Project description:Pregnancy is accompanied by reductions in core body temperature (Tc) and its circadian amplitude, changes that are thought to provide fetal thermal stability. In the associated manuscript, we show that pregnancy profoundly reshapes thermoregulatory dynamics across diurnal and ultradian timescales, and identify estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) signaling in the preoptic area (POA) as a central mediator of these effects. During pregnancy, ERα-expressing in neurons of the medial POA (MPO) show enhanced estrogen signaling and hormone-responsive gene expression changes. Silencing ERα neurons or selectively deleting ERα in the POA attenuates pregnancy-induced decreases in Tc and its rhythmicity, leading to alterations in gestational length and/or birth weight. Together, these findings demonstrate that ERα signaling within the POA coordinates adaptive remodeling of thermoregulatory rhythms during pregnancy, with direct consequences on fetal outcomes. Here, we share transcriptomic data from ERα-expressing neurons in the MPO from non-pregnant and late pregnant mice.
Project description:PN2 male and female rat pups were treated with vehicle or zebularine. POA RNA was extracted and sequenced to deterime the effects of DNMT inhibition in POA gene expression. Males and Females were treated with either vehicle (0.1% DNMSO in saline) or Zebularine
Project description:Once ovulated, the oocyte has to be fertilized in a short time window, or it will undergo post-ovulation aging (POA), whose underlying mechanisms are still not elucidated. Here, we optimized single-cell proteomics methods and performed single-cell proteomic and phosphoproteomic analysis of fresh, POA, melatonin-treated and MG132-treated POA oocytes.
Project description:PN2 male and female rat pups were treated with vehicle or zebularine. POA RNA was extracted and sequenced to deterime the effects of DNMT inhibition in POA gene expression.
Project description:The adult mammalian brain is composed of distinct regions that have specialized roles. The BF/POA regions are thought to have an important role in the regulation of sleep/wake behavior. However, genetic markers of the responsible cells for the regulation of sleep/wake behavior are largely unknown. To identify the molecular markers of the BF/POA regions, we sampled the BF/POA regions and compared gene expression in the BF/POA regions with those of other brain regions which we previously reported in the BrainStars (B*) project, in which we sampled ~50 small brain regions, including sensory centers and centers for motion, time, memory, fear, and feeding. We sampled each region every 4 hours for 24 hours, and pooled the sample sets for DNA-microarray assays. We then used informatics to identify candidates for genes with high or low expression in the BF/POA regions. We used our findings to develop an integrated database (http://poabf.brainstars.org/) for exploring genome-wide expression in the adult mouse brain including the BF/POA regions.
Project description:The preoptic area of the hypothalamus (POA) contains intrinsically warm and cold-sensitive neurons, which are thought to be critically involved in mammalian thermoregulation. However, the precise physiological roles and the molecular markers of the cold-sensitive POA neurons have not been determined yet. Here, we tackle this problem by performing calcium-imaging guided separation and collection of cold-sensitive and cold-insensitive dissociated neurons from the mouse POA, followed by RNASeq and differential transcriptomics of these cell populations.