Dataset Information

Splicing landscape of the eight collaborative cross founder strains.

ABSTRACT: The Collaborative Cross (CC) is a large panel of genetically diverse recombinant inbred mouse strains specifically designed to provide a systems genetics resource for the study of complex traits. In part, the utility of the CC stems from the extensive genome-wide annotations of founder strain sequence and structural variation. Still missing, however, are transcriptome-specific annotations of the CC founder strains that could further enhance the utility of this resource.We provide a comprehensive survey of the splicing landscape of the 8 CC founder strains by leveraging the high level of alternative splicing within the brain. Using deep transcriptome sequencing, we found that a majority of the splicing landscape is conserved among the 8 strains, with ~65% of junctions being shared by at least 2 strains. We, however, found a large number of potential strain-specific splicing events as well, with an average of ~3000 and ~500 with ?3 and ?10 sequence read coverage, respectively, within each strain. To better understand strain-specific splicing within the CC founder strains, we defined criteria for and identified high-confidence strain-specific splicing events. These splicing events were defined as exon-exon junctions 1) found within only one strain, 2) with a read coverage ?10, and 3) defined by a canonical splice site. With these criteria, a total of 1509 high-confidence strain-specific splicing events were identified, with the majority found within two of the wild-derived strains, CAST and PWK. Strikingly, the overwhelming majority, 94%, of these strain-specific splicing events are not yet annotated. Strain-specific splicing was also located within genomic regions recently reported to be over- and under-represented within CC populations.Phenotypic characterization of CC populations is increasing; thus these results will not only aid in further elucidating the transcriptomic architecture of the individual CC founder strains, but they will also help in guiding the utilization of the CC populations in the study of complex traits. This report is also the first to establish guidelines in defining and identifying strain-specific splicing across different mouse strains.

SUBMITTER: Zheng CL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4320832 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Splicing landscape of the eight collaborative cross founder strains.

Zheng Christina L CL Wilmot Beth B Walter Nicole Ar NA Oberbeck Denesa D Kawane Sunita S Searles Robert P RP McWeeney Shannon K SK Hitzemann Robert R

BMC genomics 20150205

<h4>Background</h4>The Collaborative Cross (CC) is a large panel of genetically diverse recombinant inbred mouse strains specifically designed to provide a systems genetics resource for the study of complex traits. In part, the utility of the CC stems from the extensive genome-wide annotations of founder strain sequence and structural variation. Still missing, however, are transcriptome-specific annotations of the CC founder strains that could further enhance the utility of this resource.<h4>Res ...[more]

PMID: 25652416

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Project description:The collaborative cross (CC) founder strains include five classical inbred laboratory strains (129S1/SvlmJ, A/J, C57BL/6J (B6), NOD/ShiLtJ, and NZO/HILtJ) and three wild-derived strains (CAST/EiJ, PWK/PhJ (PWK) and WSB/EiJ) The strains encompass 89% of the genetic diversity available in Mus musculus and about 10 to 20 times more genetic diversity than found in Homo sapiens. For more than 60 years the B6 strain has been used as the model strain for high ethanol preference/high consumption. However, another one of the CC founder strains, PWK, was identified as a high ethanol preference/high consumption strain. The current study determined how the transcriptomes of the B6 and PWK strains differed from the 6 low preference CC strains across 3 nodes of the brain addiction circuit. RNA-Seq data were collected from the central nucleus of the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens core and the prelimbic cortex. Differential expression (DE) analysis was performed in each of these brain regions for all 28 possible pairwise comparisons of the CC founder strains. Unique genes for each strain were identified by selecting for genes that differed significantly (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05) from all other strains in the same direction. B6 was identified as the most distinct inbred laboratory strain, having the highest number of total differently expressed genes (DEGs) and DEGs with high log fold change, and unique genes compared to other CC strains. Less than 50 unique DEGs were identified in common between B6 and PWK within all three brain regions, indicating the strains potentially represent two distinct genetic signatures for risk for high ethanol-preference. 238 DEGs were found to be commonly different between B6, PWK and the average expression of the remaining CC strains within all three regions. The commonly different up-expressed genes were significantly enriched (FDR < 0.001) among genes associated with neuroimmune function. These data compliment the observation that neuroimmune signaling is key to understanding alcohol use disorder and and support use of these 8 strains and the highly heterogeneous mouse populations derived from them to identify alcohol-related brain mechanisms and treatment targets.

Project description:Surveys of inbred strains of mice are standard approaches to determine the heritability and range of phenotypic variation for biomedical traits. In addition, they may lead to the identification of novel phenotypes and models of human disease. Surprisingly, male reproductive phenotypes are among the least-represented traits in the Mouse Phenome Database. Here we report the results of a broad survey of the eight founder inbred strains of both the Collaborative Cross (CC) and the Diversity Outbred populations, two new mouse resources that are being used as platforms for systems genetics and sources of mouse models of human diseases. Our survey includes representatives of the three main subspecies of the house mice and a mix of classical and wild-derived inbred strains. In addition to standard staples of male reproductive phenotyping such as reproductive organ weights, sperm counts, and sperm morphology, our survey includes sperm motility and the first detailed survey of testis histology. As expected for such a broad survey, heritability varies widely among traits. We conclude that although all eight inbred strains are fertile, most display a mix of advantageous and deleterious male reproductive traits. The CAST/EiJ strain is an outlier, with an unusual combination of deleterious male reproductive traits including low sperm counts, high levels of morphologically abnormal sperm, and poor motility. In contrast, sperm from the PWK/PhJ and WSB/EiJ strains had the greatest percentages of normal morphology and vigorous motility. Finally, we report an abnormal testis phenotype that is highly heritable and restricted to the WSB/EiJ strain. This phenotype is characterized by the presence of a large, but variable, number of vacuoles in at least 10% of the seminiferous tubules. The onset of the phenotype between 2 and 3 wk of age is temporally correlated with the formation of the blood-testis barrier. We speculate that this phenotype may play a role in high rates of extinction in the CC project and in the phenotypes associated with speciation in genetic crosses that use the WSB/EiJ strain as representative of the Mus muculus domesticus subspecies.

Dataset Information

Splicing landscape of the eight collaborative cross founder strains.

Publications

Splicing landscape of the eight collaborative cross founder strains.

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