Project description:Non-coding ultraconserved regions showing hundreds of consecutive bases of perfect evolutionary sequence conservation across mammalian genomes have intrigued biologists in the decade since they were first described. While many of these sequences are known to represent distant-acting enhancers, initial deletion studies in mice showed that their loss had no obvious impact on viability or fertility. To explore the discrepancy between extraordinary evolutionary constraint and an apparent lack of phenotypes when deleted in vivo, we used genome editing to create an expanded series of knockout mice lacking individual or combinations of ultraconserved brain enhancers near the essential neuronal transcription factor Arx. While the loss of any single or pair of ultraconserved enhancers resulted in viable and fertile mice, detailed phenotyping revealed neurological or growth abnormalities in nearly all cases, including substantial alterations of neuron populations and abnormalities of the dentate gyrus. Our results demonstrate the functional importance of ultraconserved enhancers and highlight that extreme sequence conservation may result from evolutionary selection against fitness deficits that appear subtle in a laboratory setting.
Project description:To date, 481 transcribed ultraconserved regions (T-UCRs) have been discovered in human genome. We aimed to investigate their characteristics in Crohn’s disease (CD) with conparison to healthy normal controls, to reveal differentially expressed T-UCRs.
Project description:To date, 481 transcribed ultraconserved regions (T-UCRs) have been discovered in human genome. We aimed to investigate their characteristics in Crohnâs disease (CD) with conparison to healthy normal controls, to reveal differentially expressed T-UCRs. 3 CD patients and 3 NC volunteers were recruited in this study. With colonoscopy, colon mocosa pinch biopsy samles were got at inflammed site in CD patients and normal sites in NC volunteers respectively.
Project description:Normal mammary cells obtained from reduction mammoplasty samples were processed into single cells and either frozen down or established in conditional reprogramming culture conditions. Drop-seq was performed on samples pre-and post-CR in order to characterize the conditional reprogramming culture process.
Project description:The manuscript by D. Licastro and colleagues “Promiscuity of enhancer, coding and non-coding transcription functions in ultraconserved sequence elements” presents an overview of experimental and computational approaches employed by the authors to perform a multi-facet characterization of ultraconserved elements (UCEs). The authors present an interesting analysis where they investigate the transcription of UCEs in mouse development at different stages by conductin an microarray experiment. Some of these results are further verified by RT-PCR.