Project description:These studies address temporal changes in gene expression during spontaneous sleep and extended wakefulness in the mouse cerebral cortex, a neuronal target for processes that control sleep; and the hypothalamus, an important site of sleep regulatory processes. We determined these changes by comparing expression in sleeping animals sacrificed at different times during the lights on period, to that in animals sleep deprived and sacrificed at the same diurnal time. Keywords: gene expression, temporal changes, brain, behavior, sleep,
Project description:Analysis of brain of Canton-S females deprived of sleep by perturbations during their normal sleep period. Perturbation effect also assessed during their active period to control for its effect during sleep deprivation. Results suggest processes altered during prolonged wakefulness and during sleep.
Project description:PURPOSE: To provide a detailed gene expression profile of the normal postnatal mouse cornea. METHODS: Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was performed on postnatal day (PN)9 and adult mouse (6 week) total corneas. The expression of selected genes was analyzed by in situ hybridization. RESULTS: A total of 64,272 PN9 and 62,206 adult tags were sequenced. Mouse corneal transcriptomes are composed of at least 19,544 and 18,509 unique mRNAs, respectively. One third of the unique tags were expressed at both stages, whereas a third was identified exclusively in PN9 or adult corneas. Three hundred thirty-four PN9 and 339 adult tags were enriched more than fivefold over other published nonocular libraries. Abundant transcripts were associated with metabolic functions, redox activities, and barrier integrity. Three members of the Ly-6/uPAR family whose functions are unknown in the cornea constitute more than 1% of the total mRNA. Aquaporin 5, epithelial membrane protein and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) omega-1, and GST alpha-4 mRNAs were preferentially expressed in distinct corneal epithelial layers, providing new markers for stratification. More than 200 tags were differentially expressed, of which 25 mediate transcription. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to providing a detailed profile of expressed genes in the PN9 and mature mouse cornea, the present SAGE data demonstrate dynamic changes in gene expression after eye opening and provide new probes for exploring corneal epithelial cell stratification, development, and function and for exploring the intricate relationship between programmed and environmentally induced gene expression in the cornea. Keywords: other
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:To gain insight into the dynamic molecular processes that are altered during prolonged wakefulness and during sleep. We performed an RNA expression profiling study examining temporal changes in the brain of Drosophila in relationship to the duration of prior sleep or wakefulness. Our experimental design allowed us to determine whether genes identified as differentially regulated between sleep and wakefulness were up- or down-regulated in these states. Because stimulation of the experimental animal during the normal sleep period is used to prolong wakefulness in most experimental paradigms, the interpretation of the effects of prolonged wakefulness is confounded by the effect of the perturbation stimulus itself on the animal’s biology. We controlled for this effect in our experimental paradigm by examining gene expression changes in response to identical stimulation but during the animal’s normal wakefulness. The design of our study also allowed us to control for circadian variation in gene expression, since we compared sleeping and sleep deprived flies at the same diurnal time. Keywords: sleep deprivation, time course, stress response