Project description:Purpose:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are members of a rapidly growing class of small endogenous non-coding RNAs that play crucial roles in post-transcriptional regulator of gene expression in many biological processes. Feline Panleukopenia Virus (FPV) is a highly infectious pathogen that causes severe disease in pets, economically important animals and wildlife in worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenicity of FPV have not been completely clear. To study the involvement of miRNAs in the FPV infection process, miRNAs expression profiles were identified via deep sequencing in the feline kidney cell line (F81) infected and uninfected with FPV. Methods:miRNA-sequencing analysis was performed on an Illumina Hiseq 2500 (LC Sciences, USA) following the vendor's recommended protocol Results:As a result, 673 known miRNAs belonging to 210 families and 278 novel miRNAs were identified. Then we found 57 significantly differential expression miRNAs by comparing the results between uninfected and FPV-infected groups. Furthermore, stem-loop qRT-PCR was applied to validate and profile the expression of the randomly selected miRNAs; the results were consistent with those by deep sequencing. Furthermore, the potential target genes were predicted. The target genes of differential expression miRNAs were analyzed by GO and KEGG pathway. Conclusions:The identification of miRNAs in feline kidney cell line before and after infection with Feline Panleukopenia Virus will provide new information and enhance our understanding of the functions of miRNAs in regulating biological processes.
Project description:The purpose of this study was to characterize the transcriptomic alterations accompanying the inflammation involved in feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS). Towards this goal next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based gene expression profiling (RNA-Sequencing; RNA-Seq) was performed on matched pairs of FCGS diseased and healthy tissues obtained from three feline subjects.
Project description:Fetal mice (16 days gestation) were administered feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)-based lentiviral viral particles containing the gene encoding GFP. Six liver tumors developed in three mice between the ages of 273 and 484 days, each mouse developed 2 tumors. These tumors and non-tumorous liver tissue from the same animals and animals that did not develop tumors and untransduced controls were harvested and microarrays were performed on total RNA extracted from these samples. We were interested in investigating the link between lentiviral integration and gene expression. Keywords: Comparison of HCC with non-tumorous liver tissue adjacent to tumor.
Project description:Introduction: The domestic cat (Felis catus) is a valued companion animal and the second most popular pet (over 46.5 million US households). They are also an important model system for virally-induced cancers (feline leukemia virus) and virally-mediated immunodeficiency (feline immunodeficiency virus). However, species specific research limitations such as a lack of reagents and immune cell markers limit our ability to utilize these models to their full capacity. The goal of this study is to characterize the transcriptomic landscape of circulating feline T cells and other captured leukocytes utilizing CD5 (only available selective feline T cell marker) flow cytometry enriched single cell RNA-sequencing and V(D)J repertoire analysis in clinically healthy domestic shorthair cats between the ages of 6 months and 9 years as well as contextualize them with the leukocytes of other species. Methods: 5 mL of peripheral whole blood was collected from 4 healthy cats (6 months, 1 year, 4 years, 9 years) and were housed at the UC Davis Nutrition and Pet Care Center. Samples were enriched for T cells by flow cytometry using a mouse anti-feline CD5 monoclonal antibody. The GEX library was constructed using the Chromium Next GEM Single Cell 5’ Kit v2 (10x Genomics). The V(D)J library for all 4 T cell receptor loci was prepared using the Chromium Single Cell V(D)J Enrichment Kit with custom reverse primers for the feline orthologs. Sequencing was done via Illumina NovaSeq S4 and pre-processed using the Cell Ranger for alignment to the feline genome (felis_catus_9.0). Processing and downstream analyses were conducted via Seurat v5. Additional annotated datasets for cross species T cell integration were acquired from peer-reviewed literature. Results: Unsupervised clustering of GEX data revealed 7 major populations – T cells, neutrophils, monocytic cells, B cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells, mast cells and platelets. Sub cluster analysis of T cells resolved different populations of naive (CD4+ and CD8+), CD4+ effector T cells, CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and γδ T cells for the first time. Cross species analysis revealed relatively high conservation of T cell subtypes along an effector gradient with equitable representation of veterinary species (horse, dog, pig) and humans with the cat. Our V(D)J repertoire analysis demonstrated marked differences in CD8+ cytotoxic T cells from other alpha/beta T cell subsets including productive TRG transcript expression. Among the myeloid cells, we resolved 3 clusters of classical monocytes with polarization into pro- and anti-inflammatory phenotypes in addition to a cluster of conventional dendritic cells. Lastly, our neutrophil sub clustering revealed a larger mature neutrophil cluster and a smaller exhausted/activated cluster. Discussion: Our study is the first to characterize the subtypes of circulating T cells utilizing an integrative approach of single cell RNA-sequencing, V(D)J repertoire analysis and cross species integration. Additionally, we also characterize subtypes in the myeloid cells expanding our understanding of the feline immune system. We have also demonstrated species immune cell relatedness which can provide an important foundation for further translational immunology, pathogenesis, translational treatments, and species-tropism of pathogens in veterinary medicine and research.
Project description:Fetal mice (16 days gestation) were administered feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)-based lentiviral viral particles containing the gene encoding GFP. Six liver tumors developed in three mice between the ages of 273 and 484 days, each mouse developed 2 tumors. These tumors and non-tumorous liver tissue from the same animals and animals that did not develop tumors and untransduced controls were harvested and microarrays were performed on total RNA extracted from these samples. We were interested in investigating the link between lentiviral integration and gene expression. Keywords: Comparison of HCC with non-tumorous liver tissue adjacent to tumor. Fourteen samples were analyzed in total: Two tumors from each of three mice (6 samples); surrounding non-tumorous liver tissue from each of these three mice (3 samples); two female mice and one male mouse that were transduced and did not develop tumors (3 samples); one female and one male untransduced mouse (2 samples). The samples were performed in two runs: one containing the samples from female mice and the second containing samples from male mice.