A sensitive transcriptome analysis method that can detect unknown transcripts

More than 40,000 transcripts, including novel and noncoding transcripts, in mouse embryonic stem cells

To study the transcriptome of embryonic stem cells, we used a new gene expression profiling method that can measure the expression levels of unknown and rarely expressed transcripts precisely. We detected a total of 33,136 signal peaks representing transcripts in mouse embryonic stem cells, E14. Subsequent random cloning of the peaks suggests that mouse embryonic stem cells express at least 40,000 transcripts, of which about 2,000 are still unknown. In addition, we identified 1,022 noncoding transcripts, several of which change depending on differentiation in gene expression. Our database provides a high-resolution expression profile of E14 cells and is applicable to other mouse embryonic stem cell analyses. It includes most transcription regulation factor-encoding genes and a significant number of unknown and noncoding transcripts.

Equivalency of nuclear transfer-derived embryonic stem cells to those derived from fertilized mouse blastocysts

Therapeutic cloning, whereby nuclear transfer (NT) is used to generate embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from blastocysts, has been demonstrated successfully in mice and cattle. However, if NT-ESCs have abnormalities, such as those associated with the offspring produced by reproductive cloning, their scientific and medical utilities might prove limited. To evaluate the characteristics of NT-ESCs, we established more than 150 NT-ESC lines from adult somatic cells of several mouse strains. Here, we show that these NT-ESCs were able to differentiate into all functional embryonic tissues in vivo. Moreover, they were identical to blastocyst-derived ESCs in terms of their expression of pluripotency markers in the presence of tissue-dependent differentially DNA methylated regions, in DNA microarray profiles, and in high-coverage gene expression profiling. Importantly, the NT procedure did not cause irreversible damage to the nuclei. These similarities of NT-ESCs and ESCs indicate that murine therapeutic cloning by somatic cell NT can provide a reliable model for preclinical stem cell research.

Gene expression analysis using a modified HiCEP method applicable to prokaryotes: A study of the response of Rhodococcus to isoniazid and ethambutol

We established a novel method to analyze the gene expression of prokaryotes by modifying and optimizing the HiCEP (high coverage gene expression analysis) method, which was originally developed for eukaryotic gene expression profiling. Following the removal of abundant rRNA, the mRNA of prokaryotic cells was enzymatically polyadenylated and subjected to HiCEP analysis. This method was highly reproducible due to selective PCR that was performed by using adaptor specific primers. We confirmed induction of tipA and induction or suppression of cspA, which are genes that are obtained from distinctive actinomycetes and responded to thiostrepton and temperature stress, respectively. Further, we applied this method to explore the gene expression profile of Rhodococcus erythropolis in response to drugs that inhibit cell wall synthetic pathways, and we were able to identify 35 upregulated genes. Among these genes, we confirmed the upregulation of 22 genes by using RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction). Some of these genes are involved in the synthesis of mycolic acid and arabinogalactan, suggesting a cell response to drug treatment by regulation of the genes involved in cell wall synthesis. This method could prove to be a useful technique for gene expression analysis of prokaryotes, particularly nonmodel strains with unknown genome sequences.

Extremely low dose ionizing radiation up-regulates CXC chemokines in normal human fibroblasts

Although the public today could be exposed to X-rays as high as 1 cGy due to diagnostic procedures, the biological effects of this low-dose range have not been well established. We searched through >23,000 transcripts in normal human fibroblasts, HFLIII, using a novel comprehensive expression analysis method. More than 200 genes were up-regulated transiently by 1 cGy of X-rays during the 1-hour period after irradiation. We determined the nucleotide sequence of 10 up-regulated transcripts with the greatest rate of increase in the irradiated HFLIII cells. Three of the 10 transcripts encoded CXC chemokines (CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCL6). The rest included the transcripts of other secretory products (secretogranin II, thrombospondin type I domain containing 2, amphiregulin, and interleukin-6) and unknown genes. To test the involvement of CXC chemokines in cells irradiated with low doses, we irradiated HFLIII cells with 1 to 20 cGy X-rays and transferred the media from HFLIII culture to two melanoma cell lines characteristic of excessive numbers of the CXC chemokine-specific receptors. The growth of these melanoma lines were significantly stimulated by the medium from HFLIII irradiated at 1 to 5 cGy. Our results indicate that human cells respond to doses of radiation as low as 1 cGy, and mechanisms alternative to those involved in moderate/high-dose studies have to be considered in understanding the biological effects of diagnostic level radiation. In addition, our comprehensive approach using a novel expression profiling method is a powerful strategy to explore biological functions associated with very low levels of toxic agents.

Optimization of cDNA-AFLP experiments using genomic sequence data

MOTIVATION

cDNA amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) is one of the few genome-wide level expression profiling methods capable of finding genes that have not yet been cloned or even predicted from sequence but have interesting expression patterns under the studied conditions. In cDNA-AFLP, a complex cDNA mixture is divided into small subsets using restriction enzymes and selective PCR. A large cDNA-AFLP experiment can require a substantial amount of resources, such as hundreds of PCR amplifications and gel electrophoresis runs, followed by manual cutting of a large number of bands from the gels. Our aim was to test whether this workload can be reduced by rational design of the experiment.

RESULTS

We used the available genomic sequence information to optimize cDNA-AFLP experiments beforehand so that as many transcripts as possible could be profiled with a given amount of resources. Optimization of the selection of both restriction enzymes and selective primers for cDNA-AFLP experiments has not been performed previously. The in silico tests performed suggest that substantial amounts of resources can be saved by the optimization of cDNA-AFLP experiments.

A normalization strategy applied to HiCEP (an AFLP-based expression profiling) analysis: toward the strict alignment of valid fragments across electrophoretic patterns

Background

Gene expression analysis based on comparison of electrophoretic patterns is strongly dependent on the accuracy of DNA fragment sizing. The current normalization strategy based on molecular weight markers has limited accuracy because marker peaks are often masked by intense peaks nearby. Cumulative errors in fragment lengths cause problems in the alignment of same-length fragments across different electropherograms, especially for small fragments (< 100 bp). For accurate comparison of electrophoretic patterns, further inspection and normalization of electrophoretic data after fragment sizing by conventional strategies is needed.

Results

Here we describe a method for the normalization of a set of time-course electrophoretic data to be compared. The method uses Gaussian curves fitted to the complex peak mixtures in each electropherogram. It searches for target ranges for which patterns are dissimilar to the other patterns (called "dissimilar ranges") and for references (a kind of mean or typical pattern) in the set of resultant approximate patterns. It then constructs the optimal normalized pattern whose correlation coefficient against the reference in the range achieves the highest value among various combinations of candidates. We applied the procedure to time-course electrophoretic data produced by HiCEP, an AFLP-based expression profiling method which can detect a slight expression change in DNA fragments. We obtained dissimilar ranges whose electrophoretic patterns were obviously different from the reference and as expected, most of the fragments in the detected ranges were short (< 100 bp). The normalized electrophoretic patterns also agreed well with reference patterns.

Conclusion

The normalization strategy presented here demonstrates the importance of pre-processing before electrophoretic signal comparison, and we anticipate its usefulness especially for temporal expression analysis by the electrophoretic method.

Characterization of soluble and putative membrane-bound UDP-glucuronic acid decarboxylase (OsUXS) isoforms in rice

Arabinoxylans in crop plants are the major sugar components of the cell walls, and UDP-xylose is a key substrate in the biosynthesis of xylans. In this study, the six putative UDP-D-glucuronic acid decarboxylase genes from rice (Oryza sativa UDP-xylose synthase; OsUXS) were cloned. Except for the soluble form of OsUXS3 (GenBank Accession No. \AB079064), the remaining five OsUXS enzymes contain a putative membrane-bound region. The six OsUXS genes were classified into three types by phylogenetic analysis and were expressed during the development of rice seeds. The HPLC retention times of the enzyme products and NMR data, indicate that the recombinant OsUXS2 enzyme catalyzes the conversion of UDP-D-glucuronic acid to UDP-D-xylose. Interestingly, the reactions catalyzed by the recombinant OsUXS2 and OsUXS3 enzymes were inhibited by NADP+, and accelerated by NADPH. The catalytic activities of the recombinant OsUXS2 and OsUXS3 enzymes were strongly inhibited by UDP, UTP, TDP, and TTP. The expression levels of OsUXS genes changed in different manners during the development of rice seeds, suggesting that each corresponding OsUXS enzyme plays a significant role in rice seed development at a certain stage. In the present study, we report that the UXS2-type enzyme of rice is not only characterized for the first time but also show significant findings involved in the gene expression of OsUXSs.

High-coverage profiling analysis of genes expressed during rice seed development, using an improved amplified fragment length polymorphism technique

A novel method, based on quantitative PCR and amplified fragment length polymorphism was applied to the analysis of high-coverage gene expression profiles during the development of rice seeds. This represents the first report of the application of this method to plants, which permitted the detection and analysis of approximately 70% of all the genes that are expressed in rice. The method was used to compare gene expression at different developmental stages, subspecies or cultivars, and phyletic lines to identify genes of interest through differences in their level of expression. Using this approach, even novel anonymous genes could be detected. Examples of these include the soluble starch synthase (SS) II-I and the rice branching enzyme 4 (rbe4) genes in the starch synthesis pathway. A profiling database was compiled and the results compared with public data on full-length cDNA sequences of rice. The method enables candidate novel genes to be immediately identified among the large numbers of genes that are expressed during the development of rice seeds. Our results will contribute to a better understanding of comparative transcriptomics in all plant species.