Project description:Gene expression analysis of 2-month-old APP/APLP2 double-conditional Knockout (N-dCKO) mice and littermate APLP2 knockout controls, APP knockout and wildtype controls. Mouse hippocampus were dissected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:To characterize the genetic basis of hybrid male sterility in detail, we used a systems genetics approach, integrating mapping of gene expression traits with sterility phenotypes and QTL. We measured genome-wide testis expression in 305 male F2s from a cross between wild-derived inbred strains of M. musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus. We identified several thousand cis- and trans-acting QTL contributing to expression variation (eQTL). Many trans eQTL cluster into eleven ‘hotspots,’ seven of which co-localize with QTL for sterility phenotypes identified in the cross. The number and clustering of trans eQTL - but not cis eQTL - were substantially lower when mapping was restricted to a ‘fertile’ subset of mice, providing evidence that trans eQTL hotspots are related to sterility. Functional annotation of transcripts with eQTL provides insights into the biological processes disrupted by sterility loci and guides prioritization of candidate genes. Using a conditional mapping approach, we identified eQTL dependent on interactions between loci, revealing a complex system of epistasis. Our results illuminate established patterns, including the role of the X chromosome in hybrid sterility.
Project description:Despite its key role in Alzheimer pathogenesis, the physiological function(s) of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and of its proteolytic fragments are still poorly understood. The secreted APPs? ectodomain has been shown to be involved in neuroprotection and synaptic plasticity. The ?-secretase generated APP intracellular domain, AICD, functions as a transcriptional regulator in heterologous reporter assays although its role for endogenous gene regulation has remained controversial. Previously, we have generated APPs? knockin (KI) mice expressing solely the secreted ectodomain APPs?. Here, we generated double mutants (APPs?-DM) by crossing APPs?-KI mice onto an APLP2-deficient background and show that APPs? rescues the postnatal lethality of the majority of APP/APLP2 double knockout mice. Despite normal CNS morphology and unaltered basal synaptic transmission, young APPs?-DM mice already showed pronounced hippocampal dysfunction, impaired spatial learning and a deficit in LTP. To gain further mechanistic insight into which domains/proteolytic fragments are crucial for hippocampal APP/APLP2 mediated functions, we performed a DNA microarray transcriptome profiling of prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of adult APLP2-KO (APLP2-/-) and APPs?-DM mice (APP?/?APLP2-/- mice).Interestingly, this analysis failed to reveal major genotype-related transcriptional differences. Expression differences between cortex and hippocampus were, however, readily detectable. Prefrontal cortices and hippocampi of adult mice (38 - 40 weeks) of the following genotypes were analyzed: APLP2-KO (APLP2-/-) (n=3) and APPs?-DM (APP?/?APLP2-/-) (n=3).
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.