Project description:Purpose: To better characterise the population structure of primary bovine retinal microvascular endothelial cells (RMECs) based upon their individual transcriptomes. Methods: Individual RMECs were captured on the Fluidigm C1 system (Fluidigm), cDNA libraries were prepared using a Nextera XT kit and sequencing performed on a NextSeq (Illumina). Results: Application of a single cell RNA-seq analysis workflow showed that RMECs form a relatively homogeneous population in culture, with the main subgroup being proliferating cells. Expression of markers from along the arteriovenous tree suggests that most cells originate from capillaries. An in silico model of the blood retinal barrier was created, including junctional proteins not previously reported within the retinal vasculature. Numerous alternative splicing events involving exons within microvascular barrier genes were observed and in many cases individual cells expressed exclusively one isoform. Conclusions: We have optimised a workflow for single-cell transcriptomics in primary RMECs. Our results have provided fundamental insights into the genes involved in retinal microvascular barrier formation.
Project description:With regulatory roles in development, cell proliferation and disease, micro-RNA (miRNA) biology is of great importance and a potential key to novel RNA-based therapeutic regimens. Biochemically based sequencing approaches have provided robust means of uncovering miRNA binding landscapes on transcriptomes of various species. However, a current limitation to the therapeutic potential of miRNA biology in cattle is the lack of validated miRNAs targets. Here, we use cross-linking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) of the Argonaute (AGO) proteins and unambiguous miRNA-target identification through RNA chimeras to define a regulatory map of miRNA interactions in the cow (Bos taurus). The resulting interactome is the deepest reported to date for any species, demonstrating that comprehensive maps can be empirically obtained. We observe that bovine miRNA targeting principles are consistent with those observed in other mammals. Motif and structural analyses define expanded pairing rules with most interactions combining seed-based pairing with distinct, miRNA-specific patterns of auxiliary pairing. Further, miRNA-target chimeras had predictive value in evaluating true regulatory sites of the miR-17 family. Finally, we define miRNA-specific targeting for >5000 mRNAs and determine gene ontologies (GO) for these targets. This confirmed repression of genes important for embryonic development and cell cycle progress by the let-7 family, and repression of those involved in cell cycle arrest by the miR-17 family, but it also suggested a number of unappreciated miRNA functions. Our results provide a significant resource for transcriptomic understanding of bovine miRNA regulation, and demonstrate the power of experimental methods for establishing comprehensive interaction maps.