Project description:Biological processes are optimized by circadian and circannual biological timing systems. In vertebrates, the pineal gland plays an essential role in these systems by converting time into a hormonal signal, melatonin; in all vertebrates, circulating melatonin is elevated at night, independent of lifestyle. At night, sympathetic input to the pineal gland, originating from the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, releases norepinephrine. This adrenergic stimulation causes an elevation of cAMP, which is thought to regulate many of the dramatic changes in genes expression known to occur at night. In many aspects, the adrenergic/cAMP effects on gene expression can be recapitulated in primary organ culture. We have analyzed the rat pineal transcriptome at mid-day and mid-night to identify genes that exhibit night/day changes in expression. The pineal transcriptome was compared to that of other rat tissues processed in parallel. In addition, pineal glands were cultured in control conditions, or stimulated with norepinephrine, dibutyryl-cAMP (DBcAMP), or forskolin; the transcriptomes of these glands were then analyzed. Experiment Overall Design: Total RNA was extracted from various rat tissues, and from both in vivo and cultured rat pineal glands, for processing and hybridization to Affymetrix microarrays. Quadruplicates of pooled in vivo pineal glands were analyzed at each timepoint. Single day and night samples of retina, cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, liver, and heart were analyzed. Triplicates of control and treated cultured pineal glands were analyzed.
Project description:In order to establish a rat embryonic stem cell transcriptome, mRNA from rESC cell line DAc8, the first male germline competent rat ESC line to be described and the first to be used to generate a knockout rat model was characterized using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis.
Project description:Biological processes are optimized by circadian and circannual biological timing systems. In vertebrates, the pineal gland plays an essential role in these systems by converting time into a hormonal signal, melatonin; in all vertebrates, circulating melatonin is elevated at night, independent of lifestyle. At night, sympathetic input to the pineal gland, originating from the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, releases norepinephrine. This adrenergic stimulation causes an elevation of cAMP, which is thought to regulate many of the dramatic changes in genes expression known to occur at night. In many aspects, the adrenergic/cAMP effects on gene expression can be recapitulated in primary organ culture. We have analyzed the rat pineal transcriptome at mid-day and mid-night to identify genes that exhibit night/day changes in expression. The pineal transcriptome was compared to that of other rat tissues processed in parallel. In addition, pineal glands were cultured in control conditions, or stimulated with norepinephrine, dibutyryl-cAMP (DBcAMP), or forskolin; the transcriptomes of these glands were then analyzed. Keywords: Time course (2 points) for in vivo pineal glands and various tissues; Treatment groups for cultured pineal glands
Project description:Living organisms are intricate systems with dynamic internal processes. Their RNA, protein, and metabolite levels fluctuate in response to variations in health and environmental conditions. Among these, RNA expression is particularly accessible for comprehensive analysis, thanks to the evolution of high throughput sequencing technologies in recent years. This progress has enabled researchers to identify unique RNA patterns associated with various diseases, as well as to develop predictive and prognostic biomarkers for therapy response. Such cross-sectional studies allow for the identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between groups, but they have limitations. Specifically, they often fail to capture the temporal changes in gene expression following individual perturbations and may lead to significant false discoveries due to inherent noise in RNA sequencing sample preparation and data collection. To address these challenges, our study hypothesized that frequent, longitudinal RNA sequencing (RNAseq) analysis of blood samples could offer a more profound understanding of the temporal dynamics of gene expression in response to drug interventions, while also enhancing the accuracy of identifying genes influenced by these drugs. In this research, we conducted RNAseq on 829 blood samples collected from 84 Sprague-Dawley lab rats. Excluding the control group, each rat was administered one of four different compounds known for liver toxicity: tetracycline, isoniazid, valproate, and carbon tetrachloride. We developed specialized bioinformatics tools to pinpoint genes that exhibit temporal variation in response to these treatments.