Project description:Here, we propose that the cuticle of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) can be used as a model for human skin to test potentially toxic compounds, in particular, those commonly used in skincare and household products. We examined the effect of toxic chemicals on cuticle morphology and mechanical behavior using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and our findings revealed that two parameters, surface roughness and elastic modulus, are good markers for quantifying cuticle damage caused by chemicals. The damage caused by the chemicals correlated to their toxicity, as expressed in terms of maximum concentration allowed by EU regulations for use in skincare and household products. Transcriptomic analysis showed us that each chemical elicited a specific response in terms of differential gene expression, suggesting the lack of a general response to chemical exposure from the worms in this study. It also showed that a large number of genes involved in the synthesis of cuticle proteins, as well as in metabolism and enzyme activity, were affected by chemical exposure. The number of genes with altered expression levels correlated with chemical toxicity, as well as with level of morphological and mechanical changes in the cuticle. The analysis of affected genes provides a pathway to understand the molecular mechanisms of toxic chemical action. Overall, we show that the cuticle of C. elegans is a good model for human skin for toxicological screening, and this approach will be of particular interest to the cosmetics and household chemical industries.
Project description:The some biomarkers can be found by pairwise comparison. They can distinguish between extremely severe Hand,foot and mouth disease and mild Hand,foot and mouth disease,moreover,they can applied to diagnose extremely severe Hand,foot and mouth disease mild Hand,foot and mouth disease vs.control; extremely severe Hand,foot and mouth disease vs.control; extremely severe Hand,foot and mouth disease vs.mild Hand,foot and mouth disease,verification by qRT-PCR
Project description:The some biomarkers can be found by pairwise comparison. They can distinguish between extremely severe Hand,foot and mouth disease and mild Hand,foot and mouth disease,moreover,they can applied to diagnose extremely severe Hand,foot and mouth disease
Project description:Identification of genes enriched in the presumptive primary mouth. Dissected tissues from the primary mouth anlage and two other anterior regions for comparison, the anterior dorsal and ventral plus cement gland.
Project description:The cuticles of arthropods, including aquatic crustaceans like Daphnia, provide an interface between the organism and its environment. Thus, the cuticle’s structure influences how the organism responds to and interacts with its surroundings. Here, we used label-free quantification proteomics to provide a proteome of the molted cuticle of Daphnia magna, which has long been a prominent subject of studies on ecology, evolution, and developmental biology, anddetected 278 high confidence proteins. Using protein sequence domain and functional enrichment analyses, we identified chitin-binding structural proteins and chitin modifying enzymes as most abundant protein groups in the cuticle proteome.Structural cuticular protein families showed a similar distribution to those found in other arthropods and indicated proteins responsible for the soft and flexible structure of the Daphnia cuticle . Finally, cuticle protein genes were clustered as tandem gene arrays in the Daphnia genome, indicating their importance for adaptation to environmental change. The cuticle proteome presented here will be a valuable resource to the Daphnia research community, informing investigations on diverse topics such as the genetic basis of interactions with predators and parasites.
Project description:The cuticles of arthropods, including aquatic crustaceans like Daphnia, provide an interface between the organism and its environment. Thus, the cuticle’s structure influences how the organism responds to and interacts with its surroundings. Here, we used label-free quantification proteomics to provide a proteome of the molted cuticle of Daphnia magna, which has long been a prominent subject of studies on ecology, evolution, and developmental biology, anddetected 278 high confidence proteins. Using protein sequence domain and functional enrichment analyses, we identified chitin-binding structural proteins and chitin modifying enzymes as most abundant protein groups in the cuticle proteome.Structural cuticular protein families showed a similar distribution to those found in other arthropods and indicated proteins responsible for the soft and flexible structure of the Daphnia cuticle . Finally, cuticle protein genes were clustered as tandem gene arrays in the Daphnia genome, indicating their importance for adaptation to environmental change. The cuticle proteome presented here will be a valuable resource to the Daphnia research community, informing investigations on diverse topics such as the genetic basis of interactions with predators and parasites.
Project description:Identification of genes enriched in the presumptive primary mouth. Dissected tissues from the primary mouth anlage and two other anterior regions for comparison, the anterior dorsal and ventral plus cement gland. Experiment Overall Design: tissues were dissected and pooled from 75-100 embryos and total RNA extracted.
Project description:Pigmentation plays multiple important roles in development, physiology and evolution. Melanization of the insect cuticle requires dopamine as a precursor of melanin and involves key enzymes in dopamine biosynthesis including Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and Dopa decarboxylase (Ddc). Some studies have hinted that disruption of the evolutionarily conserved Hippo signaling pathway, which has been primarily studied in the context of tissue growth, may lead to changes in cuticle pigmentation in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. However, there have not been any systematic investigations into their potential mechanistic links. In this study, we identified that all genes that comprise the canonical Hippo signaling pathway [hippo (hpo), salvador (sav), mats, warts (wts), yorkie (yki) and scalloped (sd)] are involved in cuticle pigmentation in the fly notum based on tissue-specific gene knock-down/out experiments and epistatic analysis. Despite the notable divergence of pigmentation mechanisms between invertebrates and vertebrates, these phenotypes can often be rescued by the human orthologs of corresponding fly genes. While we find that manipulation of Hippo signaling in dopaminergic neurons does not affect global dopamine levels in the fly brain, developmental inhibition of this pathway can increase dopamine levels in the fly head, indicating that the mechanism by which dopamine levels are regulated in the nervous system is distinct from that in epithelial cells. Through single nuclei RNA sequencing of the developing fly nota and subsequent functional studies of differentially expressed genes that are altered upon inhibition of Hippo signaling, we found four genes [ciboulot (cib), transaldolase (taldo), yellow (y) and Insulin-like receptor (InR)] that contribute to cuticle pigmentation downstream of wts. Finally, we provide multiple pieces of evidence that indicate that the function of Hippo signaling in cuticle pigmentation and tissue growth can be genetically uncoupled and also identify beaten path Vc (beat-Vc) as a novel tissue growth regulator that acts downstream of wts but is not required for cuticle pigmentation. We conclude that regulation of cuticle pigmentation by canonical Hippo signaling acts through multiple downstream genes rather than directly through TH and Ddc. We also propose that the Drosophila melanogaster cuticle may serve as a useful platform to identify previously uncharacterized mediators of Hippo signaling as well as an in vivo experimental system to test the functionality of rare genetic variants found in human Hippo signaling orthologs associated with a variety of diseases.
Project description:Nematodes show an extraordinary diversity of mouth structures and strikingly different feeding strategies, which has enabled an invasion of all ecosystems. However, nearly nothing is known about the structural and molecular architecture of the nematode mouth (stoma). Pristionchus pacificus is an intensively studied nematode that exhibits unique life history traits, including predation, teeth-like denticle formation, and mouth-form plasticity. Here, we used a large-scale genetic screen to identify genes involved in mouth formation. We identified Ppa-dpy-6 to encode a Mucin-type hydrogel-forming protein that is macroscopically involved in the specification of the cheilostom, the anterior part of the mouth. We used a recently developed protocol for geometric morphometrics of miniature animals to characterize these defects further and found additional defects that affect mouth form, shape, and size resulting in an overall malformation of the mouth. Additionally, Ppa-dpy-6 is shorter than wild-type with a typical Dumpy phenotype, indicating a role in the formation of the external cuticle. This concomitant phenotype of the cheilostom and cuticle provides the first molecular support for the continuity of these structures and for the separation of the cheilostom from the rest of the stoma. In Caenorhabditis elegans, dpy-6 was an early mapping mutant but its molecular identity was only determined during genome-wide RNAi screens and not further investigated. Strikingly, geometric morphometric analysis revealed previously unrecognized cheilostom and gymnostom defects in Cel-dpy-6 mutants. Thus, the Mucin-type protein DPY-6 represents to the best of our knowledge, the first protein involved in nematode mouth formation with a conserved role in cuticle deposition. This study opens new research avenues to characterize the molecular composition of the nematode mouth, which is associated with extreme ecological diversification.