Project description:Macrophages are hematopoietic cells critical for innate immune defense, but also control organ homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner. Tissue-resident macrophages, therefore, provide a well-defined model to study the impact of ontogeny and microenvironment on chromatin state. Here, we profile the dynamics of four histone modifications across seven tissue-resident macrophage populations, as well as monocytes and neutrophils. We identify 12,743 macrophage-specific enhancers and establish that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct enhancer landscapes. Our work suggests that a combination of tissue and lineage-specific transcription factors form the regulatory networks controlling chromatin specification in tissue-resident macrophages. The environment has the capacity to alter the chromatin landscape of macrophages derived from transplanted adult bone marrow in vivo and even differentiated macrophages are reprogrammed when transferred into a new tissue. Altogether, these data provide a comprehensive view of macrophage regulation and highlight the importance of microenvironment along with pioneer factors in orchestrating macrophage identity and plasticity. 7 tissue-resident macrophage populations were isolated, as well as monocytes and neutrophils, and transcriptome analysis was performed. Experiment was done in duplicates.
Project description:Assassin bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) are venomous insects that prey on invertebrates. Assassin bug venom has features in common with venoms from other animals, such as paralysing and lethal activity when injected, and a molecular composition that includes disulfide-rich peptide neurotoxins. Uniquely, this venom also has strong liquefying activity that has been hypothesised to facilitate feeding through the narrow channel of the proboscis—a structure inherited from sap- and phloem-feeding phytophagous hemipterans and adapted during the evolution of Heteroptera into a fang and feeding structure. However, further understanding of the function of assassin bug venom is impeded by the lack of proteomic studies detailing its molecular composition. In addition, the lack of knowledge regarding venoms of predaceous reduviids limits our understanding of how the venoms of the blood-feeding kissing bugs (Reduviidae: Triatominae) evolved to facilitate hematophagy. By using a combined transcriptomic/proteomic approach we show that the venom proteome of the harpactorine assassin bug Pristhesancus plagipennis includes a complex suite of >100 proteins comprising disulfide-rich peptides, CUB-domain proteins, cystatins, putative cytolytic toxins, triabin-like protein, odorant binding protein, serine proteases, catabolic enzymes, putative nutrient-binding proteins, plus eight families of proteins without homology to characterised proteins. Serine proteases, CUB domain proteins and other novel proteins in the 10–16 kDa mass range, as well as putative cytolytic toxins, were the most abundant venom components. Thus, in addition to putative neurotoxins, assassin bug venom includes a high proportion of enzymatic and cytolytic venom components well suited to tissue liquefaction. While some protein families such as lipocalin/triabins occur in the venoms of both predaceous and blood-feeding reduviids, the composition of venoms in these two groups differs markedly. These results provide insights into the venom evolution in the insect suborder Heteroptera.
Project description:We found that assassin bugs from the earliest-diverging subfamily of higher Reduviidae (Peiratinae), as well as a subfamily closely related to Triatominae (Stenopodainae) have venom that is highly similar in composition to that produced by previously examined reduviids from Harpactorinae and Reduviinae. This finding suggests that venom composition has been largely stable due to purifying selection among the higher Reduviidae, which is consistent with the ancient origin of venom in the ancestors of Heteroptera 250–300 million years ago (Sunagar and Moran 2015; Walker et al. 2018a). This near homogeneity of venom composition is perhaps surprising considering that reduviid predators have evolved numerous instances of prey specialization and specialized hunting strategies that might be expected to co-evolve with venom. Possibly, further studies focussing on species with more specialized hunting strategies, or different kinds of venom bioactivities, will uncover more nuanced venom adaptations. Alternatively, it is possible that the protease-rich venoms of predatory reduviids are simply well-suited to myriad different hunting strategies. These data are consistent with other examples where venoms are surprisingly similar despite great differences in biology, for example between solitary and eusocial bees. A more detailed picture of venom evolution in Reduviidae would examine venom produced by the early-diverging Phymatine complex as well as venoms of non-reduviid cimicomorphs, prey specialists such as the arachnophagous Emesinae and the myrmecophagous Holoptilinae, and some of the many groups that employ hunting specializations, such as the use of plant resins to catch prey (Hwang and Weirauch 2012). Within Triatominae, examination of saliva produced by additional species from multiple lineages (especially those that switched to blood-feeding independently, if the subfamily is shown to be polyphyletic) and including generalists and specialists on different host taxa and species associated especially with nests and burrows will be informative. The venoms of predatory reduviids such as Zelurus spp. and Opisthacidius spp. that are most closely related to Triatominae, and share some behaviours such as habitation of bird nests by Opisthacidius spp. may also provide more information about the evolution of triatomine saliva.
Project description:Macrophages are hematopoietic cells critical for innate immune defense, but also control organ homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner. Tissue-resident macrophages, therefore, provide a well-defined model to study the impact of ontogeny and microenvironment on chromatin state. Here, we profile the dynamics of four histone modifications across seven tissue-resident macrophage populations, as well as monocytes and neutrophils. We identify 12,743 macrophage-specific enhancers and establish that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct enhancer landscapes. Our work suggests that a combination of tissue and lineage-specific transcription factors form the regulatory networks controlling chromatin specification in tissue-resident macrophages. The environment has the capacity to alter the chromatin landscape of macrophages derived from transplanted adult bone marrow in vivo and even differentiated macrophages are reprogramed when transferred into a new tissue. Altogether, these data provide a comprehensive view of macrophage regulation and highlight the importance of microenvironment along with pioneer factors in orchestrating macrophage identity and plasticity.
Project description:Macrophages are hematopoietic cells critical for innate immune defense, but also control organ homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner. Tissue-resident macrophages, therefore, provide a well-defined model to study the impact of ontogeny and microenvironment on chromatin state. Here, we profile the dynamics of four histone modifications across seven tissue-resident macrophage populations, as well as monocytes and neutrophils. We identify 12,743 macrophage-specific enhancers and establish that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct enhancer landscapes. Our work suggests that a combination of tissue and lineage-specific transcription factors form the regulatory networks controlling chromatin specification in tissue-resident macrophages. The environment has the capacity to alter the chromatin landscape of macrophages derived from transplanted adult bone marrow in vivo and even differentiated macrophages are reprogramed when transferred into a new tissue. Altogether, these data provide a comprehensive view of macrophage regulation and highlight the importance of microenvironment along with pioneer factors in orchestrating macrophage identity and plasticity.
Project description:Macrophages are hematopoietic cells critical for innate immune defense, but also control organ homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner. Tissue-resident macrophages, therefore, provide a well-defined model to study the impact of ontogeny and microenvironment on chromatin state. Here, we profile the dynamics of four histone modifications across seven tissue-resident macrophage populations, as well as monocytes and neutrophils. We identify 12,743 macrophage-specific enhancers and establish that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct enhancer landscapes. Our work suggests that a combination of tissue and lineage-specific transcription factors form the regulatory networks controlling chromatin specification in tissue-resident macrophages. The environment has the capacity to alter the chromatin landscape of macrophages derived from transplanted adult bone marrow in vivo and even differentiated macrophages are reprogramed when transferred into a new tissue. Altogether, these data provide a comprehensive view of macrophage regulation and highlight the importance of microenvironment along with pioneer factors in orchestrating macrophage identity and plasticity.
Project description:A single hematopoietic stem cell can give rise to all blood cells with remarkable fidelity. Here, we define the chromatin accessibility and transcriptional landscape controlling this process in thirteen primary cell types that traverse the hematopoietic hierarchy. Exploiting the finding that enhancer landscapes better reflect cell identity than mRNA levels, we enable "enhancer cytometry" for accurate enumeration of pure cell types from complex populations. We further reveal the lineage ontogeny of genetic elements linked to diverse human diseases. In acute myeloid leukemia, chromatin accessibility reveals distinctive regulatory evolution in pre-leukemic HSCs (pHSCs), leukemia stem cells, and leukemic blasts. These leukemic cells demonstrate unique lineage infidelity, confirmed by single cell regulomes. We further show that pHSCs have a competitive advantage that is conferred by reduced chromatin accessibility at HOXA9 targets and is associated with adverse patient outcomes. Thus, regulome dynamics can provide diverse insights into human hematopoietic development and disease. Single-cell ATAC-seq of LMPPs, Monocytes, LSCs and Luekemic blast cells.