Project description:Primordial germ cells (PGCs), undifferentiated embryonic germ cells, are the only cells that have the ability to become gametes and to reacquire totipotency upon fertilization. It is generally understood that the development of PGCs proceeds through the expression of germ cell-specific transcription factors and characteristic epigenomic changes. However, little is known about the properties of PGCs at the metabolite and protein levels, which are directly responsible for the control of cell function. Here, we report the metabolic profiles of PGCs through the first comprehensive analyses of the metabolome and proteome, including remarkable activation of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria. Moreover, conversion of energy metabolism is involved in the control of PGC reprogramming and differentiation of pluripotential stem cells (PSCs) into PGCs in culture. Our findings about the unique metabolic property of PGCs provide novel insights into our understanding of the importance of distinct energy metabolism for switching PGC and PSC status.
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.