Next to the two-component and quorum sensing systems, cell-surface signaling (CSS) has been recently identified as an important regulatory system in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. CSS senses signals from outside the cell and transmits them into the cytoplasm. It consists of a TonB-dependent outer membrane receptor, a cytoplasmic membrane-localized sigma factor regulator (or anti-sigma factor), and an extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factor. Upon perception of the extracellular signal by the receptor the ECF sigma factor is activated and promotes the transcription of a specific set of gene(s). Although most P. aeruginosa ECF sigma factors are involved in the regulation of iron uptake, we have identified a novel ECF sigma factor (PA0675) involved in the regulation of virulence. By microarray analysis of cells overexpressing PA0675 from the pMUM3 plasmid we have identified the genes regulated by this sigma factor.
A Novel extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factor regulates virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
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View SamplesPiwi-interacting small RNAs (piRNAs) of fetal prospermatogonia of mice have been strongly implicated in transposon control. In contrast, little is known about biogenesis and function of abundant piRNAs from adult testes expressed in late spermatocytes and round spermatids. These so-called "pachytene" piRNAs are processed from long non-coding piRNA precursors and have no defined RNA targets in the transcriptome even though their binding partner Piwi, MIWI, is essential for spermiogenesis and fertility. Here we report that 129SvJae mice lacking Maelstrom (MAEL), a conserved piRNA pathway protein, exhibit spermiogenic arrest with defects in acrosome and flagellum formation. Further analysis revealed MAEL association with RNPs containing MIWI, TDRD6, and processed intermediates of pachytene piRNA precursors of various length. Loss of MAEL causes a 10-fold drop in pachytene piRNA levels but an increase in piRNAs from abundantly expressed mRNAs. These results suggest a MAEL-dependent mechanism for the selective processing of pachytene piRNA precursor into piRNAs. Strikingly, ribosome profiling of Mael-null testes revealed that reduced piRNA production is accompanied by reduced translation of over 800 spermiogenic mRNAs including those encoding acrosome and flagellum proteins. In light of recent reports of piRNA-independent protection of translationally repressed mRNPs by MIWI and piRNA-dependent turnover of MIWI, we propose that pachytene piRNAs function by controlling the availably of MIWI for the translational repression of spermiogenic mRNAs. Overall design: piRNA sequencing, RNA immunoprecipitation, and expression measurements (RNA-Seq and ribosome profiling) in wild-type and Mael -/- testes
Reduced pachytene piRNAs and translation underlie spermiogenic arrest in Maelstrom mutant mice.
Specimen part, Cell line, Subject
View SamplesFeeding animals with either concentrates supplemented with vitamin E or alfalfa grazing has been proven to reduce the oxidative process that occurs in meat products. Indoor-kept lambs were fed a standard concentrate (n=7, C) or concentrate supplemented with vitamin E (n=7, VE) for 30 days before slaughtering all animals at 2224 kg of live weight. Simultaneously, 7 unweaned lambs grazed in alfalfa paddocks (ALF) with their dams. Global transcriptomic data of longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle and subcutaneous fat (SF) with the Affymetrix Ovine Gene 1.1 microarray was used. In LT muscle when ALF group was compared with C group, were identified 41 genes differentially expressed. Among these genes 32 were down- regulated and 9 were up- regulated. Meanwhile when VE treatment was compared with C group were identified a total of 29 genes, 26 were down- regulated and 3 genes were up- regulated. In SF when ALF treatment was compared with C, were identified only 4 genes differentially expressed, all of them up-regulated in ALF group. Meanwhile when VE treatment was compared with C group, were identified a total of 330 genes. Among them, 295 genes were up- regulated and 35 were down- regulated. In LT muscle the clusters corresponding to gene expression profiles from treatments ALF, C and VE were clearly separated from each other. In SF, ALF group, overlap with VE and C treatments, however, VE and C clearly were separate in different clusters. These differentially expressed genes were selected for a functional analysis by using DAVID. In LT muscle some of the identified significant biological processes were catabolic and lipid process (down-regulated, except CPT1B) (CPT1B, PLA2G16, SPSB1, LRTOMT, PLCD4, FBXO9, CNBP and CYP27A1) and muscle organ differentiation (down-regulated) (CPT1B, MYOD1, MYLK2 and MSTN) in ALF; whereas intracellular signaling cascade (IGF1R, DEF8, AKAP7 and CISH) was down-regulated. In SF, vitamin E supplementation had an important effect; most of the genes were up-regulated. DAVID analysis showed that biosynthesis lipid pathway was the most represented with 20 genes, such as EBP, MVD, CYP51A1, DHCR7, HMGCS1, LSS and FDFT1 implicated in cholesterol synthesis. Further exploration of the links between these genes and vitamin E will lead to a better understanding of how vitamin E affects the oxidative process that occurs in meat products.
Genome-wide expression profiling in muscle and subcutaneous fat of lambs in response to the intake of concentrate supplemented with vitamin E.
Sex, Treatment
View SamplesAlmost a quarter of pediatric patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) suffer from relapses. The biological mechanisms underlying therapy response and development of relapses have remained unclear. In an attempt to better understand this phenomenon, we have analyzed 41 matched diagnosis relapse pairs of ALL patients using genomewide expression arrays (82 arrays) on purified leukemic cells. In roughly half of the patients very few differences between diagnosis and relapse samples were found (stable group), suggesting that mostly extra-leukemic factors (e.g., drug distribution, drug metabolism, compliance) contributed to the relapse. Therefore, we focused our further analysis on 20 samples with clear differences in gene expression (skewed group), reasoning that these would allow us to better study the biological mechanisms underlying relapsed ALL. After finding the differences between diagnosis and relapse pairs in this group, we identified four major gene clusters corresponding to several pathways associated with changes in cell cycle, DNA replication, recombination and repair, as well as B cell developmental genes. We also identified cancer genes commonly associated with colon carcinomas and ubiquitination to be upregulated in relapsed ALL. Thus, about half of relapses are due to selection or emergence of a clone with deregulated expression of a genes involved in pathways that regulate B cell signaling, development, cell cycle, cellular division and replication.
Genome-wide expression analysis of paired diagnosis-relapse samples in ALL indicates involvement of pathways related to DNA replication, cell cycle and DNA repair, independent of immune phenotype.
Sex, Specimen part, Disease
View SamplesBackground and Purpose—Analyzing genes involved in development and rupture of intracranial aneurysms can enhance knowledge about the pathogenesis of aneurysms, and identify new treatment strategies. We compared gene expression between ruptured and unruptured aneurysms and control intracranial arteries. Methods—We determined expression levels with RNA sequencing. Applying a multivariate negative binomial model, we identified genes that were differentially expressed between 44 aneurysms and 16 control arteries, and between 22 ruptured and 21 unruptured aneurysms. The differential expression of 8 relevant and highly significant genes was validated using digital polymerase chain reaction. Pathway analysis was used to identify enriched pathways. We also analyzed genes with an extreme pattern of differential expression: only expressed in 1 condition without any expression in the other. Results—We found 229 differentially expressed genes in aneurysms versus controls and 1489 in ruptured versus unruptured aneurysms. The differential expression of all 8 genes selected for digital polymerase chain reaction validation was confirmed. Extracellular matrix pathways were enriched in aneurysms versus controls, whereas pathways involved in immune response and the lysosome pathway were enriched in ruptured versus unruptured aneurysms. Immunoglobulin genes were expressed in aneurysms, but showed no expression in controls. Conclusions—For rupture of intracranial aneurysms, we identified the lysosome pathway as a new pathway and found further evidence for the role of the immune response. Our results also point toward a role for immunoglobulins in the pathogenesis of aneurysms. Immune-modifying drugs are, therefore, interesting candidate treatment strategies in the prevention of aneurysm development and rupture. Overall design: RNA sequencing of 44 intracranial aneurysm samples (including 21 unruptured, 22 ruptured and 1 undetermined) and 16 control samples of the intracranial cortical artery
RNA Sequencing Analysis of Intracranial Aneurysm Walls Reveals Involvement of Lysosomes and Immunoglobulins in Rupture.
Sex, Age, Subject
View SamplesColon cancer is a major cause of cancer deaths in Western countries and is associated with diets high in red meat. Heme, the iron-porphyrin pigment of red meat, induces cytotoxicity of gut contents which injures surface cells leading to compensatory hyperproliferation of crypt cells. This hyperproliferation results in epithelial hyperplasia which increases the risk of colon cancer. In humans, a high red-meat diet increases Bacteroides spp in feces. Therefore, we simultaneously investigated the effects of dietary heme on colonic microbiota and on the host mucosa of mice. Whole genome microarrays showed that heme injured the colonic surface epithelium and induced hyperproliferation by changing the surface to crypt signaling. Using 16S rRNA phylogenetic microarrays, we investigated whether bacteria play a role in this changed signaling. Heme increased Bacteroidetes and decreased Firmicutes in colonic contents. This shift was most likely caused by a selective susceptibility of Gram-positive bacteria to heme cytotoxic fecal water, which is not observed for Gram-negative bacteria, allowing expansion of the Gram-negative community. The increased amount of Gram-negative bacteria most probably increased LPS exposure to colonocytes, however, there is no appreciable immune response detected in the heme-fed mice. There was no functional change in the sensing of the bacteria by the mucosa, as changes in inflammation pathways and Toll- like receptor signaling were not detected. This unaltered host-microbe cross-talk indicates that the changes in microbiota did not play a causal role in the observed hyperproliferation and hyperplasia.
Dietary heme alters microbiota and mucosa of mouse colon without functional changes in host-microbe cross-talk.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
View SamplesPreviously, we showed that dietary heme injured the colonic surface epithelium and induced hyperproliferation by changing the surface to crypt signaling. In this study we investigated whether bacteria play a role in this changed signaling. Dietary heme increased the Bacteroidetes and decreased the Firmicutes in colonic content. This shift was caused by a selective susceptibility of Gram-positive bacteria to the heme cytotoxic fecal waters, which is not observed for Gram-negative bacteria allowing expansion of the Gram-negative community. The increased amount of Gram-negative bacteria increased LPS exposure to colonocytes, however, there is no appreciable immune response detected in the heme-fed mice. There were no signs of sensing of the bacteria by the mucosa, as changes in TLR signaling were not present. This lack of microbe-host cross talk indicated that the changes in microbiota do not play a causal role in the heme-induced hyperproliferation.
Dietary heme alters microbiota and mucosa of mouse colon without functional changes in host-microbe cross-talk.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesSelective genetic ablation of the SIRT1 deacetylase domain in skeletal muscle results in increased H4K16 acetylation and deregulated activation of the myogenic program in satellite cells Overall design: To establish the role of the deacetylase SIRT1 in skeletal muscle we examined the genome wide distribution of H4K16ac in quiescent (FI) and proliferating (Cul) satellite cells isolated from WT mice (C57Bl/6 background) and SIRT1mKO (generated via breeding of Pax7cre/+ knock-in mice with mice containing the floxed exon 4 SIRT1 allele). We also analyzed the distribution of SIRT1 in quiescent and proliferating FACS isolated WT satellite cells (two replicates). We generated the mRNA profiles (at least two replicate for each experiment) of FACS isolated quiescent, proliferating and differentiating (1 day in differentiation medium) satellite cells of WT mice and SIRT1mKO. The selective genetic ablation of the SIRT1 deacetylase domain in skeletal muscle results in increased H4K16 acetylation and deregulated activation of the myogenic program.
The NAD(+)-dependent SIRT1 deacetylase translates a metabolic switch into regulatory epigenetics in skeletal muscle stem cells.
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View SamplesIn order to understand the molecular mechanism behind Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia (VIN), we have analyzed the gene expression profile of VIN lesions in comparison to controls.
HPV related VIN: highly proliferative and diminished responsiveness to extracellular signals.
Sex
View SamplesOculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is a late-onset progressive muscle disorder caused by a poly-alanine expansion mutation in PABPN1. The hallmark of OPMD is the accumulation of the mutant protein in insoluble nuclear inclusions. The molecular mechanisms associated with disease onset and progression are unknown. We performed a high-throughput cross-species transcriptome study of affected muscles from two OPMD animal models and from patients at pre-symptomatic and symptomatic stages. The most consistently and significantly OPMD-deregulated pathway across species is the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). By analyzing expression profiles, we found that the majority of OPMD-deregulated genes are age-associated. Based on expression trends, disease onset can be separated from progression; the expression profiles of the proteasome-encoding genes are associated with onset but not with progression. In a muscle cell model, proteasome inhibition and the stimulation of immunoproteasome specifically affect the accumulation and aggregation of mutant PABPN1. We suggest that proteasome down-regulation during muscle aging triggers the accumulation of expPABPN1 that in turn enhances proteasome deregulation and leads to intranuclear inclusions (INI) formation.
Deregulation of the ubiquitin-proteasome system is the predominant molecular pathology in OPMD animal models and patients.
Sex, Age, Disease, Disease stage
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