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Expression profiling of mendelian and non-mendelian F1 in gpr-1 overexpressing worms.

ABSTRACT: According to Mendel's laws, each parent makes an equal genetic contribution to an offspring in sexually reproducing organisms. The bipolar mitotic spindle controls the equal segregation of paternal and maternal chromosomes during the first cell division. By overexpression of a single protein, GPR-1, in the maternal strain we changed the structure of the mitotic spindle from bipolar to two monopolar spindles to segregate maternal and paternal chromosomes into different cell lineages, resulting in non-mendelian segregation for entire genomes. To follow maternal and paternal segregation of the chromosomes we used red and green histone markers respectively. By mating gpr-1-overexpressing hermaphrodites with wild-type males, mendelian F1 worms that express both markers simultaneously in all tissues and non-mendelian F1 worms that express red and green markers in different tissues will be produced representing embryos with bipolar and embryos with two monopolar spindles. Thus, we show that the rules of genetic inheritance can be changed, which may inspire the formation of a new field of synthetic zoology. Transcriptional profiling was done to investigate the differences in gene expression between mendelian and non-mendelian offspring.

ORGANISM(S): Caenorhabditis elegans

PROVIDER: GSE74848 | GEO | 2015/11/11

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA301671

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:RNA-seq transcriptome analysis of C. elegans germlines that inherited only paternal chromosomes (non-Mendelian inheritance, 'red-head worms') and the germlines of their offspring ('offspring of red-head worms') vs. germlines that inherited both maternal and paternal chromosomes (Mendelian inheritance, HBR1280 control). Given that epigenetic marking of sperm chromosomes is faithfully transmitted through embryo cell divisions, and that sperm epigenetic marking is important in offspring, we tested if sperm epigenetic marking alone is sufficient for proper development of the germline in offspring. We utilized a mutant that, during the first embryonic division, delivers the sperm genome to the daughter cell that generates the germline and the oocyte genome to the other daughter cell (Besseling & Bringmann, 2016). This mutant over-expresses GPR-1, a protein involved in regulation of kinetochore pulling forces. GPR-1 over-expression results in excessive pulling forces, causing the paternal and maternal pronuclei to inappropriately move to opposite poles of the 1-cell embryo instead of merging in the center of the embryo. In this mutant background, ~60% of offspring undergo atypical chromosome segregation, generating mosaic embryos whose germlines are derived entirely from sperm chromosomes (Besseling & Bringmann, 2016). To track the parental genomes, differentially tagged histone transgenes were used: a GFP-tagged histone H2B encoded in the sperm genome, and a TdTomato-tagged histone H2B encoded in the oocyte genome. The mosaic embryos whose germline inherited only sperm chromosomes (‘red-head' worms) develop into fertile adults with a normal brood size, similar to control worms, in which the germline inherited both sperm and oocyte chromosomes. RNA-seq analysis demonstrated that the germline transcriptome of ‘red-head’ worms and their offspring show few (<80 genes) and minor changes compared to control worms. These findings demonstrate that epigenetic information provided by sperm can guide proper germ cell development.

Dataset Information

Expression profiling of mendelian and non-mendelian F1 in gpr-1 overexpressing worms.

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