Project description:The little skate, a cartilaginous fish evolutionarily distal from tetrapods, displays walking-like behavior and has conserved genetic programs and neuronal substrates for land-walking. Studies on little skate have been limited due to lack of high-quality genome assembly. Here, we generated an improved genome assembly of little skate reflecting precise gene annotation and structures and performed integrated analysis of gene expression and chromatin accessibility to investigate molecular mechanisms of fin motor neuron development. Through interspecies comparison of RNA expression, common and species-specific genes expressed in fin/limb/wing level motor neurons were identified. Moreover, by performing chromatin accessibility analysis with a pure fin motor neuron population the potential regulators controlling the gene expression in fin motor neurons were identified. Interspecies comparison of genomic data, gene expression, and chromatin accessibility assay suggest that the little skate has highly conserved gene regulatory mechanisms controlling tetrapod locomotion, which was not previously expected.
Project description:Rapid and reliable identification of the vertebrate species on which a disease vector previously parasitized is imperative to study ecological factors that affect pathogen distribution and can aid the development of public health programs. We here describe a proteome profiling technique designed to identify the source of blood meals of hematophagous arthropods. This method employs direct spectral matching and thus does not require a priori knowledge of any genetic or protein sequence information. Using this technology, we can detect remnants of blood in blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) and correctly determine the vertebrate species from which the blood was derived even six months after the tick had fed. This biological fingerprinting methodology is sensitive, fast, cost-effective, and can potentially be adapted for other biological and medical applications when existing genome-based methods are impractical or ineffective.
Project description:The little skate, a cartilaginous fish evolutionarily distal from tetrapods, displays walking-like behavior and has conserved genetic programs and neuronal substrates for land-walking. Studies on little skate have been limited due to lack of high-quality genome assembly. Here, we generated an improved genome assembly of little skate reflecting precise gene annotation and structures and performed integrated analysis of gene expression and chromatin accessibility to investigate molecular mechanisms of fin motor neuron development. Through interspecies comparison of RNA expression, common and species-specific genes expressed in fin/limb/wing level motor neurons were identified. Moreover, by performing chromatin accessibility analysis with a pure fin motor neuron population the potential regulators controlling the gene expression in fin motor neurons were identified. Interspecies comparison of genomic data, gene expression, and chromatin accessibility assay suggest that the little skate has highly conserved gene regulatory mechanisms controlling tetrapod locomotion, which was not previously expected.