Project description:Small RNA pathways play evolutionarily conserved roles in gene regulation and in defense from pathogenic and parasitic nucleic acids. The character and expression patterns of small RNAs show conservation throughout animal lineages, but specific animal clades also show variations on these recurring themes, including species-specific small RNAs. The monotremes, with only platypus and four species of echidna as extant members, represent the basal branch of the mammalian lineage. Here, we examine the small RNA pathways of monotremes by deep sequencing of six platypus and echidna tissues. We find that highly conserved microRNA species display their signature tissue-specific expression patterns. In addition, we find a large rapidly-evolving cluster of miRNAs on platypus chromosome X1 which is unique to monotremes. Platypus and echidna testes contain a robust piRNA system which appears to be participating in ongoing transposon defense. Keywords: piRNA
Project description:Small RNA pathways play evolutionarily conserved roles in gene regulation and in defense from pathogenic and parasitic nucleic acids. The character and expression patterns of small RNAs show conservation throughout animal lineages, but specific animal clades also show variations on these recurring themes, including species-specific small RNAs. The monotremes, with only platypus and four species of echidna as extant members, represent the basal branch of the mammalian lineage. Here, we examine the small RNA pathways of monotremes by deep sequencing of six platypus and echidna tissues. We find that highly conserved microRNA species display their signature tissue-specific expression patterns. In addition, we find a large rapidly-evolving cluster of miRNAs on platypus chromosome X1 which is unique to monotremes. Platypus and echidna testes contain a robust piRNA system which appears to be participating in ongoing transposon defense. Keywords: piRNA Two size fractions of small RNAs (18-24nt and 25-33nt) were cloned and sequenced from platypus adult testis total RNA; one size fraction (28-24nt) was cloned and sequenced from echidna adult testis total RNA
Project description:Single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) was used to profile the transcriptome of 6,751 nuclei in platypus adult testis. This dataset includes two samples from two different individuals. This dataset is part of a larger evolutionary study of adult testis at the single-nucleus level (97,521 single-nuclei in total) across mammals including 10 representatives of the three main mammalian lineages: human, chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, gibbon, rhesus macaque, marmoset, mouse (placental mammals); grey short-tailed opossum (marsupials); and platypus (egg-laying monotremes). Corresponding data were generated for a bird (red junglefowl, the progenitor of domestic chicken), to be used as an evolutionary outgroup.