Project description:Although a seemingly harmless developmental stage of herbivores, insect eggs trigger efficient plant defenses that include necrosis, callus formation, accumulation of ovicidal compounds and release of volatiles to attract egg predators. The large white butterfly Pieris brassicae deposits batches of 20-30 eggs onto Arabidopsis leaves, causing a large transcriptional reprograming that is drastically distinct from the expression profile triggered by larval feeding. Also, P. brassicae eggs induce localized cell death, accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and salicylic acid (SA), and expression of PTI-related genes, suggesting that egg-associated molecular patterns (EAMPs) activate a response that is similar to the response induced by microbial pathogens. We previously reported that a crude P. brassicae egg extract (EE, soluble fraction from crushed eggs) induced similar responses as oviposition, including ROS and SA accumulation, cell death and defense gene induction. In order to compare oviposition and EE treatment at the transcriptome level, we analyzed changes in transcipt abundance with P. brassicae EE or after natural oviposition. After 5 days, hundreds of genes were significantly upregulated by each treatment and their induction was highly similar between treatments. This conserved transcriptomic signature thus strongly supports our previous observations that oviposition and EE treatment trigger comparable responses in Arabidopsis.
Project description:We investigated the effects of the crude extract of a South African medicinal plant, Cotyledon orbiculata, on cell survival of colon (HCT116) cancer cell lines. Using RNASeq, we discovered that the extract interfered with mRNA regulatory pathways. Here, we found that the extract of Cotyledon orbiculata, a South African medicinal plant, had an anti-proliferative effect in cancer cells, mediated by apoptosis induced by alternative splicing of hnRNPA2B1 and BCL2L1.
Project description:The hypothesis that ammonium sulfate-based protein precipitation can help prefractionate the total protein extract into fractions of reduced complexity and improve the detection of low-abundance proteins was investigated. This dataset resulted from the experiments that we performed to improve the detection of the carbonylated proteins in leaf extract. A total of 122 carbonylated proteins were identified, of which 77 were found in the ammonium sulfate fractions only. This prefractionation method allowed to identify 63% more carbonylated proteins compared to the number of carbonylated proteins identified from the total crude extract without prefractionation. Our results thus showed that a simple offline prefractionation of the proteome by ammonium sulfate prior to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry significantly improved the detection of carbonylated proteins in Arabidopsis leaf extract.
Project description:The hypothesis that ammonium sulfate-based protein precipitation can help prefractionate the total protein extract into fractions of reduced complexity and improve the detection of low-abundance proteins was investigated. This dataset resulted from the experiments that we performed, of which the results validated this hypothesis. Of note, this prefractionation method allowed to identify 45% more proteins compared to the number of proteins identified from the total crude extract without prefractionation. Our results thus showed that a simple offline prefractionation of the proteome by ammonium sulfate prior to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry drastically improved the detection of intact and post-translationally modified proteins.
Project description:Enzymatic Methyl-seq (EM-seq) is an enzyme-based method giving us reliable methylome data from small amounts of purified DNA. However, it is unclear whether EM-seq library can be constructed from crude cell lysate containing genomic DNA. We evaluated the quality of EM-seq libraries directly prepared from crude cell lysate.
Project description:Background: We previously reported that intake of a water-soluble extract of Pacific Krill (WEPAK) by mice decreases triglyceride accumulation in liver and suppresses weight gain induced by a high-fat diet. However, the mechanisms mediating these phenomena were not investigated or revealed in our previous study. Methods and Findings: Here, we investigated the effect of WEPAK in mouse liver using transcriptome analysis and discovered that WEPAK induced the expression of genes categorized into the gene ontology (GO) term lipid metabolic process. Furthermore, two regulators of fatty acid β-oxidation, AMPK and PPARδ, were induced in the liver and muscle of mice that had taken in WEPAK. Conclusions: These results indicate that WEPAK increased the expression of genes related to fatty acid β-oxidation via activation of AMPK and PPARδ. WEPAK may have the effect of improving lipid metabolism and, therefore, may be beneficial in the prevention of obesity.
Project description:Background: We previously reported that intake of a water-soluble extract of Pacific Krill (WEPAK) by mice decreases triglyceride accumulation in liver and suppresses weight gain induced by a high-fat diet. However, the mechanisms mediating these phenomena were not investigated or revealed in our previous study. Methods and Findings: Here, we investigated the effect of WEPAK in mouse liver using transcriptome analysis and discovered that WEPAK induced the expression of genes categorized into the gene ontology (GO) term lipid metabolic process. Furthermore, two regulators of fatty acid β-oxidation, AMPK and PPARδ, were induced in the liver and muscle of mice that had taken in WEPAK. Conclusions: These results indicate that WEPAK increased the expression of genes related to fatty acid β-oxidation via activation of AMPK and PPARδ. WEPAK may have the effect of improving lipid metabolism and, therefore, may be beneficial in the prevention of obesity. Examination of 4 different feeding condtion (4mice/group)