Project description:Promiscuous gene expression (pGE) of numerous self-antigens in thymic epithelial cells (TEC) enables the elimination of self-reactive T cells. The autoimmune regulator (Aire) is the only known molecular determinant driving pGE in the thymus but the existence of Aire-independent mechanisms has been inferred. Here, we analyzed the poly(A)+ transcriptome of TEC populations by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) in order to reveal differential features of Aire-induced vs. –independent pGE. We report an unanticipated effect of Aire deletion on the proliferation and differentiation of cortical TEC. Moreover, the RNA-seq data reveal the breath of Aire-induced and –independent pGE in medullary TEC (mTEC) subsets and the extent of thymic peripheral tissue representation. The results suggest that Aire-induced promiscuously expressed transcripts affect several functions with far reaching biological consequences in mTEC. High-throughput characterization of TEC transcriptomes will enable progress in understanding TEC biology and the establishment of self-tolerance. The mRNA profiles of cTEC, mTEClo and mTEChi from 6-8 week-old wild type (WT) and Aire-/- (KO) mice were generated by RNA-sequencing using Illumina HiSeq2000.
Project description:The deficiency of Aire, a transcriptional regulator whose defect results in the development of autoimmunity, is associated with reduced expression of tissue-restricted self-Ags (TRAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs). Although the mechanisms underlying Aire-dependent expression of TRAs need to be explored, the physical identification of the target(s) of Aire has been hampered by the low and promiscuous expression of TRAs. We have tackled this issue by engineering mice with augmented Aire expression. Integration of the transcriptomic data from Aire-augmented and Aire-deficient mTECs revealed that a large proportion of so-called Aire-dependent genes, including those of TRAs, may not be direct transcriptional targets downstream of Aire. Rather, Aire induces TRA expression indirectly through controlling the heterogeneity of mTECs, as revealed by single-cell analyses. In contrast, Ccl25 emerged as a canonical target of Aire, and we verified this both in vitro and in vivo. Our approach has illuminated the Aire?s primary targets while distinguishing them from the secondary targets.
Project description:We compared gene expression profiles of aire-deficient and wild-type littermate thymic medullary epithelial cells. This was done in order to determine whether Aire's effects differed among strains, and also among individuals of the same strain. Experiment Overall Design: Individual thymi were digested with collagenase, dispase and DNAse, and meduallary epithelial cells with the phenotype CD45-G8.8+Ly51intMHCclasssIIhi were isolated by FACS.
Project description:The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene disruption in a murine medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC 3.10 cell line) on the transcriptome of these cells during its adhesion with thymocytes. The mTEC-thymocyte adhesion is a crucial step for the negative selection of autoreactive thymocytes and prevention of autoimmune diseases. To generate Aire mutant cell clones, a total of 5x10^5 mTEC 3.10 cells were electro-transfected (Lonza Nucleofector) with CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid targeting the Aire Exon 3 (plasmid "all in one" encoding Aire Exon 3 gRNA + Cas9 + GFP, from Sigma-Aldrich). The GFP positive mTEC single cells were sorted by using a FACS Aria III cytometer and cells were cloned by expansion in culture. Sanger sequencing of PCR products from the Aire Exon 3 of these clones was used in order to evaluate the occurrence of indel mutations within the targeted Exon 3. The mTEC 3.10 clone E6 was identified and validated as a compound heterozygous Aire KO (Aire +/-). This clone features the Aire allele 1 that encodes a mutant Aire protein carring a neutral aminoacid substitution (A118P) and allele 2 encoding a truncated Aire protein. Wild type (WT) mTEC 3.10 cells or mTEC 3.10 clone E6 were cultured in the presence (or not) of thymocytes in order to establish cell adhesion. The total RNA preparations from WT or clone E6 mTEC cells (before or after mTEC- thymocyte co-cultures) were then sequenced through RNA-sequencing using a Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument and the TruSeq Stranded mRNA Library Preparation kit resulting in about 50 million paired-end stranded specific 100 bp reads per sample. Sequencing reads were mapped to Mus musculus reference genome (mm10) using STAR v.2.5.0a. Read counts over transcripts were calculated using HTSeq v.0.6.1p2 based on a current UCSC annotation file for GRCm38/mm10 (Dec. 2011).
Project description:The aim of this study is to analyze the transcriptional effects of Aire deficiency in the thymus, using the Affymetrix MoGene platform to analyze variation in exon usage MECs were isolated from 4-6 wk-old WT or Aire KO ((B6xNOD)F1 background) mice. Three WT and three Aire-KO mice taken individually were used.
Project description:We profiled NELF and Aire binding in medullary thymic epithelial cells using ChIPmentation to investigate the logic of Aire's target choices
Project description:The goal of the study was to sequence mRNA expression from sorted medullary thymic epithelial cell (mTEC) subsets in inducible Aire-CreERT2.R26-Stopfl-tdTomato lineage tracing mice after a pulse chase. Four cell subsets were sorted 7 days after a single 2mg pulse of tamoxifen administered by oral gavage. 4 biological replicates (1,2,3,4) were collected derived from 12 pooled thymi per replicate. From the DAPI-;CD45-;EpCAM+ TEC pool, cells were sorted as: pre-Aire (MHCIIlo;RFP-), early-Aire (MHCIIhi;RFP-), late-Aire (MHCIIhi;RFP+), and post-Aire (MHCIIlo;RFP+). The data were used to identify differentially expressed genes across the four mTEC subsets to examine mTEC heterogeneity and identify novel mTEC subpopulations.