Project description:In Xenopus, establishment of the anterior-posterior axis involves two key signalling pathways, canonical Wnt and Nodal-related TGF-β. There are also a number of transcription factors that feedback upon these pathways. The homeodomain protein Hex, an early marker of anterior positional information, acts as a transcriptional repressor suppressing induction and propagation of the Spemman organiser while specifying anterior identity. We show that Hex promotes anterior identity by amplifying the activity of canonical Wnt signalling. Hex exerts this activity by inhibiting the expression of Tle-4, a member of the Groucho family of transcriptional co-repressors that we identified as a Hex target in embryonic stem (ES) cells and Xenopus embryos. This Hex-mediated enhancement of Wnt signalling results in the up-regulation of the Nieuwkoop centre genes Siamois and Xnr-3 and the subsequent increased expression of the anterior endodermal marker Cerberus and other mesendodermal genes downstream of Wnt signalling. We also identified Nodal as a Hex target in ES cells. We demonstrate that in Xenopus, the Nodal-related genes Xnr-1 and 2, but not 5 and 6, are regulated directly by Hex. The identification of Nodal-related genes as Hex targets explains the ability of Hex to suppress induction and propagation of the organiser. Together these results support a model in which Hex acts early in development to reinforce a Wnt-mediated, Nieuwkoop-like signal to induce anterior endoderm, and later in this tissue to block further propagation of Nodal-related signals. The ability of Hex to regulate the same targets in both Xenopus and mouse implies this model is conserved. Keywords: genetic modification
Project description:Hexadecenal, a trans (-2,3-) unsaturated fatty aldehyde, is an intermediate of the sphingolipid degradation pathway. This pathway, induced during cellular stress, involves the conversion of sphingosine-1-phosphate to hexadecenal by Sphingosine-1-Phosphate-Lyase (SPL) in humans and DPL1 in yeast. Hexadecenal is further metabolized to hexadecenoic acid by Fatty Aldehyde Dehydrogenase (ALDH3A2 in humans and HFD1 in yeast). Trans-2-hexadecenal (t-2-hex), has been found to induce mitochondrial dysfunction in a conserved manner from yeast to humans. However, the specific mechanisms and biological targets underlying this lipid-induced mitochondrial inhibition remain largely unknown. In this study, we employed unbiased transcriptomic approaches using the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast model to elucidate the principal mechanisms and biological targets associated with t-2-hex-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. To investigate the effects of t-2-hex, we utilized an hfd1 mutant strain lacking the HFD1 gene. This strain exhibited increased sensitivity to t-2-hex treatment compared to wild-type cells. Exponentially growing hfd1 mutant cells were exposed to 100 μM t-2-hex for a duration of 3 hours, while control cells were incubated with the solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), in which hexadecenal is dissolved. Total RNA was extracted from both treated and control cells for high-throughput sequencing analysis. Through transcriptomic profiling, we aimed to identify differentially expressed genes, pathways, and regulatory networks associated with t-2-hex-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in yeast. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptional response to t-2-hex treatment, shedding light on the molecular mechanisms and potential biological targets underlying lipid-induced mitochondrial dysfunction.
Project description:In Xenopus, establishment of the anterior-posterior axis involves two key signalling pathways, canonical Wnt and Nodal-related TGF-β. There are also a number of transcription factors that feedback upon these pathways. The homeodomain protein Hex, an early marker of anterior positional information, acts as a transcriptional repressor suppressing induction and propagation of the Spemman organiser while specifying anterior identity. We show that Hex promotes anterior identity by amplifying the activity of canonical Wnt signalling. Hex exerts this activity by inhibiting the expression of Tle-4, a member of the Groucho family of transcriptional co-repressors that we identified as a Hex target in embryonic stem (ES) cells and Xenopus embryos. This Hex-mediated enhancement of Wnt signalling results in the up-regulation of the Nieuwkoop centre genes Siamois and Xnr-3 and the subsequent increased expression of the anterior endodermal marker Cerberus and other mesendodermal genes downstream of Wnt signalling. We also identified Nodal as a Hex target in ES cells. We demonstrate that in Xenopus, the Nodal-related genes Xnr-1 and 2, but not 5 and 6, are regulated directly by Hex. The identification of Nodal-related genes as Hex targets explains the ability of Hex to suppress induction and propagation of the organiser. Together these results support a model in which Hex acts early in development to reinforce a Wnt-mediated, Nieuwkoop-like signal to induce anterior endoderm, and later in this tissue to block further propagation of Nodal-related signals. The ability of Hex to regulate the same targets in both Xenopus and mouse implies this model is conserved. Experiment Overall Design: Identification of Hex target genes In Xenopus, the establishment of the anterior-posterior axis involves two key signalling pathways, the canonical Wnt and the Nodal-related TGF-β and a number of transcription factors that feedback upon these pathways. The homeodomain protein Hex, an early marker of anterior positional information, is a transcriptional repressor that suppresses the induction and propagation of the Spemman organiser while specifying anterior identity. Using microarray expression profiling we identified mouse Tle-4 as a Hex target in Embryonic Stem (ES) cells and showed that Tle-4 expression is directly regulated by Hex in Xenopus embryos. We also identified Nodal as a Hex target in ES cells. Taken together these results support a model in which Hex acts early in development to reinforce a Wnt-mediated, Nieuwkoop-like signal to induce anterior endoderm and later in this tissue to block further propagation of Nodal-related signals. The ability of Hex to regulate the same targets in both frog and mouse suggests that this model is conserved.
Project description:IL22 induces antimicrobial peptides which influnce microbiota. We used 16s rRNA gene sequencing (16s DNA-seq) to analyze the microbiota with Fc or IL-22Fc treatment.
Project description:Gene expression microarray exprement comparing differential expression between: 1) Early Diapause (ED), 2) Late Diapause (LD), 3) Non-Diapause (ND), 4) Hexane-induced diapause break (HEX). Four phenotypes (ED,ND,LD,HEX), four replicate pools of four individuals (four individuals in each replicate) in each phenotype, four competitve hybs comparing each phenotype to every other phenotype.
Project description:We have engineered the chromatin-modifying apparatus and formulated a novel technology, termed Clickable Chromatin Enrichment with parallel DNA sequencing (CliEn-seq), to probe genome-wide chromatin modification within living cells. Examine (E)-hex-2-en-5-ynylation mediated by engineered G9a Y1154A and GLP1 Y1211A in HEK293T cells.