Project description:Deep sequencing of mRNA from Chinese tree shrew; Chinese tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) is placed in Order Scandentia and embraces many unique features for a good experimental animal model. Currently, there are many attempts to employ tree shrew to establish model for a variety of human disorders such as social stress, myopia, HCV and HBV infection, and hepatocellular carcinoma .We present here a publicly available annotated genome sequence for Chinese tree shrew. Phylogenomic analysis of tree shrew and other mammalians highly supported its close affinity to primates. Characterization of key factors and signaling pathways of the nervous and immune systems in tree shrews showed that this animal had common and unique features, and had essential genetic basis for being a promising model for biomedical researches. Analysis of ploy(A)+ RNA of different specimens:kidney, pancreas, heart, liver, brain, testis and ovary form Chinese tree shrew
Project description:Chemical modifications to the tails of histone proteins act as gene regulators that play a pivotal role in adaptive responses to environmental stress. Determining the short and long term kinetics of histone marks is essential for understanding their functions in adaptation. We used Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to study the histone modification kinetics in response to environmental stress, taking advantage of their ability to live in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. We investigated the multigenerational genome-wide dynamics of five histone marks (H3K4me3, H3K27me3, H4K20me1, H3K36me1, and H3K9me3) by maintaining P0 animals on terrestrial (agar plates), F1 in aquatic cultures, and F2 back on terrestrial environments. We determined the distributions of histone marks in the gene promoter regions and found that H4K20me1, H3K36me1, and H3K9me3 showed up to eleven-fold differences in density, whereas H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 remained highly constant during adaptation from terrestrial to aquatic environments. Furthermore, we predicted that up to five combinations of histone marks can co-occupy single gene promoters and confirmed the colocalization of these histone marks by structured illumination microscopy. The co-occupancy increases with environment changes and different co-occupancy patterns contribute to variances in gene expressions and thereby presents a supporting evidence for the histone code hypothesis.
Project description:Deep sequencing of mRNA from Chinese tree shrew; Chinese tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) is placed in Order Scandentia and embraces many unique features for a good experimental animal model. Currently, there are many attempts to employ tree shrew to establish model for a variety of human disorders such as social stress, myopia, HCV and HBV infection, and hepatocellular carcinoma .We present here a publicly available annotated genome sequence for Chinese tree shrew. Phylogenomic analysis of tree shrew and other mammalians highly supported its close affinity to primates. Characterization of key factors and signaling pathways of the nervous and immune systems in tree shrews showed that this animal had common and unique features, and had essential genetic basis for being a promising model for biomedical researches.
Project description:The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is a star example of the efforts of conservation programs in bringing endangered species back from the brink of extinction. As one of the world’s most endangered mammals, the vast majority of black-footed ferrets living in the wild today are the offspring of a founding captive population. The success of this ongoing breeding program, however, is threatened by inbreeding depression and the observed decline in pregnancy rates since its founding. As the wild and modern captive populations share a genetic history, the greatest difference between the two groups is the captive environment of the breeding program. In this study, we used RNA sequencing and proteomics for the first time in black-footed ferrets to explore whether the diet of wild ferrets versus captive diet variants could explain the differences in fertility and sperm characteristics observed between each population. We find that changes in both the transcriptional and proteomic profile of black-footed ferret ejaculate are strongly associated with differences in fertility, especially in pathways associated with innate immunity and metabolism; that transcriptional changes are further exacerbated by diet. Overall, our results support the hypothesis of ongoing environmental-dependent inbreeding depression in the black-footed ferret, with a need to re-evaluate dietary and environmental parameters of the conservation program; and also illustrates the value of multi-level genomics for conservation management programs.
Project description:In feather-footed pigeons, mutant alleles of PITX1 and TBX5 drive the partial redeployment of an evolutionarily conserved forelimb genetic program in the hindlimb.
Project description:Anopheles arabiensis from Jinja, Uganda resistant to permethrin (1hr exposure) were compared to sympatric controls and two pyrethroid susceptible colonies of An. arabiensis (Moz and Dongola)
Project description:Complex gene flow boundaries among sympatric Anopheles vector mosquito populations revealed by genome-wide SNP genotyping.<br><br>Normalized data is provided in archive E-MTAB-338.additional.zip on the FTP site for this experiment.