A Single-copy Knock In Translating Ribosome ImmunoPrecipitation (SKI TRIP) tool kit for tissue specific profiling of actively translated mRNAs in C. elegans.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E Wester ◽  
Anne Lanjuin ◽  
Emanuel H W Bruckisch ◽  
Maria C Perez Matos ◽  
Caroline Heintz ◽  
...  

Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification (TRAP) methods have emerged as a powerful approach to profile actively translated transcripts in specific cell and tissue types. Epitope tagged ribosomal subunits are expressed in defined cell populations and used to pull down ribosomes and their associated mRNAs, providing a snapshot of cell type-specific translation occurring in that space and time. Current TRAP toolkits available to the C. elegans community have been built using multi-copy arrays, randomly integrated in the genome. Here we introduce a Single-copy Knock In Translating Ribosome ImmunoPrecipitation (SKI TRIP) tool kit, a collection of C. elegans strains engineered by CRISPR in which tissue specific expression of FLAG tagged ribosomal subunit protein RPL-22 is driven by cassettes present in single copy from defined sites in the genome. In depth characterization of the SKI TRIP strains and methodology shows that 3xFLAG tagged RPL-22 expressed from its endogenous locus or within defined cell types incorporates into actively translating ribosomes and can be used to efficiently and cleanly pull-down cell type specific transcripts without impacting overall mRNA translation or fitness of the animal. We propose SKI TRIP use for the study of processes that are acutely sensitive to changes in translation, such as aging.

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire N. Bedbrook ◽  
Benjamin E. Deverman ◽  
Viviana Gradinaru

Recombinant viruses allow for targeted transgene expression in specific cell populations throughout the nervous system. The adeno-associated virus (AAV) is among the most commonly used viruses for neuroscience research. Recombinant AAVs (rAAVs) are highly versatile and can package most cargo composed of desired genes within the capsid's ∼5-kb carrying capacity. Numerous regulatory elements and intersectional strategies have been validated in rAAVs to enable cell type–specific expression. rAAVs can be delivered to specific neuronal populations or globally throughout the animal. The AAV capsids have natural cell type or tissue tropism and trafficking that can be modified for increased specificity. Here, we describe recently engineered AAV capsids and associated cargo that have extended the utility of AAVs in targeting molecularly defined neurons throughout the nervous system, which will further facilitate neuronal circuit interrogation and discovery.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (R1) ◽  
pp. R1-R9
Author(s):  
Stefano Berto ◽  
Yuxiang Liu ◽  
Genevieve Konopka

Abstract High-throughput genomic sequencing approaches have held the promise of understanding and ultimately leading to treatments for cognitive disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. Although significant progress has been made into identifying genetic variants associated with these diseases, these studies have also uncovered that these disorders are mostly genetically complex and thus challenging to model in non-human systems. Improvements in such models might benefit from understanding the evolution of the human genome and how such modifications have affected brain development and function. The intersection of genome-wide variant information with cell-type-specific expression and epigenetic information will further assist in resolving the contribution of particular cell types in evolution or disease. For example, the role of non-neuronal cells in brain evolution and cognitive disorders has gone mostly underappreciated until the recent availability of single-cell transcriptomic approaches. In this review, we discuss recent studies that carry out cell-type-specific assessments of gene expression in brain tissue across primates and between healthy and disease populations. The emerging results from these studies are beginning to elucidate how specific cell types in the evolved human brain are contributing to cognitive disorders.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa J Lawler ◽  
Easwaran Ramamurthy ◽  
Ashley R Brown ◽  
Naomi Shin ◽  
Yeonju Kim ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent discoveries of extreme cellular diversity in the brain warrant rapid development of technologies to access specific cell populations, enabling characterization of their roles in behavior and in disease states. Available approaches for engineering targeted technologies for new neuron subtypes are low-yield, involving intensive transgenic strain or virus screening. Here, we introduce SNAIL (Specific Nuclear-Anchored Independent Labeling), a new virus-based strategy for cell labeling and nuclear isolation from heterogeneous tissue. SNAIL works by leveraging machine learning and other computational approaches to identify DNA sequence features that confer cell type-specific gene activation and using them to make a probe that drives an affinity purification-compatible reporter gene. As a proof of concept, we designed and validated two novel SNAIL probes that target parvalbumin-expressing (PV) neurons. Furthermore, we show that nuclear isolation using SNAIL in wild type mice is sufficient to capture characteristic open chromatin features of PV neurons in the cortex, striatum, and external globus pallidus. Expansion of this technology has broad applications in cell type-specific observation, manipulation, and therapeutics across species and disease models.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A12-A13
Author(s):  
James Delorme ◽  
Lijing Wang ◽  
Femke Kuhn ◽  
Varna Kodoth ◽  
Jingqun Ma ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Sleep loss profoundly disrupts consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memory. To better characterize effects of learning and sleep loss on the hippocampal circuit, we quantified activity-dependent phosphorylation of ribosomal subunit S6 (pS6) across the dorsal hippocampus of mice. Methods We first measured pS6 throughout the hippocampus after learning (single trial contextual fear conditioning; CFC), and after subsequent sleep or sleep deprivation (SD). To characterize cell populations with activity affected by SD, we used translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP)-seq to identify cell type-specific transcripts on pS6 ribosomes after SD vs. sleep. We next used pharmacogenetics to mimic the effects of SD, selectively activating hippocampal Sst+ interneurons or cholinergic inputs to hippocampus from the medial septum (MS) while mice slept in the hours following CFC. We also inhibited these neuronal populations to assess effects on memory consolidation. Results We find that pS6 in enhanced in the dentate gyrus (DG) following single-trial CFC, but is reduced throughout the hippocampus after brief SD – a manipulation which disrupts contextual fear memory (CFM) consolidation. Cell type-specific enrichment analysis (CSEA) of these transcripts revealed that hippocampal somatostatin-expressing (Sst+) interneurons, and cholinergic and orexinergic inputs to hippocampus, are selectively activated after SD. We used TRAP targeted to hippocampal Sst+ interneurons to identify cellular mechanisms mediating SD-driven Sst+ interneuron activation. . We find that activation of Sst+ interneurons is sufficient to disrupt CFM consolidation, by gating activity in surrounding pyramidal neurons, while inhibition of Sst+ interneurons enhances memory consolidation. Similarly, pharmacogenetic activation of cholinergic input to hippocampus from the MS disrupted CFM. Inhibition of MS cholinergic neurons promoted CFM consolidation and disinhibited neurons in the DG, increasing pS6 expression among DG granule cells. Conclusion Our data suggest that state-dependent gating of DG activity during SD is mediated by cholinergic input. Together these data provide evidence for an inhibitory gate on hippocampal information processing, which is activated by sleep loss. Support (if any) R01-NS118440 to SJA from NINDS, DP2-MH104119 to SJA from the NIH Director’s Office, and a Human Frontiers Science Program Young Investigator Award


Author(s):  
Christoph Muus ◽  
Malte D. Luecken ◽  
Gokcen Eraslan ◽  
Avinash Waghray ◽  
Graham Heimberg ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, creates an urgent need for identifying molecular mechanisms that mediate viral entry, propagation, and tissue pathology. Cell membrane bound angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and associated proteases, transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) and Cathepsin L (CTSL), were previously identified as mediators of SARS-CoV2 cellular entry. Here, we assess the cell type-specific RNA expression of ACE2, TMPRSS2, and CTSL through an integrated analysis of 107 single-cell and single-nucleus RNA-Seq studies, including 22 lung and airways datasets (16 unpublished), and 85 datasets from other diverse organs. Joint expression of ACE2 and the accessory proteases identifies specific subsets of respiratory epithelial cells as putative targets of viral infection in the nasal passages, airways, and alveoli. Cells that co-express ACE2 and proteases are also identified in cells from other organs, some of which have been associated with COVID-19 transmission or pathology, including gut enterocytes, corneal epithelial cells, cardiomyocytes, heart pericytes, olfactory sustentacular cells, and renal epithelial cells. Performing the first meta-analyses of scRNA-seq studies, we analyzed 1,176,683 cells from 282 nasal, airway, and lung parenchyma samples from 164 donors spanning fetal, childhood, adult, and elderly age groups, associate increased levels of ACE2, TMPRSS2, and CTSL in specific cell types with increasing age, male gender, and smoking, all of which are epidemiologically linked to COVID-19 susceptibility and outcomes. Notably, there was a particularly low expression of ACE2 in the few young pediatric samples in the analysis. Further analysis reveals a gene expression program shared by ACE2+TMPRSS2+ cells in nasal, lung and gut tissues, including genes that may mediate viral entry, subtend key immune functions, and mediate epithelial-macrophage cross-talk. Amongst these are IL6, its receptor and co-receptor, IL1R, TNF response pathways, and complement genes. Cell type specificity in the lung and airways and smoking effects were conserved in mice. Our analyses suggest that differences in the cell type-specific expression of mediators of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry may be responsible for aspects of COVID-19 epidemiology and clinical course, and point to putative molecular pathways involved in disease susceptibility and pathogenesis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Delorme ◽  
Femke Roig Kuhn ◽  
Lijing Wang ◽  
Varna Kodoth ◽  
Jingqun Ma ◽  
...  

AbstractSleep loss profoundly disrupts consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memory. To better characterize effects of learning and sleep loss on the hippocampal circuit, we quantified activity-dependent phosphorylation of ribosomal subunit S6 (pS6) across the dorsal hippocampus of mice. We find that pS6 in enhanced in the dentate gyrus (DG) following single-trial contextual fear conditioning (CFC), but is reduced throughout the hippocampus after brief sleep deprivation (SD) – a manipulation which disrupts contextual fear memory (CFM) consolidation. To characterize cell populations with activity affected by SD, we used translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP)-seq to identify cell type-specific transcripts on pS6 ribosomes after SD vs. sleep. Cell type-specific enrichment analysis (CSEA) of these transcripts revealed that hippocampal somatostatin-expressing (Sst+) interneurons, and cholinergic and orexinergic inputs to hippocampus, are selectively activated after SD. We used TRAP targeted to hippocampal Sst+ interneurons to identify cellular mechanisms mediating SD-driven Sst+ interneuron activation. We next used pharmacogenetics to mimic the effects of SD, selectively activating hippocampal Sst+ interneurons while mice slept in the hours following CFC. We find that activation of Sst+ interneurons is sufficient to disrupt CFM consolidation, by gating activity in surrounding pyramidal neurons. Pharmacogenetic inhibition of cholinergic input to hippocampus from the medial septum (MS) promoted CFM consolidation and disinhibited neurons in the DG, increasing pS6 expression. This suggests that state-dependent gating of DG activity is mediated by cholinergic input during SD. Together these data provide evidence for an inhibitory gate on hippocampal information processing, which is activated by sleep loss.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (23) ◽  
pp. 11254-11261 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Smith ◽  
D. L. Traul ◽  
J. Schaack ◽  
G. H. Clayton ◽  
K. J. Staley ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Viral vectors have become important tools to effectively transfer genes into terminally differentiated cells, including neurons. However, the rational for selection of the promoter for use in viral vectors remains poorly understood. Comparison of promoters has been complicated by the use of different viral backgrounds, transgenes, and target tissues. Adenoviral vectors were constructed in the same vector background to directly compare three viral promoters, the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate-early promoter, the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) long terminal repeat, and the adenoviral E1A promoter, driving expression of the Escherichia coli lacZ gene or the gene for the enhanced green fluorescent protein. The temporal patterns, levels of expression, and cytotoxicity from the vectors were analyzed. In sensory neuronal cultures, the CMV promoter produced the highest levels of expression, the RSV promoter produced lower levels, and the E1A promoter produced limited expression. There was no evidence of cytotoxicity produced by the viral vectors. In vivo analyses following stereotaxic injection of the vector into the rat hippocampus demonstrated differences in the cell-type-specific expression from the CMV promoter versus the RSV promoter. In acutely prepared hippocampal brain slices, marked differences in the cell type specificity of expression from the promoters were confirmed. The CMV promoter produced expression in hilar regions and pyramidal neurons, with minimal expression in the dentate gyrus. The RSV promoter produced expression in dentate gyrus neurons. These results demonstrate that the selection of the promoter is critical for the success of the viral vector to express a transgene in specific cell types.


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