ABSTRACT: To address the differential response of the CNS, proteomics was applied in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice and cuprizone (CPZ) mice in two different CNS regions
Project description:Chromatin accessibility provides an important window into the regulation of gene expression. Recently, the Assay of Transposase Accessible Chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq) was developed to profile genome-wide chromatin accessibility. Here we applied a read-downsampling approach to call robust ATAC-seq peaks in order to profile the regions of differential chromatin accessibility of central amygdala and cortex between different experimental conditions; fear-conditioned vs. control mice and ErbB4 knock-out vs. wild-type mice.
Project description:Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the cerebral cortex, inducing cortical atrophy and neuronal and synaptic pathology. Despite the fact that women are more susceptible to getting MS, men with MS have worse disability progression. Here, we address sex differences in neurodegenerative mechanisms focusing on the cerebral cortex using the MS model, chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). RNA sequencing of neurons in cerebral cortex during EAE showed robust differential gene expression in male EAE mice compared to male healthy, age-matched, control mice. In contrast, there were few differences in female EAE mice compared to female controls. The most enriched differential gene expression pathways in male mice during EAE were mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondrial morphology showed significant abnormalities in the cerebral cortex of EAE males, but not EAE females. Regarding function, synaptosomes isolated from cerebral cortex of male EAE mice demonstrated decreased oxygen consumption rates during respirometry assays. Together, cortical neuronal transcriptomics, mitochondrial morphology, and functional respirometry assays in synaptosomes revealed worse neurodegeneration in male EAE mice. This is consistent with worse neurodegeneration in MS men and reveals a model and a target to develop treatments to prevent cortical neurodegeneration and mitigate disability progression in MS men.
Project description:Understanding clonal evolution and cancer development requires experimental approaches for characterizing the consequences of somatic mutations on gene regulation. However, no methods currently exist that efficiently link chromatin accessibility with genotype in single cells. To address this, we developed Genotyping with the Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin (GTAC), enabling accurate mutation detection at multiple amplified loci, coupled with robust chromatin accessibility readout. We applied GTAC to primary acute myeloid leukemia, obtaining high-quality chromatin accessibility profiles and clonal identities for multiple mutations in 88% of cells. We traced chromatin variation throughout clonal evolution, showing the restriction of different clones to distinct differentiation stages. Furthermore, we identified switches in transcription factors motif accessibility associated with a specific combination of driver mutations, which biased transformed progenitors towards a leukemia stem cell-like chromatin state. GTAC is a powerful tool to study clonal heterogeneity across a wide spectrum of pre-malignant and neoplastic conditions.
Project description:To address differences in splicing across brain regions (cerebellum, cortex, hippocampus, and striatum) and sexes, we used long-read Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) RNA sequencing to sequence 40 wild-type mouse brain cDNA libraries from 10 mice and calculated differential expression and transcript usage. We found that there is differential gene expression, differential transcript expression, and differential transcript usage across all brain regions. We found that the brain region with the most differential expression and transcript usage is the cerebellum, potentially driven by differences in cell type composition. Additionally, our findings suggest there is much differential splicing across brain regions and to a lesser extent, within brain regions across sexes.