Project description:Production of milk is a key characteristic of mammals, but the features of lactation vary greatly between monotreme, marsupial and eutherian mammals. Marsupials have a short gestation followed by a long lactation period, and the milk constituents vary greatly across lactation to meet the changing needs of the developing young. Marsupials are born immunologically naïve and rely on their mother’s milk for immunological protection. The koala is an iconic Australian species and many are increasingly threatened by disease. Here we use a mammary transcriptome, two milk proteomes and the koala genome to comprehensively characterise the protein components of the milk of the koala, with a key focus on the immune constituents during early and late lactation. We have characterised the most abundant peptides present in milk, examined key differences between early and late lactation, and determined differences between the koala and other marsupial species. The most abundant proteins were well characterised mammalian and marsupial-specific milk proteins including β-lactoglobulin, lactotransferrin, caseins and early lactation protein. We have generated a list of 851 immune compounds identified in the mammary transcriptome and examined a range of immune proteins that were highly abundant in the milk proteomes. These include immunoglobulins, complement components and immune receptors. A host of antimicrobial peptides were identified including cathelicidins, lysozyme, WAP four-disulfide core domain protein 2, Mucin-1 and Peptidoglycan recognition protein. We discovered that the previously described marsupial milk protein Very Early Lactation Protein is an ortholog of the eutherian gene Glycam1 (PP3) and likely has an antimicrobial role in milk. We also identified highly abundant koala endogenous retrovirus sequences in the mammary and milk transcriptome and proteomes, identifying a potential route for retroviral transmission from mother to young. Identifying and characterising the immune components of milk is key to understanding how marsupial young are protected throughout lactation and the novel immune compounds identified may have applications in clinical research.
Project description:Evidence from a few genes of diverse species suggests that marsupial X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is characterized by exclusive, but leaky, inactivation of the paternally derived X chromosome. To comprehensively study the mechanism of marsupial XCI, we profiled parent-of-origin-specific-allele expression, DNA methylation, and histone modifications in opossum fetal brain and extra-embryonic membranes. The majority (152/176) of X-linked genes exhibited paternally imprinted expression with nearly 100% maternal allele expression, whereas 24 loci (14%) escaped inactivation showing varying levels of biallelic expression. In addition to regulation by the non-coding RSX transcript, strong depletion of H3K27me3 at escaper gene loci indicates that histone states also influence opossum XCI. Notably, the opossum does not show an association between X-linked gene expression and promoter DNA methylation. Our study provides the first comprehensive catalogue of parent-of-origin expression status for X-linked genes in a marsupial and sheds light on the regulation and evolution of imprinted XCI in mammals. Profiling of four histone modifications in embryonic day 13 opossum (Monodelphis domestica) fetal brain by Illumina ChIP-seq
Project description:We study the genomic and developmental basis of the mammalian gliding membrane, or patagium, an adaptative trait that has repeatedly evolved in different lineages, including in closely related marsupial species. Through comparative genomic analysis of fifteen new marsupial genomes, both from gliding and non-gliding species, we find that the Emx2 locus experienced lineage-specific patterns of accelerated cis-regulatory evolution in gliding species. We confirm our finding via epigenomics, transcriptomics, and in vivo marsupial transgenics.
Project description:Evidence from a few genes of diverse species suggests that marsupial X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is characterized by exclusive, but leaky, inactivation of the paternally derived X chromosome. To comprehensively study the mechanism of marsupial XCI, we profiled parent-of-origin-specific-allele expression, DNA methylation, and histone modifications in opossum fetal brain and extra-embryonic membranes. The majority (152/176) of X-linked genes exhibited paternally imprinted expression with nearly 100% maternal allele expression, whereas 24 loci (14%) escaped inactivation showing varying levels of biallelic expression. In addition to regulation by the non-coding RSX transcript, strong depletion of H3K27me3 at escaper gene loci indicates that histone states also influence opossum XCI. Notably, the opossum does not show an association between X-linked gene expression and promoter DNA methylation. Our study provides the first comprehensive catalogue of parent-of-origin expression status for X-linked genes in a marsupial and sheds light on the regulation and evolution of imprinted XCI in mammals.
Project description:Evidence from a few genes of diverse species suggests that marsupial X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is characterized by exclusive, but leaky, inactivation of the paternally derived X chromosome. To comprehensively study the mechanism of marsupial XCI, we profiled parent-of-origin-specific-allele expression, DNA methylation, and histone modifications in opossum fetal brain and extra-embryonic membranes. The majority (152/176) of X-linked genes exhibited paternally imprinted expression with nearly 100% maternal allele expression, whereas 24 loci (14%) escaped inactivation showing varying levels of biallelic expression. In addition to regulation by the non-coding RSX transcript, strong depletion of H3K27me3 at escaper gene loci indicates that histone states also influence opossum XCI. Notably, the opossum does not show an association between X-linked gene expression and promoter DNA methylation. Our study provides the first comprehensive catalogue of parent-of-origin expression status for X-linked genes in a marsupial and sheds light on the regulation and evolution of imprinted XCI in mammals. Profiling of expression level and allele-specific expression ratios in embryonic day 13 opossum (Monodelphis domestica) fetal brain and extra-embyonic membranes by Illumina RNA-seq
Project description:Evidence from a few genes of diverse species suggests that marsupial X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is characterized by exclusive, but leaky, inactivation of the paternally derived X chromosome. To comprehensively study the mechanism of marsupial XCI, we profiled parent-of-origin-specific-allele expression, DNA methylation, and histone modifications in opossum fetal brain and extra-embryonic membranes. The majority (152/176) of X-linked genes exhibited paternally imprinted expression with nearly 100% maternal allele expression, whereas 24 loci (14%) escaped inactivation showing varying levels of biallelic expression. In addition to regulation by the non-coding RSX transcript, strong depletion of H3K27me3 at escaper gene loci indicates that histone states also influence opossum XCI. Notably, the opossum does not show an association between X-linked gene expression and promoter DNA methylation. Our study provides the first comprehensive catalogue of parent-of-origin expression status for X-linked genes in a marsupial and sheds light on the regulation and evolution of imprinted XCI in mammals.