Project description:High throughput Illumina sequencing of poly-A selected RNA from Arabidopsis Col and Ler reciprocal F1 hybrid embryo and endosperm tissue isolated at 6-7 days after pollination to identify imprinted genes.
Project description:Here we report genome-wide high resolution allele-specific maps of DNA methylation and histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) in maize endosperm. To investigate the allele-specific DNA methylation pattern of maize endosperm on a genome-wide scale, we performed MethylC-seq for shoot, embryo, and endosperm tissue 12 d after pollination (DAP) of inbred B73, and the endosperm tissue 12 DAP of reciprocal crosses B73 Ã Mo17 (BM) and Mo17 Ã B73 (MB). We also performed additional RNA-seq for samples from 12-DAP and 10-DAP endosperm of both reciprocal crosses between inbreds B73 and Mo17
Project description:High throughput Illumina sequencing of poly-A selected RNA from Arabidopsis Col and Ler reciprocal F1 hybrid embryo and endosperm tissue isolated at 6-7 days after pollination to identify imprinted genes. Examination of parent-of-origin specific and total gene expression in seed tissues.
Project description:Rice is a very important food staple that feeds more than half the world's population. Two major Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) subspecies, japonica and indica, show significant phenotypic variation in their stress responses. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenotypic variation are still largely unknown. A common link among different stresses is that they produce an oxidative burst and result in an increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, methyl viologen (MV) as a ROS agent was applied to investigate the rice oxidative stress response. We observed that 93-11 (indica) seedlings exhibited leaf senescence with severe lesions under MV treatment compared to Nipponbare (japonica). Whole-genome microarray experiments were conducted, and 1,062 probe sets were identified with gene expression level polymorphisms between the two rice cultivars in addition to differential expression under MV treatment, which were assigned as Core Intersectional Probesets (CIPs). These CIPs were analyzed by gene ontology (GO) and highlighted with enrichment GO terms related to toxin and oxidative stress responses as well as other responses. These GO term-enriched genes of the CIPs include glutathine S-transferases (GSTs), P450, plant defense genes, and secondary metabolism related genes such as chalcone synthase (CHS). Further insertion/deletion (InDel) and regulatory element analyses for these identified CIPs suggested that there may be some eQTL hotspots related to oxidative stress in the rice genome, such as GST genes encoded on chromosome 10. In addition, we identified a group of marker genes individuating the japonica and indica subspecies. In summary, we developed a new strategy combining biological experiments and data mining to study the possible molecular mechanism of phenotypic variation during oxidative stress between Nipponbare and 93-11. This study will aid in the analysis of the molecular basis of quantitative traits.
Project description:Imprinted gene expression occurs during seed development in plants and is closely tied to differential DNA methylation of maternal and paternal alleles, particularly at proximal transposable elements (TEs). Since the epigenetic modification of TEs can vary within species, we investigated intraspecific variation in imprinting, coupled with analysis of DNA methylation and small RNAs, among three strains of Arabidopsis that display diverse seed size phenotypes. Unexpectedly we found that one strain, Cvi, is globally CG hypomethylated. We discovered three examples of strain-specific imprinting caused by epigenetic variation at a TE. Our data allowed us to predict and experimentally validate an instances of allele-specific imprinting in additional strains based only on methylation patterns. We conclude that numerous differences in imprinting can evolve in highly similar, recently diverged genotypes due to epiallelic variation present within the species. Our data demonstrate that epiallelic variation and genomic imprinting intersect to produce novel gene expression patterns in seeds. Examination of parent-of-origin specific and total gene expression in embryo, endosperm, and whole seeds. Samples with the same heading are biological replicates (e.g. CVN1, CVN2, and CVN3). High throughput Illumina sequencing of poly-A selected RNA from Arabidopsis Col, Ler and Cvi reciprocal F1 hybrid embryo and endosperm tissue isolated at 6 days after pollination to identify imprinted genes.
Project description:In plants, imprinted gene expression occurs in endosperm seed tissue and can be associated with differential DNA methylation between maternal and paternal alleles. Imprinting is theorized to have been selected for because of conflict between parental genomes in offspring, but most studies of imprinting have been conducted in Arabidopsis thaliana, an inbred primarily self-fertilizing species that should have limited parental conflict. We examined embryo and endosperm allele-specific expression and DNA methylation genome-wide in the wild outcrossing species Arabidopsis lyrata. Here we show that the majority of A. lyrata imprinted genes exhibit parentally-biased expression in A. thaliana, suggesting that there is evolutionary conservation in gene imprinting. Surprisingly, we discovered substantial interspecies differences in methylation features associated with paternally expressed imprinted genes (PEGs). Unlike A. thaliana, the maternal allele of many A. lyrata PEGs was hypermethylated in the CHG context. Increased maternal allele CHG methylation was associated with increased expression bias in favor of the paternal allele. We propose that CHG methylation maintains or reinforces repression of maternal alleles of PEGs. These data suggest that while the genes subject to imprinting are largely conserved, there is flexibility in the epigenetic mechanisms employed between closely related species to maintain monoallelic expression. This supports the idea that imprinting of specific genes is a functional phenomenon, and not simply a byproduct of seed epigenomic reprogramming. Examination of total gene expression, parent-of-origin specific allelic bias, or DNA methylation in embryo, endosperm, flower bud or seedcoat tissue from Arabidopsis lyrata accessions MN47 (MN), Karhumaki (Kar or KA), and crosses between them. High-throughput Illumina poly-A-selected mRNA-seq was used to identify imprinted genes in A. lyrata, and high-throughput Illumina whole genome bisulfite-sequencing was used to examine DNA methylation. mRNA-seq samples are designated MMxFF_T# where MM is the mother of the cross (either MN for MN47 or KA for Kar), FF is the father, T is the tissue (E for embryo, N for endosperm, S for seedcoat, b for buds), and # is the replicate numbers. Samples obtained from bisulfite sequencing follow the same naming but have suffix _BS and indicate cytosine methylation context (CpG, CHG, or CHH). For KAxMN bisulfite sequencing, additional files MMxFF_T#_BS_P_C.txt follow the same naming scheme but contain context-specific methylation data (C) from reads that mapped preferentially to one parent strain (P).
Project description:The nuclear content of the plant endosperm is the result of the contribution two maternal genomes and a single paternal genome. This 2:1 dosage relationship provides a unique system for studying the additivity of gene expression levels in reciprocal hybrids. A combination of microarray profiling and allele-specific expression analysis was performed using RNA isolated from endosperm tissues of maize inbred lines B73 and Mo17 and their reciprocal hybrids at two developmental stages, 13 and 19 days after pollination. By assessing the relative levels of expression in the reciprocal hybrids it was possible to determine the prevalence of additive and non-additive expression patterns. While the majority of differentially expressed genes displayed additive expression patterns in the endosperm, approximately 10% of the genes displayed non-additive expression patterns including maternal-like, paternal-like, dominant high-parent, dominant low-parent and expression patterns outside the range of the inbreds. The frequency of hybrid expression patterns outside of the parental range in maize endosperm tissue is much higher than that observed for vegetative tissues. For a set of 90 genes allele-specific expression assays were employed to monitor allelic bias and regulatory variation. Eight of these genes exhibited evidence for maternally or paternally biased expression at multiple stages of endosperm development and are potential examples of differential imprinting. Collectively, our data indicate that parental effects on gene expression are much stronger in endosperm than in vegetative tissues, and that endosperm imprinting may be far more common than previously estimated. Experiment Overall Design: Gene expression levels were profiled in 19 day after pollination endosperm tissue from four maize genotypes; B73, Mo17, Mo17xB73 and B73xMo17.