Project description:To investigate the cellular basis of parental species bias at birdsong, we performed single nuclei RNA-seq for six zebra finch and owl finch F1 hybrid juvenile birds.
Project description:To investigate the cellular basis of parental species bias at birdsong, we performed single nuclei RNA-seq for six zebra finch and owl finch F1 hybrid juvenile birds.
Project description:The availability of viral entry factors is a prerequisite for the cross-species transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Large-scale single-cell screening on animal cells is a powerful tool to reveal the expression patterns of viral entry genes for different hosts. But such exploration for SARS-CoV-2 remained limited. Here, we presented the broadest pan-species single-nucleus RNA sequencing study to date, covering 11 representative species in pets (cat, dog, hamster, lizard), livestock (goat, rabbit), poultry (duck, pigeon) and wildlife (pangolin, tiger, deer), from which we investigated the co-expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Notably, the proportion of SARS-CoV-2 putative target cells in cat was found considerably higher than that of other species investigated in this study, highlighting the necessity to carefully evaluate the role of cats during SARS-CoV-2 circulation. Furthermore, cross-species analysis of comparative lung cell atlas in mammals, reptiles and birds revealed core developmental programs, critical connectomes and conserved regulatory circuits among evolutionarily distant species. Additionally, we developed a user-friendly and freely accessible online platform named PANDORA for researchers to fully exploit the pan-species single cell atlas. Overall, our work provides a compendium of gene expression profiles for non-model animals, which could be employed to identify potential SARS-CoV-2 target cells and narrow down putative zoonotic reservoirs. Alternatively, our resources could also be utilized to illuminate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying animal tissue evolution.
Project description:Lysine methylation is part of the posttranscriptional histone code employed to recruit modification specific readers to chromatin. Unbiased, quantitative mass spectrometry approaches combined with peptide pull-downs have been used to study histone methylation-dependent binders in mammalian cells. Here, we extend the study to birds by investigating the interaction partners for H3K4me3, H3K9me3, H3K27me3 and H3K36me3 in chicken (gallus gallus) and zebra finch (taeniopygia guttata) using label free quantitative proteomics. In general, we find very strong overlap in interaction partners for the trimethyl marks in birds compared to mammals, underscoring the known conserved function of these modifications. In agreement with their epigenetic role, we find binding of PHF2 and members of the TFIID, SAGA, SET1 and NURF complex to the activation mark H3K4me3. Our data furthermore supports the existence of a LID complex in vertebrates recruited to the H3K4me3. The repressive marks are bound by the HP1 proteins and the EED subunit of the PRC2 complex as well as by WIZ. Like the screens in mammals, we found ZNF462, ZNF828 and POGZ enriched at H3K9me3. However, we noted some unexpected differences. First, we did not observe the enrichment of CDYL and CDYL2 at the repressive marks. Second N-PAC (also known as GLYR1), an H3K36me3 interactor in mammals, is not binding to this modification in our screen. This suggests that despite strong conservation of the histone tail sequence, species-specific differences in epigenetic readers may have evolved.