scholarly journals A comprehensive RNA-Seq-based gene expression atlas of the summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) provides insights into fruit morphology and ripening mechanisms

BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliki Xanthopoulou ◽  
Javier Montero-Pau ◽  
Belén Picó ◽  
Panagiotis Boumpas ◽  
Eleni Tsaliki ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Summer squash (Cucurbita pepo: Cucurbitaceae) are a popular horticultural crop for which there is insufficient genomic and transcriptomic information. Gene expression atlases are crucial for the identification of genes expressed in different tissues at various plant developmental stages. Here, we present the first comprehensive gene expression atlas for a summer squash cultivar, including transcripts obtained from seeds, shoots, leaf stem, young and developed leaves, male and female flowers, fruits of seven developmental stages, as well as primary and lateral roots. Results In total, 27,868 genes and 2352 novel transcripts were annotated from these 16 tissues, with over 18,000 genes common to all tissue groups. Of these, 3812 were identified as housekeeping genes, half of which assigned to known gene ontologies. Flowers, seeds, and young fruits had the largest number of specific genes, whilst intermediate-age fruits the fewest. There also were genes that were differentially expressed in the various tissues, the male flower being the tissue with the most differentially expressed genes in pair-wise comparisons with the remaining tissues, and the leaf stem the least. The largest expression change during fruit development was early on, from female flower to fruit two days after pollination. A weighted correlation network analysis performed on the global gene expression dataset assigned 25,413 genes to 24 coexpression groups, and some of these groups exhibited strong tissue specificity. Conclusions These findings enrich our understanding about the transcriptomic events associated with summer squash development and ripening. This comprehensive gene expression atlas is expected not only to provide a global view of gene expression patterns in all major tissues in C. pepo but to also serve as a valuable resource for functional genomics and gene discovery in Cucurbitaceae.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Neumann ◽  
Xiaocai Xu ◽  
Cezary Smaczniak ◽  
Julia Schumacher ◽  
Wenhao Yan ◽  
...  

Identity and functions of plant cells are influenced by their precise cellular location within the plant body. Cellular heterogeneity in growth and differentiation trajectories results in organ patterning. Therefore, assessing this heterogeneity at molecular scale is a major question in developmental biology. Single-cell transcriptomics (scRNA-seq) allows to characterize and quantify gene expression heterogeneity in developing organs at unprecedented resolution. However, the original physical location of the cell is lost during the scRNA-seq procedure. To recover the original location of cells is essential to link gene activity with cellular function and morphology. Here, we reconstruct genome-wide gene expression patterns of individual cells in a floral meristem by combining single-nuclei RNA-seq with 3D spatial reconstruction. By this, gene expression differences among meristematic domains giving rise to different tissue and organ types can be determined. As a proof of principle, the data are used to trace the initiation of vascular identity within the floral meristem. Our work demonstrates the power of spatially reconstructed single cell transcriptome atlases to understand plant morphogenesis. The floral meristem 3D gene expression atlas can be accessed at http://threed-flower-meristem.herokuapp.com


EvoDevo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Janssen ◽  
Matthias Pechmann ◽  
Natascha Turetzek

AbstractThe Wnt genes represent a large family of secreted glycoprotein ligands that date back to early animal evolution. Multiple duplication events generated a set of 13 Wnt families of which 12 are preserved in protostomes. Embryonic Wnt expression patterns (Wnt-patterning) are complex, representing the plentitude of functions these genes play during development. Here, we comprehensively investigated the embryonic expression patterns of Wnt genes from three species of spiders covering both main groups of true spiders, Haplogynae and Entelegynae, a mygalomorph species (tarantula), as well as a distantly related chelicerate outgroup species, the harvestman Phalangium opilio. All spiders possess the same ten classes of Wnt genes, but retained partially different sets of duplicated Wnt genes after whole genome duplication, some of which representing impressive examples of sub- and neo-functionalization. The harvestman, however, possesses a more complete set of 11 Wnt genes but with no duplicates. Our comprehensive data-analysis suggests a high degree of complexity and evolutionary flexibility of Wnt-patterning likely providing a firm network of mutational protection. We discuss the new data on Wnt gene expression in terms of their potential function in segmentation, posterior elongation, and appendage development and critically review previous research on these topics. We conclude that earlier research may have suffered from the absence of comprehensive gene expression data leading to partial misconceptions about the roles of Wnt genes in development and evolution.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 5204-5204
Author(s):  
Hong Jiang ◽  
Cheryl Wade-Harris ◽  
Megan Lim ◽  
Laxmi Baxi ◽  
Mitchell S. Cairo

Abstract It has been recognized that dysfunction of CB immune system is in part due to the immaturity of CB cellular immunity (Cairo, Blood,1997). The molecular mechanisms associated with the immaturity of CB cellular immunity including DC subset remain to be defined. The maturation status of DC greatly influences its antigen presentation capacity. Recently, we have utilized oligonucleotide microarray to demonstrate differential gene expression profiles of CB vs APB Mo (Jiang/Cairo, JI, 2004). In the current study, differential expressed genes and proteins were examined in Mo-derived CB vs. APB DC during DC developmental stages: Mo, immature DC (iDC) and mDC, by utilizing oligonucleotide microarray and proteomics. Briefly, Mo isolated from CB or APB and cultured for 8 days with GM-CSF/IL-4 (iDC) and further stimulated with LPS (mDC). Oligonucleotide microarray was carried out using U133A gene chip (Affymetrix). The representative differentially expressed genes resulted from microarray analysis were selected and analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR (Roche). The proteomic technique was conducted by liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS) (Lim, Mol Cell Proteomics, 2006). The differentially expressed proteins were compared in CB vs. APB for iDC and mDC. We identified different gene expression patterns that were significantly lower in CB vs. APB in different stages during DC differentiation: Mo, iDC and mDC. These differentially expressed genes included RELA (5F), JUNB (6F), IRF-1 (3F) in Mo; CREB5 (3F), MAP7 (5F), IL1R2 (6F) in iDC; and HLA-DQA1 (4F), CD80 (3F), IRF-5 (3F) in mDC. The proteomic studies demonstrated Tyrosine Kinase Fer (12.5F), Actin regulator 3 (2.5F), Rap guanine nucleotide exchange factor 1 (2.4F) and Myeloid cell nuclear differentiation antigen (1.5F) were expressed higher in APB vs.CB iDC, while MAX binding protein MNT (5.5F), IRS2 (2.2F) and Zinc-Finger Proteins (514, 212, 462) (3–14F) were expressed higher in CB vs. APB iDC. Further, the proteomic results also indicated other Zinc-Finger Proteins (292, 221, 474) (2–5F), Fibrillin 1 precursor (2.5F) and interleukin-4 (7.7F) were expressed higher in APB vs. CB mDC. In contrast, cyclin I (3F), Rb-like protein 2 (4.35 F) and PKC theta (2F) were significantly lower in APB vs. CB DC. Moreover, the comparison of CB vs. APB DC antigen presenting activity by ELISPOT was performed and the influenza-peptide loaded CB-mDC demonstrated weaker ability to induce T cells to produce IFNg compared with APB-mDC. In summary, these differentially expressed genes in Mo (RELA, JUN) may play key roles in initiating Mo differentiation toward DC. The increased expression of genes in APB vs. CB iDC, like CREB5, IL1R2, may be involved in mediating maturation process of iDC to mDC. Lastly, the elevated expression of genes in APB vs. CB mDC, such as HLA-DQA1, CD80, IRF5 among others, may be likely to control mDC functionality as demonstrated by weaker antigen presenting activity of CB vs. APB mDC. We postulate that decreased expression of specific genes in CB vs. APB DC during DC developmental stages may in part be responsible for the lack of maturity of CB, and ultimately may partially be responsible for differential CB vs. APB innate and adaptive immunity.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Ernst ◽  
Erica L. Westerman

Abstract Background Animal behavior is largely driven by the information that animals are able to extract and process from their environment. However, the function and organization of sensory systems often change throughout ontogeny, particularly in animals that undergo indirect development. As an initial step toward investigating these ontogenetic changes at the molecular level, we characterized the sensory gene repertoire and examined the expression profiles of genes linked to vision and chemosensation in two life stages of an insect that goes through metamorphosis, the butterfly Bicyclus anynana. Results Using RNA-seq, we compared gene expression in the heads of late fifth instar larvae and newly eclosed adults that were reared under identical conditions. Over 50 % of all expressed genes were differentially expressed between the two developmental stages, with 4,036 genes upregulated in larval heads and 4,348 genes upregulated in adult heads. In larvae, upregulated vision-related genes were biased toward those involved with eye development, while phototransduction genes dominated the vision genes that were upregulated in adults. Moreover, the majority of the chemosensory genes we identified in the B. anynana genome were differentially expressed between larvae and adults, several of which share homology with genes linked to pheromone detection, host plant recognition, and foraging in other species of Lepidoptera. Conclusions These results revealed promising candidates for furthering our understanding of sensory processing and behavior in the disparate developmental stages of butterflies and other animals that undergo metamorphosis.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
EL Clark ◽  
SJ Bush ◽  
MEB McCulloch ◽  
IL Farquhar ◽  
R Young ◽  
...  

AbstractSheep are a key source of meat, milk and fibre for the global livestock sector, and an important biomedical model. Global analysis of gene expression across multiple tissues has aided genome annotation and supported functional annotation of mammalian genes. We present a large-scale RNA-Seq dataset representing all the major organ systems from adult sheep and from several juvenile, neonatal and prenatal developmental time points. The Ovis aries reference genome (Oar v3.1) includes 27,504 genes (20,921 protein coding), of which 25,350 (19,921 protein coding) had detectable expression in at least one tissue in the sheep gene expression atlas dataset. Network-based cluster analysis of this dataset grouped genes according to their expression pattern. The principle of ‘guilt by association’ was used to infer the function of uncharacterised genes from their co-expression with genes of known function. We describe the overall transcriptional signatures present in the sheep gene expression atlas and assign those signatures, where possible, to specific cell populations or pathways. The findings are related to innate immunity by focusing on clusters with an immune signature, and to the advantages of cross-breeding by examining the patterns of genes exhibiting the greatest expression differences between purebred and crossbred animals. This high-resolution gene expression atlas for sheep is, to our knowledge, the largest transcriptomic dataset from any livestock species to date. It provides a resource to improve the annotation of the current reference genome for sheep, presenting a model transcriptome for ruminants and insight into gene, cell and tissue function at multiple developmental stages.Author SummarySheep are ruminant mammals kept as livestock for the production of meat, milk and wool in agricultural industries across the globe. Genetic and genomic information can be used to improve production traits such as disease resiliance. The sheep genome is however missing important information relating to gene function and many genes, which may be important for productivity, have no informative gene name. This can be remedied using RNA-Sequencing to generate a global expression profile of all protein-coding genes, across multiple organ systems and developmental stages. Clustering genes based on their expression profile across tissues and cells allows us to assign function to those genes. If for example a gene with no informative gene name is expressed in macrophages and is found within a cluster of known macrophage related genes it is likely to be involved in macrophage function and play a role in innate immunity. This information improves the quality of the reference genome and provides insight into biological processes underlying the complex traits that influence the productivity of sheep and other livestock species.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Bageritz ◽  
Philipp Willnow ◽  
Erica Valentini ◽  
Svenja Leible ◽  
Michael Boutros ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe Drosophila wing disc has been a fundamental model system for the discovery of key signaling pathways and for our understanding of developmental processes. However, a complete map of gene expression in this tissue is lacking. To obtain a complete gene expression atlas in the wing disc, we employed single-cell sequencing (scRNA-seq) and developed a new method for analyzing scRNA-seq data based on gene expression correlations rather than cell mappings. This enables us to discover 824 genes with spatially restricted expression patterns, and to compute expression maps for all genes in the wing disc. This approach identifies both known and new clusters of genes with similar expression patterns and functional relevance. As proof of concept, we characterize the previously unstudied gene CG5151 and show it regulates Wnt signaling. This novel method will enable the leveraging of scRNA-seq data for generating expression atlases of undifferentiated tissues during development.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max V Staller ◽  
Charless C Fowlkes ◽  
Meghan D.J. Bragdon ◽  
Zeba B. Wunderlich ◽  
Angela DePace

In developing embryos, gene regulatory networks canalize cells towards discrete terminal fates. We studied the behavior of the anterior-posterior segmentation network in Drosophila melanogaster embryos depleted of a key maternal input, bicoid (bcd), by building a cellular- resolution gene expression atlas containing measurements of 12 core patterning genes over 6 time points in early development. With this atlas, we determine the precise perturbation each cell experiences, relative to wild type, and observe how these cells assume cell fates in the perturbed embryo. The first zygotic layer of the network, consisting of the gap and terminal genes, is highly robust to perturbation: all combinations of transcription factor expression found in bcd depleted embryos were also found in wild type embryos, suggesting that no new cell fates were created even at this very early stage. All of the gap gene expression patterns in the trunk expand by different amounts, a feature that we were unable to explain using two simple models of the effect of bcd depletion. In the second layer of the network, depletion of bcd led to an excess of cells expressing both even skipped and fushi tarazu early in the blastoderm stage, but by gastrulation this overlap resolved into mutually exclusive stripes. Thus, following depletion of bcd, individual cells rapidly canalize towards normal cell fates in both layers of this gene regulatory network. Our gene expression atlas provides a high resolution picture of a classic perturbation and will enable further modeling of canalization in this transcriptional network.


Author(s):  
Michaela Asp ◽  
Stefania Giacomello ◽  
Daniel Fürth ◽  
Johan Reimegård ◽  
Eva Wärdell ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiziano Flati ◽  
Silvia Gioiosa ◽  
Giovanni Chillemi ◽  
Andrea Mele ◽  
Alberto Oliverio ◽  
...  

AbstractStressful experiences are part of everyday life and animals have evolved physiological and behavioral responses aimed at coping with stress and maintaining homeostasis. However, repeated or intense stress can induce maladaptive reactions leading to behavioral disorders. Adaptations in the brain, mediated by changes in gene expression, have a crucial role in the stress response. Recent years have seen a tremendous increase in studies on the transcriptional effects of stress. The input raw data are freely available from public repositories and represent a wealth of information for further global and integrative retrospective analyses. We downloaded from the Sequence Read Archive 751 samples (SRA-experiments), from 18 independent BioProjects studying the effects of different stressors on the brain transcriptome in mice. We performed a massive bioinformatics re-analysis applying a single, standardized pipeline for computing differential gene expression. This data mining allowed the identification of novel candidate stress-related genes and specific signatures associated with different stress conditions. The large amount of computational results produced was systematized in the interactive “Stress Mice Portal”.


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