Project description:Solve-RD – solving the unsolved rare diseases is a research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 779257 from 1 January 2018 to 31 March 2024. Six European Reference Networks (ERNs; ERN-RND, -ITHACA, -EuroNMD, -GENTURIS, -RITA and -EpiCare) contributed data and samples to one or more of the four cohorts for data re-analysis and novel omics. For more information see https://solve-rd.eu/results/solve-rd-data/.
Project description:Purpose: NGS was used to determine if a distinct transcriptomic profile is observed between lean, obese and weight loss fat Methods: We carried out RNA-Seq analysis of epididymal adipose mice ad libitum fed for 10 weeks either a high fat diet (HFD) or a regular chow diet (RD), versus a cohort of mice fed HFD for the first 5 weeks before swapping to RD for the remainder (SWAP). Results: SWAP feeding resulted in weight loss with a parallel improvement in insulin sensitivity. RNA-Seq revealed several transcriptomic signatures distinct to SWAP adipose, distinguished from both RD and HFD adipose. We found a unique up-regulated mRNA encoding a secreted, LPS-binding glycoprotein, CRISPLD2, in SWAP adipose tissue. While cellular CRISPLD2 protein levels were unchanged, plasma CRIPSLD2 levels increased in SWAP mice following weight loss, and can correlate with insulin sensitivity. Conclusions: Taken together, our data demonstrate that CRISPLD2 is a circulating adipokine that may regulate adipocyte remodeling during weight loss.
Project description:TRIP4 is one of the subunits of the transcriptional coregulator ASC-1, a ribonucleoprotein complex that participates in transcriptional coactivation and RNA processing events. Recessive variants in the TRIP4 gene have been associated with spinal muscular atrophy with bone fractures as well as a severe form of congenital muscular dystrophy. Here we present the diagnostic journey of a patient with cerebellar hypoplasia and spinal muscular atrophy (PCH1) and congenital bone fractures. Initial exome sequencing analysis revealed no candidate variants. Reanalysis of the exome data by inclusion in the Solve-RD project resulted in the identification of a homozygous stop-gain variant in the TRIP4 gene, previously reported as disease-causing. This highlights the importance of analysis reiteration and improved and updated bioinformatic pipelines. Proteomic profile of the patient’s fibroblasts showed altered RNA-processing and impaired exosome activity supporting the pathogenicity of the detected variant. In addition, we identified a novel genetic form of PCH1, further strengthening the link of this characteristic phenotype with altered RNA metabolism.
Project description:RNA-Seq is ubiquitous, but depending on the study, sub-optimal sample handling may be required, resulting in repeated freeze-thaw cycles. However, little is known about how each cycle impacts downstream analyses, due to a lack of study and known limitations in common RNA quality metrics, e.g., RIN, at quantifying RNA degradation following repeated freeze-thaws. Here we quantify the impact of repeated freeze-thaw on the reliability of downstream RNA-Seq analysis. To do so, we developed a method to estimate the relative noise between technical replicates independently of RIN. Using this approach we inferred the effect of both RIN and the number of freeze-thaw cycles on sample noise. We find that RIN is unable to fully account for the change in sample noise due to freeze-thaw cycles. Additionally, freeze-thaw is detrimental to sample quality and differential expression (DE) reproducibility, approaching zero after three cycles for poly(A)-enriched samples, wherein the inherent 3’ bias in read coverage is more exacerbated by freeze-thaw cycles, while ribosome-depleted samples are less affected by freeze-thaws. The use of poly(A)-enrichment for RNA sequencing is pervasive in library preparation of frozen tissue, and thus, it is important during experimental design and data analysis to consider the impact of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on reproducibility.
Project description:Frozen dough baking is useful method in the modern bread-making industry. However, the fermentation activity of baker’s yeast dramatically decreased after thawing due to freeze injuries, because baker’s yeast cells contained in dough experience freeze injuries during freeze-thaw processes. Here, we performed genome-wide expression analysis to determine genetic response in baker’s yeasts under freeze-thaw condition using a DNA microarray analysis. Functional and clustering analyses in gene expression reveal that genes could be characterized by the term of freeze-thaw stress. Under short-term freeze stress (freeze treatment for 3 day), genes involved in ribosomal protein were up-regulated. Under long-term freeze stress (freeze treatment for longer than 7 day), genes involved in energy synthesis were up-regulated. In each phase, genes involved in protein damage, several stresses and trehalose and glycogen metabolism were also up-regulated. Through these freeze stress, yeast cells may improve reduced efficiency of translation and enhanced cell protection mechanism to survive under freeze stress condition. These regulations of these genes would be controlled by the cAMP-protein kinase A pathway. Keywords: baker’s yeast, freeze-thaw stress, gene expression, freezing period
Project description:Effect of lentiviral mediated overexpression of miR-203 in mouse cortical neurons at different days in vivo Total RNA isolated from E15 cortical cultures using QIAGEN miRNeasy mini kit (QIAGEN; 217004) were processed on an Illumina mouse Ref8 v2 beadchip microarrays following the manufacture’s protocol. Microarray data analysis was performed using R and Bioconductor packages. Raw expression data were log2 transformed and normalized by quantile normalization. Probes were considered robustly expressed if the detection P value was 0.05 for at least half of the samples in the data set. Probes were re-mapped to mouse Ensembl gene IDs (v67; May 2012 data freeze) for comparison with RNA-sequencing data.
Project description:We report sustained changes in the chromatin accessibility landscape of adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) from high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice persist long after return to regular diet (RD). We compared the data of ATAC-seq performed on nuclei extracted from FACS-sorted ATMs isolated from HFD, RD-RD and HFD-RD-fed mice. Inter-group comparisons revealed the highest diversity and hence the greatest number of differentially accessible regions (DARs) to occur between ATMs from RD-RD and HFD-RD-fed mice, and considerably fewer DARs were identified between ATMs from HFD-RD vs HFD-fed mice. Association of DARs with the nearest gene and gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed considerable pathway enrichment, especially pathways coding for angiogenesis and inflammatory response, in HFD-RD group when compared to RD-RD group. The results altogether indicated that most changes in chromatin landscape induced by HFD-feeding are maintained as open chromatin positions for a long time, suggesting that HFD-feeding leads to long-term reprograming of ATMs and renders them prone to pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory responses.