Project description:Chronic viral infections incapacitate adaptive immune responses by 'exhausting' virus-specific T cells, inducing their deletion and reducing productive T cell memory. Viral infection rapidly induces death receptor Fas (CD95) expression by dendritic cells (DCs) making them susceptible to elimination by the immune response. Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (LCMV) Clone 13, which normally establishes a chronic infection, is rapidly cleared in C57Black/J mice with conditional deletion of Fas in DCs. The immune response to LCMV is characterized by an extended survival of virus-specific effector T cells. Moreover, transfer of Fas-negative DCs from non-infected mice to already-infected animals results in either complete clearance of the virus or a significant reduction of viral titers. Thus, DC-specific Fas expression plays a role in regulation of anti-viral responses and suggests a strategy for stimulation of T cells in chronically infected animals and humans in order to achieve the clearance of persistent viruses. We compared gene expression between splenic DCs from B6.FasKI and B6.CD11c-Cre.FasKI mice. DCs were isolated on day 5 after LCMV infection with 3 mice in each group, for a total of 6 samples. Spleens were collagenase-DNAse digested and sorted by flow to isolate DCs.
Project description:Chronic viral infections incapacitate adaptive immune responses by 'exhausting' virus-specific T cells, inducing their deletion and reducing productive T cell memory. Viral infection rapidly induces death receptor Fas (CD95) expression by dendritic cells (DCs) making them susceptible to elimination by the immune response. Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (LCMV) Clone 13, which normally establishes a chronic infection, is rapidly cleared in C57Black/J mice with conditional deletion of Fas in DCs. The immune response to LCMV is characterized by an extended survival of virus-specific effector T cells. Moreover, transfer of Fas-negative DCs from non-infected mice to already-infected animals results in either complete clearance of the virus or a significant reduction of viral titers. Thus, DC-specific Fas expression plays a role in regulation of anti-viral responses and suggests a strategy for stimulation of T cells in chronically infected animals and humans in order to achieve the clearance of persistent viruses.
Project description:CD95 (also called FAS and APO-1) is a prototypical death receptor that regulates tissue homeostasis mainly in the immune system through induction of apoptosis. During cancer progression CD95 is frequently downregulated or cells are rendered apoptosis resistant raising the possibility that loss of CD95 is part of a mechanism for tumour evasion. However, complete loss of CD95 is rarely seen in human cancers and many cancer cells express large quantities of CD95 and are highly sensitive to CD95 mediated apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, cancer patients frequently have elevated levels of the physiological ligand for CD95, CD95L. These data raise the intriguing possibility that CD95 could actually promote the growth of tumours through its nonapoptotic activities. Here we show that cancer cells in general, regardless of their CD95 apoptosis sensitivity, depend on constitutive activity of CD95, stimulated by cancer-produced CD95L, for optimal growth. Consistently, loss of CD95 in mouse models of ovarian cancer and liver cancer reduces cancer incidence as well as the size of the tumours. The tumorigenic activity of CD95 is mediated by a pathway involving JNK and c-Jun. These results demonstrate that CD95 plays a major growth promoting role during tumorigenesis and suggest that efforts to inhibit its activity rather than to enhance its activation should be considered during cancer therapy. There are 3 arrays for human ovarian cancer cell line, 2 arrays for human liver cancer cell line, and 2 arrays for mouse liver tissue. All the arrays are paired arrays with or without Fas knock-out.
Project description:Introgressed variants from other species can be an important source of genetic variation because they may arise rapidly, can include multiple mutations on a single haplotype, and have often been pretested by selection in the species of origin. Although introgressed alleles are generally deleterious, several studies have reported introgression as the source of adaptive alleles-including the rodenticide-resistant variant of Vkorc1 that introgressed from Mus spretus into European populations of Mus musculus domesticus. Here, we conducted bidirectional genome scans to characterize introgressed regions into one wild population of M. spretus from Spain and three wild populations of M. m. domesticus from France, Germany, and Iran. Despite the fact that these species show considerable intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation, introgression was observed in all individuals, including in the M. musculus reference genome (GRCm38). Mus spretus individuals had a greater proportion of introgression compared with M. m. domesticus, and within M. m. domesticus, the proportion of introgression decreased with geographic distance from the area of sympatry. Introgression was observed on all autosomes for both species, but not on the X-chromosome in M. m. domesticus, consistent with known X-linked hybrid sterility and inviability genes that have been mapped to the M. spretus X-chromosome. Tract lengths were generally short with a few outliers of up to 2.7 Mb. Interestingly, the longest introgressed tracts were in olfactory receptor regions, and introgressed tracts were significantly enriched for olfactory receptor genes in both species, suggesting that introgression may be a source of functional novelty even between species with high barriers to gene flow.
Project description:CD95 (also called FAS and APO-1) is a prototypical death receptor that regulates tissue homeostasis mainly in the immune system through induction of apoptosis. During cancer progression CD95 is frequently downregulated or cells are rendered apoptosis resistant raising the possibility that loss of CD95 is part of a mechanism for tumour evasion. However, complete loss of CD95 is rarely seen in human cancers and many cancer cells express large quantities of CD95 and are highly sensitive to CD95 mediated apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, cancer patients frequently have elevated levels of the physiological ligand for CD95, CD95L. These data raise the intriguing possibility that CD95 could actually promote the growth of tumours through its nonapoptotic activities. Here we show that cancer cells in general, regardless of their CD95 apoptosis sensitivity, depend on constitutive activity of CD95, stimulated by cancer-produced CD95L, for optimal growth. Consistently, loss of CD95 in mouse models of ovarian cancer and liver cancer reduces cancer incidence as well as the size of the tumours. The tumorigenic activity of CD95 is mediated by a pathway involving JNK and c-Jun. These results demonstrate that CD95 plays a major growth promoting role during tumorigenesis and suggest that efforts to inhibit its activity rather than to enhance its activation should be considered during cancer therapy.
Project description:Translational research is commonly performed in the C57B6/J mouse strain, chosen for its genetic homogeneity and phenotypic uniformity. Here, we evaluate the suitability of the white-footed deer mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) as a model organism for aging research, offering a comparative analysis against C57B6/J and diversity outbred (DO) Mus musculus strains. Our study includes comparisons of body composition, skeletal muscle function, and cardiovascular parameters, shedding light on potential applications and limitations of P. leucopus in aging studies. Notably, P. leucopus exhibits distinct body composition characteristics, emphasizing reduced muscle force exertion and a unique metabolism, particularly in fat mass. Cardiovascular assessments showed changes in arterial stiffness, challenging conventional assumptions and highlighting the need for a nuanced interpretation of aging-related phenotypes. Our study also highlights inherent challenges associated with maintaining and phenotyping P. leucopus cohorts. Behavioral considerations, including anxiety-induced responses during handling and phenotyping assessment, pose obstacles in acquiring meaningful data. Moreover, the unique anatomy of P. leucopus necessitates careful adaptation of protocols designed for Mus musculus. While showcasing potential benefits, further extensive analyses across broader age ranges and larger cohorts are necessary to establish the reliability of P. leucopus as a robust and translatable model for aging studies.
Project description:BackgroundCopy number variation is an important dimension of genetic diversity and has implications in development and disease. As an important model organism, the mouse is a prime candidate for copy number variant (CNV) characterization, but this has yet to be completed for a large sample size. Here we report CNV analysis of publicly available, high-density microarray data files for 351 mouse tail samples, including 290 mice that had not been characterized for CNVs previously.ResultsWe found 9634 putative autosomal CNVs across the samples affecting 6.87% of the mouse reference genome. We find significant differences in the degree of CNV uniqueness (single sample occurrence) and the nature of CNV-gene overlap between wild-caught mice and classical laboratory strains. CNV-gene overlap was associated with lipid metabolism, pheromone response and olfaction compared to immunity, carbohydrate metabolism and amino-acid metabolism for wild-caught mice and classical laboratory strains, respectively. Using two subspecies of wild-caught Mus musculus, we identified putative CNVs unique to those subspecies and show this diversity is better captured by wild-derived laboratory strains than by the classical laboratory strains. A total of 9 genic copy number variable regions (CNVRs) were selected for experimental confirmation by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR).ConclusionThe analysis we present is a comprehensive, genome-wide analysis of CNVs in Mus musculus, which increases the number of known variants in the species and will accelerate the identification of novel variants in future studies.
Project description:BackgroundLong terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons make up a large fraction of the typical mammalian genome. They comprise about 8% of the human genome and approximately 10% of the mouse genome. On account of their abundance, LTR retrotransposons are believed to hold major significance for genome structure and function. Recent advances in genome sequencing of a variety of model organisms has provided an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate better the diversity of LTR retrotransposons resident in eukaryotic genomes.ResultsUsing a new data-mining program, LTR_STRUC, in conjunction with conventional techniques, we have mined the GenBank mouse (Mus musculus) database and the more complete Ensembl mouse dataset for LTR retrotransposons. We report here that the M. musculus genome contains at least 21 separate families of LTR retrotransposons; 13 of these families are described here for the first time.ConclusionsAll families of mouse LTR retrotransposons are members of the gypsy-like superfamily of retroviral-like elements. Several different families of unrelated non-autonomous elements were identified, suggesting that the evolution of non-autonomy may be a common event. High sequence similarity between several LTR retrotransposons identified in this study and those found in distantly-related species suggests that horizontal transfer has been a significant factor in the evolution of mouse LTR retrotransposons.
Project description:Here we report the expansion of the genetic code of Mus musculus with various unnatural amino acids including Nɛ-acetyl-lysine. Stable integration of transgenes encoding an engineered Nɛ-acetyl-lysyl-tRNA synthetase (AcKRS)/tRNAPyl pair into the mouse genome enables site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids into a target protein in response to the amber codon. We demonstrate temporal and spatial control of protein acetylation in various organs of the transgenic mouse using a recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFPuv) as a model protein. This strategy will provide a powerful tool for systematic in vivo study of cellular proteins in the most commonly used mammalian model organism for human physiology and disease.