiple species, we then formulate an empirical Bayesian procedure to estimate W for each gene. Our case studies showed that those W-estimates are useful to study the evolutionary pattern of expression conservation.
Availability and implementation
Our method has been implemented in the R-package software, TreeExp, which is publically available at Github develop site https://github.com/hr1912/TreeExp. It involves three functions: estParaGamma, estParaQ and estParaWBayesian. The manual for software TreeExp is available at https://github.com/hr1912/TreeExp/tree/master/vignettes. For any question, one may contact Dr Hang Ruan (Hang.Ruan@uth.tmc.edu).
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Affiliation(s)
- Xun Gu
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Hang Ruan
- MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jingwen Yang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Human Phenome Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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38
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Bellier JP, Yuan PQ, Mukaisho K, Tooyama I, Taché Y, Kimura H. A Novel Antiserum Against a Predicted Human Peripheral Choline Acetyltransferase (hpChAT) for Labeling Neuronal Structures in Human Colon. Front Neuroanat 2019; 13:37. [PMID: 31040770 PMCID: PMC6476985 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2019.00037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2019] [Accepted: 03/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), the enzyme synthesizing acetylcholine (ACh), has an exon-skipping splice variant which is expressed preferentially in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and thus termed peripheral ChAT (pChAT). A rabbit antiserum previously produced against rat pChAT (rpChAT) has been used for immunohistochemistry (IHC) to study peripheral cholinergic structures in various animals. The present study was undertaken to develop a specific antiserum against a predicted human pChAT (hpChAT) protein. A novel mouse antiserum has been successfully raised against a unique 14-amino acid sequence of hpChAT protein. Our Western blot using this antiserum (termed here anti-hpChAT serum) on human colon extracts revealed only a single band of 47 kDa, matching the deduced size of hpChAT protein. By IHC, the antiserum gave intense staining in many neuronal cells and fibers of human colon but not brain, and such a pattern of staining seemed identical with that reported in colon of various animals using anti-rpChAT serum. In the antibody-absorption test, hpChAT-immunoreactive staining in human colon was completely blocked by using the antiserum pre-absorbed with the antigen peptide. Double immunofluorescence in human colon moreover indicated that structures stained with anti-hpChAT were also stained with anti-rpChAT, and vice versa. hpChAT antiserum allowed the identification of cell types, as Dogiel type cells in intramural plexuses, and fiber innervation of colon muscles and mucosae. The present results demonstrate the specificity and reliability of the hpChAT antiserum as a novel tool for immunohistochemical studies in human colon, opening venues to map cholinergic innervation in other human PNS tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Pierre Bellier
- Molecular Neuroscience Research Center, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan
| | - Pu-Qing Yuan
- CURE/Digestive Diseases Research Center, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Digestive Diseases Division, Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,VA Greater Los Angeles Health System, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Kenichi Mukaisho
- Department of Pathology, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan
| | - Ikuo Tooyama
- Molecular Neuroscience Research Center, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan
| | - Yvette Taché
- CURE/Digestive Diseases Research Center, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Digestive Diseases Division, Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.,VA Greater Los Angeles Health System, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Hiroshi Kimura
- Molecular Neuroscience Research Center, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan
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39
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Liu Q, Harpaz N. Expression Profiling of Inflammatory and Immunological Genes in Collagenous Colitis. J Crohns Colitis 2019; 13:764-771. [PMID: 31131860 PMCID: PMC6535503 DOI: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjy224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2018] [Revised: 11/27/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Collagenous colitis [CC] is a common idiopathic cause of chronic watery diarrhoea. We investigated its pathogenesis by means of gene expression analysis. METHODS We analysed the expression of genes implicated in immunological and inflammatory pathways in paired colonic biopsies of histologically involved and uninvolved mucosa from five patients with histologically patchy CC, in pooled colonic biopsies of eight other patients with diffuse CC, and in pooled biopsies of eight normal controls. Analyses were performed with the Nanostring nCounter system. Expression ratios were generated and confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription PCR. RESULTS CC mucosa was characterized by enhanced expression of nitric oxide synthase 2; of matrix metalloproteinases 3 and 9 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1, but not transforming growth factor β1; of mediators of T-helper 1 immunity including interleukins 12A [IL12A], 12B, IL12 receptor B1 and interferon γ; of immune mediators of the leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor subfamily B; and of multiple T cell cytokines and their receptors. The mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling pathway was unchanged. There were no increases in IL22, IL22RA2 or tumour necrosis factor α, which are reportedly elevated in chronic inflammatory bowel disease. In four of five patients with patchy CC, similar gene expression profiles were observed in histologically involved and uninvolved mucosa. CONCLUSIONS CC is characterized by altered expression of a limited repertoire of genes involved in nitric oxide synthesis, extracellular matrix remodelling, T-helper 1 immunity and immune modulation. The abnormal gene expression in patchy CC may be expressed in mucosa with and without histological disease manifestations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qingqing Liu
- The Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-based Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Noam Harpaz
- The Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-based Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA,Corresponding author: Noam Harpaz, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology, Annenberg 15-38E, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1468 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029, USA. Tel: [212) 241-6692; Fax: [212) 828-4188;
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40
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Shi L, Luo X, Jiang J, Chen Y, Liu C, Hu T, Li M, Lin Q, Li Y, Huang J, Wang H, Niu Y, Shi Y, Styner M, Wang J, Lu Y, Sun X, Yu H, Ji W, Su B. Transgenic rhesus monkeys carrying the human MCPH1 gene copies show human-like neoteny of brain development. Natl Sci Rev 2019; 6:480-493. [PMID: 34691896 PMCID: PMC8291473 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwz043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Revised: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 03/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain size and cognitive skills are the most dramatically changed traits in humans during evolution and yet the genetic mechanisms underlying these human-specific changes remain elusive. Here, we successfully generated 11 transgenic rhesus monkeys (8 first-generation and 3 second-generation) carrying human copies of MCPH1, an important gene for brain development and brain evolution. Brain-image and tissue-section analyses indicated an altered pattern of neural-cell differentiation, resulting in a delayed neuronal maturation and neural-fiber myelination of the transgenic monkeys, similar to the known evolutionary change of developmental delay (neoteny) in humans. Further brain-transcriptome and tissue-section analyses of major developmental stages showed a marked human-like expression delay of neuron differentiation and synaptic-signaling genes, providing a molecular explanation for the observed brain-developmental delay of the transgenic monkeys. More importantly, the transgenic monkeys exhibited better short-term memory and shorter reaction time compared with the wild-type controls in the delayed-matching-to-sample task. The presented data represent the first attempt to experimentally interrogate the genetic basis of human brain origin using a transgenic monkey model and it values the use of non-human primates in understanding unique human traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Xin Luo
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Jin Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Yongchang Chen
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translation Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Cirong Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Ting Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Min Li
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Qiang Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Yanjiao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Jun Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Hong Wang
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translation Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Yuyu Niu
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translation Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Yundi Shi
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7160, USA
| | - Martin Styner
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7160, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7160, USA
| | - Jianhong Wang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Yi Lu
- Department of Medical Imaging, the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650032, China
| | - Xuejin Sun
- Department of Medical Imaging, the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650032, China
| | - Hualin Yu
- Department of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650032, China
| | - Weizhi Ji
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Institute of Primate Translation Medicine, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
| | - Bing Su
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Primate Research Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
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Egervari G, Kozlenkov A, Dracheva S, Hurd YL. Molecular windows into the human brain for psychiatric disorders. Mol Psychiatry 2019; 24:653-673. [PMID: 29955163 PMCID: PMC6310674 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-018-0125-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2017] [Revised: 05/14/2018] [Accepted: 06/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Delineating the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders has been extremely challenging but technological advances in recent decades have facilitated a deeper interrogation of molecular processes in the human brain. Initial candidate gene expression studies of the postmortem brain have evolved into genome wide profiling of the transcriptome and the epigenome, a critical regulator of gene expression. Here, we review the potential and challenges of direct molecular characterization of the postmortem human brain, and provide a brief overview of recent transcriptional and epigenetic studies with respect to neuropsychiatric disorders. Such information can now be leveraged and integrated with the growing number of genome-wide association databases to provide a functional context of trait-associated genetic variants linked to psychiatric illnesses and related phenotypes. While it is clear that the field is still developing and challenges remain to be surmounted, these recent advances nevertheless hold tremendous promise for delineating the neurobiological underpinnings of mental diseases and accelerating the development of novel medication strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabor Egervari
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Addiction Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Epigenetics Institute and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Alexey Kozlenkov
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Stella Dracheva
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Yasmin L Hurd
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
- Addiction Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
- Friedman Brain Institute, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
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Vornholt E, Luo D, Qiu W, McMichael GO, Liu Y, Gillespie N, Ma C, Vladimirov VI. Postmortem brain tissue as an underutilized resource to study the molecular pathology of neuropsychiatric disorders across different ethnic populations. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 102:195-207. [PMID: 31028758 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.04.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2019] [Revised: 03/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, large scale meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have reliably identified genetic polymorphisms associated with neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the majority of disease-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) appear within functionally ambiguous non-coding genomic regions. Recently, increased emphasis has been placed on identifying the functional relevance of disease-associated variants via correlating risk polymorphisms with gene expression levels in etiologically relevant tissues. For neuropsychiatric disorders, the etiologically relevant tissue is brain, which requires robust postmortem sample sizes from varying genetic backgrounds. While small sample sizes are of decreasing concern, postmortem brain databases are composed almost exclusively of Caucasian samples, which significantly limits study design and result interpretation. In this review, we highlight the importance of gene expression and expression quantitative loci (eQTL) studies in clinically relevant postmortem tissue while addressing the current limitations of existing postmortem brain databases. Finally, we introduce future collaborations to develop postmortem brain databases for neuropsychiatric disorders from Chinese and Asian subpopulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Vornholt
- Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 E. Leigh St., Biotech One, Suite 100, Richmond, VA 23219, USA.
| | - Dan Luo
- National Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology & Department of Immunology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100005, China
| | - Wenying Qiu
- Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, 100005, China
| | - Gowon O McMichael
- Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 E. Leigh St., Biotech One, Suite 100, Richmond, VA 23219, USA
| | - Yangyang Liu
- School of Education, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin, 300072, China
| | - Nathan Gillespie
- Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 E. Leigh St., Biotech One, Suite 100, Richmond, VA 23219, USA; Department Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1200 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23298, USA
| | - Chao Ma
- Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, 100005, China; Joint Laboratory of Anesthesia and Pain, Peking Union Medical College. Beijing, 100730, China.
| | - Vladimir I Vladimirov
- Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 E. Leigh St., Biotech One, Suite 100, Richmond, VA 23219, USA; Department Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1200 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23298, USA; Center for Biomarker Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, 410 North 12th Street, Richmond, VA 23298, USA; Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1101 East Marshall Street, Richmond, VA 23298, USA; Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins University, 855 North Wolfe Street, Suite 300, 3rd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
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43
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Zhao C, Xie S, Wu H, Luan Y, Hu S, Ni J, Lin R, Zhao S, Zhang D, Li X. Quantification of allelic differential expression using a simple Fluorescence primer PCR-RFLP-based method. Sci Rep 2019; 9:6334. [PMID: 31004110 PMCID: PMC6474871 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-42815-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2018] [Accepted: 03/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Allelic differential expression (ADE) is common in diploid organisms, and is often the key reason for specific phenotype variations. Thus, ADE detection is important for identification of major genes and causal mutations. To date, sensitive and simple methods to detect ADE are still lacking. In this study, we have developed an accurate, simple, and sensitive method, named fluorescence primer PCR-RFLP quantitative method (fPCR-RFLP), for ADE analysis. This method involves two rounds of PCR amplification using a pair of primers, one of which is double-labeled with an overhang 6-FAM. The two alleles are then separated by RFLP and quantified by fluorescence density. fPCR-RFLP could precisely distinguish ADE cross a range of 1- to 32-fold differences. Using this method, we verified PLAG1 and KIT, two candidate genes related to growth rate and immune response traits of pigs, to be ADE both at different developmental stages and in different tissues. Our data demonstrates that fPCR-RFLP is an accurate and sensitive method for detecting ADE on both DNA and RNA level. Therefore, this powerful tool provides a way to analyze mutations that cause ADE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Changzhi Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Shengsong Xie
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China.,The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Hui Wu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Yu Luan
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Suqin Hu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Juan Ni
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Ruiyi Lin
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Shuhong Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China.,The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China
| | - Dingxiao Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China. .,The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China.
| | - Xinyun Li
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction of the Ministry of Education & Key Lab of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China. .,The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China.
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Gain of transcription factor binding sites is associated to changes in the expression signature of human brain and testis and is correlated to genes with higher expression breadth. SCIENCE CHINA-LIFE SCIENCES 2019; 62:526-534. [PMID: 30919278 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-018-9454-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2018] [Accepted: 10/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The gain of transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) is believed to represent one of the major causes of biological innovation. Here we used strategies based on comparative genomics to identify 21,822 TFBS specific to the human lineage (TFBS-HS), when compared to chimpanzee and gorilla genomes. More than 40% (9,206) of these TFBS-HS are in the vicinity of 1,283 genes. A comparison of the expression pattern of these genes and the corresponding orthologs in chimpanzee and gorilla identified genes differentially expressed in human tissues. These genes show a more divergent expression pattern in the human testis and brain, suggesting a role for positive selection in the fixation of TFBS gains. Genes associated with TFBS-HS were enriched in gene ontology categories related to transcriptional regulation, signaling, differentiation/development and nervous system. Furthermore, genes associated with TFBS-HS present a higher expression breadth when compared to genes in general. This biased distribution is due to a preferential gain of TFBS in genes with higher expression breadth rather than a shift in the expression pattern after the gain of TFBS.
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Lu Y, Wang X, Yu H, Li J, Jiang Z, Chen B, Lu Y, Wang W, Han C, Ouyang Y, Huang L, Chen C, Tian W, Ling F. Evolution and Comprehensive Analysis of DNaseI Hypersensitive Sites in Regulatory Regions of Primate Brain-Related Genes. Front Genet 2019; 10:152. [PMID: 30930929 PMCID: PMC6423895 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2018] [Accepted: 02/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
How the human brain differs from those of non-human primates is largely unknown and the complex drivers underlying such differences at the genomic level remain unclear. In this study, we selected 243 brain-related genes, based on Gene Ontology, and identified 184,113 DNaseI hypersensitive sites (DHSs) within their regulatory regions. To performed comprehensive evolutionary analyses, we set strict filtering criteria for alignment quality and filtered 39,132 DHSs for inclusion in the investigation and found that 2,397 (~6%) exhibited evidence of accelerated evolution (aceDHSs), which was a much higher proportion that DHSs genome-wide. Target genes predicted to be regulated by brain-aceDHSs were functionally enriched for brain development and exhibited differential expression between human and chimpanzee. Alignments indicated 61 potential human-specific transcription factor binding sites in brain-aceDHSs, including for CTCF, FOXH1, and FOXQ1. Furthermore, based on GWAS, Hi-C, and eQTL data, 16 GWAS SNPs, and 82 eQTL SNPs were in brain-aceDHSs that regulate genes related to brain development or disease. Among these brain-aceDHSs, we confirmed that one enhanced the expression of GPR133, using CRISPR-Cas9 and western blotting. The GPR133 gene is associated with glioblastoma, indicating that SNPs within DHSs could be related to brain disorders. These findings suggest that brain-related gene regulatory regions are under adaptive evolution and contribute to the differential expression profiles among primates, providing new insights into the genetic basis of brain phenotypes or disorders between humans and other primates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yueer Lu
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Hang Yu
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jianlin Li
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhiqiang Jiang
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bangwei Chen
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yueqi Lu
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Wei Wang
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chongyin Han
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Ying Ouyang
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lizhen Huang
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chunbo Chen
- Department of Critical Care Medicine, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Weidong Tian
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Fei Ling
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
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46
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Abstract
During the course of evolution the human brain has increased in size and complexity, ultimately these differences are the result of changes at the genetic level. Identifying and characterizing molecular evolution requires an understanding of both the genetic underpinning of the system as well as the comparative genetic tools to identify signatures of selection. This chapter aims to describe our current understanding of the genetics of human brain evolution. Primarily this is the story of the evolution of the human brain since our last common ape ancestor, but where relevant we will also discuss changes that are unique to the primate brain (compared to other mammals) or various other lineages in the evolution of humans more generally. It will focus on genetic changes that both directly affected the development and function of the brain as well as those that have indirectly influenced brain evolution through both prenatal and postnatal environment. This review is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to begin to construct a general framework for understanding the full array of data being generated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric J Vallender
- University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, United States; Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA, United States.
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47
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Marchetto MC, Hrvoj-Mihic B, Kerman BE, Yu DX, Vadodaria KC, Linker SB, Narvaiza I, Santos R, Denli AM, Mendes AP, Oefner R, Cook J, McHenry L, Grasmick JM, Heard K, Fredlender C, Randolph-Moore L, Kshirsagar R, Xenitopoulos R, Chou G, Hah N, Muotri AR, Padmanabhan K, Semendeferi K, Gage FH. Species-specific maturation profiles of human, chimpanzee and bonobo neural cells. eLife 2019; 8:e37527. [PMID: 30730291 PMCID: PMC6366899 DOI: 10.7554/elife.37527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2018] [Accepted: 12/20/2018] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Comparative analyses of neuronal phenotypes in closely related species can shed light on neuronal changes occurring during evolution. The study of post-mortem brains of nonhuman primates (NHPs) has been limited and often does not recapitulate important species-specific developmental hallmarks. We utilize induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to investigate the development of cortical pyramidal neurons following migration and maturation of cells grafted in the developing mouse cortex. Our results show differential migration patterns in human neural progenitor cells compared to those of chimpanzees and bonobos both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting heterochronic changes in human neurons. The strategy proposed here lays the groundwork for further comparative analyses between humans and NHPs and opens new avenues for understanding the differences in the neural underpinnings of cognition and neurological disease susceptibility between species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria C Marchetto
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Branka Hrvoj-Mihic
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
| | - Bilal E Kerman
- Regenerative and Restorative Medicine Research Center (REMER), Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Diana X Yu
- Department of Oncological Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, United States
| | - Krishna C Vadodaria
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Sara B Linker
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Iñigo Narvaiza
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Renata Santos
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
- Laboratory of Dynamic of Neuronal Structure in Health and Disease, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (UMR S894 INSERM, University Paris Descartes), Paris, France
| | - Ahmet M Denli
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Ana Pd Mendes
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Ruth Oefner
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Jonathan Cook
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Lauren McHenry
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Jaeson M Grasmick
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Kelly Heard
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Callie Fredlender
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Lynne Randolph-Moore
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Rijul Kshirsagar
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Rea Xenitopoulos
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Grace Chou
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Nasun Hah
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
| | - Alysson R Muotri
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, United States
- Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, La Jolla, United States
| | - Krishnan Padmanabhan
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, United States
| | - Katerina Semendeferi
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, United States
| | - Fred H Gage
- Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States
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48
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Song Y, Xuan A, Bu C, Ci D, Tian M, Zhang D. Osmotic stress-responsive promoter upstream transcripts (PROMPTs) act as carriers of MYB transcription factors to induce the expression of target genes in Populus simonii. PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL 2019; 17:164-177. [PMID: 29797449 PMCID: PMC6330638 DOI: 10.1111/pbi.12955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2018] [Revised: 05/12/2018] [Accepted: 05/21/2018] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Complex RNA transcription and processing produces a diverse range catalog of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), important biological regulators that have been implicated in osmotic stress responses in plants. Promoter upstream transcript (PROMPT) lncRNAs share some regulatory elements with the promoters of their neighbouring protein-coding genes. However, their function remains unknown. Here, using strand-specific RNA sequencing, we identified 209 differentially regulated osmotic-responsive PROMPTs in poplar (Populus simonii). PROMPTs are transcribed bidirectionally and are more stable than other lncRNAs. Co-expression analysis of PROMPTs and protein-coding genes divided the regulatory network into five independent subnetworks including 27 network modules. Significantly enriched PROMPTs in the network were selected to validate their regulatory roles. We used delaminated layered double hydroxide lactate nanosheets (LDH-lactate-NS) to transport synthetic nucleic acids into live tissues to mimic overexpression and interference of a specific PROMPT. The altered expression of PROMPT_1281 induced the expression of its cis and trans targets, and this interaction was governed by its secondary structure rather than just its primary sequence. Based on this example, we proposed a model that a concentration gradient of PROMPT_1281 is established, which increases the probability of its interaction with targets near its transcription site that shares common motifs. Our results firstly demonstrated that PROMPT_1281 act as carriers of MYB transcription factors to induce the expression of target genes under osmotic stress. In sum, our study identified and validated a set of poplar PROMPTs that likely have regulatory functions in osmotic responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuepeng Song
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular DesignBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- National Engineering Laboratory for Tree BreedingCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental PlantsCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Anran Xuan
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular DesignBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- National Engineering Laboratory for Tree BreedingCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental PlantsCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Chenhao Bu
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular DesignBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- National Engineering Laboratory for Tree BreedingCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental PlantsCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Dong Ci
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular DesignBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- National Engineering Laboratory for Tree BreedingCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental PlantsCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Min Tian
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular DesignBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- National Engineering Laboratory for Tree BreedingCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental PlantsCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Deqiang Zhang
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular DesignBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- National Engineering Laboratory for Tree BreedingCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental PlantsCollege of Biological Sciences and TechnologyBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijingChina
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49
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Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience? A Theory that Can Explain Unusual Features of the Origin and Fate of Our Species. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-25466-7_6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
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50
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Chen J, Swofford R, Johnson J, Cummings BB, Rogel N, Lindblad-Toh K, Haerty W, Palma FD, Regev A. A quantitative framework for characterizing the evolutionary history of mammalian gene expression. Genome Res 2018; 29:53-63. [PMID: 30552105 PMCID: PMC6314168 DOI: 10.1101/gr.237636.118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2018] [Accepted: 11/27/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The evolutionary history of a gene helps predict its function and relationship to phenotypic traits. Although sequence conservation is commonly used to decipher gene function and assess medical relevance, methods for functional inference from comparative expression data are lacking. Here, we use RNA-seq across seven tissues from 17 mammalian species to show that expression evolution across mammals is accurately modeled by the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, a commonly proposed model of continuous trait evolution. We apply this model to identify expression pathways under neutral, stabilizing, and directional selection. We further demonstrate novel applications of this model to quantify the extent of stabilizing selection on a gene's expression, parameterize the distribution of each gene's optimal expression level, and detect deleterious expression levels in expression data from individual patients. Our work provides a statistical framework for interpreting expression data across species and in disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Chen
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.,Division of Health Science and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Ross Swofford
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
| | - Jeremy Johnson
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
| | - Beryl B Cummings
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.,Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Noga Rogel
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
| | - Kerstin Lindblad-Toh
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.,Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
| | | | - Federica di Palma
- Earlham Institute, Norwich NR4 7UZ, United Kingdom.,Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
| | - Aviv Regev
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.,Department of Biology and Koch Institute, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, USA
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