Project description:Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) is a Gram-negative, obligate anaerobe member of the gut microbial community in up to 40% of healthy individuals. This bacterium is found more frequently in people with colorectal cancer (CRC) and causes tumor formation in the distal colon of multiple intestinal neoplasia (Apcmin/+ ) mice; tumor formation is dependent on ETBF-secreted Bacteroides fragilis toxin (BFT). Because of the extensive data connecting alterations in the epigenome with tumor formation, initial experiments attempting to connect BFT-induced tumor formation with methylation in colon epithelial cells (CECs) have been performed, but the effect of BFT on other epigenetic processes, such as chromatin structure, remains unexplored. Here, the changes in gene expression (transcriptome sequencing [RNA-seq]) and chromatin accessibility (assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing) induced by treatment of HT29/C1 cells with BFT for 24 and 48 h were examined. Our data show that several genes are differentially expressed after BFT treatment and that these changes relate to the interaction between bacteria and CECs. Further, sites of increased chromatin accessibility are associated with the location of enhancers in CECs and the binding sites of transcription factors in the AP-1/ATF family; they are also enriched for common differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in CRC. These data provide insight into the mechanisms by which BFT induces tumor formation and lay the groundwork for future in vivo studies to explore the impact of BFT on nuclear structure and function.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study is to determine how BFT2 alters chromatin accessibility at relatively early time points in colon epithelial cells, and to correlate the changes in chromatin accessibility with changes in gene expression, transcription factor binding sites, and the location of common single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in colorectal cancer. Methods: HT29/C1 cells were plated at low density and allowed to grow for 4 days at 37C and 10% CO2. Afterwards, cells were either left untreated or treated with 100ng/mL BFT2 for 24 or 48 hours. After the specified time point, cells were counted and DNA was collected in order to prepare ATAC-seq libraries. ATAC-seq library was prepared as outlined by Buenrostro et al. (2013). The 4nM pooled ATAC-seq library was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq. For each sample, three biological replicates were sequenced. After sequencing, the data was analyzed using the pipeline developed by the Kundaje lab, as outlined on ENCODE (Lee et al., 2016). Briefly, reads were trimmed, aligned and filtered using Bowtie2, and peaks were called using MACS2. The three replicate peak files were combined in order to create one consensus file for each treatment condition using an irreproducible discovery rate (IDR) threshold of 0.1. For all analyses, the “optimal set” consensus file was used. Results: Our data show that several genes are differentially expressed after BFT treatment and these changes correlate with changes in chromatin accessibility. This correlation is mediated by an increase in chromatin accessibility at particular transcription factor binding sites. Also, sites of increased chromatin accessibility are associated with a lower frequency of common single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in CRC and with a higher frequency of common differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in CRC. Conclusions: This study adds critical knowledge to our understanding of host-microbe interactions in the gut. While scientists have begun to analyze the effect of specific bacteria on the epigenome of colon epithelial cells, to date, no other studies have surveyed the effect of a specific bacterial toxin on chromatin accessibility in colon epithelial cells. We conclude that BFT2 alters chromatin accessibility in colon epithelial cells, and that these changes correlate with subsequent changes in gene expression. Also, sites of BFT2-induced increased chromatin accessibility are associated with a lower frequency of common single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in CRC and with a higher frequency of common differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in CRC.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study is to determine how BFT2 alters chromatin accessibility at relatively early time points in colon epithelial cells, and to correlate the changes in chromatin accessibility with changes in gene expression, transcription factor binding sites, and the location of common single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in colorectal cancer. Methods: HT29/C1 cells were plated at low density and allowed to grow for 4 days at 37C and 10% CO2. Afterwards, cells were either left untreated or treated with 100ng/mL BFT2 for 24 or 48 hours. After the specified time point, cells were counted and RNA was collected in order to prepare RNA-seq libraries. RNA was collected using the Qiagen RNeasy mini kit. mRNA was enriched using the NEBNext Poly(A) mRNA Magnetic Isolation Module. Afterwards, a non-directional RNA-seq library was constructed using the NEBnext Ultra RNA Library Prep kit from Illumina. The 2nM pooled RNA-seq library was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq. Results: After sequencing, Kallisto was used to perform pseudoalignment of the raw RNA-seq data. Then, Sleuth was used to quantify gene expression and perform differential expression analyses. After treatment with BFT2 for 24 hours, 70 genes were differentially expressed (P-value < 0.01). Of these genes, 41 showed a decrease in gene expression, while 29 showed an increase in gene expression. After BFT2 treatment for 48 hours, we found only 16 differentially expressed genes (P-value < 0.01); 3 showed a decrease in gene expression and 13 showed an increase in gene expression. Conclusions: This study adds critical knowledge to our understanding of host-microbe interactions in the gut. While scientists have begun to analyze the effect of specific bacteria on the epigenome of colon epithelial cells, to date, no other studies have surveyed the effect of a specific bacterial toxin on chromatin accessibility in colon epithelial cells. We conclude that BFT2 alters chromatin accessibility in colon epithelial cells, and that these changes correlate with subsequent changes in gene expression. Also, sites of BFT2-induced increased chromatin accessibility are associated with a lower frequency of common single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in CRC and with a higher frequency of common differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in CRC.