In C. elegans, ablation of germline stem cells (GSCs) extends lifespan, but also increases fat accumulation and alters lipid metabolism, raising the intriguing question of how these effects might be related. Here we show that a lack of GSCs results in a broad transcriptional reprogramming, in which the conserved detoxification regulator SKN-1/Nrf increases stress resistance, proteasome activity, and longevity. SKN-1 also activates diverse lipid metabolism genes and reduces fat storage, thereby alleviating the increased fat accumulation caused by GSC absence. Surprisingly, SKN-1 is activated by signals from this fat, which appears to derive from unconsumed yolk that was produced for reproduction. We conclude that SKN-1 plays a direct role in maintaining lipid homeostasis, in which it is activated by lipids. This SKN-1 function may explain the importance of mammalian Nrf proteins in fatty liver disease, and suggests that particular endogenous or dietary lipids might promote health through SKN-1/Nrf. Overall design: Samples were prepared from ~5,000 synchronized, L1 arrested day-one adult animals cultured at 25°C. Worms were synchronized by sodium hypochlorite (bleach) treatment, as previously described (Porta-de-la-Riva et al., 2012). Bleach solution (9 mL ddH2O; 1 mL 1 N NaOH; 4 mL Clorox bleach) was freshly prepared before each experiment. Worms were bleached for 5 minutes, washed 5x in M9, and arrested at the L1 stage at 25°C in M9 containing 10 µg/mL cholesterol. Feeding RNAi was started at the L1 stage. This approach only partially reduces skn-1 function, but allows analysis of larger samples than would be feasible with skn-1 mutants, which are sterile (Bowerman et al., 1992). Because these animals were not treated with FUdR, the WT adults contained an intact germline and eggs. As is explained in the Results section, we therefore confined our analysis to genes that were overrepresented in glp-1(ts) animals, which lack eggs and most of the germline, and established a high-confidence cutoff for genes that were upregulated by GSC absence as opposed to simply being expressed specifically in somatic tissues. RNA was extracted using the same protocol for qRT-PCR samples. Purified RNA samples were DNase treated and assigned a RIN quality score using a Bioanalyzer 2100 (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA). Only matched samples with high RIN scores were sent for sequencing. Single read 50 bp RNA sequencing with poly(A) enrichment was performed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Center for Computational Biology using a HiSeq 2000 (Illumina, San Diego, CA). FASTQ output files were aligned to the WBcel235 (Feb 2014) C. elegans reference genome using STAR (Dobin et al., 2013). These files have been deposited at the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) with the accession number GSE63075. Samples averaged 75% mapping of sequence reads to the reference genome. Differential expression analysis was performed using a custom R and Bioconductor RNA-seq pipeline (http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/RNAseqCaseStudy/) (Gentleman et al., 2004; Anders et al., 2013; R Core Team, 2014). Quantification of mapped reads in the aligned SAM output files was performed using featureCounts, part of the Subread package (Liao et al., 2013, 2014). We filtered out transcripts that didn't have at least one count per million reads in at least two samples. Quantile normalization and estimation of the mean-variance relationship of the log-counts was performed by voom (Law et al., 2014). Linear model fitting, empirical Bayes analysis and differential expression analysis was then conducted using limma (Smyth, 2005). To identify genes that are upregulated in a SKN-1-dependent manner by GSC loss, we sought genes for which glp-1(ts) expression was higher than WT, and for which glp-1(ts);skn-1(-) expression was reduced relative to glp-1(ts). To test for this pattern, if a gene's expression change was higher in the comparison of glp-1(ts) vs. WT and lower in the comparison of glp-1(ts);skn-1(-) vs. glp-1(ts), then we calculated the minimum (in absolute value) of the t-statistics from these two comparisons, and assessed the significance of this statistic by comparing to a null distribution derived by applying this procedure to randomly generated t-statistics. We corrected for multiple testing in this and the differential expression analysis using the false discovery rate (FDR) (Benjamini and Hochberg, 1995). Heatmaps were generated using heatmap.2 in the gplots package (Warnes et al., 2014). Functional annotations and phenotypes were obtained from Wormbase build WS246. SKN-1 transcription factor binding site analysis of hits was conducted with biomaRt, GenomicFeatures, JASPAR, MotifDb, motifStack, MotIV, and Rsamtools (Sandelin et al., 2004; Durinck et al., 2005; Durinck et al., 2009; Lawrence et al., 2013; Ou et al., 2013; Mercier and Gottardo, 2014; Shannon, 2014). JASPAR analysis was performed with the SKN-1 matrix MA0547.1 using 2 kb upstream sequences obtained from Ensembl WBcel235 (Staab et al., 2013). modENCODE SKN-1::GFP ChIP-seq analysis of hits was performed using biomaRt, ChIPpeakAnno, IRanges, and multtest (Durinck et al., 2005; Durinck et al., 2009; Gerstein et al., 2010; Zhu et al., 2010; Niu et al., 2011; Lawrence et al., 2013). SKN-1::GFP ChIP-seq peaks were generated by Michael Snyder's lab. We used the peak data generated from the first 3 larval stages: L1 (modENCODE_2622; GSE25810), L2 (modENCODE_3369), and L3 (modENCODE_3838; GSE48710). Human ortholog matching was performed using Wormbase, Ensembl, and OrthoList (Shaye and Greenwald, 2011). Gene lists were evaluated for functional classification and statistical overrepresentation with Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) version 6.7 (Dennis et al., 2003).
Lipid-mediated regulation of SKN-1/Nrf in response to germ cell absence.
Cell line, Subject
View SamplesTranscriptional programming of cell identity promises to open up new frontiers in regenerative medicine by enabling the efficient production of clinically relevant cell types. We examine if such cellular programming is accomplished by transcription factors that each have an independent and additive effect on cellular identity, or if programming factors synergize to produce an effect that is not independently obtainable. The combinations of Ngn2-Isl1-Lhx3 and Ngn2-Isl1-Phox2a transcription factors program embryonic stem cells to express a spinal or cranial motor neuron identity respectively. The two alternate expression programs are determined by recruitment of Isl1/Lhx3 and Isl1/Phox2a pairs to distinct genomic locations characterized by two alternative dimeric homeobox motifs. These results suggest that the function of programming modules relies on synergistic interactions among transcription factors and thus cannot be extrapolated from the study of individual transcription factors in a different cellular context.
Synergistic binding of transcription factors to cell-specific enhancers programs motor neuron identity.
Cell line, Treatment
View SamplesBasic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proneural transcription factors (TFs) Ascl1 and Neurog2 are integral to the development of the nervous system. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms by which Ascl1 and Neurog2 control the acquisition of generic neuronal fate and impose neuronal subtype identity. Using direct neuronal programming of embryonic stem cells, we found that Ascl1 and Neurog2 regulate distinct targets by binding to largely different sets of sites. Their divergent binding pattern is not determined by the previous chromatin state but distinguished by specific E-box enrichments which reflect the DNA sequence preference of the bHLH domain. The divergent Ascl1 and Neurog2 binding patterns result in distinct chromatin accessibility and enhancer activity landscapes that shape the binding and activity of downstream TFs during neuronal specification. Our findings suggest that proneural factors contribute to neuronal diversity by differentially altering the chromatin landscapes that shape the binding of neuronally expressed TFs. Overall design: Single-cell RNA-seq was used to characterize gene expression in mixed populations of mES cells containing induced expression of either Ascl1 or Neurog2.
Proneural factors Ascl1 and Neurog2 contribute to neuronal subtype identities by establishing distinct chromatin landscapes.
Specimen part, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesIn almost every countries the proportion of people over 60 years is growing faster that any other age group. Increased life expectancy is leading to the characterization of specific aspects of aging for the various physiological systems. The study of healthy aging is important to design strategies capable to maximize the health and to prevent chronic diseases in older people. Immunosenscence reflects the age-related changes of the immune system and the reduced capacity of elderly people to cope with new infections. To elucidate changes in gene expression related to systemic aging and immunosenescence in an unbiased manner we performed comparative microarray analysis on whole blood cell from healthy middle-aged versus elderly men, and correlated results with functional measurements of aerobic capacity. Blood cells from elderly subjects showed age-related changes in the expression of several markers of immunosenescence, inflammation and oxidative stress, and showed impairments in metabolic and biosynthetic capacities.
Aging: a portrait from gene expression profile in blood cells.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesPlasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a rare form of plasma cell dyscrasia that presents either as a progression of previously diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM), namely secondary PCL (sPCL), or as the initial manifestation of disease, namely primary PCL (pPCL). Although presenting signs and symptoms include those seen in MM, pPCL is characterized by several aspects that clearly define more aggressive course. To provide insights into the biology of pPCL, we have investigated the transcriptional profiles of a cohort of 21 newly-diagnosed, homogeneously treated pPCL patients included in a multicenter prospective clinical trial. All but one pPCL had one of the main IGH translocations, whose associated transcriptional signatures resembled those observed in MM. A 503-gene signature was identified that distinguished pPCL from MM, from which emerged 28 genes whose trend in expression levels was found associated with the progressive stages of plasma cell dyscrasia in a large dataset of cases from multiple institutions, including samples from normal donors throughout PCL. The transcriptional pattern of the pPCL series was then evaluated in association with outcome. Three genes were identified having expression levels correlated with response to the first-line treatment with lenalidomide/dexamethasone, whereas a 27-gene signature was identified associated with overall survival independently of molecular alterations, hematological parameters and renal function. Overall, our data contribute to a fine dissection of pPCL and may provide novel insights into the molecular definition of a subgroup of high-risk pPCL.
Transcriptional characterization of a prospective series of primary plasma cell leukemia revealed signatures associated with tumor progression and poorer outcome.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Genome-wide analysis of primary plasma cell leukemia identifies recurrent imbalances associated with changes in transcriptional profiles.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesPrimary plasma cell leukaemia (pPCL) is a rare, yet aggressive form of de novo plasma cell tumor, distinguished from secondary PCL (sPCL) which represents a leukemic transformation of pre-existing multiple myeloma (MM). Here, we performed a comprehensive molecular analysis of a prospective series of pPCLs by means of FISH, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and gene expression profiling (GEP). IGH@ translocations were identified in 87% of pPCL cases, with prevalence of t(11;14) (40%) and t(14;16) (30.5%), whereas the most frequently altered regions were located at 1p (38%), 1q (48%), 6q (29%), 8p (42%), 13q (74%), 14q (71%), 16q (53%) and 17p (35%). A relevant finding of our study was the identification of a minimal biallelical deletion (1.5 Mb) in 8p21.2 encompassing the putative tumor suppressor gene PPP2R2A that was significantly down-regulated in deleted cases. Mutations of TP53 were identified in 4 cases all but one associated with a monoallelic deletion of the gene, whereas activating mutations of BRAF occurred in one case and were absent for N- and K-RAS. To evaluate the influence of allelic imbalances in transcriptional expression we performed an integrated genomic analysis with GEP data, showing a significant dosage effect of genes involved in transcription, translation, methyltransferases activity, apoptosis as well as Wnt and NF-kB signaling pathways. Overall, we provide a compendium of genomic alterations in a prospective series of pPCLs which may contribute to our understanding of this particular form of plasma cell dyscrasia and to better elucidate the mechanisms of tumor progression in MM.
Genome-wide analysis of primary plasma cell leukemia identifies recurrent imbalances associated with changes in transcriptional profiles.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Chemical genetic strategy identifies histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and HDAC2 as therapeutic targets in sickle cell disease.
Specimen part, Treatment
View SamplesGene expression profiling was performed on primary human erythroid progenitor cells expressing a control shRNA (luciferase), two different HDAC1 shRNAs, and two different HDAC2 shRNAs.
Chemical genetic strategy identifies histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and HDAC2 as therapeutic targets in sickle cell disease.
Specimen part
View SamplesGene expression profiling was performed on primary human erythroid progenitor cells left untreated or treated with 2uM NK57 for 3 days.
Chemical genetic strategy identifies histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and HDAC2 as therapeutic targets in sickle cell disease.
Specimen part, Treatment
View Samples