Differential Expression of Mitosis and Cell Cycle Regulatory Genes during Recovery from an Acute Respiratory Virus Infection

Acute respiratory virus infections can have profound and long-term effects on lung function that persist even after the acute responses have fully resolved. In this study, we examined gene expression by RNA sequencing in the lung tissue of wild-type BALB/c mice that were recovering from a sublethal infection with the pneumonia virus of mice (PVM), a natural rodent pathogen of the same virus family and genus as the human respiratory syncytial virus. We compared these responses to gene expression in PVM-infected mice treated with Lactobacillus plantarum, an immunobiotic agent that limits inflammation and averts the negative clinical sequelae typically observed in response to acute infection with this pathogen. Our findings revealed prominent differential expression of inflammation-associated genes as well as numerous genes and gene families implicated in mitosis and cell-cycle regulation, including cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases, cell division cycle genes, E2F transcription factors, kinesins, centromere proteins, and aurora kinases, among others. Of particular note was the differential expression of the cell division cycle gene Cdc20b, which was previously identified as critical for the ex vivo differentiation of multi-ciliated cells. Collectively, these findings provided us with substantial insight into post-viral repair processes and broadened our understanding of the mechanisms underlying Lactobacillus-mediated protection.

The Rho GTPase Cell Division Cycle 42 Regulates Stereocilia Development in Cochlear Hair Cells

Stereocilia are actin-based cell protrusions on the apical surface of inner ear hair cells, playing a pivotal role in hearing and balancing sensation. The development and maintenance of stereocilia is tightly regulated and deficits in this process usually lead to hearing or balancing disorders. The Rho GTPase cell division cycle 42 (CDC42) is a key regulator of the actin cytoskeleton. It has been reported to localize in the hair cell stereocilia and play important roles in stereocilia maintenance. In the present work, we utilized hair cell-specific Cdc42 knockout mice and CDC42 inhibitor ML141 to explore the role of CDC42 in stereocilia development. Our data show that stereocilia height and width as well as stereocilia resorption are affected in Cdc42-deficient cochlear hair cells when examined at postnatal day 8 (P8). Moreover, ML141 treatment leads to planar cell polarity (PCP) deficits in neonatal hair cells. We also show that overexpression of a constitutively active mutant CDC42 in cochlear hair cells leads to enhanced stereocilia developmental deficits. In conclusion, the present data suggest that CDC42 plays a pivotal role in regulating hair cell stereocilia development.

Coherent Gene Assemblies: Example, Yeast Cell Division Cycle, CDC

A fresh approach to the dynamics of gene assemblies is presented. Central to the exposition are the concepts of: high value genes; correlated activity; and the orderly unfolding of gene dynamics; and especially dynamic mode decomposition, DMD, a remarkable new tool for dissecting dynamics. This program is carried out, in detail, for the Orlando et al yeast database (Orlando et al. 2008). It is shown that the yeast cell division cycle, CDC, requires no more than a six dimensional space, formed by three complex temporal modal pairs, each associated with characteristic aspects of the cell cycle: (1) A mother cell cohort that follows a fast clock; (2) A daughter cell cohort that follows a slower clock; (3) inherent gene expression, unrelated to the CDC. A derived set of sixty high-value genes serves as a model for the correlated unfolding of gene activity. Confirmation of our results comes from an independent database, and other considerations. The present analysis, leads naturally, to a Fourier description, for the sparsely sampled data. From this, resolved peak times of gene expression are obtained. This in turn leads to prediction of precise times of expression in the unfolding of the CDC genes. The activation of each gene appears as uncoupled dynamics from the mother and daughter cohorts, of different durations. These deliberations lead to detailed estimates of the fraction of mother and daughter cells, specific estimates of their maturation periods, and specific estimates of the number of genes in these cells. An algorithmic framework for yeast modeling is proposed, and based on the new analyses, a range of theoretical ideas and new experiments are suggested.

Differential expression of cell division cycle associated 5 in human epithelial ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecologic cancer (1). We performed discovery of genes associated with epithelial ovarian cancer and of the high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) subtype, using published microarray data (2, 3) to compare global gene expression profiles of normal ovary or fallopian tube with that of primary tumors from women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer or HGSC. We identified the gene encoding cell division cycle associated 5, CDCA5, as among the genes whose expression was most different in epithelial ovarian cancer as compared to the normal fallopian tube. CDCA5 expression was significantly higher in high-grade serous ovarian tumors relative to normal fallopian tube. CDCA5 expression correlated with overall survival in patients with ovarian cancer. These data indicate that expression of CDCA5 is perturbed in epithelial ovarian cancers broadly and in ovarian cancers of the HGSC subtype. CDCA5 may be relevant to pathways underlying ovarian cancer initiation (transformation) or progression.

The Cell Division Cycle of Euglena gracilis Indicates That the Level of Circadian Plasticity to the External Light Regime Changes in Prolonged-Stationary Cultures

In unicellular photosynthetic organisms, circadian rhythm is tightly linked to gating of cell cycle progression, and is entrained by light signal. As several organisms obtain a fitness advantage when the external light/dark cycle matches their endogenous period, and aging alters circadian rhythms, senescence phenotypes of the microalga Euglena gracilis of different culture ages were characterized with respect to the cell division cycle. We report here the effects of prolonged-stationary-phase conditions on the cell division cycles of E. gracilis under non-24-h light/dark cycles (T-cycles). Under T-cycles, cells established from 1-month-old and 2-month-old cultures produced lower cell concentrations after cultivation in the fresh medium than cells from 1-week-old culture. This decrease was not due to higher concentrations of dead cells in the populations, suggesting that cells of different culture ages differ in their capacity for cell division. Cells from 1-week-old cultures had a shorter circadian period of their cell division cycle under shortened T-cycles than aged cells. When algae were transferred to free-running conditions after entrainment to shortened T-cycles, the young cells showed the peak growth rate at a time corresponding to the first subjective night, but the aged cells did not. This suggests that circadian rhythms are more plastic in younger E. gracilis cells.