Project description:We examined the growth curve, cell cycle, apoptosis and glycolysis of donkey, horse and mule adult fibroblasts (DAFs, HAFs and MAFs), which indicated there are differences in cell proliferation and metabolism. We also derived mule, donkey and horse iPSCs from their respective adult fibroblasts by piggyBac transposition, and we found the induced reprogramming efficiency of mule iPSCs was significantly higher than donkey and horse iPSCs (78.3% vs 58.2% vs 47.9%). miPSCs, diPSCs and hiPSCs all expressed high levels of key endogenous pluripotency genes such as Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog, propagated robustly in single cell passaging and miPSCs were found to proliferated significantly faster than diPSCs and hiPSCs. Furthermore, miPSCs/MAFs clustered closer to diPSCs/DAFs than to hiPSCs/HAFs by RNA-seq. The establishment of miPSCs provide unique experimental materials for further investigation of understanding the “heterosis” and reproductive isolation during speciation.
Project description:In eutherian mammals, dosage compensation of X-linked genes is achieved by X chromosome inactivation. X inactivation is random in embryonic and adult tissues, but imprinted X inactivation (paternal X silencing) has been identified in the extraembryonic membranes of the mouse, rat, and cow. Few other species have been studied for this trait, and the data from studies of the human placenta have been discordant or inconclusive. Here, we quantify X inactivation using RNA sequencing of placental tissue from reciprocal hybrids of horse and donkey (mule and hinny). In placental tissue from the equid hybrids and the horse parent the allelic expression pattern was consistent with random X inactivation, and imprinted X inactivation can clearly be excluded. We characterized horse and donkey XIST gene, and demonstrated that XIST allelic expression in female hybrid placental and fetal tissues is negatively correlated with the other X-linked genes chromosome-wide, which is consistent with the XIST-mediated mechanism of X inactivation discovered previously in mice. As the most structurally and morphologically diverse organ in mammals, the placenta also appears to show diverse mechanisms for dosage compensation that may result in differences in conceptus development across species.
Project description:In eutherian mammals, dosage compensation of X-linked genes is achieved by X chromosome inactivation. X inactivation is random in embryonic and adult tissues, but imprinted X inactivation (paternal X silencing) has been identified in the extraembryonic membranes of the mouse, rat, and cow. Few other species have been studied for this trait, and the data from studies of the human placenta have been discordant or inconclusive. Here, we quantify X inactivation using RNA sequencing of placental tissue from reciprocal hybrids of horse and donkey (mule and hinny). In placental tissue from the equid hybrids and the horse parent the allelic expression pattern was consistent with random X inactivation, and imprinted X inactivation can clearly be excluded. We characterized horse and donkey XIST gene, and demonstrated that XIST allelic expression in female hybrid placental and fetal tissues is negatively correlated with the other X-linked genes chromosome-wide, which is consistent with the XIST-mediated mechanism of X inactivation discovered previously in mice. As the most structurally and morphologically diverse organ in mammals, the placenta also appears to show diverse mechanisms for dosage compensation that may result in differences in conceptus development across species. Examine allelic expression from individual samples of invasive trophoblast tissue of the chorionic girdle from gestation day 33-34 conceptuses of 5 horses, 3 donkeys, 6 mules, and 1 hinny.
Project description:The discovery of genomic imprinting through studies of manipulated mouse embryos indicated that the paternal genome has a major influence on placental development. However, previous research has not demonstrated paternal bias in imprinted genes. We applied RNA sequencing to trophoblast tissue from reciprocal hybrids of horse and donkey, where genotypic differences allowed parent-of-origin identification of most expressed genes. Using this approach, we identified a core group of 15 ancient imprinted genes of which 10 were paternally expressed. An additional 78 candidate novel imprinted genes identified by RNA-seq also showed paternal bias. Pyrosequencing was used to confirm the imprinting status of six of the novel genes, including the insulin receptor (INSR), which may play a role in growth regulation with its reciprocally imprinted ligand, histone acetyltransferase (HAT1), the first example of an imprinted gene involved in chromatin modification, and LY6G6C, the first imprinted gene to be identified in the major histocompatibility complex. The 78 novel candidate imprinted genes displayed parent-of-origin expression bias in placenta but not fetus, and most showed less than 100% silencing of the imprinted allele. Some displayed variability in imprinting status among individuals. This results in a unique epigenetic signature for each placenta that contributes to variation in the intrauterine environment and thus presents the opportunity for natural selection to operate on parent-of-origin differential regulation. Taken together, these features highlight the plasticity of imprinting in mammals and the central importance of the placenta as a target tissue for genomic imprinting. Examine allelic expression from four individual samples of invasive trophoblast tissue of the chorionic girdle from gestation day 33 conceptuses of horse, donkey, mule and hinny.
Project description:Custom exon aCGH analysis of copy number across the genomes of 16 horse breeds Two-condition experiment, All breed samples were compared to a single Thoroughbred reference, Reference was then compared to Twilight (DNA from horse used for reference genome assembly)
Project description:The dataset is for identification of MALDI markers for peptide mass fingerprinting of bone collagen for species identification using ZooMS for horse and donkey using chymotrypsin. Corresponding MALDI data can be found through Zenodo at 10.5281/zenodo.6878868. This dataset contains: - raw files - peak list files - results files for the proteome search and for collagen marker identification - database for the collagen marker identification - csv file with information about the sample numbers.
More information about the extraction and digestion can be found at the linked manuscript.