Project description:To identify unique expression patterns in spinal cord, leg muscle, and brain of Staurois parvus frogs, with the goal of creating a resource for future studies to understand the evolution of an elaborate hind limb signaling behavior called "foot flagging" in this species.
Project description:We compare fore- and mid-brain transcriptomes of reproductive males in monogamous and non-monogamous species pairs of Peromyscus mice, Microtus voles, parid songbirds, dendrobatid frogs, and Xenotilapia species of cichlid fishes. Our study provides evidence of a universal transcriptomic mechanism underlying the evolution of monogamy in vertebrates.
Project description:The tandemly duplicated zebrafish lws opsin genes and the human LWS/MWS opsin genes are evolved from a common ancestral long wavelength-sensing opsin gene. This dataset shows that LWS1 vs. LWS2 cone subtypes exhibit transcriptional differences beyond opsin expression.
Project description:The mechanisms that specify cone photoreceptor cell-fate to short-wave-sensitive (S) versus medium-wave-sensitive (M) cones and maintain their nature are not fully understood. Here we report the importance of the GTF2IRD1 transcription factor in maintaining M cone cell identity and function. In the mouse, GTF2IRD1 is expressed in cell-fate determined photoreceptors at postnatal day 10. GTF2IRD1 binds to the enhancer and promoter regions of mouse M and S opsin genes, but regulates their expression differentially, suppressing S opsin expression and, through interaction with the transcription factors CRX and TR2, enhancing M opsin expression. Null mutation of Gtf2ird1 leads to altered topology of cone opsin expression in the retina, with aberrant S opsin over-expression and M opsin under-expression in M cones. Gtf2ird1 null mice also demonstrate abnormal M cone electrophysiological responses. These findings indicate a dual and specific regulatory role of GTF2IRD1 in maintaining normal M cone-specific gene expression and function.
Project description:Along with the prevalence of edible frog farming in China, the outbreak of a deadly infectious frog diseased, called frog meningitis (or cataracts and torticollis), has increased in frequency and geographical range dramatically. More than 10 bacterial species, belonging to 8 genera, has been reported as its potential pathogens. Diseased frogs typically manifest as torticollis, cataracts, edema and finally death, resulting in huge economic loss. Currently, the pathogenesis of this disease has not been investigated systematically. Here, we summarized the pathological stages of infected black-spotted frogs (Pelophylax nigromaculata) in Sichuan province according to their symptoms, typically progressing of pathological stage with only torticollis to stage with both torticollis and cataracts. On the basis, we analyzed the pathogenesis by a combination of comparative environmental analysis, microbiomics and transcriptomics. Results showed that more severely infected frog ponds tended to have lower water alkalinity. Elizabethkingia miricola was the only bacteria, whose abundance was positively correlated with the disease degree, and it has absolute dominance in the eyeball and brain of some torticollis-cataracts frogs. E. miricola and several other bacterial species, which belonged to pathogenic genera of meningitis, might be constitutively existed in the resident microbiome in frogs or their environment. Activations of infectious processes and immune responses related pathways were the major difference between health and diseased frogs at transcriptional level. Despite transcriptional activation of immunoglobulins was observed in both torticollis-only and torticollis-cataracts frogs, transcriptional activation of innate immune system (including MHC, toll-like receptor, and cathelicidins) in brain, inflammation system (including interleukins and receptors) in brain, and acute phase proteins (including transferrins and fibrinogens) in both liver and brain was only observed in torticollis-cataracts frogs. Activation of inflammation and the resulting higher vascular permeability in torticollis-cataracts frogs could explain the severe brain infection, cooccurrence of torticollis and cataracts, and systemic edema in torticollis-cataracts frogs. In addition, meningitis could also result in reduction in energy production in liver, and this was more severe in torticollis-cataracts frogs. In conclusion, our results suggested environment might have a role in susceptibility of frog meningitis. E. miricola was the most likely pathogen of meningitis of black-spotted frogs in Sichuan. Refer to the pathogenesis of human meningitis, excessive inflammation likely played a critical role in the progress of frog meningitis, and its resulted sepsis and organ failure might be the direct cause of infected frogs.
Project description:Mammalian cells are commonly employed to identify active compounds that could affect progression of many human diseases including retinitis pigmentosa. Here, using transcriptome analysis to compare NIH3T3 cells expressing rod opsin with the disease-causing a single point P23H mutation, we differentiated between genes affected by heterologous opsin expression and those influenced by the P23H opsin mutant gain- or loss-of-function. Surprisingly, heterologous expression of normal opsin causes changes in 783 out of 16888 protein coding transcripts more than 1 fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM) in NIH3T3 cells despite that opsin is exogenous to this cell. The perturbed genes are involved in cell adhesion, morphology and migration and encode extracellular matrix proteins, growth factors, cytoskeleton proteins, glycoproteins or metalloproteases. Not fully overlapping 347 differentially expressed genes were affected when the P23H mutant opsin was expressed. Transcriptome perturbation by individual drug candidates also revealed that different active compounds can target distinct molecular pathways that result in a similar phenotype selected by a cell-based high throughput screen. This transcriptome approach is capable of detecting minute changes in the transcriptome and can be a key to therapeutic success of a candidate drug to restore the normal gene expression landscape in affected tissue.