Project description:Thomas Hunt Morgan and colleagues identified variation in gene copy number in Drosophila in the 1920s and 1930s and linked such variation to phenotypic differences [Bridges, C. B. (1936) Science 83, 210]. Yet the extent of variation in the number of chromosomes, chromosomal regions, or gene copies, and the importance of this variation within species, remain poorly understood. Here, we focus on copy-number variation in Drosophila melanogaster. We characterize copy-number polymorphism (CNP) across genomic regions, and we contrast patterns to infer the evolutionary processes acting on this variation. Copy-number variation in D. melanogaster is non-randomly distributed, presumably due to a mutational bias produced by tandem repeats or other mechanisms. Comparisons of coding and noncoding CNPs, however, reveal a strong effect of purifying selection in the removal of structural variation from functionally constrained regions. Most patterns of CNP in D. melanogaster suggest that negative selection and mutational biases are the primary agents responsible for shaping structural variation. Keywords: comparative genomic hybridization
Project description:Chromatin accessibility is a hallmark of active regulatory function in the genome and variation of chromatin accessibility across individuals has been shown to contribute to complex traits and disease susceptibility. However, the mechanisms responsible for chromatin variation among different individuals and how this variation contributes to phenotypic diversity remain poorly understood. We examined chromatin accessibility variation in liver tissue from seven strains of adult mice that have phenotypic diversity in response to a high-fat/high-sucrose diet. Remarkably, nearly 40% of the loci with the greatest degree of chromatin variability across the strains are associated with transposable elements (TEs), with evolutionarily younger TEs being particularly enriched for regions of chromatin variation. We found that evolutionary younger and older TEs have differential chromatin accessibility profiles and are enriched for binding sites of different transcription factors, indicating the role of TEs in the evolution of regulatory networks in the liver. We also demonstrate that TE polymorphisms and epigenetic regulation of TEs contribute to regulatory variation across different strains through providing binding sites for liver transcription factors. Intriguingly, variable chromatin loci that are associated with liver metabolism are primarily TE-associated. We demonstrate that TEs contribute to regulatory variation in liver and have downstream effects on metabolism. Our data reveal TEs as a novel and important contributor to regulatory and phenotypic variation in the liver and suggest that regulatory variation at TEs is a major contributor to phenotypic variation in populations. Examination of chromatin accessibility with FAIRE-seq in livers of male mice (A/J, AKR/J, BALB/cJ, C57BL/6J, C3H/HeJ, CBA/J, DBA/2J, BXH2/TyJ, and BXH19/TyJ) fed a high-fat, high-sucrose diet.
Project description:Understanding and predicting the relationships between genotype and phenotype is often challenging, largely due to the complex nature of eukaryotic gene regulation. A step towards this goal is to map how phenotypic variation evolves through genomic changes that modify gene regulatory interactions. Using the Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) and related species, we integrate mRNA-seq, proteomic, ATAC-seq and whole genome resequencing data to understand how specific evolutionary modifications to gene regulatory network components produce variation in venom gene expression. Through comparisons within and between species, we find a remarkably high degree of gene expression and regulatory network variation across even a shallow level of evolutionary divergence. We use these data to test hypotheses about the roles of specific trans-factors and cis-regulatory elements, how these roles may vary across venom genes and gene families, and how variation in regulatory systems drive variation in venom phenotypes. Our results illustrate that variation in chromatin and genotype at regulatory elements plays major roles in modulating expression. However, we also find that enhancer deletions, variation in transcription-factor expression, and variation in activity of the insulator protein CTCF also impact downstream venom phenotypes. Our findings provide insight into the diversity and gene-specificity of gene regulatory features and highlight the value of comparative studies to link gene regulatory network variation to phenotypic variation.
Project description:Imprinted gene expression occurs during seed development in plants and is associated with differential DNA methylation of parental alleles, particularly at proximal transposable elements (TEs). Imprinting variability could contribute to observed parent-of-origin effects on seed development. We investigated intraspecific variation in imprinting, coupled with analysis of DNA methylation and small RNAs, among three Arabidopsis strains with diverse seed phenotypes. The majority of imprinted genes were parentally biased in the same manner among all strains. However, we identified several examples of allele-specific imprinting correlated with intraspecific epigenetic variation at a TE. We successfully predicted imprinting in additional strains based on methylation variability. We conclude that there is standing variation in imprinting even in recently diverged genotypes due to intraspecific epiallelic variation. These data demonstrate that epiallelic variation and genomic imprinting intersect to produce novel gene expression patterns in seeds. Whole genome bisulfite sequencing of embryo and endosperm (14 samples).
Project description:Chromatin accessibility is a hallmark of active regulatory function in the genome and variation of chromatin accessibility across individuals has been shown to contribute to complex traits and disease susceptibility. However, the mechanisms responsible for chromatin variation among different individuals and how this variation contributes to phenotypic diversity remain poorly understood. We examined chromatin accessibility variation in liver tissue from seven strains of adult mice that have phenotypic diversity in response to a high-fat/high-sucrose diet. Remarkably, nearly 40% of the loci with the greatest degree of chromatin variability across the strains are associated with transposable elements (TEs), with evolutionarily younger TEs being particularly enriched for regions of chromatin variation. We found that evolutionary younger and older TEs have differential chromatin accessibility profiles and are enriched for binding sites of different transcription factors, indicating the role of TEs in the evolution of regulatory networks in the liver. We also demonstrate that TE polymorphisms and epigenetic regulation of TEs contribute to regulatory variation across different strains through providing binding sites for liver transcription factors. Intriguingly, variable chromatin loci that are associated with liver metabolism are primarily TE-associated. We demonstrate that TEs contribute to regulatory variation in liver and have downstream effects on metabolism. Our data reveal TEs as a novel and important contributor to regulatory and phenotypic variation in the liver and suggest that regulatory variation at TEs is a major contributor to phenotypic variation in populations.
Project description:A major concern in common disease epigenomics is distinguishing causal from consequential epigenetic variation. One means of addressing this issue is to identify the temporal origins of epigenetic variants via longitudinal analyses. However, prospective birth-cohort studies are expensive and time-consuming. Here we report DNA methylomics of archived Guthrie cards for the retrospective longitudinal analyses of in utero-derived DNA methylation variation. We first validate two methodologies for generating comprehensive DNA methylomes from Guthrie cards. Then, using an integrated epigenomic/genomic analysis of Guthrie cards and follow-up samplings, we identify inter-individual DNA methylation variation that is present both at birth and three years later. These findings suggest that disease-relevant epigenetic variation could be detected at birth i.e. before overt clinical disease. Guthrie card methylomics offers a potentially powerful and cost-effective strategy for studying the dynamics of inter-individual epigenomic variation in a range of common human diseases. Bisulphite converted DNA was sequenced
Project description:Natural epigenetic variation provides a source for the generation of phenotypic diversity, but to understand its contribution to phenotypic diversity, its interaction with genetic variation requires further investigation. MethylC-seq from naturally-occurring Arabidopsis accessions