The role of Lhx4 and Bsx homeobox genes in the rat adult pineal gland
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Rattus norvegicus
PROVIDER: GSE142476 | GEO | 2019/12/21
REPOSITORIES: GEO
Similar Datasets
Project description:The vertebrate pineal gland is dedicated to the production of the hormone melatonin, which increases at night to influence circadian and seasonal rhythms. This increase is associated with dramatic changes in the pineal transcriptome. Here, single-cell analysis of the rat pineal transcriptome was approached by sequencing mRNA from ~17,000 individual pineal cells, with the goals of profiling the cells that comprise the pineal gland and examining the proposal that there are two distinct populations of pinealocytes differentiated by the expression of Asmt, which encodes the enzyme that converts N-acetylserotonin to melatonin. In addition, this analysis provides evidence of cell-specific time-of-day dependent changes in gene expression. Nine transcriptomically distinct cell types were identified: ~90% were classified as melatonin-producing α- and β-pinealocytes (1:19 ratio). Non-pinealocytes included three astrocyte subtypes, two microglia subtypes, vascular and leptomeningeal cells, and endothelial cells. α-Pinealocytes were distinguished from β-pinealocytes by ~3-fold higher levels of Asmt transcripts. In addition, α-pinealocytes have transcriptomic differences that likely enhance melatonin formation by increasing the availability of the Asmt cofactor S-adenosylmethionine, resulting from increased production of a precursor of S-adenosylmethionine, ATP. These transcriptomic differences include ~2-fold higher levels of the ATP-generating oxidative phosphorylation transcriptome and ~8-fold lower levels of the ribosome transcriptome, which is expected to reduce the consumption of ATP by protein synthesis. These findings suggest that α-pinealocytes have a specialized role in the pineal gland: efficiently O-methylating the N-acetylserotonin produced and released by β-pinealocytes, thereby improving the overall efficiency of melatonin synthesis. We have also identified transcriptomic changes that occur between night and day in seven cell types, the majority of which occur in β-pinealocytes and to a lesser degree in α-pinealocytes; many of these changes were mimicked by adrenergic stimulation with isoproterenol. The cellular heterogeneity of the pineal gland as revealed by this study provides a new framework for understanding pineal cell biology at single-cell resolution.
2018-10-05 | GSE115723 | GEO
Project description:NeuroD1 encodes a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor involved in the development of neural and endocrine structures. NeuroD1 mRNA is highly abundant in the adult mammalian pineal gland and exhibits a developmental expression pattern similar to the retina. This is consistent with the common evolutionary origin of pinealocytes and retinal photoreceptors. Pinealocytes and retinal photoreceptors express a shared set of phototransduction genes and submammalian pinealocytes are photosensitive. In contrast to the retina, the pineal gland is a relatively homogeneous structure, composed 95% of pinealocytes. This makes the pineal gland a particularly useful model for understanding photoreceptor cell biology. The loss of NeuroD1 in the retina results in progressive photoreceptor degeneration and the molecular mechanisms underlying this retinal degeneration phenotype remain unknown. Similarly, the role that NeuroD1 plays in the pineal gland is unknown. To determine the function of NeuroD1 in the pineal gland and retina, a Cre/loxP recombination strategy was used to selectively target a NeuroD1 floxed allele and generate NeuroD1 conditional knockout (cKO) mice. Tissue specificity was conferred using Cre recombinase expressed under the control of the promoter of Crx, a transcription factor selectively expressed in the pineal gland and retina. Pineal and retinal tissues from two-month-old NeuroD1 cKO and control animals were used in microarray studies to identify candidate genes responsible for the photoreceptor degeneration phenotype.
2012-07-26 | GSE35396 | GEO
Project description:The cone-rod homeobox gene (Crx) encodes Crx, a transcription factor selectively expressed in two cell types, retinal photoreceptors and the melatonin secreting pinealocytes of the pineal gland. In this report the role of Crx in regulating gene expression in the mammalian pineal gland was extended using Affymetrix GeneChip technology. Deletion of Crx results in broad modulation of the mouse pineal transcriptome, including a >2-fold downregulation of 543 genes and a >2-fold upregulation of 745 genes. In addition to Crx, there was a >10-fold downregulation of 13 other genes. Of special interest was the discovery of a link between Crx and the homeobox gene Hoxc4, which was upregulated ~20-fold in the Crx-/- pineal gland. Analysis of night and day expression of genes indicated that a set of 51 genes exhibited differential expression in control animals. Of these genes, only eight were also differentially expressed in Crx-/- animals. This group included Aanat, which encodes the enzyme that controls the daily rhythm in melatonin synthesis in the vertebrate pineal gland. Accordingly, Crx appears to be essential for the 24-hour rhythmic component of expression of some genes in the pineal gland. In the Crx-/- mouse pineal gland, 41 genes exhibited differential night/day expression that was not seen in control animals, suggesting that Crx may function to modulate rhythmic expression of these genes as well. Together, the results of this investigation indicate that Crx broadly modulates the pineal transcriptome, perhaps in part through suppressive effects on expression of the homeobox gene Hoxc4.
2012-01-01 | GSE24625 | GEO
Project description:NeuroD1 encodes a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor involved in the development of neural and endocrine structures. NeuroD1 mRNA is highly abundant in the adult mammalian pineal gland and exhibits a developmental expression pattern similar to the retina. This is consistent with the common evolutionary origin of pinealocytes and retinal photoreceptors. Pinealocytes and retinal photoreceptors express a shared set of phototransduction genes and submammalian pinealocytes are photosensitive. In contrast to the retina, the pineal gland is a relatively homogeneous structure, composed 95% of pinealocytes. This makes the pineal gland a particularly useful model for understanding photoreceptor cell biology. The loss of NeuroD1 in the retina results in progressive photoreceptor degeneration and the molecular mechanisms underlying this retinal degeneration phenotype remain unknown. Similarly, the role that NeuroD1 plays in the pineal gland is unknown. To determine the function of NeuroD1 in the pineal gland and retina, a Cre/loxP recombination strategy was used to selectively target a NeuroD1 floxed allele and generate NeuroD1 conditional knockout (cKO) mice. Tissue specificity was conferred using Cre recombinase expressed under the control of the promoter of Crx, a transcription factor selectively expressed in the pineal gland and retina. Pineal and retinal tissues from two-month-old NeuroD1 cKO and control animals were used in microarray studies to identify candidate genes responsible for the photoreceptor degeneration phenotype. The Cre/loxP recombination strategy was used to target a NeuroD1 floxed allele and generate NeuroD1 conditional knockout mice (NeuroD1floxed::Crx-Cre+/-). NeuroD1 floxed mice (NeuroD1floxed::Crx-Cre-/-) served as the controls. Pineal glands and retinas from two-month-old control and conditional knockout mice were collected at ZT6 and ZT20. 3 pools of 6 pineal glands per genotype and respective time of day were collected for each sample. Similarly, 3 pools of 6 retinas each were also collected. RNA from each pool was extracted and hybridized on the Affymetrix Mouse 430 2.0 array.
2012-07-25 | E-GEOD-35396 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The cone-rod homeobox gene (Crx) encodes Crx, a transcription factor selectively expressed in two cell types, retinal photoreceptors and the melatonin secreting pinealocytes of the pineal gland. In this report the role of Crx in regulating gene expression in the mammalian pineal gland was extended using Affymetrix GeneChip technology. Deletion of Crx results in broad modulation of the mouse pineal transcriptome, including a >2-fold downregulation of 543 genes and a >2-fold upregulation of 745 genes. In addition to Crx, there was a >10-fold downregulation of 13 other genes. Of special interest was the discovery of a link between Crx and the homeobox gene Hoxc4, which was upregulated ~20-fold in the Crx-/- pineal gland. Analysis of night and day expression of genes indicated that a set of 51 genes exhibited differential expression in control animals. Of these genes, only eight were also differentially expressed in Crx-/- animals. This group included Aanat, which encodes the enzyme that controls the daily rhythm in melatonin synthesis in the vertebrate pineal gland. Accordingly, Crx appears to be essential for the 24-hour rhythmic component of expression of some genes in the pineal gland. In the Crx-/- mouse pineal gland, 41 genes exhibited differential night/day expression that was not seen in control animals, suggesting that Crx may function to modulate rhythmic expression of these genes as well. Together, the results of this investigation indicate that Crx broadly modulates the pineal transcriptome, perhaps in part through suppressive effects on expression of the homeobox gene Hoxc4. Pineal glands from control (129sv) mice and Crx-/- mice were collected at ZT6 and ZT20 for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix mouse 430_2 chip. Each condition were performed as triplicats. SUPPLEMENTARY FILES: The GCOS signal intensity data were analyzed using ChipInspector (Genomatix) version 2.1. FDR= 0, p-value <0.05, cut off=1, region size = 300 bp and 4 and 5 significant probes. Log(2) fold change independently of time of day. Up regulated genes: genes which are up regulated in Crx-/- compared to the control; down regulated genes: genes which are down regulated in Crx-/- compared to the control.
2012-01-01 | E-GEOD-24625 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The role of Lhx4 and Bsx homeobox genes in the rat adult pineal gland
| PRJNA597111 | ENA
Project description:Pineal gland is a neuroendocrine gland located at the center of the brain. It protects the body from the effect of toxic compounds and regulates sleep-wake cycle, body temperature and sexual maturity through the secretion of melatonin. Abnormal functioning of pineal glands is known to be associated with Smith-Magenis syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, sleep disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. Characterization of pineal gland proteome will facilitate molecular level investigations on pathophysiological conditions underlying these diseases. We aimed to characterize the proteome of human pineal glands using a high resolution mass spectrometry- based approach. A total of 5,752 proteins were identified from human pineal glands in this study. Of these, 1,108 proteins contained signal peptide domain. We identified 2 novel proteins in this study, which are predicted by computational methods. In addition, a large number of proteins were uniquely identified in this study. A comprehensive list of proteins identified from human pineal glands will aid in unraveling the role of pineal glands in sleep disorders, neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.
2017-02-02 | PXD004332 | Pride
Project description:This study determines pineal gland gene expression levels in the NeuroD1 knockout mouse at postnatal day zero. Comparison was performed against pineal gland gene expression levels in 129 wildtype mice also disected at P0. Keywords: Comparison of wildtype versus transgenic pineal gland gene expression
2007-10-13 | GSE6030 | GEO
Project description:The pineal gland maintains the circadian rhythm in the body by secreting the hormone melatonin. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease. Pineal gland impairment in AD is widely observed, but no study to date has analyzed the transcriptome in the pineal glands of AD. To establish resources for the study on pineal gland dysfunction in AD, we performed a transcriptome analysis of the pineal glands of AD model mice and compared them to those of normal mice. There were diverse protein-coding RNAs, long noncoding RNAs and circular RNAs with global change in the pineal glands of AD mouse model. The analyzed data reported in this study will be an important resource for future studies to elucidate the altered physiology of the pineal gland in AD.
2019-12-31 | GSE129586 | GEO
Project description:Chick pinealocytes exhibit all the characteristics of a complete circadian system, comprising photoreceptive inputs, molecular clockworks and an easily measured rhythmic output, melatonin biosynthesis. We used microarray analysis to investigate the expression of approximately 8000 genes within cultured pinealocytes subjected to both LD and DD cycles. We report that a reduced subset of genes were rhythmically expressed in vitro compared to those previously published in vivo, and that gene expression rhythms were lower in amplitude, although the functional distribution of the rhythmic transcriptome was largely similar. We also investigated the effects of 6-hour pulses of light or of norepinephrine on gene expression in free-running cultures during both subjective day and night. As expected, both light and norepinephrine inhibited melatonin production; however, the two treatments differentially up- or down-regulated specific sets of genes in a fashion that was dependent upon time of day. Our combined approach of utilizing a time of day study and a light/NE pulse microarray experiment allowed us to identify novel genes linking clock input to clock function within the pineal. We identified approximately 30 rhythmic, light-responsive, NE-insensitive genes with no previously known clock function, which may play a role in circadian regulation of the pineal. These are candidates for future functional genomics experiments to elucidate their potential role in pineal physiology. Keywords: circadian; avian; pineal; light; norepinephrine
2008-07-04 | GSE5292 | GEO