Project description:This study seeks to investigate the temporal, genome-wide response of skeletal muscle following cardiotoxin injection within the skeletal muscle of the Astyanax mexicanus – comprised of the river-dwelling surface fish and troglobitic cavefish – providing novel insights into the evolutionary consequence of skeletal muscle regernation.
Project description:Coding and non-coding mutations in DNA contribute significantly to phenotypic variability during evolution. However, less is known about the role of epigenetics in this process. Although previous studies have identified eye development genes associated with the loss of eyes phenotype in the Pachón blind cave morph of the Mexican tetra Astyanax mexicanus1-6, no inactivating mutations have been found in any of these genes2,3,7-10. Here we show that excess DNA methylation-based epigenetic silencing promotes eye degeneration in blind cave Astyanax mexicanus. By performing parallel analyses in Astyanax mexicanus cave and surface morphs and in the zebrafish Danio rerio, we have discovered that DNA methylation mediates eye-specific gene repression and globally regulates early eye development. The most significantly hypermethylated and down-regulated genes in the cave morph are also linked to human eye disorders, suggesting the function of these genes is conserved across the vertebrates. Our results show that changes in DNA methylation-based gene repression can serve as an important molecular mechanism generating phenotypic diversity during development and evolution.
Project description:Liver-derived cells from the surface and cave-adapted morphs of Astyanax mexicanus are valuable in vitro resources to explore the metabolism of these unique fish. However, 2D cultures have not yet fully mimicked the metabolic profile of the fish liver. Also, 3D culturing can modulate the transcriptomic profile of cells when compared to its 2D counterpart. Hence, to widen the range of metabolic pathways that can be depicted in vitro, we cultured the liver-derived SFL and CFL into 3D spheroids. We 3D cultured the cells at various cell seeding densities for 4 weeks and characterized the resultant transcriptome. The 3D cultured SFL and CFL cells indeed depicted a wider range of metabolic pathways as compared to the 2D culture. Further, the 3D spheroids also showed surface and cave-specific responses, making the spheroids an exciting system to study cave adaptation. Taken together, SFL and CFL spheroids prove to be a promising model for overall understanding of altered metabolism in Astyanax mexicanus.