Project description:This work reveals the deeply conserved gene repertoire of animal stem cells, from sponges to mammals. mRNA profiles totipotent stem cells (archeocytes), choanocytes, other differentiated cell types in a freshwater sponge and were mapped on the reference transcriptome generated in the same study
Project description:Ephydatia muelleri is a cosmopolitan freshwater demosponge, with potential to become a model system. We have participated in a large collaborative project to sequence the genome (PRJNA579531), methylome, transcriptome for this species, aiming to better understand the biology of this sponge species. In terms of DNA methylation, it presents relatively low methylation levels compared to the methylomes of other sponges (A. queenslandica and S. ciliatum), suggesting quite a lot of varation within the sponge phylum.
Project description:Sponges (Porifera) are early-branching Metazoa who do not possess muscles or neurons, however are able to undergo a whole-body movement that involves the closure of their canal system and collapse of an epithelial tent. In this study we profile the proteomic responses of the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris during nitric oxide (NO) and agitation induced movements to elucidate the early evolution of coordination in animals. Specifically, we used tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling-based quantification of enriched phosphopeptides to systematically measure quantitative differences in protein phosphorylation. We identified and quantified 12165 unique phosphopeptides in the sponge. NO treatment resulted in quantitative changes of phosphorylation levels on 390 unique phosphopeptides mapping to 270 unique proteins. In turn, agitation led to quantitative changes of phosphorylation levels on 303 unique phosphopeptides (229 proteins).
Project description:Generation of thousands of high-quality, full-length 16S/18S rRNA sequences from complex microbial samples without rRNA primer bias.
Project description:Iron-rich pelagic aggregates (iron snow) were collected directly onto silicate glass filters using an electronic water pump installed below the redoxcline. RNA was extracted and library preparation was done using the NEBNext Ultra II directional RNA library prep kit for Illumina. Data was demultiplied by GATC sequencing company and adaptor was trimmed by Trimgalore. After trimming, data was processed quality control by sickle and mRNA/rRNA sequences were sorted by SortmeRNA. mRNA sequences were blast against NCBI-non redundant protein database and the outputs were meganized in MEGAN to do functional analysis. rRNA sequences were further sorted against bacterial/archeal 16S rRNA, eukaryotic 18S rRNA and 10,000 rRNA sequences of bacterial 16S rRNA, eukaryotic 18S rRNA were subset to do taxonomy analysis.
Project description:To investigate the activity of sponge enhancers in vertebrates transgenic experiments was performed where sponge enhancers were inserted into zebrafish embryos and stable lines generated abstract: Transcription factors (TFs) bind DNA enhancer sequences to regulate gene transcription in animals. Unlike TFs, the evolution of enhancers has been difficult to trace because of their fast evolution. Here, we take enhancers in the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica and test their activity in zebrafish and mouse. Of the five sponge enhancers assessed, three were located in conserved syntenic gene regions that are unique to animals (Islet–Scaper, Ccne1–Uri, Tdrd3–Diaph3). Despite diverging over 700 million years ago and a dearth of sequence identity, sponge enhancers are able to drive cell type-specific reporter gene expression in vertebrates. Analysis of the type and frequency of TF binding motifs in the sponge Islet enhancer allowed for the identification of homologous enhancers in human and mouse, which show remarkably similar reporter expression patterns to the sponge enhancer. These findings uncover an unexpected deep conservation of enhancers and suggest that enhancers established early in metazoan evolution can remain functional through retention of combinations of transcription factor binding motifs despite substantial sequence divergence.