Project description:Citrus greening or huanglongbing (HLB) disease is caused by Candidatus liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) and associated with an increase in pre-harvest fruit drop, for which the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. In order to understand the molecular basis of the HLB-associated fruit abscission, by means of RNA-Sequencing analysis (RNA-Seq), transcriptomes in citrus calyx abscission zones were analyzed and compared among fruit dropped (D) or retained (R) from healthy (h) or HLB-diseased (d) trees upon shaking the trees. Cluster analysis based on the transcript reads indicates that dropped fruit from HLB-diseased trees (Dd) have largest distances from all other groups. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between Dd and Rd, Dh and Rh, Rd and Rh, Dd and Dh. Wilcoxon test of the whole dataset of DEGs revealed that consistently up-regulated genes in Dd versus Rd and Dd versus Dh are in the functional categories of “secondary metabolism, lipid metabolism and hormone-ethylene and –jasmonate”; while those down-regulated genes didn’t show clear pattern of regulation. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses indicated that the significant biological processes or pathways involved in HLB-related fruit abscission were those related to defense response, secondary metabolism and hormone signaling. Among them, “response to chitin” was the most significant (p= 9.95E-13) biological process, and “jasmonic acid biosynthesis” was the most significant (p= 4.6E-5) pathway. Genes related to synthesis and signaling of ethylene (ET) and jasmonate (JA) were consistently up-regulated, while abscisic acid, auxin, brassinosteroid, cytokinin, and gibberellin were generally down-regulated in Dd; but not in Dh. Consistent with the transcriptomic data, fruit ethylene production was detected in two third of the Dd fruit, but none of Rd, Dh or Rh fruit. And, in agreement with the hormone expression profiles, substantial numbers of downstream JA/ET-responsive defense related genes were up-regulated in Dd, but not in Dh. Thirty representative DEGs covering categories of hormone, secondary metabolism, and JA/ET responsive defense responses were verified by qRT-PCR. The results indicate that HLB-associated pre-harvest fruit abscission is mediated by JA/ET signaling, which has been known to be triggered by infection of necrotrophic pathogens.

Project description:Transcription and processing of histone mRNAs occurs at subnuclear domains known as Histone Locus Bodies (HLBs). Although it is known that higher-order chromatin organization is dysregulated in cancer, structural alterations within HLB across breast cancer progression are unclear. Differential expression across known as MCF10, a basal triple negative breast cancer progression model, followed by pathway analysis demonstrated many alterations in signaling cascades known to be related to proliferation. Positional gene enrichment identified the hist1 gene locus at chromosome 6p22 as the most significantly altered cluster of genes from the normal-like MCF10A to premalignant MCF10AT1. The malignant MCF10CA1a had a more varied expression pattern across the hist1 locus. Within this region there are three subclusters of hist1 genes which were generally upregulated while intervening genes were more frequently downregulated. Extending these findings to TCGA breast tumors revealed that normal adjacent tissue had lower expression within the subclusters than their matched tumor samples. Moreover, the expression pattern within the hist1 locus comparing normal versus tumors recapitulated a very similar pattern to that comparing 10A to AT1 or CA1a. Since the hist1 locus is transcribed and processed at a specific subnuclear microenvironment, the higher order chromatin organization of this locus may be a critical component of its regulation. We addressed whether CTCF, a key chromatin organizing protein, may play a role in organizing the hist1 HLB. Immunofluorescence for CTCF along with NPAT, a protein which decorates this locus, identified that CTCF may tether the hist1 HLB to the nuclear matrix. All three subclusters reside within a single topologically associating domain wherein interacting loops are bound by CTCF. Inter-subcluster interactions are lost in the premalignant AT1. Consistent with the varied expression across the hist1 HLB in CA1a, inter-subcluster interactions are regained in the malignant state. These data suggest a transient state in highly proliferative breast cancer cells in which the hist1 HLB is dynamically reorganized.

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Drosophila Histone Locus Body assembly and function involves multiple interactions

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