Project description:The glycine-51 (G51) codon in exon 3 of the rat Snca gene, encoding alpha-synuclein, was mutated to aspartic acid using CRISPR/Cas9 to generate the SncaG51D rat model of Parkinson’s (Morley et al. 2023). The G51D mutation causes an aggressive form of Parkinson’s and dementia with Lewy bodies in humans. The brains from four 6-month old rats of wild-type, heterozygous, and homozygous genotypes (Snca+/+, SncaG51D/+ and SncaG51D/G51D) were harvested and all 12 brains were bisected down the midline. Frontal cortex was isolated from one half, and synaptosomes were prepared from the other half. Following quality control the samples were processed for TMT-mass spectrometry by the Fingerprints Facility, University of Dundee. MaxQuant Version 1.6.0.16 was used for the assignment of peptides to protein using the uniport-rat-jan2018.fasta file. Pairwise comparisons were made between the different mutant samples and Snca+/+ for both the cortical and synaptosome samples. Morley V, Dolt KS, Alcaide-Corral CJ, Walton T, Lucatelli C, Mashimo T, Tavares AAS & Kunath T (2023) In vivo18F-DOPA PET imaging identifies a dopaminergic deficit in a rat model with a G51D α-synuclein mutation. Front. Neurosci. 17, 1095761.
Project description:We performed shallow whole genome sequencing (WGS) on circulating free (cf)DNA extracted from plasma or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and shallow WGS on the tissue DNA extracted from the biopsy in order to evaluate the correlation between the two biomaterials. After library construction and sequencing (Hiseq3000 or Ion Proton), copy number variations were called with WisecondorX.
Project description:The high mutation rate across the whole melanoma genome provides a major challenge in stratifying true driver events from the background mutations. Many non-coding recurrent events, such as those occurred in enhancer, can shape tumor evolution, emphasizing the importance in systematically deciphering enhancer disruptions in melanoma. Here, we leveraged 297 melanoma whole-genome sequencing (WGS) samples to prioritize highly recurrent regions (HRRs). By performing a genome-scale CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) screen on HRR-associated enhancers in melanoma cells, we identified 66 significant hits which could have tumor-suppressive roles. These functional enhancers show unique mutational patterns independent of classical significantly mutated genes in melanoma. Target gene analysis for the essential enhancers revealed many known and hidden mechanisms underlying melanoma development. We demonstrated that a super enhancer element could modulate melanoma cell proliferation by targeting MEF2A and another distal enhancer was able to sustain PTEN tumor-suppressive potential via long-range interaction. Our study established a catalogue of crucial enhancers and their target genes in melanoma development and progression, which illuminates the identification of novel mechanism of dysregulation for melanoma driver genes and new therapeutic targeting strategy.