Comparison of Gametocyte producer 3D7-A subclone E5 to the gametotcyte nonprodcer strain F12 and pfap2-g deletion mutant
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Identify differentially expressed genes across the 48h intraerythrocytic development cycle of gametocyte non-producers of P. falcuparum two-color comparison to a common labeled reference pool
Project description:New antimalarial drugs are urgently needed to control drug resistant forms of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Although mitochondrial metabolism is the target of both existing drugs and new lead compounds, the role of the mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle remains poorly understood. Herein, we describe 11 genetic knockout parasite lines that delete six of the eight TCA cycle enzymes. Although all TCA knockouts grew normally in asexual blood stages, these metabolic deficiencies halted lifecycle progression in later stages. Specifically, aconitase knockout parasites arrested as late gametocytes, whereas α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase deficient parasites failed to develop oocysts in the mosquitoes. Mass-spectrometry analysis of 13C isotope-labeled TCA mutant parasites showed that P. falciparum has significant flexibility in TCA metabolism. This flexibility manifested itself through changes in pathway fluxes and through altered exchange of substrates between cytosolic and mitochondrial pools. Our findings suggest that mitochondrial metabolic plasticity is essential for parasite development . Two parallel timecourses resulting in a total of 16 samples (8 wildtype, Isocitrate Dehydrogenase/alpha-Ketogluterate Dehydrogenase double knockout) were hybridized against a Cy3-labeled reference pool of 3D7 mixed stage parasites on a two-color array.
Project description:The asexual forms of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum are uniquely adapted for chronic persistence in human red blood cells, continuously evading the immune system using an epigenetically regulated process. However, parasite survival on a population level also requires transmission of sexual parasite forms to subsequent human hosts. Here, we reveal that the essential nuclear gene, P. falciparum histone deacetylase 2 (PfHda2), silences specific subsets of genes involved in antigenic variation or conversion to sexual stages. Two parallel timecourses resulting in a total of 22 samples (11 wildtype, 11 PfHda2 knockdown) were hybridized against a Cy3-labeled reference pool of 3D7 mixed stage parasites on a two-color array.
Project description:To date, total mRNA analysis throughout intraerythrocytic development of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, has only revealed abundance profiles of each gene at a given time. Here, we establish a new methodology in Plasmodium falciparum that enables biosynthetic labeleing and capture of sub-population mRNA. As a proof of principle for this novel method, we examine the mRNA dynamics of early gametocyte commitment. Plasmodium falciparum strains 3D7, E5, and F12 were highly synchronized and, at 36 hours post invasion, incubated with 40um 4-TU for 12 hours followed immediately by Trizol total RNA extraction. Total RNA from each timepoint was then biotinylated via a thiol-group on any transcript that incorporated a thiol-modified UTP. Biotinylated transcripts were then separated from total RNA by Streptavidin magnetic beads resulting in a Labeled sample. Any mRNA that was not bound to the beads resulted in an Unlabeled sample. Every 12 hours, two samples were analyzed by Agilent P. falciparum DNA microarray, Unlabeled and Labeled, resulting in 48 individual DNA microarrays (4 for each sample type).
Project description:Mtb appears to have developed specialized biomolecular infrastructure to survive and persist within granulomas, where it is subjected to a diverse set of stress conditions. One of these stress conditions is hypoxia. We hypothesized that host cell response is radically altered with hypoxia stressed Mtb and designed in-vitro experiments to study this phenomenon. Hypoxia-stressed as well as aerobically grown Mtb were used to infect rhesus macaque bone marrow derived macrophages (Rh-BMDMs) and the host global transcriptional response compared. Using 4 x44 k Agilent arrays specific for rhesus macaque genome, we tested in biological duplicate the effect of aerogically grown Mtb on rhesus macaque BMDMs and compared this to the corresponding effect of the hypoxia-conditioned Mtb on rhesus macaque BMDMs
Project description:Silencing of transposons in the Drosophila ovary relies on three Piwi-family proteins, Piwi, Aubergine (Aub), and Ago3, acting in concert with their small RNA guides, the piRNAs. Aub and Ago3 are found in the germ cell cytoplasm, where they function in the ping-pong cycle to consume transposon mRNAs. The nuclear Piwi protein is required for transposon silencing in both germ and somatic follicle cells, yet the precise mechanisms by which Piwi acts remain largely unclear. We investigated the role of Piwi by combining cell-type specific knockdowns with measurements of steady state transposon mRNA levels, nascent RNA synthesis, and small RNA abundance. In somatic cells, Piwi loss lead to concerted effects on nascent transcripts and transposon mRNAs, indicating that Piwi acts through transcriptional gene silencing (TGS). In germ cells, Piwi loss showed disproportionate impacts on steady state RNA levels, indicating that it also exerts an effect on post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). Piwi knockdown affected levels of germ cell piRNAs presumably bound to Aub and Ago3, perhaps explaining its post-transcriptional impacts. Overall, our results indicate that Piwi plays multiple roles in the piRNA pathway, in part enforcing transposon repression through effects on transcription but also participating in germ cell piRNA biogenesis. Piwi function in transcriptional and post-transcriptional transposon silencing was probed using deep-sequencing of small RNAs, steady-state and nascent transcripts, and DNA associated with H3K9me3 chromatin mark. In all cases comparison of two samples was performed: Tj- or nos-driven knock down of piwi to respective knock down of white gene (control sample). RNA-seq dataset has two replicates.
Project description:Cys2-His2 zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are the largest group of transcription factors in higher metazoans. A complete characterization of these ZFPs and their associated target sequences is pivotal to fully annotate transcriptional regulatory networks in metazoan genomes. As a first step in this process, we have characterized the DNA-binding specificities of 130 Zinc finger sets from Drosophila melanogaster using a bacterial one-hybrid system. This data set contains the DNA-binding specificities for at least one encoded ZFP from 71 unique genes and 22 alternate splice isoforms. This represents the largest block of characterized ZFPs from any organism described to date. These recognition motifs can be used to predict genomic binding sites and potential regulatory targets for these factors within the fruit fly genome. We have characterized subsets of fingers from these ZFPs to define the correct orientation and register of the zinc fingers on their defined binding sites. By correlating individual fingers with motif subsites, we can assign finger specificity throughout each ZFP. This reveals the diversity of recognition potential within the naturally-occurring zinc fingers of a single organism, where the characterized fingers can specify 47 of the 64 possible DNA triplets. To confirm the utility of our finger recognition models, we have employed subsets of Drosophila fingers in combination with an existing archive of zinc finger modules to create ZFPs with novel DNA-binding specificity. These finger combinations can be used to create novel functional Zinc Finger Nucleases for editing vertebrate genomes. Illumina sequencing of Barcoded Binding sites obtained after B1H selection of Cys2-His2 zinc finger proteins cloned as a C-terminal fusions to the omega subunit of E. coli RNA polymerase in the B1H system.
Project description:The spatial proximity between regulatory elements and their target genes has a profound affect on gene expression. X Chromosome Inactivation (XCI) is an epigenetic process by which an entire chromosome is rendered, for the most part, transcriptionally silent. A few genes are known to escape XCI and the mechanism for this escape remains unclear. Here, using mouse trophectodermal stem cells, we address whether specific chromosomal interactions facilitate escape from XCI by bringing escape-specific regulatory elements in close proximity to gene promoters. Our results suggest a model where escape from XCI occurs within topologically associated domains. As such, escaping genes and the regulatory sequences required for their escape are likely located within close linear proximity to each other. The datasets provided include those generated from allele-specific 4C-Seq of genes escaping XCI, genes subject to XCI, and non-genic regions of the X chromosome. FASTQ files, text files containing genomic coordiantes, and BED aligmnets are provided. All sequences were mapped relative to mouse genome build mm9. Deep sequencing of circular chromosome conformation capture (4C-Seq) of genes escaping X inactivation in mouse trophoblast stem cells
Project description:The ability to correlate chromosome conformation and gene expression gives a great deal of information regarding the strategies used by a cell to properly regulate gene activity. 4C-seq is a relatively new and increasingly popular technology where the set of genomic interactions generated by a single point in the genome can be determined. 4C-seq experiments generate large, complicated datasets and it is imperative that signal is properly distinguished from noise. Currently there are a limited number of methods for analyzing 4C-seq data. Here, we present a new method, fourSig, which, in addition to being simple to use and as precise as current methods, also includes a new feature to prioritize significantly enriched interactions and predict their reproducibility among experimental replicates. Here, we demonstrate the efficacy of fourSig with previously published and novel 4C-seq datasets and show that our significance prioritization correlates with the ability to reproducibly detect interactions amongst replicates. The datasets provided include those generated from allele-specific 4C-Seq with a viewpoint of the TSS for the gene Ibtk on mouse Chromosome 9. FASTQ files, text files containing genomic coordiantes and read counts, and bedGraph formats for UCSC Genome Browser tracks are provided. All sequences were mapped relative to mouse genome build mm9. Sequencing of circular chromosome conformation capture (4C-Seq) was performed at the transcription start site (TSS) for the gene Ibtk for three replicates in F1 hybrid mouse trophoblast stem (TS) cells. Experiment was designed to detect allele specific patterns using SNP differences between the inbred lines mated to produce the TS cells (C57Bl/6 and CAST/EiJ)
Project description:Genome-wide occupancy analysis of TBX5, NKX2-5 and GATA4 in differentiating WT, Nkx2-5KO (NKO), Tbx5KO (TKO) and Nkx2-5;Tbx5KO (DKO) cells at the cardiac precursor (CP) and cardiomyocyte (CM) differentiation stages. Analysis of TBX5, NKX2-5 and GATA4 occupancy a and gene expression in WT, Tbx5KO, Nkx2-5KO and DoubleKO precursor (CP) and mature (CM) in vitro differentiated cardiomyocytes. We performed ChIP-exo experiments for NKX2-5, TBX5 and GATA4 in differentiating WT, Nkx2-5KO (NKO), Tbx5KO (TKO) and Nkx2-5;Tbx5KO (DKO) cells at the CP and CM stages. ChIP-exo was performed according to methods published previously (Boyer et al., 2005; Serandour et al., 2013; Wamstad et al., 2012) using specific antisera to TBX5 (sc-17866 XS, lot no. B1213), NKX2-5 (sc-8697 XS, lot no. B1213), and GATA4 (sc-1237 XS, lot no. B1213) on chromatin isolated from 10 mill. cells. Re-ChIP-exo was performed from 40 mill cells, combining methods published previously (Serandour et al., 2013; Shankaranarayanan et al., 2011). ChIP-exo Analysis: Barcoded libraries were single-end 50bp sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument. Reads were trimmed using the fastq-mcf program (Aronesty, 2011), and then aligned to the mm9 mouse genome assembly using bowtie2 (ChIP-seq, ChIP-exo) (Langmead and Salzberg, 2012). Samtools was then used to retain reads that had a mapq score of 30 or greater (Li et al., 2009), thereby ensuring that each mapped uniquely to the genome assembly. The 5' -most position of reads that mapped to the reference strand and the 3â??-most position of reads that mapped to the non-reference strand were identified for each read as the actual edges of each exonuclease-treated fragment. The genome was divided into 20bp genomic bins and a normalized tag density was calculated for each genomic bin 'i' as follows: tag density(i)=([#tags within 75bp of i] X [total# genomic bins])/(total #of tags) To identify broad regions of binding, bins with tag densities of greater than 100 were merged to generate a peak list for each sample. Within 1kb of each region, strand-specific single-base-resolution tag densities were calculated for each dataset by dividing each region into 1bp bins, then counting the number of tags within 5bp of each bin. For each region of binding, the footprint for each bound region was defined as the span from the peak position of '+' strand binding to the peak position of '-' strand binding as seen from the high-resolution tag densities. For subsequent analyses, any overlapping footprint for replica/factor/stage/genotype was merged to generate an average footprint list. Only average footprints present in at least two replicas of the same factor, stage and genotype were considered (Final Average Footprints).
Project description:The 3D organization of the genome is important for regulation of diverse nuclear processes ranging from transcription to DNA replication. Knowledge of the higher order chromatin structure is critical for understanding mechanisms of gene regulation by long-range control elements such as enhancers and insulators. We describe high resolution, genome-wide dynamic chromatin interaction maps in human embryonic stem cells (hESC) as they differentiate into four distinct embryonic cell lineages. Extensive reorganization of higher-order chromatin structure occurs during hESC differentiation. In this process, topological domains remain largely intact but inter-domain association patterns change dramatically, coincident with widespread changes in chromatin state and gene expression. Moreover, using proximity ligation sequencing to generate chromosome span haplotypes, widespread allele biased gene activities are detected. The allelic gene expression patterns can be correlated to epigenetic state at distal enhancers, supporting the role of these elements in regulating gene expression over a distance. Two biological replicates of Hi-C experiment and one replicate of CTCF ChIP-Seq experiment in embryonic stem cells and 4 other differentiated cell-types from H1 cell line. Re-analysis of data from GSE16256 in an allele specific manner is linked as supplementary data.