Project description:Brown adipose tissue (BAT) evolved in mammals as a natural defence system against hypothermia and obesity. While existence of BAT in adult humans has been recently appreciated, its cellular origin and molecular identity remain elusive due in large to high cellular heterogeneity within adipose tissues. Here we isolated clonal adipocytes from adult human BAT as well as WAT (control) and critically analyzed their transcriptome to identify bona fide BAT markers and its new functions.
Project description:Bifidobacteria dominate the composition of the neonatal gut microbiota in the first number of weeks following birth. A number of species in particular are found with a significantly higher frequency in the microbiome of breastfed infants, owing to their ability to rely on Human Milk Oligosacchraides (HMOs) as their sole carbohydrate substrate; namely B. bifidum, B. longum spp. infantis and B. breve. Bifidobacterium kashiwanohense is a species that has been isolated previously only from the faeces of infants, but extremely infrequently at that. Relatively little is currently known about the species itself, let alone the metabolic pathways that allow it to successfully establish a population in the infant gut. We have isolated a novel strain of B. kashiwanohense from the faeces of a breastfed infant on the basis of its ability to utilise the HMO component fucosyllactose as its sole carbohydrate source. In this study, we read and annotate the full genome sequence of this novel strain, and use the data obtained to direct our further experimental analysis of fucosyllactose metabolism in B. kashiwanohense. Using transcriptomic and growth analysis results, we identify the genes responsible for B. kashiwanohense to utilise fucosyllactose, and employ a combination of cloning, in vitro hydrolysis assays, and further, recombinant transcriptomic and growth assays to elucidate the pathway for fucosyllactose metabolism in B. kashiwanohense, as well as revealing insight into fucosyllactose and fucose metabolism in Bifidobacteria as whole.
Project description:we generated new reference genome assemblies for two species belonging to two different echinoderm classes: the bat sea star Patiria miniata and the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
Project description:Microarray profiling of amplified total RNA isolated from neutrophils sorted from naïve, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb)-infected, or lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated mice.