Project description:Today, many contaminants of emerging concern can be measured in waters across the United States, including the tributaries of the Great Lakes. However, just because the chemicals can be measured does not mean that they necessarily result in harm to fish and other aquatic species. Complicating risk assessment in these waters is the fact that aquatic species are encountering the chemicals as mixtures, which may have additive or synergistic risks that cannot be calculated using single chemical hazard and concentration-response information. We developed an in vitro effects-based screening approach to help us predict potential liver toxicity and cancer in aquatic organisms using water from specific Great Lakes tributaries: St. Louis River (MN), Bad River (WI), Fox River (WI), Manitowoc River (WI), Milwaukee River (WI), Indiana Harbor Canal (IN), St. Joseph River (MI), Grand River (MI), Clinton River (MI), River Rouge (MI), Maumee River (OH), Vermilion River (OH), Cuyahoga River (OH), Genesee River (NY), and Oswego River (NY). We exposed HepG2 cells for 48hrs to medium spiked with either field collected water (final concentration of environmental samples in the exposure medium were 75% of the field-collected water samples) or purified water. Using a deep neural network we clustered our collection sites from each tributary based on water chemistry. We also performed high throughput transcriptomics on the RNA obtained from the HepG2 cells. We used the transcriptomics data with our Bayesian Inferene for Sustance and Chemical Toxicity (BISCT) Bayesian Network for Steatosis to predict the probability of the field samples yielding a gene expression pattern consistent with predicting steatosis as an outcome. Surprisingly, we found that the probability of steatosis did not correspond to the surface water chemistry clustering. Our analysis suggests that chemical signatures are not informative in predicting biological effects. Furthermore, recent reports published after we obtained our samples, suggest that chemical levels in the sediment may be more relevant for predicting potential biological effects in the fish species developing tumors in the Great Lakes basin.
Project description:We compared the cellular and molecular outcome following permanent LAD ligation in wildtype and T- and B cell deficient Rag2del mice. Our results demonstrate that the significant changes in the cardiac immune response following myocardial infarction (MI). 8-12 weeks old, male and female C57BL/6J mice (Charles River, Wilmington, MA, USA) and B6.Rag2del mice (Jackson laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, USA) were used for this study. Seven days after MI, entire mouse ventricles were isolated and enzymatically digested. Cells were then labelled with CD45 magnetic beads (Miltenyi Biotec, Germany) and positively enriched using the AutoMACS instrument (Miltenyi Biotec, Germany). Viable macrophages/monocytes (CD45+CD11b+CD11c-DAPI-Lactadherinlo), dendritic cells (CD45+CD11b+CD11c+ DAPI-Lactadherinlo), and NK cells (CD45+CD11b-CD11c+NK1.1+ DAPI-Lactadherinlo) were then sorted on the BD FACSAriaTM IIIu (Becton Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) roughly in a 1:1:1 ratio into DMEM containing 10% FCS before processing for 10× Genomics single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq). Libraries for scRNA-Seq were constructed according to the 10× Genomics protocol using the GemCode Single-Cell 3′ Gel Bead and Library V3 Kit. Quality of amplified cDNA and final libraries were evaluated on the 2100 Bioanalyzer instrument (Agilent) using a High Sensitivity NGS Analysis Kit (Advanced Analytical). Subsequent sequencing was conducted on the HighSeq4000 Sequencing System using the HiSeq SBS and HiSeq PE Cluster Kit V4 (all Illumina, San Die-go, CA. USA).
Project description:Freshwater environments such as rivers receive effluent discharges from wastewater treatment plants, representing a potential hotspot for antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). These effluents also contain low levels of different antimicrobials including biocides and antibiotics such as sulfonamides that can be frequently detected in rivers. The impact of such exposure on ARG prevalence and microbial diversity of riverine environment is unknown, so the aim of this study was to investigate the release of a sub-lethal concentration (<4 g L-1) of the sulfonamide compound sulfamethoxazole (SMX) on the river bacterial microbiome using a microflume system. This system was a semi-natural in-vitro microflume using river water (30 L) and sediment, with circulation to mimic river flow. A combination of ‘omics’ approaches were conducted to study the impact of SMX exposure on the microbiomes within the microflumes. Metaproteomics did not show differences in ARGs expression with SMX exposure in water.
Project description:Myocardial infarction (MI) was induced by permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) in 8 weeks C57BL/6 male mice. 1 day (1D), 1 week (1W), 8 weeks (8W) after MI, the mouse left ventricles were used to construct cDNA libraries. For RNA-sequencing, 1 μg of total RNA extracted from pooled mouse LV (left ventricle) of MI or sham animals was used to construct cDNA libraries using the TruSeq RNA library kit (Illumina). For small RNA-sequencing, 1 μg of total RNA from the pooled LV of MI and sham was isolated using a miRNeasy Mini kit (Qiagen) and libraries were prepared using a TruSeq RNA library preparation kit (Illumina). Total RNA and small RNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencer. The reads from the RNA-seq were aligned to Mus musculus (mm10) using Tophat v2.0.13 which incorporates the Bowtie v2.2.3 algorithm. After aligning the reads to the genome, Cufflinks v2.2.1 was used to assemble aligned reads into transcripts and to estimate their abundance. The reads from small RNA-seq were aligned to Mus musculus matured and precursor miRNAs obtained from miRBase v21 using the miRDeep2 algorithm. qRT–PCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assays. The mean numbers of the total mapped reads by RNA-seq were 33,951,175 and the overall read mapping ratios were 96.84%. For the transcript expression quantification in RNA-seq, the number of reads for the genes were normalized to FPKM. Scatter plots of the normalized read counts of all mRNA (R2 > 0.99) showed high degrees of correlation between biological replicates, indicating their high levels of reproducibility.
Project description:Purpose: Acupuncture exerts cardioprotective effects on several types of cardiac injuries, especially myocardial ischemia (MI). In order to elucidate the potential mechanisms, RNA-seq by next generation sequencing was used to identify the rat genome-wide alterations after MI and EA treatment in this study Methods: Adult male Sprague Dawley rats (250-300g) were divided into three groups: Control, MI and electro-acupuncture (EA) groups, myocardium mRNA profiles of rats in each group were generated by deep sequencing,using Illumina Hiseq 2000. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed at the transcript isoform level with two methods: BurrowsâWheeler Aligner (BWA) followed by ANOVA (ANOVA) and TopHat followed by Cufflinks. Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 25 million sequence reads per sample to the mouse genome (UCSC RN4) and identified 121,233, 178,242, 161,880 transcripts in the Control, MI and EA rats with TopHat and Cufflinks workflow respectively. Approximately 32% and 22% of the transcripts showed differential expression between the Control and MI, MI and EA respectively with a fold change â¥2.0. Conclusions: Our results for the first time generated genome-wide gene expression profiles both in the rat MI model and in acupuncture treatment by high throughput sequencing. The optimized data analysis workflows reported here should provide a framework for acupuncture investigations of expression profiles. Myocardium mRNA profiles of Control, MI and EA rats were generated by Hiseq 2000, Control and MI+EA group there were three samples, MI group there were two samples.
Project description:We have developed a 60-mer oligonucleotide multibacterial microarray for detection and expression profiling of biodegradative genes and bacterial diversity (16S rRNA gene) in different habitats contaminated with varieties of hazardous chemicals. The genes selected were involved in biodegradation and biotransformation of various groups of compounds viz. nitroaromatic compounds (148 genes), chloroaromatic compounds (75 genes), monoaromatic compounds (373 genes), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (174 genes), pesticides/ herbicides (34 genes), alkanes/aliphatics (185 genes) and heavy metals (68 genes), which covered a total number of 133 chemicals. The efficiency (specificity, detection sensitivity) of the developed array was evaluated using the labeled genomic DNA of pure bacterial strains, Escherichia coli DH5α and Sphingomonas sp. strain NM-05 (involved in the biodegradation of γ-hexachlorohexane isolated from IPL, Lucknow) at different concentrations of 300ng, 500ng, 800ng, 1000ng and 1250ng. The specificity of the developed array was further validated using mixed cultures containing three strains (Sphingomonas sp. strain NM-05, Rhodococcus sp. strain RHA1 and Bordetella sp. strain IITR-02) involved in biodegradation of γ-hexachlorohexane, biphenyl and chlorobenzenes respectively. The mixed culture also contained non-target/non-degrader strains (E. coli DHα, E.coli BL21 and E.coli K12 NCTC50192). The developed array was applied for profiling using the total soil DNA in five contaminated habitats of north India, viz. chloroaromatic chemicals contaminated site (India Pesticide Limited, Chinhat, Lucknow), a river sediments (Gomti river sediment, Lucknow), heavy metal industry dump site (Jajmau industrial area Kanpur), a effluent treatment plant (CETP along Ganges river near Kanpur), and an oil refinery (Mathura oil refinery). Hybridization of 16S rRNA probes revealed the presence of bacteria similar to well characterized genera involved in biodegradation of pollutants. Genes involved in complete degradation pathways for hexachlorocyclohexane (lin), 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (tcb), naphthalene (nah), phenol (mph), biphenyl (bph), benzene (ben), toluene (tbm), xylene (xyl), phthalate (pht), Salicylate (sal) and resistance to mercury (mer) were detected with highest intensity. The most abundant genes belonged to hydroxylases, monooxygenases and dehydrogenases which were present in all the five samples. Many compound specific genes which initiate the degradation pathway were also detected. Thus, the array developed and validated here may be useful in assessing the biodegradative potential and composition of environmentally useful bacteria in hazardous ecosystems.
Project description:We have developed a 60-mer oligonucleotide multibacterial microarray for detection and expression profiling of biodegradative genes and bacterial diversity (16S rRNA gene) in different habitats contaminated with varieties of hazardous chemicals. The genes selected were involved in biodegradation and biotransformation of various groups of compounds viz. nitroaromatic compounds (148 genes), chloroaromatic compounds (75 genes), monoaromatic compounds (373 genes), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (174 genes), pesticides/ herbicides (34 genes), alkanes/aliphatics (185 genes) and heavy metals (68 genes), which covered a total number of 133 chemicals. The efficiency (specificity, detection sensitivity) of the developed array was evaluated using the labeled genomic DNA of pure bacterial strains, Escherichia coli DH5M-NM-1 and Sphingomonas sp. strain NM-05 (involved in the biodegradation of M-NM-3-hexachlorohexane isolated from IPL, Lucknow) at different concentrations of 300ng, 500ng, 800ng, 1000ng and 1250ng. The specificity of the developed array was further validated using mixed cultures containing three strains (Sphingomonas sp. strain NM-05, Rhodococcus sp. strain RHA1 and Bordetella sp. strain IITR-02) involved in biodegradation of M-NM-3-hexachlorohexane, biphenyl and chlorobenzenes respectively. The mixed culture also contained non-target/non-degrader strains (E. coli DHM-NM-1, E.coli BL21 and E.coli K12 NCTC50192). The developed array was applied for profiling using the total soil DNA in five contaminated habitats of north India, viz. chloroaromatic chemicals contaminated site (India Pesticide Limited, Chinhat, Lucknow), a river sediments (Gomti river sediment, Lucknow), heavy metal industry dump site (Jajmau industrial area Kanpur), a effluent treatment plant (CETP along Ganges river near Kanpur), and an oil refinery (Mathura oil refinery). Hybridization of 16S rRNA probes revealed the presence of bacteria similar to well characterized genera involved in biodegradation of pollutants. Genes involved in complete degradation pathways for hexachlorocyclohexane (lin), 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (tcb), naphthalene (nah), phenol (mph), biphenyl (bph), benzene (ben), toluene (tbm), xylene (xyl), phthalate (pht), Salicylate (sal) and resistance to mercury (mer) were detected with highest intensity. The most abundant genes belonged to hydroxylases, monooxygenases and dehydrogenases which were present in all the five samples. Many compound specific genes which initiate the degradation pathway were also detected. Thus, the array developed and validated here may be useful in assessing the biodegradative potential and composition of environmentally useful bacteria in hazardous ecosystems. Agilent one-color CGH experiment,Organism: Genotypic designed Agilent-17159 Genotypic designed Agilent Multibacterial 8x15k Array , Labeling kit: Agilent Genomic DNA labeling Kit (Part Number: 5190-0453)