Project description:In mammals, fine motor control is essential for skilled behavior, and is subserved by specialized subdivisions of the primary motor cortex (M1) and other components of the brain’s motor circuitry. We profiled the epigenomic state of several components of the Rhesus macaque motor system, including subdivisions of M1 corresponding to hand and orofacial control. We compared this to open chromatin data from M1 in rat, mouse, and human. We found broad similarities as well as unique specializations in open chromatin regions (OCRs) between M1 subdivisions and other brain regions, as well as species- and lineage-specific differences reflecting their evolutionary histories. By distinguishing shared mammalian M1 OCRs from primate- and human-specific specializations, we highlight gene regulatory programs that could subserve the evolution of skilled motor behaviors such as speech and tool use. Further, in order to predict candidate enhancers in additional species for which primary data was not available, we developed machine learning models trained on genome sequence across species.
Project description:Genome-wide prefrontal cortex and cerebellum DNA methylation profiles of younger and older adult humans, captive chimpanzees, and captive rhesus macaques
Project description:Aging of population is a great challenge of healthcare. In china, the number of the elderly is rapidly growing, and it was estimated that there will be approximately 400 million citizens above 65 years old in 2050.Study on the changes of brain during aging may help elucidate the mechanism of the pathological process, and hence prevent or treat these neurological diseases.Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) and human have a genetic homology of 95%, and their anatomy structures or physiological process are highly similar, which make rhesus macaque one of the most important nonhuman primate models.Thus, the comparison between the change of protein profile during aging in human and rhesus macaque is still necessary, and the characteristics of proteins that are conservative or divergent are of interest.The aim of the(our) study is to identify the conservative changes of pathways during aging, and to reveal the potential difference between human and rhesus macaque so that relevant studies based on primate models can be interpreted more accurately.
Project description:Viral gene expression profiling in a rhesus macaque rhadinovirus positive B cell lymphoma obtained from a rhesus macaque experimentally infected with simian immunodeficiency virus and rhesus macaque rhadinovirus strain 17577. The experiment identified two viral open reading frames (ORFs) that were expressed in the lymphoma. Expression of these viral ORFs were confirmed by reverse transcriptase-PCR.
Project description:The primary goal of this study was to compare the performances of Rhesus Macaque Genome Array and Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array with respect to the detection of differential expressions when rhesus macaque RNA extracts were labeled and hybridized. The secondary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of mismatch position on signal strength in Affymetrix GeneChips by examining naturally occurring mismatches between rhesus macaque transcripts and human probes from Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. The primary goal of this study was to compare the performances of Rhesus Macaque Genome Array and Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array with respect to the detection of differential expressions when rhesus macaque RNA extracts were labeled and hybridized. The secondary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of mismatch position on signal strength in Affymetrix GeneChips by examining naturally occurring mismatches between rhesus macaque transcripts and human probes from Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Keywords: cross hybridization
Project description:While genome sequencing has identified numerous non-coding alterations between primate species, which of these are regulatory and potentially relevant to the evolution of the human brain is unclear. Here, we annotate cis-regulatory elements (CREs) in the human, rhesus macaque and chimpanzee genome using ChIP-sequencing in different anatomical parts of the adult brain. We find high similarity in the genomic positioning of CREs between rhesus macaque and humans, suggesting that the majority of these elements were already present in a common ancestor 25 million years ago. Most of the observed regulatory changes between humans and rhesus macaque occurred prior to the ancestral separation of humans and chimpanzee, leaving a modest set of regulatory elements with predicted human-specificity. Our data refine previous predictions and hypotheses on the consequences of genomic changes between primate species, and allow the identification of regulatory alterations relevant to the evolution of the brain. ChIP-Sequencing for H3K27ac on 8 distinct brain regions from human (three biological replicates per brain region), chimpanzee (two biological replicates per brain region) and rhesus macaque (three biological replicates per brain region).
Project description:The primary goal of this study was to compare the performances of Rhesus Macaque Genome Array and Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array with respect to the detection of differential expressions when rhesus macaque RNA extracts were labeled and hybridized. The secondary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of mismatch position on signal strength in Affymetrix GeneChips by examining naturally occurring mismatches between rhesus macaque transcripts and human probes from Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. The primary goal of this study was to compare the performances of Rhesus Macaque Genome Array and Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array with respect to the detection of differential expressions when rhesus macaque RNA extracts were labeled and hybridized. The secondary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of mismatch position on signal strength in Affymetrix GeneChips by examining naturally occurring mismatches between rhesus macaque transcripts and human probes from Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Keywords: cross hybridization Rhesus macaque RNA from five sources (immortalized fibroblasts, cerebral cortex, pancreas, testes and thymus) was divided into two sets of aliquots of equal amount. Samples from each of the five sources were labeled and hybridized with either Rhesus Macaque Genome Array or two Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Rhesus macaque RNA from five sources (immortalized fibroblasts, cerebral cortex, pancreas, testes and thymus) was divided into two sets of aliquots of equal amount. Samples from each of the five sources were labeled and hybridized with either Rhesus Macaque Genome Array or two Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array.
Project description:Rhesus macaque is a prime model animal in neuroscience. A comprehensive transcriptomic and open chromatin atlas of the rhesus macaque brain is key to a deeper understanding of the brain. Here we characterize the transcriptome of 416 brain samples from 52 regions of 8 rhesus macaque brain. We identify gene modules associated with specific brain regions like the cerebral cortex, pituitary, and thalamus. In addition, we discover 9703 novel intergenic transcripts, including 1701 coding transcripts and 2845 lncRNAs. Most of the novel transcripts are only expressed in specific brain regions or cortical regions of specific individuals. We further survey the open chromatin regions in the hippocampal CA1 and several cerebral cortical regions of the rhesus macaque brain using ATAC-seq, revealing CA1- and cortex-specific open chromatin regions. Our results add to the growing body of knowledge regarding the baseline transcriptomic and open chromatin profiles in the brain of rhesus macaque.