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Dampening of expression oscillations by synchronous regulation of a microRNA and its target.

ABSTRACT: The complexity of multicellular organisms requires precise spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression during development. We find that in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans approximately 2,000 transcripts undergo expression oscillations synchronized with larval transitions while thousands of genes are expressed in temporal gradients, similar to known timing regulators. By counting transcripts in individual worms, we show that pulsatile expression of the microRNA (miRNA) lin-4 maintains the temporal gradient of its target lin-14 by dampening its expression oscillations. Our results demonstrate that this insulation is optimal when pulsatile expression of the miRNA and its target is synchronous. We propose that such a miRNA-mediated incoherent feed-forward loop is a potent filter that prevents the propagation of potentially deleterious fluctuations in gene expression during the development of an organism.

SUBMITTER: Kim Dh

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3812263 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Dampening of expression oscillations by synchronous regulation of a microRNA and its target.

Kim Dong hyun Dh Grün Dominic D van Oudenaarden Alexander A

Nature genetics 20130915 11

The complexity of multicellular organisms requires precise spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression during development. We find that in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans approximately 2,000 transcripts undergo expression oscillations synchronized with larval transitions while thousands of genes are expressed in temporal gradients, similar to known timing regulators. By counting transcripts in individual worms, we show that pulsatile expression of the microRNA (miRNA) lin-4 maintains the te ...[more]

PMID: 24036951

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Project description:The complexity of metazoan organisms requires precise spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression during development. To identify different modes of developmental gene regulation we measured the transcriptome throughout development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by mRNA sequencing with high temporal resolution. We find that approximately 2,000 transcripts undergo expression oscillations synchronized with larval transitions while thousands of genes are expressed in temporal gradients, similar to known timing regulators. By counting transcripts in individual animals, we show that the pulsatile expression of the microRNA (miRNA) lin-4 maintains the temporal gradient of its target lin-14 by dampening its expression oscillations. Our results demonstrate that this insulation is optimal when pulsatile expression of the miRNA and its target is synchronous. We propose that such a miRNA-mediated incoherent feed-forward loop is a potent filter that prevents propagation of potentially deleterious gene expression fluctuations during the development of an organism. We analyzed RNA-seq data of wild-type worms at two different temperatures, 20C and 25C, from samples picked every 2hrs and 1.5 hrs, resspectively, spanning all larval stages (L1,L2,L3,L4). At 20C we picked samples for L1-L3 (sample DH2: 0 hrs to 38 hrs) and for L4 (sample DH5: 38 hrs to 48 hrs) from independent populations. At 25C, all samples were picked from the same worm population (sample DH3: 0 hrs to 28.5 hrs). This time course ends at 28.5 hrs since at higher temperature nematode development is accelarated. Finally, we measured mRNA expression at 20C in a lin-4 knockout mutant worm (lin-4(e912)), again spanning all larval stages (sample DH4: 0 hrs to 48 hrs). Each sequencing sample consisted of a mixture of all time points with mRNA from different time points barcoded with Illumina barcodes and was sequenced on one or more lanes (DH2: 3 lanes; DH3: 3 lanes; DH4: 4 lanes; DH5: 1 lane) of an Illumina HiSeq2000.

Project description:BackgroundInformation processing in neuronal networks relies on the network's ability to generate temporal patterns of action potentials. Although the nature of neuronal network activity has been intensively investigated in the past several decades at the individual neuron level, the underlying principles of the collective network activity, such as the synchronization and coordination between neurons, are largely unknown. Here we focus on isolated neuronal clusters in culture and address the following simple, yet fundamental questions: What is the minimal number of cells needed to exhibit collective dynamics? What are the internal temporal characteristics of such dynamics and how do the temporal features of network activity alternate upon crossover from minimal networks to large networks?Methodology/principal findingsWe used network engineering techniques to induce self-organization of cultured networks into neuronal clusters of different sizes. We found that small clusters made of as few as 40 cells already exhibit spontaneous collective events characterized by innate synchronous network oscillations in the range of 25 to 100 Hz. The oscillation frequency of each network appeared to be independent of cluster size. The duration and rate of the network events scale with cluster size but converge to that of large uniform networks. Finally, the investigation of two coupled clusters revealed clear activity propagation with master/slave asymmetry.Conclusions/significanceThe nature of the activity patterns observed in small networks, namely the consistent emergence of similar activity across networks of different size and morphology, suggests that neuronal clusters self-regulate their activity to sustain network bursts with internal oscillatory features. We therefore suggest that clusters of as few as tens of cells can serve as a minimal but sufficient functional network, capable of sustaining oscillatory activity. Interestingly, the frequencies of these oscillations are similar those observed in vivo.

Dataset Information

Dampening of expression oscillations by synchronous regulation of a microRNA and its target.

Publications

Dampening of expression oscillations by synchronous regulation of a microRNA and its target.

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