Project description:The little skate, a cartilaginous fish evolutionarily distal from tetrapods, displays walking-like behavior and has conserved genetic programs and neuronal substrates for land-walking. Studies on little skate have been limited due to lack of high-quality genome assembly. Here, we generated an improved genome assembly of little skate reflecting precise gene annotation and structures and performed integrated analysis of gene expression and chromatin accessibility to investigate molecular mechanisms of fin motor neuron development. Through interspecies comparison of RNA expression, common and species-specific genes expressed in fin/limb/wing level motor neurons were identified. Moreover, by performing chromatin accessibility analysis with a pure fin motor neuron population the potential regulators controlling the gene expression in fin motor neurons were identified. Interspecies comparison of genomic data, gene expression, and chromatin accessibility assay suggest that the little skate has highly conserved gene regulatory mechanisms controlling tetrapod locomotion, which was not previously expected.
Project description:The little skate, a cartilaginous fish evolutionarily distal from tetrapods, displays walking-like behavior and has conserved genetic programs and neuronal substrates for land-walking. Studies on little skate have been limited due to lack of high-quality genome assembly. Here, we generated an improved genome assembly of little skate reflecting precise gene annotation and structures and performed integrated analysis of gene expression and chromatin accessibility to investigate molecular mechanisms of fin motor neuron development. Through interspecies comparison of RNA expression, common and species-specific genes expressed in fin/limb/wing level motor neurons were identified. Moreover, by performing chromatin accessibility analysis with a pure fin motor neuron population the potential regulators controlling the gene expression in fin motor neurons were identified. Interspecies comparison of genomic data, gene expression, and chromatin accessibility assay suggest that the little skate has highly conserved gene regulatory mechanisms controlling tetrapod locomotion, which was not previously expected.
Project description:Copy number variations (CNVs), which represent a significant source of genetic diversity in mammals, are currently being associated with phenotypes of clinical relevance, mostly in humans and mice. Notwithstanding, little is known about the extent of CNV that contributes to genetic variation in farm animals, including pig. This Nimblegen experiment reports a genome-wide high resolution map of copy number variation in the porcine genome. After remapping the initial CNV sequences to the latest genome assembly (Sus scrofa v.9), 84 CNV regions (CNVRs) were identified among the genomes of 21 related porcine samples from Duroc breed. We used a set of NimbleGen CGH arrays that tile across the assayable portion of the pig genome with approximately 2.1 million probes, at a 502 bp average probe spacing (Sus scrofa pre assembly version 6). These CNVRs covered 2 Mb of the genome, and ranged in size from 4 to 352 kb (median size of 12 kb). Together, this analysis provides a useful resource to assist with the assessment of CNVs in the contexts of porcine variation, health and productive efficiency.