Project description:Fragile X Syndrome is an inherited X-linked disorder associated with intellectual disabilities that begin in childhood and last a lifetime. The symptoms overlap with autism spectrum disorder, and the syndrome predominantly affects males. Consequently, FXS research tends to favor analysis of social behaviors in males, leaving a gap in our understanding of other behavioral traits, especially in females. Here we used a mouse model of FXS to analyze developmental, behavioral, neurochemical, and transcriptomic profiles in males and females. Our behavioral assays demonstrated locomotor hyperactivity, motor impulsivity, increased “approach” behavior in an approach-avoidance assay, and deficits in nest building behavior. Analysis of brain neurotransmitter content revealed deficits in striatal GABA, glutamate, and serotonin content. RNA sequencing of the ventral striatum unveiled expression changes associated with neurotransmission as well as motivation and substance use pathways. Sex differences were identified in nest building behavior, striatal neurotransmitter content, and ventral striatal gene expression. In summary, our study identified sex differences in specific behavioral, neurotransmitter, and gene expression phenotypes and gene set enrichment analysis identified significant enrichment of pathways associated with motivation and drug reward.
Project description:Early adversity in the form of neglect, abuse, and unpredictable stress impairs hippocampal development across diverse mammalian species. Individuals exposed to multiple adversities are more impacted compared to those exposed to a single adversity. However, the mechanisms responsible for this dose-dependent effect are unclear and have not been investigated in animal models. Here we assess the effects of a single stressor (i.e. limited bedding/nesting) abbreviated as LB and unpredictable multiple stressors (limited bedding/nesting, unpredictable maternal separation, and nest disruption) abbreviated as UPS on gene expression in the hippocampus of 17-day old pups (P17).
Project description:The great tit is a widely studied passerine bird species in ecology that, in the past decades, has provided important insights into speciation, phenology, behavior and microevolution. After completion of the great tit genome sequence, a customized high density 650k SNP array was developed enabling more detailed genomic studies in this species.
Project description:MicroRNA biogenesis is known to be modulated by a variety of RNA binding proteins (RBPs), but in most cases, individual RBPs appear to influence the processing of a small number of selective targets. We herein report binding of the NONO/PSF heterodimer to hundreds of expressed pri-miRNAs in HeLa cells to globally enhance pri-miRNA processing by the Drosha/DGCR8 Microprocessor. As NONO/PSF are key components of paraspeckles organized by the lncRNA NEAT1, we find that NEAT1 also has profound effects on global pri-miRNA processing. Mechanistic dissection reveals that NEAT1 broadly interacts with NONO/PSF as well as many other RBPs, and that multiple RNA segments in NEAT1, including a “pseudo pri-miRNA” near its 3’ end, help attract the Microprocessor. These findings suggest a bird nest model for a large lncRNA to orchestrate efficient processing of an entire class of small RNAs in the nucleus.we used small RNA-seq to identify miRNA level in response to secific knockdowns relative to siGFP treatment control
2017-07-26 | GSE90650 | GEO
Project description:16S rRNA gene sequences obtained from faecal samples from multiple bird species.
Project description:Cancer patients often experience changes in mental health, prompting an exploration into whether nerves infiltrating tumors contribute to these alterations by impacting brain functions. Using a mouse model for head and neck cancer and neuronal tracing we show that tumor-infiltrating nerves connect to distinct brain areas. The activation of this neuronal circuitry altered behaviors (decreased nest-building, increased latency to eat a cookie, and reduced wheel running). Tumor-infiltrating nociceptor neurons exhibited heightened calcium activity and brain regions receiving these neural projections showed elevated Fos as well as increased calcium responses compared to non-tumor-bearing counterparts.
Project description:Primordial germ cells (PGCs), major cell resource used in the production of germline chimeras in birds, have been used in conservation of avian genetic resources and production of transgenic animals. Numerous bird species have been put on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss and degradation caused by environmental destruction and climate change, but research on PGCs is limited to specific poultry, such as chickens. Although it has recently been expanding to various bird species, it is still difficult to utilize PGCs due to biological differences and difficulties in in vitro long-term culture. Here, we constructed a single-cell landscape of chicken gonadal PGCs with established long-term culture systems of PGCs and compared them with those of the vocal learning wild bird, the zebra finches. Our results identified the interspecific differences in signaling pathways in gonadal PGCs and somatic cells, respectively. In particular, the NODAL and insulin signaling pathways were more active in zebra finch than in chickens, whereas the FGF downstream signaling pathway known to be important for the proliferation of chicken PGCs, was more active in chickens. These differences may contribute to optimizing the in vitro culture conditions of zebra finch PGCs. This study is the first cross-species single-cell transcriptomic analysis targeting birds, and laid an essential groundwork to contribute to the restoration of endangered birds and the production of transgenic birds by securing sufficient PGCs from various bird species in the future.