Project description:To test wheather cavefish have higher lipogenesis capability than surface fish, we used liver sample from fasted and refed fish to do RNA-seq to compare their transcriptome responding to feeding in surface fish and Pachón cavefish. Moreover, we did the Pparγ ChIP-seq with liver from fed surface fish and Pachón cavefish. We amied to test whether Pparγ in Pachón cavefish have more biding sites and higher binding peaks than surface fish.
Project description:We found higher substitution rates in cavefish compared with surface fish, in accordance with a smaller cavefish population size which has allowed more rapid fixation of derived alleles present in the ancestral population. This result also implies that the Pachn cave population is much younger than previously estimated. The comparison of these data with simulations suggests that the Pachn cavefish population has probably been underground less than 30,000 years. This new time frame, together with other evidence, indicate that the evolution of cave phenotypes mainly involves the fixation of cryptic genetic variants present in surface fish populations within a short period of time.
Project description:Reduced parasitic infection rates in the developed world are suspected to underlie the rising prevalence of autoimmune disorders. However, the long-term evolutionary consequences of decreased parasite exposure on an immune system are not well understood. We used the Mexican tetra Astyanax mexicanus to understand how loss of parasite diversity influences the evolutionary trajectory of the vertebrate immune system, by comparing river with cave morphotypes. Here, we present field data affirming a strong reduction in parasite diversity in the cave ecosystem, and show that cavefish immune cells display a more sensitive pro-inflammatory response towards bacterial endotoxins. Surprisingly, other innate cellular immune responses, such as phagocytosis, are drastically decreased in cavefish. Using two independent single-cell approaches, we identified a shift in the overall immune cell composition in cavefish as the underlying cellular mechanism, indicating strong differences in the immune investment strategy. While surface fish invest evenly into the innate and adaptive immune systems, cavefish shifted immune investment to the adaptive immune system, and here, mainly towards specific T-cell populations that promote homeostasis. Additionally, inflammatory responses and immunopathological phenotypes in visceral adipose tissue are drastically reduced in cavefish. Our data indicate that long-term adaptation to low parasite diversity coincides with a more sensitive immune system in cavefish, which is accompanied by a reduction in the immune cells that play a role in mediating the pro-inflammatory response.
Project description:The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is the master regulator of adipocyte differentiation, and mutations that interfere with PPARγ function cause lipodystrophy. Structural studies indicate that PPARγ domains engage in several intra- and inter-moleuclar interactions; however, how these interactions modulate the ability of PPARγ to activate target genes in a cellular context is currently poorly understood. Here we analysed the transcriptional potential of R212Q and E379K two previously uncharacterised lipodystrophy-associated PPARγ mutants that are located in distinct PPARγ domains but are both predicted to affect intermolecular interactions. Using a combination of biochemical and genome-wide approaches we show that these mutations impair binding to an overlapping subset of enhancers that are less accessible and specifically require PPARγ for chromatin remodeling. Based on these findings we propose a model in which recruitment of PPARγ to chromatin is determined by several intermolecular interfaces. Furthermore, our data exemplify that relatively subtle molecular defects in transcription factors are sufficient to significantly affect enhancer binding and thereby transcriptional output.
Project description:PPARγ promotes adipogenesis while Wnt proteins inhibit adipogenesis. However, the mechanisms that control expression of these positive and negative master regulators of adipogenesis remain incompletely understood. By genome-wide histone methylation profiling in preadipocytes, we find that among gene loci encoding adipogenesis regulators, histone methyltransferase (HMT) G9a-mediated repressive epigenetic mark H3K9me2 is enriched on the entire PPARγ locus. H3K9me2 and G9a levels decrease during adipogenesis, which correlates inversely with induction of PPARγ. Removal of H3K9me2 by G9a deletion enhances chromatin opening and binding of adipogenic transcription factor C/EBP-beta to PPARγ promoter, which promotes PPARγ expression. Interestingly, G9a represses PPARγ expression in an HMT activity-dependent manner but facilitates Wnt10a expression independent of its enzymatic activity. Consistently, deletion of G9a or inhibiting G9a HMT activity promotes adipogenesis. Finally, deletion of G9a in mouse adipose tissues increases adipogenic gene expression and tissue weight. Thus, by inhibiting PPARγ expression and facilitating Wnt10a expression, G9a represses adipogenesis. Examination of gene expression changes in G9a KO brown preadipocytes
Project description:Here we report, for the first time, the acute effects of the synthetic PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone on the transcriptional network of PPARγ in adipocytes. Treatment with Rosiglitazone for 1 hour leads to acute transcriptional activation as well as repression of a number of genes as determined by genome-wide RNA polymerase II occupancy. Unlike what has been shown for many other nuclear receptors, agonist treatment does not lead to major changes in the occurrence of PPARγ binding sites. However, rosiglitazone promotes PPARγ occupancy at many preexisting sites, and this is paralleled by increased occupancy of the mediator subunit MED1. The increase in PPARγ and MED1 binding is correlated with an increase in transcription of nearby genes indicating that rosiglitazone, in addition to activating the receptor, also promotes its association with DNA, and that this is causally linked to recruitment of mediator and activation of genes. Notably, both Rosiglitazone-activated and -repressed genes are induced during adipogenesis. However, Rosiglitazone-activated genes are markedly more associated with PPARγ than repressed genes and are highly dependent on PPARγ for expression in adipocytes. By contrast, repressed genes are associated with the other key adipocyte transcription factor CCAAT-Enhancer binding protein (C/EBPα), and their expression is more dependent on C/EBPα. This suggests that the relative occupancies of PPARγ and C/EBPα are critical for whether genes will be induced or repressed by PPARγ agonist. Examination of binding of PPARγ, C/EBPα, RNAPII, CBP and MED1 in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated with 1 μM Rosiglitazone and/or 0.1% DMSO for 1 hour.
Project description:PPARγ is known for its anti-inflammatory actions in macrophages. However, which macrophage populations express PPARγ in vivo and how it regulates tissue homeostasis in the steady state and during inflammation is not completely understood. We show that lung and spleen macrophages constitutively expressed PPARγ, while other macrophage populations did not. Recruitment of monocytes to sites of inflammation was associated with induction of PPARγ as they differentiated to macrophages. Its absence in these macrophages led to failed resolution of inflammation, characterized by persistent, low-level recruitment of leukocytes. Conversely, PPARγ agonists supported an earlier cessation in leukocyte recruitment during resolution of acute inflammation and likewise suppressed monocyte recruitment to chronically inflamed atherosclerotic vessels. In the steady state, PPARγ deficiency in macrophages had no obvious impact in the spleen but profoundly altered cellular lipid homeostasis in lung macrophages. Reminiscent of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, LysM-Cre x PPARγflox/flox mice displayed mild leukocytic inflammation in the steady-state lung and succumbed faster to mortality upon infection with S. pneumoniae. Surprisingly, this mortality was not due to overly exuberant inflammation, but instead to impaired bacterial clearance. Thus, in addition to its anti-inflammatory role in promoting resolution of inflammation, PPARγ sustains functionality in lung macrophages and thereby has a pivotal role in supporting pulmonary host defense. The two major subsets of monocytes (Ly-6C+ and Ly-6Clo) from 12-week old C57Bl/6 mice were sorted and the RNA extracted and hybridized to Affymetrix GeneChip® 430 2.0 arrays. We pooled leukocytes from 5 mice for each sort and sorted 3 to 4 separate times for 3 to 4 biological replicates.
Project description:MED1 often serves as a surrogate of the general transcription coactivator complex Mediator for identifying active enhancers. MED1 is required for phenotypic conversion of fibroblasts to adipocytes in vitro but its role in adipose development and expansion in vivo has not been reported. Here we show that MED1 is not generally required for transcription during adipogenesis in culture and that MED1 is dispensable for adipose development in mice. Instead, MED1 is required for postnatal adipose expansion and the induction of fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis genes after pups switch diet from high-fat maternal milk to carbohydrate-based chow. During adipogenesis, MED1 is dispensable for induction of lineage-determining transcription factors (TFs) PPARγ and C/EBPα but is required for lipid accumulation in the late phase of differentiation. Mechanistically, MED1 controls the induction of lipogenesis genes by facilitating lipogenic TF ChREBP- and SREBP1a-dependent recruitment of Mediator to active enhancers. Together, our findings identify a cell- and gene-specific regulatory role of MED1 as a lipogenesis coactivator required for postnatal adipose expansion.
Project description:we report a transcriptome-wide comparative investigation between surface and cave species in Sinocyclocheilus. De novo transcriptome assemblies were performed on surface and cave species; then the Sinocyclocheilus contigs were annotated with Gene Ontology. RNA-Seq assays revealed reduced transcription of a series of visual phototransduction and retinal disease related genes in cave-dwelling species compared with surface species. Degeneration of the retina in Sinocyclocheilus cavefish might occur in a lens-independent way by the down-regulation of several transcriptional factors, which have direct roles in retina development and maintenance, such as crx, rorb and Wnt pathway members. Examination of 2 different eye samples in 2 Sinocyclocheilus species.