ABSTRACT: The correlation between fecal bacterial microbiota, ecosystem associations, and conservation biology of Sapajus nigritus (Black Capuchin Monkey) primates in the wild and captivity
Project description:Conventional embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from primates resemble mouse epiblast stem cells, raising an intriguing question regarding whether the naïve pluripotent state resembling mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) exists in primates and how to capture it in vitro. Here we identified several specific signaling modulators that are sufficient to generate rhesus monkey fibroblast-derived iPSCs with the features of naïve pluripotency in terms of growth properties, gene expression profiles, self-renewal signaling, X-reactivation and the potential to generate cross-species chimeric embryos. Interestingly, together with recent reports of naïve human pluripotent stem cells, our findings suggest several conserved signaling pathways shared with rodents and specific to primates, providing significant insights for acquiring naïve pluripotency from other mammal species. In addition, the derivation of rhesus monkey naïve iPSCs also provides a valuable cell source for use in preclinical research and disease modeling. mRNA expression analysis of 4 rhesus monkey naive iPSC lines and 2 primed iPSC lines were examed.
Project description:Our knowledge of genomic imprinting in primates is lagging behand that of mice largely due to the difficulties of allelic analyses in outbred animals. To understand imprinting dynamics in primates, we profiled transcriptomes, DNA methylomes and H3K27me3 in uniparental monkey embryos. We further developed single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)-free methods, TARSII and CARSII, to identify germline differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in somatic tissues. Our comprehensive analyses showed that allelic DNA methylation, but not H3K27me3, is a major mark that correlates with paternal-biasedly expressed genes (PEGs) in uniparental monkey embryos. Interestingly, primate germline DMRs are different from PEG-associated DMRs in early embryos and are enriched in placenta. Strikingly, most placenta-specific germline DMRs are lost in placenta of cloned monkey. Collectively, our study establishes SNP-free germline DMR identification methods, defines developmental imprinting dynamics in primates and demonstrates imprinting defects in cloned monkey placenta, which provides important clues for improving primate cloning.
Project description:Non-human primates (NHP) are attractive laboratory animal models that accurately reflect both developmental and pathological features of humans. Here we present a compendium of cell types from the cynomolgus monkey Macaca fascicularis (denoted as ‘Monkey Atlas’) using both single-cell chromatin accessibility (scATAC-seq) and RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data at the organism-wide level. The integrated cell map enables in-depth dissection and comparison of molecular dynamics, cell-type composition and cellular heterogeneity across multiple tissues and organs. Using single-cell transcriptomic data, we inferred pseudotime cell trajectories and cell-cell communications to uncover key molecular signatures underlying their cellular processes. Furthermore, we identified various cell-specific cis-regulatory elements and constructed organ-specific gene regulatory networks at the single-cell level. Finally, we performed a comparative analysis of single-cell landscapes among mouse, cynomolgus monkey and human, and we showed that cynomolgus monkey has significantly higher degree of cell-type similarity to human than mouse. Taken together, our study provides a valuable resource for NHP cell biology.
Project description:Non-human primates (NHP) are attractive laboratory animal models that accurately reflect both developmental and pathological features of humans. Here we present a compendium of cell types from the cynomolgus monkey Macaca fascicularis (denoted as ‘Monkey Atlas’) using both single-cell chromatin accessibility (scATAC-seq) and RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data at the organism-wide level. The integrated cell map enables in-depth dissection and comparison of molecular dynamics, cell-type composition and cellular heterogeneity across multiple tissues and organs. Using single-cell transcriptomic data, we inferred pseudotime cell trajectories and cell-cell communications to uncover key molecular signatures underlying their cellular processes. Furthermore, we identified various cell-specific cis-regulatory elements and constructed organ-specific gene regulatory networks at the single-cell level. Finally, we performed a comparative analysis of single-cell landscapes among mouse, cynomolgus monkey and human, and we showed that cynomolgus monkey has significantly higher degree of cell-type similarity to human than mouse. Taken together, our study provides a valuable resource for NHP cell biology.
Project description:Advances in circadian research revealed an intricate relationship between aging and circadian rhythms. However, whether and how the circadian machinery contribute to stem cell aging, especially in primates, remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the role of BMAL1, the only non-redundant circadian clock component, during aging in mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs). We observed an accelerated aging phenotype in both BMAL1 deficient human and cynomolgus monkey MPCs. Notably, this phenotype is mainly attributed to a transcriptional-independent role of BMAL1 in stabilizing the heterochromatin and thus preventing LINE1 activation. In senescent MPCs from human and cynomolgus monkeys, dampened LINE1 binding capacity of BMAL1 and synergistically activated LINE1 transcripts were observed. Furthermore, similar de-stabilized heterochromatin and aberrant LINE1s transcription was observed in the skin and muscle tissues from BMAL1-deficient cynomolgus monkey. Altogether, these findings uncover a noncanonical role of BMAL1 in stabilizing heterochromatin to inactivate LINE1 that drives aging in primates.
Project description:Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) may be able to cure or alleviate the symptoms of various degenerative diseases. However, unresolved issues regarding apoptosis, maintaining function and tumor formation mean a prudent approach should be taken towards advancing ESCs into human clinical trials. The rhesus monkey provides the ideal model organism for developing strategies to prevent immune rejection and test the feasibility, safety and efficacy of ESC-based medical treatments. Transcriptional profiling of rhesus ESCs provides a foundation for future pre-clinical ESC research using non-human primates as the model organism. In this research we use microarray, immunocytochemistry, real-time and standard RT-PCR to characterize and transcriptionally profile rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells. We identify 367 rhesus monkey stemness genes, we demonstrate the high level (>85%) of conservation of rhesus monkey stemness gene expression across five different rhesus monkey embryonic stem cell lines, we demonstrate that rhesus monkey ESC lines maintain a pluripotent undifferentiated state over a wide range of Pou5f1 (Oct-4) expression levels and we compare rhesus monkey, human and murine stemness genes to identify the key mammalian stemness genes. The supplementary tables list the genes that have been upregulated in each undifferentiated rhesus monkey embryonic stem cell line (GSM99998, GSM99999,GSM100000, GSM100001, GSM100002, GSM99965, GSM99966) in comparison analysis with the pooled differentiated embryonic stem cells (GSM99840). Supplemental Table 1 contains the comparison analysis for all 52,865 probe sets on the rhesus monkey gene chip, Supplemental Table 2 contains the rhesus monkey genes that were significantly upregulated (FC>3) in the ORMES-6 biological replicates, Supplemental Table 3 contains the rhesus monkey genes that were significantly upregulated (FC>3) in the pooled differentiated EBs and Supplemental Tables 4-8 represent genes that were significantly upregulated in ORMES 6A, 7, 9, 10 and 13 respectively. Supplemental Table 9 contains the RT-PCR primers used in this project. Keywords: Rhesus monkey embryonic stem cell microarray