Project description:Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is a new semi- arid, oil- producing industrial crop that has attracted much attention in recent years. Low temperature is one of the major environmental stress that impairs plant growth and development. To better understand the molecular mechanisms of cold stress adaptation and acclimation of jojoba plants, a quantitative proteomic analysis using iTRAQ technology was conducted to detect the effects of cold stress on protein expression profiles in jojoba seedlings. Our work provided useful infomation for understanding the cold stress response and cold acclimation in jojoba.
Project description:For identifying genes for sex determination in papaya, digital gene expression analysis by Ht-SuperSAGE (Matsumura et al., 2010) was carried out in flowers from male, female and hermaphrodite plants of papaya. Total more than 9,273,744 26bp-tags were obtained by sequence analysis using SOLiD3 and mapped on papaya primitive sex chromosome sequences.
Project description:Analysis of the genes differentially expressed by male and female copepods, i.e. "sex-biased" genes; with an interest in sex-determination, sex-development, sex-differentiation, and the differentially expressed pathways.
Project description:For identifying genes for sex determination in papaya, digital gene expression analysis by Ht-SuperSAGE (Matsumura et al., 2010) was carried out in flowers from male, female and hermaphrodite plants of papaya. Total more than 9,273,744 26bp-tags were obtained by sequence analysis using SOLiD3 and mapped on papaya primitive sex chromosome sequences. 6 samples examined: male young flowerbud, male mature flower bud, female young flower bud, female mature flower bud, hermaphrodite young flower bud, hermaphrodite mature flower bud
Project description:Avian sex is determined by various factors, such as the dosage of DMRT1 and cell-autonomous mechanisms. While the sex-determination mechanism in gonads is well analyzed, the mechanism in germ cells remains unclear. In this study, we explored the gene expression profiles of male and female primordial germ cells (PGCs) during embryogenesis in chickens to predict the mechanism of sex-determination. Male and female PGCs were isolated from blood and gonads with a purity > 96% using flow cytometry and analyzed using RNA-seq. Prior to settlement in the gonads, female circulating PGCs (cPGCs) obtained from blood displayed sex-biased expression. Gonadal PGCs (gPGCs) also displayed sex-biased expression, and the number of female-biased genes detected was higher than male-biased genes. The female-biased genes in gPGCs were enriched in some metabolic processes. To reveal the mechanisms underlying the transcriptional regulation of female-biased genes in gPGCs, we performed stimulation tests. Stimulation with retinoic acid against cultured gPGCs derived from male embryos resulted in the upregulation of several female-biased genes. Overall, our results suggest that sex determination of avian PGCs possess aspects of both cell-autonomous and somatic cell regulation. Moreover, it appears that sex determination occurs earlier in females than in males.
Project description:The Salicaceae family is of growing interest in the study of dioecy in plants because the sex determination region (SDR) has been shown to be highly dynamic, with differing locations and heterogametic systems across taxa. Previous studies investigating the mechanisms regulating sex in the genus Salix have been limited to genome resequencing and differential expression, which are mostly descriptive in nature, and functional validation of candidate sex determination genes has not been conducted. Here we use functional analysis to test a suite of previously identified candidate genes involved in sex determination and sex dimorphism in the bioenergy shrub willow Salix purpurea. Six candidate master regulator genes for sex determination were overexpressed in Arabidopsis, followed by floral proteome analysis. Eleven transcription factors with predicted roles in mediating sex dimorphism downstream of the SDR were tested using DAP-Seq in both male and female S. purpurea DNA. The results of this study provide further evidence to support models for the roles of ARR17 and GATA15 as master regulator genes of sex determination in S. purpurea, contributing to a regulatory system that is notably different from that of the related genus Populus. Two transcription factors, an AP2/ERF family gene and a homeodomain-like transcription factor, have evidence supporting roles in downstream regulation of sex dimorphism.
Project description:Sex chromosomes evolved from autosomes many times across the eukaryote phylogeny. Several models have been proposed to explain this transition, some involving male and female sterility mutations linked in a region of suppressed recombination between X and Y (or Z/W, U/V) chromosomes. Comparative and experimental analysis of a reference genome assembly for a double haploid YY male garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) individual implicates separate but linked genes as responsible for sex determination. Dioecy has evolved recently within Asparagus and sex chromosomes are cytogenetically identical with the Y, harboring a megabase segment that is missing from the X. We show that deletion of this entire region results in a male-to-female conversion, whereas loss of a single suppressor of female development drives male-to-hermaphrodite conversion. A single copy anther-specific gene with a male sterile Arabidopsis knockout phenotype is also in the Y-specific region, supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution. Additionally, we test for the presence of Y-specific small RNA loci in several XX, XY, and YY genotypes that may be acting as sex determination loci.
Project description:CLAMP transcription factor is a GA binding protein that recruits the male dosage compensation complex MSL to male X-chromosome, thus upregulating transcription level twice that of female X-chromosomes. Interestingly, CLAMP is essential for survival of both male and female individuals. However, what function it plays at the autosomes, especially in females is not known. It is well establised that GA-rich sequences to which CLAMP bind have evolved from polypyrimidine tracts that regulate splicing. Also, MALDI-MS data shows that CLAMP binds to RNA binding proteins involved in sex-specific splicing like, Squid. Furthermore, as part of MSL complex CLAMP interacts with MLE, a RNA helicase which is a known component of spliceosome complex conserved from flies to humans. Thus, we hypothesized that CLAMP plays a role in sex-spcific splicing. Given that CLAMP is a transcription factor, understanding mechanism of how it regulates splicing will add to our understanding about how regulators of gene expression shape the transcriptome differentially between males and females. We tested our hypothesis by identifying CLAMP dependent female and male sex-specific splicing events by analysing RNA-seq data from control as well as clampnull mutant male and female third instar larvae (L3) using suppa based time2splice pipeline (https://github.com/ashleymaeconard/time2splice). We identified 189 and 211 CLAMP dependent splicing events in female and male L3. Out of these 139 were female sex-specific splicing whereas 161 was male-sex-specific splicing. 50 splicing events identified as CLAMP dependent were non-specific to any particular sex, and were affect in both the sexes. Interestingly, we identified splicing of master regulator of sex-determination sxl affected by absence of CLAMP in females whereas splicing of one of the sex-determination pathway effectors, tra regulated by CLAMP in males. These findings indicate CLAMP plays important role in determining sex-specific transcript diversity in Drosophila.
Project description:Pistacia chinensis Bunge is known as dioecious, but we have found wild monoecious individuals. In order to screen the candidate genes which may influence the sex expression or floral phenotypic differences of P. chinensis, the inflorescence buds for different sex types associated with the sex differentiation were selected and tested for small RNA sequencing. Sex-specific differentially expressed small RNA were discovered, combined with real-time PCR data, the regulation patterns of various sex types were first revealed. Our study represents the first detailed analysis of small RNA sequencing, providing more clues for understanding the mechanism of sex determination on P. chinensis.