Project description:During cortical development neurons are generated sequentially from basal progenitors (BPs) which specifically express the transcription factor Tbr2. We used fluorescent-activaed cell sorting (FACS) to isolate BPs from Tbr2GFP knockin reporter mice (Arnold SJ et al. Genesis, 2009) at early (embryonic day, E13) and late (embryonic day, E16) stages of cortical neurogenesis and determined mRNA expression profiles using mouse mRNA microarray (Illumina MouseWG-6 v2). Comparison of E13 and E16 mRNA expression profiles allowed us to identify regulatory gene networks for maintaining stage specific homeostasis of BPs throughout neurogenesis.
Project description:During cortical development neurons are generated sequentially from basal progenitors (BPs) which specifically express the transcription factor Tbr2. We used fluorescent-activaed cell sorting (FACS) to isolate BPs from Tbr2GFP knockin reporter mice (Arnold SJ et al. Genesis, 2009) at early (embryonic day, E13) and late (embryonic day, E16) stages of cortical neurogenesis and determined mRNA expression profiles using mouse mRNA microarray (Illumina MouseWG-6 v2). Comparison of E13 and E16 mRNA expression profiles allowed us to identify regulatory gene networks for maintaining stage specific homeostasis of BPs throughout neurogenesis. FACS isolated BPs at E13 and E16 mouse brain cortex were used for microarray analyses. Six biological replicates (embryonic cortex from three different litters) for E13 and five biological replicates (embryonic cortex from three different litters) for E16 were analysed.
Project description:During cortical development neurons are generated from basal progenitors (BPs) which specifically express the transcription factor Tbr2. We used fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate BPs from Tbr2-conditional knockout mice brain at early (E13) and late (E16) stages of cortical neurogenesis and determined mRNA expression profiles using microarray (Illumina MouseWG-6 v2). Role of transcription factor Tbr2 in basal progenitors during corticogenesis.
Project description:Introgressed variants from other species can be an important source of genetic variation because they may arise rapidly, can include multiple mutations on a single haplotype, and have often been pretested by selection in the species of origin. Although introgressed alleles are generally deleterious, several studies have reported introgression as the source of adaptive alleles-including the rodenticide-resistant variant of Vkorc1 that introgressed from Mus spretus into European populations of Mus musculus domesticus. Here, we conducted bidirectional genome scans to characterize introgressed regions into one wild population of M. spretus from Spain and three wild populations of M. m. domesticus from France, Germany, and Iran. Despite the fact that these species show considerable intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation, introgression was observed in all individuals, including in the M. musculus reference genome (GRCm38). Mus spretus individuals had a greater proportion of introgression compared with M. m. domesticus, and within M. m. domesticus, the proportion of introgression decreased with geographic distance from the area of sympatry. Introgression was observed on all autosomes for both species, but not on the X-chromosome in M. m. domesticus, consistent with known X-linked hybrid sterility and inviability genes that have been mapped to the M. spretus X-chromosome. Tract lengths were generally short with a few outliers of up to 2.7 Mb. Interestingly, the longest introgressed tracts were in olfactory receptor regions, and introgressed tracts were significantly enriched for olfactory receptor genes in both species, suggesting that introgression may be a source of functional novelty even between species with high barriers to gene flow.
Project description:During cortical development neurons are generated sequentially from basal progenitors (BPs) which specifically express the transcription factor Tbr2. We used fluorescent-activaed cell sorting (FACS) to isolate BPs from Tbr2GFP knockin reporter mice (Arnold SJ et al. Genesis, 2009) at early (embryonic day, E13) and late (embryonic day, E16) stages of cortical neurogenesis and determined miRNA expression profiles using mouse miRNA microarray (Agilent).Comparison of E13 and E16 microRNA expression profiles allowed us to identify regulatory mechanisms for maintaining stage specific homeostasis of BPs. FACS isolated BPs at E13 and E16 mouse brain cortex were used for miRNA microarray analyses. Four biological replicates (embryonic cortex from three different litters) for each group (E13 or E16) were analysed.
Project description:Postnatal brain neurogenesis in mammals is believed to be restricted to rare germinative remnants of the neuroepithelium. In this study, we discovered that, in the postnatal brain, a subset of embryonically derived progenitors is present in meningeal substructures. These cells migrate from the meningeal substructures to the retrosplenial and visual motor cortex and differentiate into (electrically) functional integrated neurons. Lineage tracing analysis revealed that this subset of neural progenitors originate largely from PDGFR+ cells. PDGFR-derived cells differentiate mostly into Satb2+ neurons in cortical layers I-IV. Thus, a reservoir of embryonically derived progenitors in the meninges contributes to postnatal cerebral cortical neurogenesis.
Project description:Cellular binary fate decisions require the progeny to silence genes associated with the alternative fate. The major subsets of alpha:beta T cells have been extensively studied as a model system for fate decisions. While the transcription factor RUNX3 is required for the initiation of Cd4 silencing in CD8 T cell progenitors, it is not required to maintain the silencing of Cd4 and other helper T lineage genes. The other runt domain containing protein, RUNX1, silences Cd4 in an earlier T cell progenitor, but this silencing is reversed whereas the gene silencing after RUNX3 expression is not reverse. Therefore, we hypothesized that RUNX3 and not RUNX1 recruits other factors that maintains the silencing of helper T lineage genes in CD8 T cells. To this end, we performed a proteomics screen of RUNX1 and RUNX3 to determine candidate silencing factors.