Non-syndromic cleft lip/palate (NSCL/P) is a complex, frequent congenital malformation, determined by the interplay between genetic and environmental factors during embryonic development. Previous findings have appointed an aetiological overlap between NSCL/P and cancer, and alterations in similar biological pathways may underpin both conditions. Here, using a combination of transcriptomic profiling and functional approaches, we report that NSCL/P dental pulp stem cells exhibit dysregulation of a co-expressed gene network mainly associated with DNA double-strand break repair and cell cycle control (p = 2.88x10-2 5.02x10-9). This network included important genes for these cellular processes, such as BRCA1, RAD51, and MSH2, which are predicted to be regulated by transcription factor E2F1. Functional assays support these findings, revealing that NSCL/P cells accumulate DNA double-strand breaks upon exposure to H2O2. Furthermore, we show that E2f1, Brca1 and Rad51 involved in DNA repair are co-expressed in the developing embryonic orofacial primordia, and may act as a molecular hub playing a role in lip and palate morphogenesis. In conclusion, we show that cellular defences against DNA damage may take part in the pathogenesis of NSCL/P, in accordance with the hypothesis of aetiological overlap between this malformation and cancer. These results provide more information regarding the aetiology of NSCL/P and have the potential tocan potentially assist incontribute to the development of future preventive strategies.
Susceptibility to DNA damage as a molecular mechanism for non-syndromic cleft lip and palate.
Sex, Specimen part
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MRPL53, a New Candidate Gene for Orofacial Clefting, Identified Using an eQTL Approach.
Sex, Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesA valuable approach to understand how individual and population genetic differences can predispose to disease is to assess the impact of genetic variants on cellular functions (e.g., gene expression) of cell and tissue types related to pathological states. To understand the genetic basis of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P) susceptibility, a complex and highly prevalent congenital malformation, we searched for genetic variants with a regulatory role in a disease-related tissue, the lip muscle (orbicularis oris muscle [OOM]), of affected individuals. From 46 OOM samples, which are frequently discarded during routine corrective surgeries on patients with orofacial clefts, we derived mesenchymal stem cells and correlated the individual genetic variants with gene expression from these cultured cells. Through this strategy, we detected significant cis-eQTLs (i.e., DNA variants affecting gene expression) and selected a few candidates to conduct an association study in a large Brazilian cohort (624 patients and 668 controls). This resulted in the discovery of a novel susceptibility locus for NSCL/P, rs1063588, the best eQTL for the MRPL53 gene, where evidence for association was mostly driven by the Native American ancestry component of our Brazilian sample. MRPL53 (2p13.1) encodes a 39S protein subunit of mitochondrial ribosomes and interacts with MYC, a transcription factor required for normal facial morphogenesis. Our study illustrates not only the importance of sampling admixed populations but also the relevance of measuring the functional effects of genetic variants over gene expression to dissect the complexity of disease phenotypes.
MRPL53, a New Candidate Gene for Orofacial Clefting, Identified Using an eQTL Approach.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Modeling non-syndromic autism and the impact of TRPC6 disruption in human neurons.
Specimen part
View SamplesiPSC were obtained from DPC from TRPC6-mut patient, a idiopathic autistic patient and a control. Original DPC and iPSC obtained were submited to expression analysis in order to check if the expression pattern obtained for the iPSC cells were closer related to embyonic cells than to the original DPC
Modeling non-syndromic autism and the impact of TRPC6 disruption in human neurons.
Specimen part
View SamplesAs TRPC6 channel induces CREB-mediated trancription, Dental pulp cells from TRPC6-mut patient and from 6 controls were analyzed in order to verify if the disruption of TRPC6 leads to transcriptional changes.
Modeling non-syndromic autism and the impact of TRPC6 disruption in human neurons.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene disruption in a murine medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC 3.10 cell line) on the transcriptome of these cells during its adhesion with thymocytes. The mTEC-thymocyte adhesion is a crucial step for the negative selection of autoreactive thymocytes and prevention of autoimmune diseases. To generate Aire mutant cell clones, a total of 5x10^5 mTEC 3.10 cells were electro-transfected (Lonza Nucleofector) with CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid targeting the Aire Exon 3 (plasmid "all in one" encoding Aire Exon 3 gRNA + Cas9 + GFP, from Sigma-Aldrich). The GFP positive mTEC single cells were sorted by using a FACS Aria III cytometer and cells were cloned by expansion in culture. Sanger sequencing of PCR products from the Aire Exon 3 of these clones was used in order to evaluate the occurrence of indel mutations within the targeted Exon 3. The mTEC 3.10 clone E6 was identified and validated as a compound heterozygous Aire KO (Aire +/-). This clone features the Aire allele 1 that encodes a mutant Aire protein carring a neutral aminoacid substitution (A118P) and allele 2 encoding a truncated Aire protein. Wild type (WT) mTEC 3.10 cells or mTEC 3.10 clone E6 were cultured in the presence (or not) of thymocytes in order to establish cell adhesion. The total RNA preparations from WT or clone E6 mTEC cells (before or after mTEC- thymocyte co-cultures) were then sequenced through RNA-sequencing using a Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument and the TruSeq Stranded mRNA Library Preparation kit resulting in about 50 million paired-end stranded specific 100 bp reads per sample. Sequencing reads were mapped to Mus musculus reference genome (mm10) using STAR v.2.5.0a. Read counts over transcripts were calculated using HTSeq v.0.6.1p2 based on a current UCSC annotation file for GRCm38/mm10 (Dec. 2011). Overall design: The mRNA profiles of mTEC 3.10 cells carring WT Aire (before or after co-culture with thymocytes) or heterozygous KO mTEC 3.10 cells (clone E6, Aire +/-) (before or after co-culture with thymocytes) were generated by sequencing, in duplicates, using a Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument.
Aire Disruption Influences the Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cell Transcriptome and Interaction With Thymocytes.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesThe goal of this study is to simultaneously examine host and parasite gene expression programs in skin lesions of human patients infected with the intracellular parasite Leishmania. We conducted high-resolution sequencing of the transcriptomes from early and late stage cutaneous leishmaniasis biopsies using an RNA-seq approach. An array of computational tools was applied to map reads to the Leishmania and human genomes and reconstruct full-length transcripts. mRNA abundance was determined for Leishmania and human genes, helping to explain tuning of the immune response to parasite transcriptomic profiles present in the lesion microenvironment. This data provided a deeper look at the transcriptomic profile of the host response in conjunction with a novel look at the parasite transcriptome in human cutaneous lesions. These data also offer the first glimpse of Leishmania gene expression profiles specific to the cutaneous manifestation of disease in human patients. This metatranscriptomic study provides a solid framework for future functional, genomic, and clinical studies of leishmaniasis as well as intracellular pathogenesis in general.
Meta-transcriptome Profiling of the Human-Leishmania braziliensis Cutaneous Lesion.
No sample metadata fields
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An RB-EZH2 Complex Mediates Silencing of Repetitive DNA Sequences.
Specimen part
View SamplesUpon G1-S transition, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) phosphorylate the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (pRB) to release E2F transcription factors, which activate transcriptional programs, required for S-phase entry. Beyond the G1-S transition, pRB activity remains poorly understood. Our lab has discovered that pRB retains exclusive binding to E2F1 through an alternate E2F1-specific binding site at the pRB c-terminus independent of CDK phosphorylation. We have developed a gene-targeted mouse model that is defective for the E2F1-specific interaction. We are exploring the function of this complex through genome-wide binding and expression profiling. Overall, this work suggests an alternate pRB-E2F1 complex persists independent of CDK phosphorylation to establish regions of constitutive heterochromatin
An RB-EZH2 Complex Mediates Silencing of Repetitive DNA Sequences.
Specimen part
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