Project description:Single-cell RNA-Sequencing (scRNA-Seq) provides high-resolution insights into complex tissues. Cardiac tissue, however, poses a major challenge due to the delicate isolation process and the large size of mature cardiomyocytes. Regardless of the experimental technique, captured cells are often impaired and some capture sites may contain multiple or no cells at all. All this refers to “low quality” potentially leading to data misinterpretation. Common standard quality control parameters involve the number of detected genes and transcripts per cell and the fraction of transcripts from mitochondrial genes (%mtDNA). While cutoffs for transcripts and genes per cell are usually user-defined for each experiment or individually calculated, a fixed threshold of 5% mtDNA is standard and often set as default in scRNA-Seq software. However, this parameter is highly dependent on the tissue type. In the heart, mitochondrial transcripts comprise almost 30% of total mRNA due to high energy demands. Here, we demonstrate that a 5%-threshold not only causes an unacceptable exclusion of cardiomyocytes but also introduces a bias that particularly discriminates pacemaker cells. This effect is apparent for our in vitro generated induced-sinoatrial-bodies (iSABs; highly enriched physiologically functional pacemaker cells), and also evident in a public dataset of cells isolated from embryonal murine sinoatrial node tis-sue [2]. Taken together, we recommend omitting this filtering parameter for scRNA-Seq in cardiovascular applications whenever possible.
Project description:Somatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations contribute to the pathogenesis of age-related disorders, including myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The accumulation of mitochondria harboring mtDNA mutations in patients with these disorders suggests a failure of normal mitochondrial quality-control systems. The mtDNA-mutator mice acquire somatic mtDNA mutations via a targeted defect in the proofreading function of the mtDNA polymerase, PolgA, and develop macrocyticanemia similar to that of patients with MDS. We observed an unexpected defect in clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria at specific stages during erythroid maturation in hematopoietic cells from aged mtDNA-mutator mice. Mechanistically, aberrant activation of mechanistic target of rapamycin signaling and phosphorylation of uncoordinated 51-like kinase (ULK) 1 in mtDNA-mutator mice resulted in proteasome mediated degradation of ULK1 and inhibition of autophagy in erythroid cells. To directly evaluate the consequence of inhibiting autophagy on mitochondrial function in erythroid cells harboring mtDNA mutations in vivo, we deleted Atg7 from erythroid progenitors of wildtype and mtDNA-mutator mice. Genetic disruption of autophagy did not cause anemia in wild-type mice but accelerated the decline in mitochondrial respiration and development of macrocytic anemia in mtDNA-mutator mice. These findings highlight a pathological feedback loop that explains how dysfunctional mitochondria can escape autophagy-mediated degradation and propagate in cells predisposed to somatic mtDNA mutations, leading to disease. We used microarrays to identify expression profiles and pathways that are differentially activated or suppressed in Ter119+ bone marrow cells isolated from phlebotomized wildtype or Polg mutant mice
Project description:Many observations suggest that mutations of mtDNA could be responsible of the neurodegenerative changes associated with AD. We examined the signal intensity of the four alleles for each mtDNA nucleotide position (np) in whole blood of AD patients and age-matched controls utilizing a resequencing array, the MitoChip v2.0, and identified 275 statistically different nps which all, with the exception of one, showed an increased contribution of non-reference alleles for AD patients. PCA and cluster analysis showed that 5 of these nps, characterized by low-level heteroplasmy, could discriminate AD from control subjects with 80% of cases correctly classified. This study included a total of 18 AD patients and 18 age-matched controls. Data acquisition was performed using the Affymetrix Genechip Command Console (AGCC) software and data analysis was carried out with GSEQ 4.1.
Project description:Expression analysis of cells the given amount of time after mtDNA was lost (or Nar1 expression was repressed) compared to pretreatment (or NAR1 being fully expressed). One time course experiment (Cells a given amount of time following mtDNA loss compared to cells with intact mtDNA), with 2 two condition experiments (Cells with the ATP1-111 genotype 27 hours following mtDNA loss compared to the same cells with intact mtDNA, and cells 27 hours following repression of NAR1 comared to cells expressing NAR1). Each data point had 3 biological replicates, and was dye-swapped. One replicate per array.
Project description:Integrity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), encoding several subunits of the respiratory chain, is essential to maintain mitochondrial fitness. Mitochondria, as a central hub for metabolism, are affected in a wide variety of human diseases but also during normal ageing, where mtDNA integrity is compromised. Mitochondrial quality control mechanisms work at different levels, and mitophagy and its variants are critical to remove dysfunctional mitochondria and mtDNA to maintain cellular homeostasis. Understanding the mechanisms governing a selective turnover of mutation-bearing mtDNA without affecting the entire mitochondrial pool is fundamental to design therapeutic strategies against mtDNA diseases and ageing. Here, we show that mtDNA damage after expressing a dominant negative version of the mitochondrial helicase Twinkle, or by chemical means, leads to an exacerbated mtDNA turnover. mtDNA removal depends on lysosomal function and requires the autophagy protein Atg5 but is independent of canonical mitophagy or autophagy. Using proximity labelling, we demonstrated that the area of influence of mitochondrial nucleoids differs upon mtDNA damage, which induces mitochondrial membrane remodelling and endosomal recruitment in close proximity to mitochondrial nucleoid sub compartments. Targeting of nucleoids is controlled by the mitochondrial transmembrane proteins ATAD3 and SAMM50, which together with the endosomal trafficking protein VPS35, orchestrate endosomal nucleoid engulfment. SAMM50 acts as a gatekeeper to avoid mtDNA release to the cytoplasm and facilitating mtDNA transfer to VPS35. Lastly, we show that stimulation of lysosomal activity by rapamycin selectively removes mtDNA deletions in vivo, without affecting mtDNA copy number. With these results, we unveil the molecular players of a new complex mechanism specifically targeting and removing mutant mtDNA which occurs outside the mitochondrial network, a process with multiple potential benefits to understand human mtDNA related diseases, either inherited, acquired or due to normal ageing.
Project description:Many observations suggest that mutations of mtDNA could be responsible of the neurodegenerative changes associated with AD. We examined the signal intensity of the four alleles for each mtDNA nucleotide position (np) in whole blood of AD patients and age-matched controls utilizing a resequencing array, the MitoChip v2.0, and identified 275 statistically different nps which all, with the exception of one, showed an increased contribution of non-reference alleles for AD patients. PCA and cluster analysis showed that 5 of these nps, characterized by low-level heteroplasmy, could discriminate AD from control subjects with 80% of cases correctly classified.
Project description:Somatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations contribute to the pathogenesis of age-related disorders, including myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The accumulation of mitochondria harboring mtDNA mutations in patients with these disorders suggests a failure of normal mitochondrial quality-control systems. The mtDNA-mutator mice acquire somatic mtDNA mutations via a targeted defect in the proofreading function of the mtDNA polymerase, PolgA, and develop macrocytic anemia similar to that of patients with MDS. We observed an unexpected defect in clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria at specific stages during erythroid maturation in hematopoietic cells from aged mtDNA-mutator mice. Mechanistically, aberrant activation of mechanistic target of rapamycin signaling and phosphorylation of uncoordinated 51-like kinase (ULK) 1 in mtDNA-mutator mice resulted in proteasome mediated degradation of ULK1 and inhibition of autophagy in erythroid cells. To directly evaluate the consequence of inhibiting autophagy on mitochondrial function in erythroid cells harboring mtDNA mutations in vivo, we deleted Atg7 from erythroid progenitors of wildtype and mtDNA-mutator mice. Genetic disruption of autophagy did not cause anemia in wild-type mice but accelerated the decline in mitochondrial respiration and development of macrocytic anemia in mtDNA-mutator mice. These findings highlight a pathological feedback loop that explains how dysfunctional mitochondria can escape autophagy-mediated degradation and propagate in cells predisposed to somatic mtDNA mutations, leading to disease.
Project description:Each heartbeat is triggered by the sinoatrial node (SAN), the primary pacemaker of the heart. Studies in animal models have revealed that pacemaker cells share a common progenitor with the (pro)epicardium, and that the pacemaker cardiomyocytes further diversify into “transitional”, “tail” and “head” subtypes. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms, especially of human pacemaker cell development are poorly understood. Here, we performed single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and trajectory inference on human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) differentiating to SAN-like cardiomyocytes (SANCM) to construct a roadmap of transcriptional changes and lineage decisions. In differentiated SANCM, we identified distinct clusters that closely resemble different subpopulations of the in vivo SAN. Moreover, the presence of a side population of proepicardial cells suggested their shared ontogeny with SANCM, as also reported in vivo. Our results demonstrate that the divergence of SANCM and proepicardial lineages is determined by WNT signaling. Furthermore, we uncovered roles for TGFβ and WNT signaling in the branching of transitional and head SANCM subtypes, respectively. These findings provide new insights into the molecular processes involved in human pacemaker cell differentiation, opening new avenues for complex disease modeling in vitro and inform approaches for cell-therapy based regeneration of the SAN.