Project description:As the only truly flying mammals, bats use their unique wing formed from elongated digits connected by membranes to power their flight. The forelimb of bats consists of four elongated digits (digits II-V) and one shorter digit (digit I) that is morphologically similar to the hindlimb digits. Elongation of bat forelimb digits is thought to results from changes in the temporal and spatial expression of a number of developmental genes. As a result, comparing gene expression profiles between short and elongated digit morphologies of the fore- and hindlimbs may elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying digit elongation in bats. Here, we performed a large-scale analysis of gene expression of forelimb digit I, forelimb digits II-V, and all five hindlimb digits in Myotis ricketti using digital gene expression tag profiling approach. Results of this study not only implicate several developmental genes as robust candidates underlying digit elongation in bats, but also provide a better understanding of the genes involved in autopodial development in general. A large-scale analysis of gene expression of 3 different parts of autopods in Myotis ricketti using digital gene expression tag profiling approach.
Project description:As the only truly flying mammals, bats use their unique wing formed from elongated digits connected by membranes to power their flight. The forelimb of bats consists of four elongated digits (digits II-V) and one shorter digit (digit I) that is morphologically similar to the hindlimb digits. Elongation of bat forelimb digits is thought to results from changes in the temporal and spatial expression of a number of developmental genes. As a result, comparing gene expression profiles between short and elongated digit morphologies of the fore- and hindlimbs may elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying digit elongation in bats. Here, we performed a large-scale analysis of gene expression of forelimb digit I, forelimb digits II-V, and all five hindlimb digits in Myotis ricketti using digital gene expression tag profiling approach. Results of this study not only implicate several developmental genes as robust candidates underlying digit elongation in bats, but also provide a better understanding of the genes involved in autopodial development in general.
Project description:Bats are natural hosts for a wide diversity of viruses. While many of these viruses are highly pathogenic in humans, most do not appear to cause major symptoms in bats. These modern bat-specific characteristics are the result of past virus-host (co)evolution and virus-driven host adaptations. Innate immunity is the first line of defense against viruses in mammals, we aim at characterizing bat innate immunity in response to viruses. Using genome-wide and gene candidate evolutionary analyses, we found that many bat antiviral genes have undergone multiple duplication events in a lineage-specific manner, specifically in the Myotis bat lineage. We focus on Myotis yumanensis as a model in the Myotis lineage. We performed transcriptomic analyses and observed the upregulation of most mammalian genes implicated in the different steps of the innate immune response from sensing to interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), showing the conservation of the core innate immunity. Our study will contribute to identifying adaptations that shaped bat innate immunity. These adaptations may contribute to the bat-virus specificity and influence viral emergence to another mammalian host
Project description:The Wilms tumor gene, Wt1, is specifically expressed in Sertoli cells (SCs) which support spermatogenesis. Germ cell loss was found in Wt1 knockout mice. In vitro studies demonstrated that Wt1 was essential for cell polarity maintenance in SCs. We used Digital Gene Expression Tag Profiling to detail the global programme of gene expression after Wt1 deletion in sertoli cell and identified 710 gene expression level change more than 2 times. Digital Gene Expression Tag Profiling analysis were performed using mRNA from control and Wt1-deficient Primary Sertoli cells, every group primare sertoli cell were from more than 30 mice.