Project description:In many developmental systems, morphogenesis is coupled with dramatic changes in spatiotemporal gene expression, often orchestrated by the coordinated action of transcription factors. Development of the social soil amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum proceeds through a sequence of morphological and transcriptional changes, but the role of transcription factors in development is not well understood. GtaC, a GATA-type zinc-finger transcription factor, is essential for Dictyostelium development. It decodes pulsatile extracellular cAMP signals during early development and mediates cell-type differentiation at later stages. Here, we studied the developmental regulatory roles of GtaC through the concerted analysis of temporal ChIP- and RNA-sequencing data from strains that carry different alleles of gtaC. We show that GtaC exhibits temporally distinctive DNA-binding patterns throughout early development, accompanied by largely cotemporaneous expression of its target genes. We also show that GtaC binds DNA in two modes. One of these modes exhibits binding preferences for canonical GATA-like sequences, the regulatory consequences accompanying which is predominantly up-regulation of target gene expression. The other binding mode is mostly associated with down-regulation. Among its targets we find transcription factors that are essential for development as well as genes involved in cAMP signaling and cell-type specification. Our results suggest that GtaC is a master regulator that regulates multiple physiological processes during early development, when Dictyostelium transitions from a group of unicellular amoebae to an integrated multicellular organism. Cotemporaneous transcriptional profiling and ChIP sequencing during early Dictyostelium development
Project description:We report the transcriptome of M. abscessus in amoebae and macrophages. M. abscessus intra-amoebal and intra-macrophagic transcriptomes demonstrate of the potential of M. abscessus to adapt to an intracellular lifestyle, though amoebae largely contribute to the enhancement of M. abscessus survival macrophages.
Project description:Biological oscillations are observed at many levels of cellular organization. In the social amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum, starvation-triggered multicellular development is organized by periodic cAMP waves, which provide both chemoattractant gradients and developmental signals. We report that GtaC, a GATA transcription factor, exhibits rapid nucleocytoplasmic shuttling in response to cAMP waves. This behavior requires coordinated action of a nuclear localization signal and reversible G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-mediated phosphorylation. While both are required for developmental gene expression, receptor occupancy promotes nuclear exit of GtaC, which leads to a transient burst of transcription at each cAMP cycle. We demonstrate that this biological circuit, like an “edge trigger”, filters out high frequency signals and counts those admitted, thereby enabling cells to modulate gene expression according to the dynamic pattern of the external stimuli.
Project description:Biological oscillations are observed at many levels of cellular organization. In the social amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum, starvation-triggered multicellular development is organized by periodic cAMP waves, which provide both chemoattractant gradients and developmental signals. We report that GtaC, a GATA transcription factor, exhibits rapid nucleocytoplasmic shuttling in response to cAMP waves. This behavior requires coordinated action of a nuclear localization signal and reversible G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-mediated phosphorylation. While both are required for developmental gene expression, receptor occupancy promotes nuclear exit of GtaC, which leads to a transient burst of transcription at each cAMP cycle. We demonstrate that this biological circuit, like an M-bM-^@M-^\edge triggerM-bM-^@M-^], filters out high frequency signals and counts those admitted, thereby enabling cells to modulate gene expression according to the dynamic pattern of the external stimuli. Transcriptional profiling during early development of wild-type, gtaC, GFP-GtaC/gtaC, and NLSex-GFP-GtaC/gtaC strains
Project description:In many developmental systems, morphogenesis is coupled with dramatic changes in spatiotemporal gene expression, often orchestrated by the coordinated action of transcription factors. Development of the social soil amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum proceeds through a sequence of morphological and transcriptional changes, but the role of transcription factors in development is not well understood. GtaC, a GATA-type zinc-finger transcription factor, is essential for Dictyostelium development. It decodes pulsatile extracellular cAMP signals during early development and mediates cell-type differentiation at later stages. Here, we studied the developmental regulatory roles of GtaC through the concerted analysis of temporal ChIP- and RNA-sequencing data from strains that carry different alleles of gtaC. We show that GtaC exhibits temporally distinctive DNA-binding patterns throughout early development, accompanied by largely cotemporaneous expression of its target genes. We also show that GtaC binds DNA in two modes. One of these modes exhibits binding preferences for canonical GATA-like sequences, the regulatory consequences accompanying which is predominantly up-regulation of target gene expression. The other binding mode is mostly associated with down-regulation. Among its targets we find transcription factors that are essential for development as well as genes involved in cAMP signaling and cell-type specification. Our results suggest that GtaC is a master regulator that regulates multiple physiological processes during early development, when Dictyostelium transitions from a group of unicellular amoebae to an integrated multicellular organism.
2015-07-02 | GSE63151 | GEO
Project description:Whole genome sequencing of natural populations of social amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of D. discoideum revealed sets of genes whose expression is enriched in amoebae interacting with different species of bacteria, including sets that appear specific to amoebae interacting with Gram(+), or with Gram(-) bacteria. In a genetic screen utilizing the growth of mutant amoebae on a variety of bacteria as a phenotypic readout, we identified amoebal genes that are only required for growth on Gram(+) bacteria, including one that encodes the cell surface protein gp130, as well as several genes that are only required for growth on Gram(-) bacteria including one that encodes a putative lysozyme, AlyL. These genes are required for parts of the transcriptional response of wild-type amoebae, and this allowed their classification into potential response pathways.
Project description:In the social amoebae (Dictyostelia) quorum sensing system mediates aggregation of single cells into multicellular aggregates by chemotactic movement towards gradients of diffusible molecules known as acrasins. The acrasin of P. violaceum is the unusual dipeptide N-propionyl-gamma-L-glutamyl-L-ornithine-delta-lactam-ethylester, known as glorin. Phylogenetic analysis has indicated that P. violaceum is more related to the most derived group 4 dictyostelids than to the ancient group 2 polysphondylids such as P. pallidum. Nevertheless it has been reported that P. pallidum cells respond to glorin in chemotaxis assays. This has led to the assumption that glorin-based communication may be the most ancient form of intercellular communication that Dictyostelia invented to organize early steps of multicellular development. In this study we show that glorin mediates rapid changes in gene expression at the transition from vegetative growth to aggregation, apparently without pronounced cross-talk with the cyclic AMP-based communication system that coordinates post-aggregation events in this species. We describe glorin-mediated changes in gene expression in the social amoeba Polysphondylium pallidum at the transition from unicellular growth to multicellular development. Comparison of gene expression in growing cells versus cells starving for 2 or 3 hours in the presence or absence of glorin.