Project description:In the present work, we pull attention to a remarkable phenomenon of a perpetually and robustly upregulated gene, the thyroglobulin gene (Tg). The gene is expressed in the thyroid gland and, as it has been recently demonstrated, forms so called transcription loop easily observable with light microscopy. Using this feature, we show that Tg is expressed at a high level from the moment a thyroid cell acquires its identity and both of the alleles remain highly active over the entire cell life, i.e. depending on a species, for months or years. We demonstrate that the high upregulation is characteristic of thyroglobulin genes in all major vertebrate groups. We prove that Tg is not influenced by the organismal levels of T3/T4 hormones, does not oscillate round the clock and is expressed during both exocrine and endocrine phases of the thyrocyte activity. We conclude that the thyroglobulin gene represents a valuable model to study maintenance of a high transcriptional upregulation.
Project description:Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the most aggressive form of thyroid cancer, and often derives from pre-existing well-differentiated tumors. We have engineered the first mouse model of ATC by combining in the mouse thyroid follicular cells two molecular hallmarks of human ATC: activation of PI3K (via Pten deletion) and inactivation of p53. By 9 months of age, over 75% of the compound mutant mice develop aggressive, undifferentiated thyroid tumors that evolve from pre-existing follicular hyperplasia and carcinoma. These tumors display all the features of their human counterpart, including pleomorphism, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, aneuploidy, local invasion and distant metastases.
Project description:Striatum in rich in GABAergic neurons which require thyroid hormone for their maturation. We used propyl thio uracyl to make mice hypothyroid, and then restored the hormonal level using thyroid hormone. This provided 3 groups of mice for striatum RNAseq analysis. Our results point to GABAergic neurons as direct targets of thyroid hormone during brain development and suggest that many defects seen in hypothyroid brains may be secondary to GABAergic neuron malfunction.
Project description:Gene-expression noise can influence cell-fate choices across pathology and physiology. However, a crucial question persists: do regulatory proteins or pathways exist that control noise independently of mean expression levels? Resulting from a previous screen, the protein SON was identified as a potential noise regulator. We perform Son KD and utilize (1) total RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to analyze differences in splicing efficiency of introns upon Son KD; and (2) Nanopore sequencing to analyze changes in isoform usage. These datasets correspond to the aforementioned total RNA-seq and long-read polyA+ cDNA Nanopore sequencing upon Son KD.
Project description:The thyroid gland regulates metabolism and growth via secretion of thyroid hormone by thyroid follicular cells (TFCs). Loss of TFCs, by cellular dysfunction, autoimmune destruction or surgical resection, underlies hypothyroidism. Recovery of thyroid hormone levels by transplantation of mature TFCs derived from stem cells in vitro holds great therapeutic promise. However, the utilization of in vitro derived tissue for regenerative medicine is restricted by the efficiency of differentiation protocols to generate mature organoids. Here, to improve the differentiation efficiency for thyroid organoids, we utilized single-cell RNA-Seq to chart the molecular steps undertaken by individual cells during the in vitro transformation of mouse embryonic stem cells to TFCs. Our single-cell atlas of mouse organoid systematically and comprehensively identifies, for the first time, the cell-types generated during production of thyroid organoids. Using pseudotime analysis, we identify molecular pathways that regulate thyroid maturation in vitro. Our study highlights the potential of single-cell molecular characterization in understanding and improving thyroid maturation, and paves the way for identification of therapeutic targets against thyroid disorders.
Project description:Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the most aggressive form of thyroid cancer, and often derives from pre-existing well-differentiated tumors. We have engineered the first mouse model of ATC by combining in the mouse thyroid follicular cells two molecular hallmarks of human ATC: activation of PI3K (via Pten deletion) and inactivation of p53. By 9 months of age, over 75% of the compound mutant mice develop aggressive, undifferentiated thyroid tumors that evolve from pre-existing follicular hyperplasia and carcinoma. These tumors display all the features of their human counterpart, including pleomorphism, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, aneuploidy, local invasion and distant metastases. We have performed expression profiling of thyroids from control, single mutants, compound mutants, follicular tumors from Pten-/- mice, and anaplastic tumors from Pten, p53-/- mice.
Project description:Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify genes that are under the transcriptional control of the epigenetic modifier Smchd1 in mouse neural stem cells. We profiled the transcriptomes of mouse neural stem cells from samples that were either wild-type or contained a null mutation in the epigenetic regulator Smchd1 using Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) direct cDNA sequencing protocol and a PromethION sequencer.
Project description:We used the nanopore Cas9 targeted sequencing (nCATS) strategy to specifically sequence 125 L1HS-containing loci in parallel and measure their DNA methylation levels using nanopore long-read sequencing. Each targeted locus is sequenced at high coverage (~45X) with unambiguously mapped reads spanning the entire L1 element, as well as its flanking sequences over several kilobases. The genome-wide profile of L1 methylation was also assessed by bs-ATLAS-seq in the same cell lines (E-MTAB-10895).