Project description:Ectopic expression of neuronal microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-9/9* and miR-124 (miR-9/9*-124) in adult human fibroblasts has been found to evoke extensive reconfigurations of the chromatin and direct the fate conversion to neurons. We found that miR-9/9* and miR-124 led to the repression of REST, a transcriptional repressor of neuronal genes, during microRNA-mediated neuronal conversion and knockdown of REST enhanced the activation of BAF53b, a mature neuronal marker. Furthermore, time series analysis of the transcriptome of cells undergoing the miR-9/9*-124-induced conversion indicated upregulated genetic pathways that were predicted to be targeted by REST although the transcript level of REST remained unchanged (Abernathy et al., 2017). Therefore, we reasoned that knocking down REST in addition to miR-9/9*-124 at an early time point (day 7), in which REST repression is minimally evident during neuronal conversion, would speed up the adoption of neuronal identity. We performed the RNA-seq analysis to compared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between human adult fibroblasts expressing control shRNA (shCTL) and reprogramming cells expressing shCTL or shREST at day 7. Finally, we found that the repression of REST constitutes an important component of microRNA-mediated neuronal reprogramming of human fibroblasts.
Project description:The induction of pluripotency or trans-differentiation of one cell type to another can be accomplished with cell lineage-specific transcription factors. Here we report that repression of a single RNA binding protein PTB, which occurs during normal brain development via the action of miR-124, is sufficient to induce trans-differentiation of fibroblasts into functional neurons. Besides its traditional role in regulated splicing, we show that PTB has a previously undocumented function in the regulation of microRNA functions, suppressing or enhancing microRNA targeting by competitive binding on target mRNA or altering local RNA secondary structure. A key event during neuronal induction is the relief of PTB-mediated blockage of microRNA action on multiple components of the REST complex, thereby de-repressing a large array of neuronal genes, including miR-124 and multiple neuronal-specific transcription factors, in non-neuronal cells. This converts a negative feedback loop to a positive one to elicit cellular reprogramming to the neuronal lineage. Examination of PTB regulated AGO2/microRNA targeting in Hela cells by CLIP-seq (two biological replicates) , paired-end RNA-seq (control and PTB knockdown) and 3’end stability RNA-seq (control and PTB knockdown)
Project description: In fish, the slow-twitch skeletal muscle fibres have an oxidative metabolism, present peripherical location in the red muscle, and are used for sustained movements. They may respond to alterations in food availability differently than the fast-twitch muscle. The aim of this manuscript was to study the slow-twitch muscle fibres of Piaractus Mesopotamicus, a neotropical fish, submitted to 30 days of fasting (D30) followed by one day (D31) or 30 days of refeeding (D60). The treated animals were compared with regularly fed fish. To verify the presence of atrophy and hypertrophy, we performed histological analysis of muscle fibre diameter in D30 and D60, and RT-qPCR gene expression analysis of catabolic (murfa, murfb, mafbx) and anabolic genes (igf-1, mTOR) in D30, D31 and D60. The gene expression of the allergen and Ca2+-carrier parvalbumin (pvalb) was also measured in D30, D31 and D60. The proteome of slow-twitch fibres at D30 and D60 was obtained by shotgun proteomics (digestion of proteins with trypsin followed by LC-MS/MS identification), and the proteins differentially expressed were used to construct protein interaction networks. The histological analysis showed no difference between treated fish in relation to the control. The expression of catabolic and anabolic genes was not changed, except for the negative regulation of igf-1 in D30 and of mtor in D31. The expression of pvalb was not changed in D30 and D60, but it was decreased in D31. The proteomic analysis identified 169 proteins in D30 (24 upregulated and 18 downregulated) and 170 proteins in D60 (17 upregulated and 21 downregulated). Many of them were related to energetic metabolism, including lipid metabolism, as shown by the protein network analysis. These results enlarge our understanding of the acclimation of slow-twitch fibres to changes in nutrient availability and set a path for future research.
Project description:To reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying astrocyte-to-neuron reprogramming, we performed RNA-seq analysis on human astrocyte cultures (HA1800) during NeuroD1(ND1)-mediated neuronal reprogramming.