Project description:A single spermatogonial stem cell can aquire pluripotentiality but that conversion into a pluripotent cell type is accompanied by loss of spermatogenic potential. We used microarrays to compare the expression profiles among the different stem cell types. Experiment Overall Design: GS, mGS and ES cells were cultured for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We examined the gene expression profiles of GS and mGS cells to find candidate molecules that are involved in the conversion process of GS into mGS cells.
Project description:Whole genome genotyping (WGG) arrays are the powerful tools for GWAS in farm animal. Here we take advantage of the commercial Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChips, a mapping population including 101 individuals were genotyped. Association analysis and linkage analysis were followed to map the causative gene of hearing loss in Chinese Rongchang pigs. To Mapping the causative gene of hearing loss in Chinese Rongchang pigs, we genotyped 60000 markers in the genome of a mapping population including 101 individuals. Illumina 60K BeadChips were used. Sample types were normal blood samples.
Project description:Background: The identification of causal variants responsible for disease associations from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) facilitates functional understanding of the disease mechanisms implicated by GWAS. One of the earliest GWAS associations to COPD spans an intragenic region within FAM13A, but the causal variants at this loci have not yet been identified. Massively parallel reporter assays (MPRA) can be used to prioritize functional regulatory variants in a high-throughput manner. Methods: We used an integrated approach using fine-mapping in over 10,000 subjects from COPD GWAS studies, two MPRA experiments, traditional reporter assays, chromatin conformation capture, and CRISPR-based gene editing to characterize COPD-associated regulatory variants in FAM13A in human bronchial epithelial cell lines. Results: Conditional genetic association and fine mapping analyses identified two independent COPD association signals in FAM13A. MPRA identified 45 common functional regulatory variants, and six COPD-associated putative functional variants were prioritized for further functional investigation. Three variants demonstrated significant activity in traditional reporter assays, and one variant, rs2013701, was selected for further testing in the endogenous genomic context based on a direction of effect consistent with postulated mechanisms of FAM13A-mediated COPD susceptibility. CRISPR-based genome editing for this variant confirmed allele-specific effects on FAM13A expression and altered rates of cellular proliferation, providing multiple levels of functional characterization for this COPD-associated variant. Conclusions: Comprehensive screening for regulatory variants near FAM13A identified the presence of extensive functional regulatory variation within a 250kb window of FAM13A in HBECs. Focused functional evaluation of the COPD-associated functional variants in LD with the two independent association signals in this region prioritized the common variant rs2013701, for which multiple parallel lines of functional evidence confirm allelic effects on FAM13A regulation.