Journal Articles
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Item Comparative transcriptomes reveal geographic differences in the ability of the liver of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi) to respond and adapt to toxic plants(BioMed Central Ltd, 2023-12) Tan Y; Wang Y; Liu Q; Wang Z; Shi S; Su JBACKGROUND: Environmental changes are expected to intensify in the future. The invasion of toxic plants under environmental changes may change herbivore feeding environments. Herbivores living long-term in toxic plant-feeding environments will inevitably ingest plant secondary metabolites (PSMs), and under different feeding environments are likely to have unique protection mechanisms that support improved adaptation to PSMs in their habitat. We aimed to compare different subterranean herbivore population responses and adaptations to toxic plants to unveil their feeding challenges. RESULTS: Here, we investigated the adaptive capacity of the liver in two geographically separated populations of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi) before and after exposure to the toxic plant Stellera chamaejasme (SC), at the organ, biochemical, and transcriptomic levels. The results showed no significant liver granules or inflammatory reactions in the Tianzhu (TZ) population after the SC treatment. The transaminase level in the TZ population was significantly lower than that in the Luqu population. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the TZ population exhibited interactions with other detoxification metabolic pathways by oxytocin pathway-associated genes, including diacylglycerol lipase alpha (Dagla), calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II Alpha (Camk2a), and CD38 molecule (Cd38). The phase II process of liver drug metabolism increased to promote the rate of metabolism. We found that alternative splicing (AS) and the expression of the cyclin D (Ccnd1) gene interact-a TZ population hallmark-reduced liver inflammatory responses. CONCLUSION: Our study supports the detoxification limitation hypothesis that differences in liver detoxification metabolism gene expression and AS are potential factors in herbivore adaptation to PSMs and may be a strategy of different herbivore populations to improve toxic plant adaptability.Item Porcine colonoids and enteroids keep the memory of their origin during regeneration(American Physiological Society, 2021-05-01) Barnett AM; Mullaney JA; Hendriks C; Le Borgne L; McNabb WC; Roy NCThe development of alternative in vitro culture methods has increased in the last decade as three-dimensional organoids of various tissues, including those of the small and large intestines. Due to their multicellular composition, organoids offer advantages over traditionally used immortalized or primary cell lines. However, organoids must be accurate models of their tissues of origin. This study compared gene expression profiles with respect to markers of specific cell types (stem cells, enterocytes, goblet, and enteroendocrine cells) and barrier maturation (tight junctions) of colonoid and enteroid cultures with their tissues of origin and colonoids with enteroids. Colonoids derived from three healthy pigs formed multilobed structures with a monolayer of cells similar to the crypt structures in colonic tissue. Colonoid and enteroid gene expression signatures were more similar to those found for the tissues of their origin than to each other. However, relative to their derived tissues, organoids had increased gene expression levels of stem cell markers Sox9 and Lgr5 encoding sex-determining region Y-box 9 and leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled rector 5, respectively. In contrast, expression levels of Occl and Zo1 encoding occludin and zonula occludens 1, respectively, were decreased. Expression levels of the cell lineage markers Atoh1, Cga, and Muc2 encoding atonal homolog 1, chromogranin A, and mucin 2, respectively, were decreased in colonoids, whereas Sglt1 and Apn encoding sodium-glucose transporter 1 and aminopeptidase A, respectively, were decreased in enteroids. These results indicate colonoid and enteroid cultures were predominantly comprised of undifferentiated cell types with decreased barrier maturation relative to their tissues of origin.Item Comparative Transcriptomics of Multi-Stress Responses in Pachycladon cheesemanii and Arabidopsis thaliana.(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2023-07-11) Dong Y; Gupta S; Wargent JJ; Putterill J; Macknight RC; Gechev TS; Mueller-Roeber B; Dijkwel PP; You FMThe environment is seldom optimal for plant growth and changes in abiotic and biotic signals, including temperature, water availability, radiation and pests, induce plant responses to optimise survival. The New Zealand native plant species and close relative to Arabidopsis thaliana, Pachycladon cheesemanii, grows under environmental conditions that are unsustainable for many plant species. Here, we compare the responses of both species to different stressors (low temperature, salt and UV-B radiation) to help understand how P. cheesemanii can grow in such harsh environments. The stress transcriptomes were determined and comparative transcriptome and network analyses discovered similar and unique responses within species, and between the two plant species. A number of widely studied plant stress processes were highly conserved in A. thaliana and P. cheesemanii. However, in response to cold stress, Gene Ontology terms related to glycosinolate metabolism were only enriched in P. cheesemanii. Salt stress was associated with alteration of the cuticle and proline biosynthesis in A. thaliana and P. cheesemanii, respectively. Anthocyanin production may be a more important strategy to contribute to the UV-B radiation tolerance in P. cheesemanii. These results allowed us to define broad stress response pathways in A. thaliana and P. cheesemanii and suggested that regulation of glycosinolate, proline and anthocyanin metabolism are strategies that help mitigate environmental stress.Item A novel, stain-free, natural auto-fluorescent signal, Sig M, identified from cytometric and transcriptomic analysis of infectivity of Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum.(Frontiers Media S.A., 2023-05-22) Ogbuigwe P; Roberts JM; Knox MA; Heiser A; Pita A; Haack NA; Garcia-Ramirez JC; Velathanthiri N; Biggs PJ; French NP; Hayman DTS; Xu RCryptosporidiosis is a worldwide diarrheal disease caused by the protozoan Cryptosporidium. The primary symptom is diarrhea, but patients may exhibit different symptoms based on the species of the Cryptosporidium parasite they are infected with. Furthermore, some genotypes within species are more transmissible and apparently virulent than others. The mechanisms underpinning these differences are not understood, and an effective in vitro system for Cryptosporidium culture would help advance our understanding of these differences. Using COLO-680N cells, we employed flow cytometry and microscopy along with the C. parvum-specific antibody Sporo-Glo™ to characterize infected cells 48 h following an infection with C. parvum or C. hominis. The Cryptosporidium parvum-infected cells showed higher levels of signal using Sporo-Glo™ than C. hominis-infected cells, which was likely because Sporo-Glo™ was generated against C. parvum. We found a subset of cells from infected cultures that expressed a novel, dose-dependent auto-fluorescent signal that was detectable across a range of wavelengths. The population of cells that expressed this signal increased proportionately to the multiplicity of infection. The spectral cytometry results confirmed that the signature of this subset of host cells closely matched that of oocysts present in the infectious ecosystem, pointing to a parasitic origin. Present in both C. parvum and C. hominis cultures, we named this Sig M, and due to its distinct profile in cells from both infections, it could be a better marker for assessing Cryptosporidium infection in COLO-680N cells than Sporo-Glo™. We also noted Sig M's impact on Sporo-Glo™ detection as Sporo-Glo™ uses fluoroscein-isothiocynate, which is detected where Sig M also fluoresces. Lastly, we used NanoString nCounter® analysis to investigate the transcriptomic landscape for the two Cryptosporidium species, assessing the gene expression of 144 host and parasite genes. Despite the host gene expression being at high levels, the levels of putative intracellular Cryptosporidium gene expression were low, with no significant difference from controls, which could be, in part, explained by the abundance of uninfected cells present as determined by both Sporo-Glo™ and Sig M analyses. This study shows for the first time that a natural auto-fluorescent signal, Sig M, linked to Cryptosporidium infection can be detected in infected host cells without any fluorescent labeling strategies and that the COLO-680N cell line and spectral cytometry could be useful tools to advance the understanding of Cryptosporidium infectivity.Item Fine-mapping analysis including over 254,000 East Asian and European descendants identifies 136 putative colorectal cancer susceptibility genes.(Springer Nature, 2024-04-26) Chen Z; Guo X; Tao R; Huyghe JR; Law PJ; Fernandez-Rozadilla C; Ping J; Jia G; Long J; Li C; Shen Q; Xie Y; Timofeeva MN; Thomas M; Schmit SL; Díez-Obrero V; Devall M; Moratalla-Navarro F; Fernandez-Tajes J; Palles C; Sherwood K; Briggs SEW; Svinti V; Donnelly K; Farrington SM; Blackmur J; Vaughan-Shaw PG; Shu X-O; Lu Y; Broderick P; Studd J; Harrison TA; Conti DV; Schumacher FR; Melas M; Rennert G; Obón-Santacana M; Martín-Sánchez V; Oh JH; Kim J; Jee SH; Jung KJ; Kweon S-S; Shin M-H; Shin A; Ahn Y-O; Kim D-H; Oze I; Wen W; Matsuo K; Matsuda K; Tanikawa C; Ren Z; Gao Y-T; Jia W-H; Hopper JL; Jenkins MA; Win AK; Pai RK; Figueiredo JC; Haile RW; Gallinger S; Woods MO; Newcomb PA; Duggan D; Cheadle JP; Kaplan R; Kerr R; Kerr D; Kirac I; Böhm J; Mecklin J-P; Jousilahti P; Knekt P; Aaltonen LA; Rissanen H; Pukkala E; Eriksson JG; Cajuso T; Hänninen U; Kondelin J; Palin K; Tanskanen T; Renkonen-Sinisalo L; Männistö S; Albanes D; Weinstein SJ; Ruiz-Narvaez E; Palmer JR; Buchanan DD; Platz EA; Visvanathan K; Ulrich CM; Siegel E; Brezina S; Gsur A; Campbell PT; Chang-Claude J; Hoffmeister M; Brenner H; Slattery ML; Potter JD; Tsilidis KK; Schulze MB; Gunter MJ; Murphy N; Castells A; Castellví-Bel S; Moreira L; Arndt V; Shcherbina A; Bishop DT; Giles GG; Southey MC; Idos GE; McDonnell KJ; Abu-Ful Z; Greenson JK; Shulman K; Lejbkowicz F; Offit K; Su Y-R; Steinfelder R; Keku TO; van Guelpen B; Hudson TJ; Hampel H; Pearlman R; Berndt SI; Hayes RB; Martinez ME; Thomas SS; Pharoah PDP; Larsson SC; Yen Y; Lenz H-J; White E; Li L; Doheny KF; Pugh E; Shelford T; Chan AT; Cruz-Correa M; Lindblom A; Hunter DJ; Joshi AD; Schafmayer C; Scacheri PC; Kundaje A; Schoen RE; Hampe J; Stadler ZK; Vodicka P; Vodickova L; Vymetalkova V; Edlund CK; Gauderman WJ; Shibata D; Toland A; Markowitz S; Kim A; Chanock SJ; van Duijnhoven F; Feskens EJM; Sakoda LC; Gago-Dominguez M; Wolk A; Pardini B; FitzGerald LM; Lee SC; Ogino S; Bien SA; Kooperberg C; Li CI; Lin Y; Prentice R; Qu C; Bézieau S; Yamaji T; Sawada N; Iwasaki M; Le Marchand L; Wu AH; Qu C; McNeil CE; Coetzee G; Hayward C; Deary IJ; Harris SE; Theodoratou E; Reid S; Walker M; Ooi LY; Lau KS; Zhao H; Hsu L; Cai Q; Dunlop MG; Gruber SB; Houlston RS; Moreno V; Casey G; Peters U; Tomlinson I; Zheng WGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 common genetic variants independently associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but the causal variants and target genes are mostly unknown. We sought to fine-map all known CRC risk loci using GWAS data from 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of East Asian and European ancestry. Our stepwise conditional analyses revealed 238 independent association signals of CRC risk, each with a set of credible causal variants (CCVs), of which 28 signals had a single CCV. Our cis-eQTL/mQTL and colocalization analyses using colorectal tissue-specific transcriptome and methylome data separately from 1299 and 321 individuals, along with functional genomic investigation, uncovered 136 putative CRC susceptibility genes, including 56 genes not previously reported. Analyses of single-cell RNA-seq data from colorectal tissues revealed 17 putative CRC susceptibility genes with distinct expression patterns in specific cell types. Analyses of whole exome sequencing data provided additional support for several target genes identified in this study as CRC susceptibility genes. Enrichment analyses of the 136 genes uncover pathways not previously linked to CRC risk. Our study substantially expanded association signals for CRC and provided additional insight into the biological mechanisms underlying CRC development.Item Transcriptome-Wide Gene Expression Plasticity in Stipa grandis in Response to Grazing Intensity Differences(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-11-02) Dang Z; Jia Y; Tian Y; Li J; Zhang Y; Huang L; Liang C; Lockhart PJ; Matthew C; Li FY; Hobza ROrganisms have evolved effective and distinct adaptive strategies to survive. Stipa grandis is a representative species for studying the grazing effect on typical steppe plants in the Inner Mongolia Plateau. Although phenotypic (morphological and physiological) variations in S. grandis in response to long-term grazing have been identified, the molecular mechanisms underlying adaptations and plastic responses remain largely unknown. Here, we performed a transcriptomic analysis to investigate changes in gene expression of S. grandis under four different grazing intensities. As a result, a total of 2357 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified among the tested grazing intensities, suggesting long-term grazing resulted in gene expression plasticity that affected diverse biological processes and metabolic pathways in S. grandis. DEGs were identified in RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR analyses that indicated the modulation of the Calvin-Benson cycle and photorespiration metabolic pathways. The key gene expression profiles encoding various proteins (e.g., ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, glycolate oxidase, etc.) involved in these pathways suggest that they may synergistically respond to grazing to increase the resilience and stress tolerance of S. grandis. Our findings provide scientific clues for improving grassland use and protection and identifying important questions to address in future transcriptome studies.Item Transcriptomic Identification of a Unique Set of Nodule-Specific Cysteine-Rich Peptides Expressed in the Nitrogen-Fixing Root Nodule of Astragalus sinicus(The American Phytopathological Society in cooperation with the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 2022-10-08) Wei F; Liu Y; Zhou D; Zhao W; Chen Z; Chen D; Li Y; Zhang X-XLegumes in the inverted repeat-lacking clade (IRLC) each produce a unique set of nodule-specific cysteine-rich (NCR) peptides, which act in concert to determine the terminal differentiation of nitrogen-fixing bacteroid. IRLC legumes differ greatly in their numbers of NCR and sequence diversity. This raises the significant question how bacteroid differentiation is collectively controlled by the specific NCR repertoire of an IRLC legume. Astragalus sinicus is an IRLC legume that forms indeterminate nodules with its microsymbiont Mesorhizobium huakuii 7653R. Here, we performed transcriptome analysis of root and nodule samples at 3, 7, 14, 28 days postinoculation with M. huakuii 7653R and its isogenic ∆bacA mutant. BacA is a broad-specificity peptide transporter required for the host-derived NCRs to target rhizobial cells. A total of 167 NCRs were identified in the RNA transcripts. Comparative sequence and electrochemical analysis revealed that A. sinicus NCRs (AsNCRs) are dominated by a unique cationic group (termed subgroup C), whose mature portion is relatively long (>60 amino acids) and phylogenetically distinct and possessing six highly conserved cysteine residues. Subsequent functional characterization showed that a 7653R variant harboring AsNCR083 (a representative of subgroup C AsNCR) displayed significant growth inhibition in laboratory media and formed ineffective white nodules on A. sinicus with irregular symbiosomes. Finally, bacterial two-hybrid analysis led to the identification of GroEL1 and GroEL3 as the molecular targets of AsNCR067 and AsNCR076. Together, our data contribute to a systematic understanding of the NCR repertoire associated with the A. sinicus and M. huakuii symbiosis.Item A multi-objective genetic algorithm to find active modules in multiplex biological networks(PLOS, 2021-08-30) Novoa-Del-Toro EM; Mezura-Montes E; Vignes M; Térézol M; Magdinier F; Tichit L; Baudot A; Jensen PThe identification of subnetworks of interest-or active modules-by integrating biological networks with molecular profiles is a key resource to inform on the processes perturbed in different cellular conditions. We here propose MOGAMUN, a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm to identify active modules in MUltiplex biological Networks. MOGAMUN optimizes both the density of interactions and the scores of the nodes (e.g., their differential expression). We compare MOGAMUN with state-of-the-art methods, representative of different algorithms dedicated to the identification of active modules in single networks. MOGAMUN identifies dense and high-scoring modules that are also easier to interpret. In addition, to our knowledge, MOGAMUN is the first method able to use multiplex networks. Multiplex networks are composed of different layers of physical and functional relationships between genes and proteins. Each layer is associated to its own meaning, topology, and biases; the multiplex framework allows exploiting this diversity of biological networks. We applied MOGAMUN to identify cellular processes perturbed in Facio-Scapulo-Humeral muscular Dystrophy, by integrating RNA-seq expression data with a multiplex biological network. We identified different active modules of interest, thereby providing new angles for investigating the pathomechanisms of this disease.Item De novo transcriptome assembly, functional annotation and differential gene expression analysis of juvenile and adult E. fetida, a model oligochaete used in ecotoxicological studies(Sociedad de Biología de Chile, 17/02/2017) Thunders MC; Cavanagh J; Li YBACKGROUND: Earthworms are sensitive to toxic chemicals present in the soil and so are useful indicator organisms for soil health. Eisenia fetida are commonly used in ecotoxicological studies; therefore the assembly of a baseline transcriptome is important for subsequent analyses exploring the impact of toxin exposure on genome wide gene expression. RESULTS: This paper reports on the de novo transcriptome assembly of E. fetida using Trinity, a freely available software tool. Trinotate was used to carry out functional annotation of the Trinity generated transcriptome file and the transdecoder generated peptide sequence file along with BLASTX, BLASTP and HMMER searches and were loaded into a Sqlite3 database. To identify differentially expressed transcripts; each of the original sequence files were aligned to the de novo assembled transcriptome using Bowtie and then RSEM was used to estimate expression values based on the alignment. EdgeR was used to calculate differential expression between the two conditions, with an FDR corrected P value cut off of 0.001, this returned six significantly differentially expressed genes. Initial BLASTX hits of these putative genes included hits with annelid ferritin and lysozyme proteins, as well as fungal NADH cytochrome b5 reductase and senescence associated proteins. At a cut off of P = 0.01 there were a further 26 differentially expressed genes. CONCLUSION: These data have been made publicly available, and to our knowledge represent the most comprehensive available transcriptome for E. fetida assembled from RNA sequencing data. This provides important groundwork for subsequent ecotoxicogenomic studies exploring the impact of the environment on global gene expression in E. fetida and other earthworm species.
