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Neuroimaging PheWAS and molecular phenotyping implicate PSMC3 in Alzheimer's Disease.

INTRODUCTION: Neuroimaging genetics have advanced Alzheimer's disease (AD) research, yet frameworks mechanistically connecting genes to neurological outcomes via functional genomics are needed to elucidate genetic associations. To address this challenge, we assessed relationships between AD-associated variants and disease via their impact on gene expression and neuroimaging phenotypes. METHODS: We mapped established AD genes to neuroimaging traits using NeuroimaGene atlas and predicted transcript-driven AD neurological features by comparing gene-derived neuroimaging features to clinical neuroimaging data. Genetic correlation and covariance analyses characterized shared genetic architecture between AD endophenotypes and neuroimaging features and identified neuroimaging features associated with dementia family history. RESULTS: Our analyses implicate PSMC3 expression as a strong contributor to AD pathophysiology and indicate AD endophenotypes, including dementia family history, linked to frontal cortex thickness, volume, and cerebrospinal fluid volume changes. DISCUSSION: Our findings prioritize AD genes whose regulation is associated with vulnerable brain regions, offering a potential mechanistic framework for downstream functional validation.

Alzheimer’s Disease↗

Development of m6A-related prognostic models for survival in lung squamous cell carcinoma with different PD-L1 expression levels.

BACKGROUND: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is widely used in the clinical context of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, but its relationship with N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) has not been well defined. This study aimed to investigate the association between PD-L1 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and m6A regulator expression patterns and to develop exploratory m6A-based prognostic models in LUSC. METHODS: Transcriptome data from 502 patients with LUSC were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Patients were divided into PD-L1 high-expression (PHE) and PD-L1 low-expression (PLE) groups according to the median PD-L1 mRNA level. Differential expression and correlation analyses were performed for 30 m6A regulators. Transcriptome sequencing data from surgical specimens from 28 Asian patients with LUSC were used for expression-pattern comparison. Principal component analysis (PCA), univariate Cox regression, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-Cox regression were used to construct prognostic models in the TCGA cohort. RESULTS: In the TCGA cohort, the main differentially expressed m6A regulators between the two PD-L1 groups were YTHDF2 (P<0.001), IGF2BP3 (P<0.001), and YTHDC2 (P<0.001). In the Asian cohort, ALKBH5 (P=0.008) and ZC3H13 (P=0.03) showed significant differences. LASSO-Cox models were constructed for the overall LUSC cohort and for the PHE and PLE subgroups. The overall model included METTL3, HNRNPC, and CBLL1, with a 5-year time-dependent area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.579. The 5-year AUCs were 0.742 in the PHE subgroup and 0.652 in the PLE subgroup. The risk score remained independently associated with prognosis in multivariate Cox analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In LUSC, PD-L1 mRNA status was associated with distinct m6A regulator expression profiles. In the TCGA cohort, the PHE subgroup showed higher expression of CBLL1, G3BP1, IGF2BP3, FMR1, and YTHDC2, but lower expression of VIRMA, YTHDF2, and PRRC2A compared with the PLE subgroup. In the National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CICAMS) cohort, ALKBH5 and ZC3H13 were more highly expressed in the PHE subgroup. Moreover, m6A-based risk models were associated with survival outcomes, with significant prognostic separation in the overall TCGA cohort and the PHE subgroup, whereas the PLE subgroup showed a weaker survival separation.

Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC)↗

Unravelling the role of the ToxR-like transcriptional regulator WmpR in the marine antifouling bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata.

The dark-green-pigmented marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata produces several target-specific compounds that act against a range of common fouling organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, invertebrate larvae and algal spores. The ToxR-like regulator WmpR has previously been shown to regulate expression of bioactive compounds, type IV pili and biofilm formation phenotypes which all appear at the onset of stationary phase. In this study a comparison of survival under starvation or stress between the wild-type P. tunicata strain and a wmpR mutant (D2W2) does not suggest a role for WmpR in regulating starvation- and stress-resistant phenotypes such as those that may be required in stationary phase. Both proteomic [2-dimensional PAGE (2D-PAGE)] and transcriptomic (RNA arbitrarily primed PCR) studies were used to discover members of the WmpR regulon. 2D-PAGE identified 11 proteins that were differentially expressed by WmpR. Peptide sequence data were obtained for six of these proteins and identified using the draft P. tunicata genome as being involved in protein synthesis, amino acid transamination and ubiquinone biosynthesis, as well as hypothetical proteins. The transcriptomic analysis identified three genes significantly up-regulated by WmpR, including a TonB-dependent outer-membrane protein, a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase and a hypothetical protein. Under iron-limitation the wild-type showed greater survival than D2W2, indicating the importance of WmpR under these conditions. Results from these studies show that WmpR controls the expression of genes encoding proteins involved in iron acquisition and uptake, amino acid metabolism and ubiquinone biosynthesis in addition to a number of proteins with as yet unknown functions.

Amino Acids↗

Myeloid landscape of BRAF-mutant papillary thyroid cancer and thyroiditis.

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is less aggressive when associated with lymphocytic thyroiditis (LT), even in the presence of oncogenic BRAF, including smaller tumours, less lymph node involvement and reduced extrathyroidal extension. To investigate possible immune mechanisms underlying this association, we compared the tumour microenvironment of PTC-BRAF with LT and that without LT using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). Single-cell libraries were generated from fresh and fixed tumour samples with post-dissociation viability >70% using the 10x Genomics Chromium Platform and sequenced on an Illumina NovaSeq 6000. We analysed scRNA-seq data from 11 PTC-BRAF tumours: four with LT (one publicly available sample) and seven without LT. Downstream analyses included quality control, batch correction, dimensionality reduction, and differential gene expression analysis. We found that neutrophils were the predominant myeloid cell type in PTCs without LT. Thyrocytes without LT showed significant expression of the neutrophil recruitment chemokine ECRG4. In the absence of LT, neutrophils expressed oncogenic genes with poor clinical outcomes. In contrast, thyrocytes from tumours with LT showed increased expression of MHC-II antigen presentation, consistent with effective immune surveillance. Thyrocytes and macrophages in the presence of LT showed enrichment of interferon gamma response pathways. Our data suggest that LT in thyroid cancer is associated with enhanced antigen presentation and fewer features of pro-tumourigenic innate immune activity. These results identify previously under-recognised innate immune cell population and associated transcriptomic features, which suggest new mechanisms to target immune treatments in PTC refractory to other therapies.

Humans↗

Midgut and salivary gland transcriptomes of the arbovirus vector Culicoides sonorensis (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae).

Numerous Culicoides spp. are important vectors of livestock or human disease pathogens. Transcriptome information from midguts and salivary glands of adult female Culicoides sonorensis provides new insight into vector biology. Of 1719 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from adult serum-fed female midguts harvested within 5 h of feeding, twenty-eight clusters of serine proteases were derived. Four clusters encode putative iron binding proteins (FER1, FERL, PXDL1, PXDL2), and two clusters encode metalloendopeptidases (MDP6C, MDP6D) that probably function in bloodmeal catabolism. In addition, a diverse variety of housekeeping cDNAs were identified. Selected midgut protease transcripts were analysed by quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR): TRY1_115 and MDP6C mRNAs were induced in adult female midguts upon feeding, whereas TRY1_156 and CHYM1 were abundant in midguts both before and immediately after feeding. Of 708 salivary gland ESTs analysed, clusters representing two new classes of protein families were identified: a new class of D7 proteins and a new class of Kunitz-type protease inhibitors. Additional cDNAs representing putative immunomodulatory proteins were also identified: 5' nucleotidases, antigen 5-related proteins, a hyaluronidase, a platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase, mucins and several immune response cDNAs. Analysis by q-PCR showed that all D7 and Kunitz domain transcripts tested were highly enriched in female heads compared with other tissues and were generally absent from males. The mRNAs of two additional protease inhibitors, TFPI1 and TFPI2, were detected in salivary glands of paraffin-embedded females by in situ hybridization.

Allergens↗

The use of Open Reading frame ESTs (ORESTES) for analysis of the honey bee transcriptome.

BACKGROUND: The ongoing efforts to sequence the honey bee genome require additional initiatives to define its transcriptome. Towards this end, we employed the Open Reading frame ESTs (ORESTES) strategy to generate profiles for the life cycle of Apis mellifera workers. RESULTS: Of the 5,021 ORESTES, 35.2% matched with previously deposited Apis ESTs. The analysis of the remaining sequences defined a set of putative orthologs whose majority had their best-match hits with Anopheles and Drosophila genes. CAP3 assembly of the Apis ORESTES with the already existing 15,500 Apis ESTs generated 3,408 contigs. BLASTX comparison of these contigs with protein sets of organisms representing distinct phylogenetic clades revealed a total of 1,629 contigs that Apis mellifera shares with different taxa. Most (41%) represent genes that are in common to all taxa, another 21% are shared between metazoans (Bilateria), and 16% are shared only within the Insecta clade. A set of 23 putative genes presented a best match with human genes, many of which encode factors related to cell signaling/signal transduction. 1,779 contigs (52%) did not match any known sequence. Applying a correction factor deduced from a parallel analysis performed with Drosophila melanogaster ORESTES, we estimate that approximately half of these no-match ESTs contigs (22%) should represent Apis-specific genes. CONCLUSIONS: The versatile and cost-efficient ORESTES approach produced minilibraries for honey bee life cycle stages. Such information on central gene regions contributes to genome annotation and also lends itself to cross-transcriptome comparisons to reveal evolutionary trends in insect genomes.

Animals↗

Analysis of 101 nuclear transcriptomes reveals 23 distinct regulons and their relationship to metabolism, chromosomal gene distribution and co-ordination of nuclear and plastid gene expression.

Post-endosymbiotic evolution of the proto-chloroplast was characterized by gene transfer to the nucleus. Hence, most chloroplast proteins are nuclear-encoded and the regulation of chloroplast functions includes nuclear transcriptional control. The expression profiles of 3292 nuclear Arabidopsis genes, most of them encoding chloroplast proteins, were determined from 101 different conditions and have been deposited at the GEO database (http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/geo/) under . The 1590 most-regulated genes fell into 23 distinct groups of co-regulated genes (regulons). Genes of some regulons are not evenly distributed among the five Arabidopsis chromosomes and pairs of adjacent, co-expressed genes exist. Except regulons 1 and 2, regulons are heterogeneous and consist of genes coding for proteins with different subcellular locations or contributing to several biochemical functions. This implies that different organelles and/or metabolic pathways are co-ordinated at the nuclear transcriptional level, and a prototype for this is regulon 12 which contains genes with functions in amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism, as well as genes associated with transport or transcription. The co-expression of nuclear genes coding for subunits of the photosystems or encoding proteins involved in the transcription/translation of plastome genes (particularly ribosome polypeptides) (regulons 1 and 2, respectively) implies the existence of a novel mechanism that co-ordinates plastid and nuclear gene expression and involves nuclear control of plastid ribosome abundance. The co-regulation of genes for photosystem and plastid ribosome proteins escapes a previously described general control of nuclear chloroplast proteins imposed by a transcriptional master switch, highlighting a mode of transcriptional regulation of photosynthesis which is different compared to other chloroplast functions. From the evolutionary standpoint, the results provided indicate that functional integration of the proto-chloroplast into the eukaryotic cell was associated with the establishment of different layers of nuclear transcriptional control.

Arabidopsis↗

Specific age-related signatures in Drosophila body parts transcriptome.

BACKGROUND: During the last two decades progress in the genetics of aging in invertebrate models such as C. elegans and D. melanogaster has clearly demonstrated the existence of regulatory pathways that control the rate of aging in these organisms, such as the insulin-like pathway, the Jun kinase pathway and the Sir2 deacetylase pathway. Moreover, it was rapidly shown that some of these pathways are conserved from yeast to humans. In parallel to genetic studies, genomic expression approaches have given us significant information on the gene expression modifications that occur during aging either in wild type or long-lived mutant animals. But most of the genomic studies of invertebrate models have been performed so far on whole animals, while several recent studies in mammals have shown that the effects of aging are tissue specific. RESULTS: We used oligonucleotide microarrays to address the specificities of transcriptional responses in aging Drosophila in head, thorax or whole body. These fly parts are enriched in transcripts that represent different and complementary sets of genes. We present evidence for both specific and common transcriptional responses during the aging process in these tissues. About half of the genes described as downregulated with age are linked to reproduction and enriched in gonads. Greater downregulation of mitochondrial genes, activation of the JNK pathway and upregulation of proteasome subunits in the thorax of aged flies all suggest that muscle may be particularly sensitive to aging. Simultaneous age-related impairment of synaptic transmission gene expression is observed in fly heads. In addition, a detailed comparison with other microarray data indicates that in aged flies there are significant deviations from the canonical responses to oxidative stress and immune stress. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrates the advantages and value of regionalized and comparative analysis of gene expression in aging animals. Adding to the age-regulated genes already identified in whole animal studies, it provides lists of new regionalized genes to be studied for their functional role in the aging process. This work also emphasizes the need for such experiments to reveal in greater detail the consequences of the transcriptional modifications induced by aging regulatory pathways.

Aging↗

The core meiotic transcriptome in budding yeasts.

We used high-density oligonucleotide microarrays to analyse the genomes and meiotic expression patterns of two yeast strains, SK1 and W303, that display distinct kinetics and efficiencies of sporulation. Hybridization of genomic DNA to arrays revealed numerous gene deletions and polymorphisms in both backgrounds. The expression analysis yielded approximately 1,600 meiotically regulated genes in each strain, with a core set of approximately 60% displaying similar patterns in both strains. Most of these (95%) are MATa/MATalpha-dependent and are not similarly expressed in near-isogenic meiosis-deficient controls. The transcript profiles correlate with the distribution of defined meiotic promoter elements and with the time of known gene function.

Binding Sites↗

Sorghum bicolor's transcriptome response to dehydration, high salinity and ABA.

Genome wide changes in gene expression were monitored in the drought tolerant C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor, following exposure of seedlings to high salinity (150 mM NaCl), osmotic stress (20% polyethylene glycol) or abscisic acid (125 microM ABA). A sorghum cDNA microarray providing data on 12,982 unique gene clusters was used to examine gene expression in roots and shoots at 3- and 27-h post-treatment. Expression of approximately 2200 genes, including 174 genes with currently unknown functions, of which a subset appear unique to monocots and/or sorghum, was altered in response to dehydration, high salinity or ABA. The modulated sorghum genes had homology to proteins involved in regulation, growth, transport, membrane/protein turnover/repair, metabolism, dehydration protection, reactive oxygen scavenging, and plant defense. Real-time PCR was used to quantify changes in relative mRNA abundance for 333 genes that responded to ABA, NaCl or osmotic stress. Osmotic stress inducible sorghum genes identified for the first time included a beta-expansin expressed in shoots, actin depolymerization factor, inositol-3-phosphate synthase, a non-C4 NADP-malic enzyme, oleosin, and three genes homologous to 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase that may be involved in ABA biosynthesis. Analysis of response profiles demonstrated the existence of a complex gene regulatory network that differentially modulates gene expression in a tissue- and kinetic-specific manner in response to ABA, high salinity and water deficit. Modulation of genes involved in signal transduction, chromatin structure, transcription, translation and RNA metabolism contributes to sorghum's overlapping but nonetheless distinct responses to ABA, high salinity, and osmotic stress. Overall, this study provides a foundation of information on sorghum's osmotic stress responsive gene complement that will accelerate follow up biochemical, QTL and comparative studies.

Abscisic Acid↗

Telencephalic embryonic subtractive sequences: a unique collection of neurodevelopmental genes.

The vertebrate telencephalon is composed of many architectonically and functionally distinct areas and structures, with billions of neurons that are precisely connected. This complexity is fine-tuned during development by numerous genes. To identify genes involved in the regulation of telencephalic development, a specific subset of differentially expressed genes was characterized. Here, we describe a set of cDNAs encoded by genes preferentially expressed during development of the mouse telencephalon that was identified through a functional genomics approach. Of 832 distinct transcripts found, 223 (27%) are known genes. Of the remaining, 228 (27%) correspond to expressed sequence tags of unknown function, 58 (7%) are homologs or orthologs of known genes, and 323 (39%) correspond to novel rare transcripts, including 48 (14%) new putative noncoding RNAs. As an example of this latter group of novel precursor transcripts of micro-RNAs, telencephalic embryonic subtractive sequence (TESS) 24.E3 was functionally characterized, and one of its targets was identified: the zinc finger transcription factor ZFP9. The TESS transcriptome has been annotated, mapped for chromosome loci, and arrayed for its gene expression profiles during neural development and differentiation (in Neuro2a and neural stem cells). Within this collection, 188 genes were also characterized on embryonic and postnatal tissue by in situ hybridization, demonstrating that most are specifically expressed in the embryonic CNS. The full information has been organized into a searchable database linked to other genomic resources, allowing easy access to those who are interested in the dissection of the molecular basis of telencephalic development.

Animals↗

Comprehensive expression profiling by muscle tissue class and identification of the molecular niche of extraocular muscle.

Muscle tissue is an elegant model for biologic integration of structure with function and is frequently affected by a variety of inherited diseases. Traditional muscle classes--skeletal, cardiac, and smooth--share basic aspects of contractile and energetics mechanisms but also have distinctive role-specific adaptations. We used large-scale oligonucleotide microarrays to broaden knowledge of the adaptive expression patterns underlying muscle tissue differences and to identify transcript subsets that are most likely to represent candidate disease genes. Using stringent analysis criteria, we found >or=95 transcripts, which were preferentially expressed by each muscle class and were validated by inclusion of known muscle class-specific and inherited disease-related genes. Differentially expressed transcripts not previously identified as class-specific extend understanding of muscle class transcriptomes and may represent novel muscle-specific disease genes. We also analyzed the expression profile of extraocular muscle, which is divergent from other skeletal muscles, in the broader context of all major muscle classes. Data show that the extraocular muscle phenotype results from the combination of tissue-specific transcripts, novel expression levels of skeletal muscle transcripts, and partial sharing of gene expression patterns with cardiac and smooth muscle. These, and additional proteomic data, establish that extraocular muscle does not constitute a distinctive muscle class but that it does occupy a novel niche within the skeletal muscle class.

Animals↗

[Changes in the gene expression profile of the left heart ventricle during growth in the rat].

Wistar rats of 8, 10 and 12-week-old were chosen for study of the relationship between cardiac growth and its gene expression profile changes during maturation. The ultrasonic parameters of rat hearts were recorded before sacrifice, then total RNA of left ventricle were extracted and gene expression profiles were analyzed by cDNA microarray. During growth from 8 weeks to 12 weeks, the body weight increased by 45.5% (287+/-13 g vs 197+/-10 g), and the increment in the first two-week period was equal to that of the second two-week period. The mass of left ventricle and the posterior wall thickness increased by 27.7% (0.60+/-0.03 g vs 0.47+/-0.02 g) and 23.6% (2.04+/-0.04 mm vs 1.65+/-0.13 mm), respectively, and their increment in the first two-week period was much more than that in the second one. Meanwhile, the gene expression profile of the left ventricle changed significantly, which involved cellular structure, metabolism, oxidative stress, signal transduction, etc. Compared with the 8-week-old rats, these genes were mostly up-regulated in 10-week-old rats, while for 12-week-old rats, the gene expression profile of the left ventricle recovered to the pattern of 8-week-old rats again on the whole. These results suggest that the relationship between the changes in cardiac function and gene expression profile can be analyzed comprehensively with the technique of microarray, and that the changes in gene expression profile of the left ventricle during rat maturation adapt to the physiological growth of heart, which is of benefit for keeping the metabolism balance between materials and energy.

Animals↗

Genome complexity and repetitive DNA in metazoans from extreme marine environments.

As genomics converges with ecology and evolution to identify the fundamental linkages between genome structure and function, genome and transcriptome complexity will need to be measured in organisms from more diverse habitats, most often in the absence of complete sequence data. Here, we describe the complexity of ten genomes measured by a novel, high-throughput fluorescence-based kinetic hybridization assay. We applied the Shannon information index, H, and a related, fluorescence-adjusted index, H(f), as unique metrics of the hybridization kinetics to complement the conventional rate constant, k. A strong, positive relationship was present between H(f), and the repetitive DNA content of five eukaryotic genomes previously determined by Cot kinetic analyses (Onchorynchus keta, Ilyanassa obsoleta, Bos taurus, Limulus polyphemus, Saccharyomyces cerevisiae). This relationship was used to characterize the complexity of previously unstudied genomic samples in five metazoan taxa from three marine environments, including deep-sea hydrothermal vents (Alvinella pompejana), the temperate subtidal (Streblospio benedicti), and Antarctic coastal bays (Sterechinus neumayeri, Odontaster validus, Tritonia antarctica). Contrary to the predictions of nucleotypic theory, Antarctic invertebrates consistently had the lowest quantities of repetitive DNA in conjunction with low metabolic rates and highly protracted rates of cell division and larval development. Conversely, hydrothermal vent species with rapid cell division and growth do not have significantly different genome sizes or particularly low amounts of repetitive DNA as compared to non-vent, deep-sea taxa. Furthermore, there appears to be a positive correlation between the temperature at which the most abundant repetitive sequence classes anneal and habitat thermal stability. Thus, our study reveals a potential shift in repetitive sequence representation between these extreme environments that may be related to genome function in species living at these different thermal regimes.

Animals↗

The phosphate-starvation response of Bacillus licheniformis.

The phosphate-starvation stimulon of Bacillus licheniformis was analyzed at the transcriptional and translational level. The comparison of the transcriptome and the proteome demonstrated that this specific starvation response of B. licheniformis is partially similar to that of B. subtilis. However, it is also shown that B. licheniformis has evolved its own strategies to cope with this nutrient limitation. By means of the secretome analysis the phytase was identified as the most abundant protein under phosphate-starvation conditions. Data of this study indicate that, unlike in B. subtilis, phosphate starvation in B. licheniformis does not induce the SigmaB-dependent general stress response.

6-Phytase↗

Human mesenchymal stem cell subpopulations express a variety of neuro-regulatory molecules and promote neuronal cell survival and neuritogenesis.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplanted at sites of nerve injury are thought to promote functional recovery by producing trophic factors that induce survival and regeneration of host neurons. To evaluate this phenomenon further, we quantified in human MSCs neurotrophin expression levels and their effects on neuronal cell survival and neuritogenesis. Screening a human MSC cDNA library revealed expressed transcripts encoding BDNF and beta-NGF but not NT-3 and NT-4. Immunostaining demonstrated that BDNF and beta-NGF proteins were restricted to specific MSC subpopulations, which was confirmed by ELISA analysis of 56 separate subclones. Using a co-culture assay, we also demonstrated that BDNF expression levels correlated with the ability of MSC populations or subclones to induce survival and neurite outgrowth in the SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line. However, these MSC-induced effects were only partially inhibited by a neutralizing anti-BDNF antibody. MSCs were also shown to promote neurite outgrowth within dorsal root ganglion explants despite secreting 25-fold lower level of beta-NGF required exogenously to produce a similar effect. Interrogation of the human MSC transcriptome identified expressed mRNAs encoding various neurite-inducing factors, axon guidance and neural cell adhesion molecules. Moreover, a subset of these transcripts was shown to correlate with BDNF expression in MSC subclones. Collectively, these studies reveal the existence of MSC subpopulations that co-express neurotrophins and other potent neuro-regulatory molecules, which contribute to MSC-induced effects on neuronal cell survival and nerve regeneration. These subpopulations may represent more potent vectors for treating a variety of neurological disorders.

Animals↗

Global transcriptional profiling of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense using Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Dinoflagellates are one of the most important classes of marine and freshwater algae, notable both for their functional diversity and ecological significance. They occur naturally as free-living cells, as endosymbionts of marine invertebrates and are well known for their involvement in "red tides". Dinoflagellates are also notable for their unusual genome content and structure, which suggests that the organization and regulation of dinoflagellate genes may be very different from that of most eukaryotes. To investigate the content and regulation of the dinoflagellate genome, we performed a global analysis of the transcriptome of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense under nitrate- and phosphate-limited conditions using Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS). RESULTS: Data from the two MPSS libraries showed that the number of unique signatures found in A. fundyense cells is similar to that of humans and Arabidopsis thaliana, two eukaryotes that have been extensively analyzed using this method. The general distribution, abundance and expression patterns of the A. fundyense signatures were also quite similar to other eukaryotes, and at least 10% of the A. fundyense signatures were differentially expressed between the two conditions. RACE amplification and sequencing of a subset of signatures showed that multiple signatures arose from sequence variants of a single gene. Single signatures also mapped to different sequence variants of the same gene. CONCLUSION: The MPSS data presented here provide a quantitative view of the transcriptome and its regulation in these unusual single-celled eukaryotes. The observed signature abundance and distribution in Alexandrium is similar to that of other eukaryotes that have been analyzed using MPSS. Results of signature mapping via RACE indicate that many signatures result from sequence variants of individual genes. These data add to the growing body of evidence for widespread gene duplication in dinoflagellates, which would contribute to the transcriptional complexity of these organisms. The MPSS data also demonstrate that a significant number of dinoflagellate mRNAs are transcriptionally regulated, indicating that dinoflagellates commonly employ transcriptional gene regulation along with the post-transcriptional regulation that has been well documented in these organisms.

Animals↗

Genome-wide analysis of the Arabidopsis leaf transcriptome reveals interaction of phosphate and sugar metabolism.

Global gene expression was analyzed in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) by microarrays comprising 21,500 genes. Leaf segments derived from phosphorus (P)-starved and P-replenished plants were incubated with or without sucrose (Suc) to obtain tissues with contrasting combinations of P and carbohydrate levels. Transcript profiling revealed the influence of the two factors individually and the interactions between P- and sugar-dependent gene regulation. A large number of gene transcripts changed more than 2-fold: In response to P starvation, 171 genes were induced and 16 repressed, whereas Suc incubation resulted in 337 induced and 307 repressed genes. A number of new candidate genes involved in P acquisition were discovered. In addition, several putative transcription factors and signaling proteins of P sensing were disclosed. Several genes previously identified to be sugar responsive were also regulated by P starvation and known P-responsive genes were sugar inducible. Nearly 150 genes were synergistically or antagonistically regulated by the two factors. These genes exhibit more prominent or contrasting regulation in response to Suc and P in combination than expected from the effect of the two factors individually. The genes exhibiting interactions form three main clusters with different response patterns and functionality of genes. One cluster (cluster 1) most likely represents a regulatory program to support increased growth and development when both P and carbohydrates are ample. Another cluster (cluster 3) represents genes induced to alleviate P starvation and these are further induced by carbohydrate accumulation. Thus, interactions between P and Suc reveal two different signaling programs and novel interactions in gene regulation in response to environmental factors. cis-Regulatory elements were analyzed for each factor and for interaction clusters. PHR1 binding sites were more frequent in promoters of P-regulated genes as compared to the entire Arabidopsis genome, and E2F and PHR1 binding sites were more frequent in interaction clusters 1 and 3, respectively.

Arabidopsis↗