Project description:Bacterial type 4 pili (T4P) are extracellular polymers that serve both as adhesins and molecular motors. Functionally, they are involved in adhesion, colony formation, twitching motility, and horizontal gene transfer. T4P of the human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae have been shown to enhance survivability under treatment with antibiotics or hydrogen peroxide. However, little is known about the effect of external stresses on T4P production and motor properties. Here, we address this question by directly visualizing gonococcal T4P dynamics. We show that in the absence of stress gonococci produce T4P at a remarkably high rate of ~ 200 T4P min-1. T4P retraction succeeds elongation without detectable time delay. Treatment with azithromycin or ceftriaxone reduces the T4P production rate. RNA sequencing results suggest that reduced piliation is caused by combined downregulation of the complexes required for T4P extrusion from the cell envelope and cellular energy depletion. Various other stresses including inhibitors of cell wall synthesis and DNA replication, as well as hydrogen peroxide and lactic acid, inhibit T4P production. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide and acidic pH strongly affect pilus length and motor function. In summary, we show that gonococcal T4P are highly dynamic and diverse external stresses reduce piliation despite the protective effect of T4P against some of these stresses.
Project description:My research project aims to use the clonal dynamics of spontaneously occurring somatic mutations to answer fundamental questions about human haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) biology.
The four major questions I will address are:
1. How do age and aging affect normal human HSC dynamics in vivo?
2. How do in vivo perturbations, particularly chemotherapy and increased levels of reactive oxygen species, affect HSC population dynamics?
3. Is response to in vitro perturbation heritable and/or correlated with other features such as age of individual and contribution of the lineage to peripheral blood?
4. How are HSC dynamics altered in people with early driver mutations (clonal haematopoiesis)?
Project description:External auditory canal squamous cell carcinoma (EACC) is very rare, only accounting for two thousandth of the head and neck cancer. However, the development mechanism of EACC remains unknown. By using gene expression microarray analysis, we aimed to find differentially expressed genes involved in ESCC development. We identified a wide spectrum of molecular signatures in EACC, including mRNA and lncRNA. The present study systematically analyzed the expression of mRNA and lncRNA in squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal and normal external auditory canal tissues. We detect the transcriptomic changes between squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal and normal external auditory canal tissues to identify potential tumor biomarkers in squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal.
Project description:S. cerevisae cells were exposed to different series of mild stresses. Stress type include heat shock, oxidative and osmotic stresses. Microarrays were used to follow the genome-wide transcriptional response to the stresses and to identify genes that can underlie the cross protection phenotype between heat shock and oxidative stress. Keywords: time course
Project description:Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) must ensure adequate blood cell production following distinct external stressors. A comprehensive understanding of in vivo heterogeneity and specificity of HSC responses to external stimuli is currently lacking. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) on functionally validated mouse HSCs and LSK (Lin-, c-Kit+,Sca1+) progenitors after in vivo pharmacological perturbation of niche signals interferon, granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), and prostaglandin. We identified six HSC states that are characterized by enrichment but not exclusive expression of marker genes. External signals induced rapid transitions between HSC states but transcriptional response varied both between external stimulants and within the HSC population for a given perturbation. In contrast to LSK progenitors, HSCs were characterized by a greater link between molecular signatures at baseline and in response to external stressors. Chromatin analysis of unperturbed HSCs and LSKs by scATAC-Seq suggested some HSC-specific, cell intrinsic predispositions to niche signals. We compiled a comprehensive resource of HSC- and LSK progenitor-specific chromatin and transcriptional features that represent determinants of signal receptiveness and regenerative potential during stress hematopoiesis.
Project description:Nuclear pores complexes (NPCs) are genome organizers, defining a particular nuclear compartment enriched for SUMO protease and proteasome activities, and act as docking sites for DNA repair. In fission yeast, the anchorage of perturbed replication forks to NPCs is an integral part of the recombination-dependent replication restart mechanism (RDR) that resumes DNA synthesis at terminally dysfunctional forks. By mapping DNA polymerase usage, we report that SUMO protease Ulp1-associated NPCs ensure efficient initiation of restarted DNA synthesis, whereas proteasome-associated NPCs sustain the speed of restarted DNA polymerase. In contrast to Ulp1, this last function occurs independently of SUMO chains formation. By analyzing the role of the nuclear basket, the nucleoplasmic extension of the NPC, we reveal that the activities of Ulp1 and the proteasome cannot compensate for each other and affect the dynamics of RDR in distinct ways. Our work probes the mechanisms by which the NPC environment ensures optimal RDR.
Project description:S. cerevisae cells were exposed to different series of mild stresses. Stress type include heat shock, oxidative and osmotic stresses. Microarrays were used to follow the genome-wide transcriptional response to the stresses and to identify genes that can underlie the cross protection phenotype between heat shock and oxidative stress. Experiment Overall Design: Cell sample at different time points after stress application were used for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:Comparative RNA-seq profiling of mouse and anole lizard developing limbs and external genitalia, to assess evolutionary and develomental relationships, between the two tissue types based on transcriptomic data RNA-seq profiling of embryonic limb and external genitalia tissue at different stages of development, in mouse and anole lizard, in duplicates, using Illumina HiSeq