This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Specific microRNAs are preferentially expressed by skin stem cells to balance self-renewal and early lineage commitment.
Sex, Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesIncreasing evidence suggests that microRNAs may play important roles in regulating self-renewal and differentiation in mammalian stem cells (SCs). Here, we explore this issue in skin. We first characterize microRNA expression profiles of skin SCs versus their committed proliferative progenies and identify a microRNA subset associating with stemness. Of these, miR-125b is dramatically downregulated in early SC-progeny. We engineer an inducible mice system and show that when miR-125b is sustained in SC-progenies, tissue balance is reversibly skewed towards stemness at the expense of epidermal, oil-gland and HF differentiation. Using gain-and-loss of function in vitro, we further implicate miR-125b as a repressor of SC differentiation. In vivo, transcripts repressed upon miR-125b induction are enriched >700% for predicted miR-125b targets normally downregulated upon SC-lineage commitment. We verify some of these miR-125b targets, and show that Blimp1 and VDR in particular can account for many tissue imbalances we see when miR-125b is deregulated.
Specific microRNAs are preferentially expressed by skin stem cells to balance self-renewal and early lineage commitment.
Sex, Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesA chemical screen was performed in search of compounds that modify plant responses to sucrose. This screen uncovered that sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a folate biosynthesis inhibitor, acted synergistically with sucrose to inhibit hypocotyl elongation, suggesting interaction between these two pathways. Transcriptome analysis was performed to identify changes in transcript abundance that may underpin crosstalk between sucrose and SMX. Three-day-old dark-grown seedlings were treated to sucrose and SMX at concentrations that induced no change in hypocotyl elongation when administered independently, yet restricted elongation when both were present in the growth media (10mM and 0.2M, respectively). This analysis uncovered multiple core auxin signalling components that exhibit altered transcript abundance in response to co-treatment with sucrose and SMX, suggesting that auxin signalling mediates crosstalk between these two pathways. This study highlights an input through which metabolic status can shape plant growth and development through hormone signalling.
Interplay between sucrose and folate modulates auxin signaling in Arabidopsis.
Specimen part
View SamplesPolycomb protein group (PcG)-dependent trimethylation on H3-K27(H3K27me3) regulates identity of embryonic stem cells (SCs). How H3K27me3 governs adult SCs and tissue development is unclear. Here, we conditionally target H3-K27-methyltransferases Ezh2 and Ezh1 to address their roles in mouse skin homeostasis. Postnatal phenotypes appear only in doubly-targeted skin, where H3K27me3 is abolished, revealing functional redundancy in EZH1/2 proteins. Surprisingly, while Ezh1/2-null hair follicles (HFs) arrest morphogenesis and degenerate due to defective proliferation and increased apoptosis, epidermis hyperproliferates and survives engraftment. mRNA-microarray studies reveal that despite these striking phenotypic differences, similar genes are upregulated in HF and epidermal Ezh1/2-null progenitors. Featured prominently are a) PcG-controlled non-skin lineage genes, whose expression is still significantly lower than in native tissues, and b) the PcG-regulated Ink4a/Inkb/Arf locus. Interestingly, even though Ink4a/Arf/Ink4b genes are fully activated in HF cells, they only partially so in epidermal-progenitors. Importantly, transduction of Ink4b/Ink4a/Arf shRNAs restores proliferation/survival of Ezh1/2-null HF progenitors in vitro, pointing towards the relevance of this locus to the observed HF phenotypes. Our findings reveal new insights into Polycomb-dependent tissue control and provide a new twist to how different progenitors within one tissue respond to loss of H3K27me3.
EZH1 and EZH2 cogovern histone H3K27 trimethylation and are essential for hair follicle homeostasis and wound repair.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
View SamplesMouse hair follicles undergo synchronized cycles. Cyclical regeneration and hair growth is fueled by stem cells (SCs). Following hair regeneration, SCs within the bulge and its vicinity (upper ORS which becomes the bulge for the next cycle) briefly self-renew to replenish expended SCs and ensure long-term tissue regeneration.
An RNA interference screen uncovers a new molecule in stem cell self-renewal and long-term regeneration.
Sex, Specimen part
View SamplesAlthough in vitro studies of embryonic stem cells have identified Polycomb repressor complexes (PRCs) as key regulators of differentiation, it remains unclear as to how PRC-mediated mechanisms control fates of multipotent progenitors in developing tissues. Here, we show that an essential PRC component, Ezh2, is expressed in epidermal progenitors, but diminishes concomitant with embryonic differentiation and with postnatal decline in proliferative activity. We show that Ezh2 controls proliferative potential of basal progenitors by repressing the Ink4A-Ink4B locus, and tempers the developmental rate of differentiation by preventing premature recruitment of AP1 transcriptional activator to the structural genes that are required for epidermal differentiation. Together, our studies reveal that PRCs control epigenetic modifications temporally and spatially in tissue-restricted stem cells by maintaining their proliferative potential and globally repressing undesirable differentiation programs, while selectively establishing a specific terminal differentiation program in a step-wise fashion.
Ezh2 orchestrates gene expression for the stepwise differentiation of tissue-specific stem cells.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesWe identify numerous miR-203 in vivo targets that are highly enriched for the promotion of cell cycle and cell division. Importantly, individual targets including p63, Skp2 and Msi2 play distinct roles downstream of miR-203 to regulate the cell cycle and long-term proliferation. Together, our findings reveal rapid and widespread impact of miR-203 on the self-renewal program during the epidermal differentiation and provide mechanistic insights for the potent role of miR-203 where coordinated repression of multiple targets is required for the function of this miRNA.
Rapid and widespread suppression of self-renewal by microRNA-203 during epidermal differentiation.
Specimen part
View SamplesGlucocorticoids are first-line agents for the treatment of many eosinophil-associated disorders. However, their mechanism of action in this group of disorders remains poorly understood, including the well-known clinical observation that glucocorticoids at therapeutic doses lead to profound, transient eosinopenia within hours of administration. To gain an unbiased, genome-wide view of the early transcriptional effects of glucocorticoids on human eosinophils in vivo, and torelate them to the kinetics of glucocorticoid-induced eosinopenia, RNA sequencing was performed on purified blood eosinophils obtained before and 30, 60, and 120 minutes after administration of a single dose of oral prednisone (1 mg/kg) to healthy subjects with hypereosinophilia (hypereosinophilia of unknown significance). Overall design: Three subjects with hypereosinophilia of unknown significance were each given a single dose of oral prednisone, 1 mg/kg. Whole blood was collected before and 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours after prednisone administration. Eosinophils were purified from each peripheral blood sample. Total RNA was obtained from purified eosinophils and subject to library preparation and high-throughput sequencing.
Transcript- and protein-level analyses of the response of human eosinophils to glucocorticoids.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Treatment, Subject, Time
View SamplesHair Follicle regeneration relies on both epithelial components (bulge and hair germ cells) and a mesenchymal one (dermal papilla cells).
A two-step mechanism for stem cell activation during hair regeneration.
Specimen part
View SamplesReversible protein acetylation provides a central mechanism for controlling gene expression and cellular signaling events. It is governed by the antagonistic commitment of two enzymes families: the histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and the histone deacetylases (HDACs). HDAC4, like its class IIa counterparts, is a potent transcriptional repressor through interactions with tissue-specific transcription factors via its N-terminal domain. Whilst the lysine deacetylase activity of the class IIa HDACs is much less potent than that of the class I enzymes, HDAC4 has been reported to influence protein deacetylation through its interaction with HDAC3.
HDAC4 does not act as a protein deacetylase in the postnatal murine brain in vivo.
Sex, Specimen part
View Samples