Project description:Small RNA pathways play evolutionarily conserved roles in gene regulation and in defense from pathogenic and parasitic nucleic acids. The character and expression patterns of small RNAs show conservation throughout animal lineages, but specific animal clades also show variations on these recurring themes, including species-specific small RNAs. The monotremes, with only platypus and four species of echidna as extant members, represent the basal branch of the mammalian lineage. Here, we examine the small RNA pathways of monotremes by deep sequencing of six platypus and echidna tissues. We find that highly conserved microRNA species display their signature tissue-specific expression patterns. In addition, we find a large rapidly-evolving cluster of miRNAs on platypus chromosome X1 which is unique to monotremes. Platypus and echidna testes contain a robust piRNA system which appears to be participating in ongoing transposon defense. Keywords: piRNA
Project description:Purpose: transcriptome sequencing of Conopomorpha sinensis Methods: high-through Illumina HiSeqTM 2000 Results:66017 transcripts,35383 unigenes Conclusions:This study provided valuable transcriptome data for the litchi fruit borer, which was the first fundamental genomic basis for exploiting gene resources from the litchi fruit borer
Project description:Tree ring features are affected by environmental factors and therefore are the basis for dendrochronological studies to reconstruct past environmental conditions. Oak wood often provides the data for these studies because of the durability particularly of oak heartwood and, hence the availability of samples spanning long time periods of the distant past. Wood formation is regulated in part by epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation. Studies in the methylation state of DNA preserved in oak heartwood thus could identify epigenetic tree ring features informing on past environmental conditions. We investigated the feasibility of such studies using heartwood samples core-drilled from the trunks of standing oak trees spanning the AD 1776-2014. Heartwood contains little DNA, and large amounts of phenolic compounds known to hinder the preparation of high-throughput sequencing libraries. We sequenced whole-genome and DNA methylome libraries for oak heartwood up to 100 and 50 years of age, respectively. However, only 56 genomic regions with sufficient coverage for quantitative methylation analysis were identified, suggesting that the high-throughput sequencing of DNA will be in principal feasible for wood formed <100 years ago is impeded by the reduction in library complexity caused by the bisulfite treatment used to generate the oak methylome.
Project description:The newly identified liver-enriched gene 1 (Leg1) encodes a protein with characteristic Domain of Unknown Function 781 (DUF781/LEG1) domain constituting a protein family with only one member. Functional study in zebrafish suggested that Leg1 genes were involved in the liver development, while the platypus MLP homolog that was enriched in mammary gland and milk acts as an anti-bacterial substance. However, no functional study on eutherian Leg1s has been published at present. Thus, we first report here a functional prediction research in a cellular model. As previously reported, eutherian Leg1s could be classified into three paralogous groups. Pig has all three Leg1 genes, while human and mouse only have retained Leg1a. Hence, pig is an ideal model to study the gene function. RNA-seq was then performed by overexpression of pig Leg1s and platypus MLP in the HepG2 cells. Enrichment analysis showed that pLeg1a and pLeg1b might be of little function in the liver cell; however, pLeg1c was probably involved in the ER stress response and protein folding. Additionally, gene set enrichment analysis revealed that platypus MLP has anti-bacterial activity confirming the functional study in the platypus. Therefore, our study, from the transcriptomic perspective of view, concluded that the mammalian Leg1s have different functions in the liver cells due to subfunctionalization of the paralogous genes.
Project description:Gene dosage imbalance of heteromorphic sex chromosomes (XY or ZW) exists between the sexes, and with the autosomes. Mammalian X chromosome inactivation was long thought to imply a critical need for dosage compensation in vertebrates. However, mRNA abundance measurements that demonstrated sex chromosome transcripts are neither balanced between the sexes or with autosomes in monotreme mammals or birds brought sex chromosome dosage compensation into question. This study examines transcriptomic and proteomic levels of dosage compensation in platypus and chicken compared to mouse, a model eutherian species. We analyzed mRNA and protein levels in heart and liver tissues of chicken, mouse and platypus.