1
|
Zhang X, Yao Y, Liu X, Zhang X, Cui S, Wang B, Zhang Q. DNA domino circuits based on a hairpin exonuclease assistance signal transmission architecture for temporal logic operations. Chem Commun (Camb) 2024. [PMID: 39229725 DOI: 10.1039/d4cc03579h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2024]
Abstract
DNA circuits are important fundamental tools for performing temporal logic operations with complex structures, but they lack sequence orthogonality. Here, we developed a simple and orthogonal hairpin exonuclease assistance signal (H-EAST) architecture to construct DNA domino circuits with time-delay characteristics and temporal logic operations, which has potential applications in biomolecular computing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xun Zhang
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
| | - Yao Yao
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
| | - Xin Liu
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
| | - Xiaokang Zhang
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
| | - Shuang Cui
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
| | - Bin Wang
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Intelligent Computing, Dalian University, Dalian 116622, China
| | - Qiang Zhang
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Helenek C, Krzysztoń R, Petreczky J, Wan Y, Cabral M, Coraci D, Balázsi G. Synthetic gene circuit evolution: Insights and opportunities at the mid-scale. Cell Chem Biol 2024; 31:1447-1459. [PMID: 38925113 PMCID: PMC11330362 DOI: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2024.05.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2024] [Revised: 05/07/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
Directed evolution focuses on optimizing single genetic components for predefined engineering goals by artificial mutagenesis and selection. In contrast, experimental evolution studies the adaptation of entire genomes in serially propagated cell populations, to provide an experimental basis for evolutionary theory. There is a relatively unexplored gap at the middle ground between these two techniques, to evolve in vivo entire synthetic gene circuits with nontrivial dynamic function instead of single parts or whole genomes. We discuss the requirements for such mid-scale evolution, with hypothetical examples for evolving synthetic gene circuits by appropriate selection and targeted shuffling of a seed set of genetic components in vivo. Implementing similar methods should aid the rapid generation, functionalization, and optimization of synthetic gene circuits in various organisms and environments, accelerating both the development of biomedical and technological applications and the understanding of principles guiding regulatory network evolution.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Helenek
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Rafał Krzysztoń
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Julia Petreczky
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Yiming Wan
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Mariana Cabral
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Damiano Coraci
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Gábor Balázsi
- The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Stony Brook Cancer Center, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Szischik CL, Reves Szemere J, Balderrama R, Sánchez de la Vega C, Ventura AC. Transient frequency preference responses in cell signaling systems. NPJ Syst Biol Appl 2024; 10:86. [PMID: 39128915 PMCID: PMC11317535 DOI: 10.1038/s41540-024-00413-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/29/2024] [Indexed: 08/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Ligand-receptor systems, covalent modification cycles, and transcriptional networks are the fundamental components of cell signaling and gene expression systems. While their behavior in reaching a steady-state regime under step-like stimulation is well understood, their response under repetitive stimulation, particularly at early time stages is poorly characterized. Yet, early-stage responses to external inputs are arguably as informative as late-stage ones. In simple systems, a periodic stimulation elicits an initial transient response, followed by periodic behavior. Transient responses are relevant when the stimulation has a limited time span, or when the stimulated component's timescale is slow as compared to the timescales of the downstream processes, in which case the latter processes may be capturing only those transients. In this study, we analyze the frequency response of simple motifs at different time stages. We use dose-conserved pulsatile input signals and consider different metrics versus frequency curves. We show that in ligand-receptor systems, there is a frequency preference response in some specific metrics during the transient stages, which is not present in the periodic regime. We suggest this is a general system-level mechanism that cells may use to filter input signals that have consequences for higher order circuits. In addition, we evaluate how the described behavior in isolated motifs is reflected in similar types of responses in cascades and pathways of which they are a part. Our studies suggest that transient frequency preferences are important dynamic features of cell signaling and gene expression systems, which have been overlooked.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Candela L Szischik
- Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física. Ciudad Universitaria, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE UBA-CONICET), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina-Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Juliana Reves Szemere
- Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física. Ciudad Universitaria, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE UBA-CONICET), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina-Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física, Santa Rosa, Argentina
| | - Rocío Balderrama
- Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Matemática. Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Investigaciones Matemáticas Luis A. Santaló (IMAS - CONICET), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Constanza Sánchez de la Vega
- Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Matemática. Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Instituto de Cálculo, FCEyN, CONICET-UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Alejandra C Ventura
- Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física. Ciudad Universitaria, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE UBA-CONICET), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina-Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Abe K. Dynamic activity changes in transcription factors: Unlocking the mechanisms regulating physiological changes in the brain. Neurosci Res 2024:S0168-0102(24)00101-9. [PMID: 39134224 DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2024.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2024] [Revised: 07/30/2024] [Accepted: 08/04/2024] [Indexed: 08/18/2024]
Abstract
Transcription factors (TFs) regulate the establishment and modulation of the transcriptome within cells, thereby playing a crucial role in various aspects of cellular physiology throughout the body. Quantitative measurement of TF activity during the development, function, and dysfunction of the brain is essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the regulatory mechanisms governing gene expression during these processes. Due to their role as regulators of gene expression, assessing and modulating detailed TF activity contributes to the development of practical methods to intervene in these processes, potentially offering more efficient treatments for diseases. Recent methodologies have revealed that TF activity is dynamically regulated within cells and organisms, including the adult brain. This review summarizes the regulatory mechanisms of TF activities and the methodologies used to assess them, emphasizing their importance in both fundamental research and clinical applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kentaro Abe
- Lab of Brain Development, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan; Division for the Establishment of Frontier Sciences of the Organization for Advanced Studies, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Qiao E, Fulmore CA, Schaffer DV, Kumar S. Substrate stress relaxation regulates neural stem cell fate commitment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2317711121. [PMID: 38968101 PMCID: PMC11252819 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2317711121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Adult neural stem cells (NSCs) reside in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, and their capacity to generate neurons and glia plays a role in learning and memory. In addition, neurodegenerative diseases are known to be caused by a loss of neurons and glial cells, resulting in a need to better understand stem cell fate commitment processes. We previously showed that NSC fate commitment toward a neuronal or glial lineage is strongly influenced by extracellular matrix stiffness, a property of elastic materials. However, tissues in vivo are not purely elastic and have varying degrees of viscous character. Relatively little is known about how the viscoelastic properties of the substrate impact NSC fate commitment. Here, we introduce a polyacrylamide-based cell culture platform that incorporates mismatched DNA oligonucleotide-based cross-links as well as covalent cross-links. This platform allows for tunable viscous stress relaxation properties via variation in the number of mismatched base pairs. We find that NSCs exhibit increased astrocytic differentiation as the degree of stress relaxation is increased. Furthermore, culturing NSCs on increasingly stress-relaxing substrates impacts cytoskeletal dynamics by decreasing intracellular actin flow rates and stimulating cyclic activation of the mechanosensitive protein RhoA. Additionally, inhibition of motor-clutch model components such as myosin II and focal adhesion kinase partially or completely reverts cells to lineage distributions observed on elastic substrates. Collectively, our results introduce a unique system for controlling matrix stress relaxation properties and offer insight into how NSCs integrate viscoelastic cues to direct fate commitment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eric Qiao
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
| | - Camille A. Fulmore
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
| | - David V. Schaffer
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
| | - Sanjay Kumar
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA94720
- Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA94143
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Cacciotti A, Beccaccioli M, Reverberi M. The CRZ1 transcription factor in plant fungi: regulation mechanism and impact on pathogenesis. Mol Biol Rep 2024; 51:647. [PMID: 38727981 PMCID: PMC11087348 DOI: 10.1007/s11033-024-09593-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024]
Abstract
Calcium (Ca2+) is a universal signaling molecule that is tightly regulated, and a fleeting elevation in cytosolic concentration triggers a signal cascade within the cell, which is crucial for several processes such as growth, tolerance to stress conditions, and virulence in fungi. The link between calcium and calcium-dependent gene regulation in cells relies on the transcription factor Calcineurin-Responsive Zinc finger 1 (CRZ1). The direct regulation of approximately 300 genes in different stress pathways makes it a hot topic in host-pathogen interactions. Notably, CRZ1 can modulate several pathways and orchestrate cellular responses to different types of environmental insults such as osmotic stress, oxidative stress, and membrane disruptors. It is our belief that CRZ1 provides the means for tightly modulating and synchronizing several pathways allowing pathogenic fungi to install into the apoplast and eventually penetrate plant cells (i.e., ROS, antimicrobials, and quick pH variation). This review discusses the structure, function, regulation of CRZ1 in fungal physiology and its role in plant pathogen virulence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A Cacciotti
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - M Beccaccioli
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
| | - M Reverberi
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Sun Y, Zhang F, Ouyang Q, Luo C. The dynamic-process characterization and prediction of synthetic gene circuits by dynamic delay model. iScience 2024; 27:109142. [PMID: 38384832 PMCID: PMC10879701 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Differential equation models are widely used to describe genetic regulations, predict multicomponent regulatory circuits, and provide quantitative insights. However, it is still challenging to quantitatively link the dynamic behaviors with measured parameters in synthetic circuits. Here, we propose a dynamic delay model (DDM) which includes two simple parts: the dynamic determining part and the doses-related steady-state-determining part. The dynamic determining part is usually supposed as the delay time but without a clear formula. For the first time, we give the detail formula of the dynamic determining function and provide a method for measuring all parameters of synthetic elements (include 8 activators and 5 repressors) by microfluidic system. Three synthetic circuits were built to show that the DDM can notably improve the prediction accuracy and can be used in various synthetic biology applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yanhong Sun
- The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Fengyu Zhang
- Wenzhou Institute University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325001, China
| | - Qi Ouyang
- The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Chunxiong Luo
- The State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Wenzhou Institute University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325001, China
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Lugagne JB, Blassick CM, Dunlop MJ. Deep model predictive control of gene expression in thousands of single cells. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2148. [PMID: 38459057 PMCID: PMC10923782 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46361-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Gene expression is inherently dynamic, due to complex regulation and stochastic biochemical events. However, the effects of these dynamics on cell phenotypes can be difficult to determine. Researchers have historically been limited to passive observations of natural dynamics, which can preclude studies of elusive and noisy cellular events where large amounts of data are required to reveal statistically significant effects. Here, using recent advances in the fields of machine learning and control theory, we train a deep neural network to accurately predict the response of an optogenetic system in Escherichia coli cells. We then use the network in a deep model predictive control framework to impose arbitrary and cell-specific gene expression dynamics on thousands of single cells in real time, applying the framework to generate complex time-varying patterns. We also showcase the framework's ability to link expression patterns to dynamic functional outcomes by controlling expression of the tetA antibiotic resistance gene. This study highlights how deep learning-enabled feedback control can be used to tailor distributions of gene expression dynamics with high accuracy and throughput without expert knowledge of the biological system.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Baptiste Lugagne
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA.
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA.
| | - Caroline M Blassick
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA
| | - Mary J Dunlop
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA.
- Biological Design Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Andrews SS, Wiley HS, Sauro HM. Design patterns of biological cells. Bioessays 2024; 46:e2300188. [PMID: 38247191 PMCID: PMC10922931 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202300188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Revised: 12/03/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
Design patterns are generalized solutions to frequently recurring problems. They were initially developed by architects and computer scientists to create a higher level of abstraction for their designs. Here, we extend these concepts to cell biology to lend a new perspective on the evolved designs of cells' underlying reaction networks. We present a catalog of 21 design patterns divided into three categories: creational patterns describe processes that build the cell, structural patterns describe the layouts of reaction networks, and behavioral patterns describe reaction network function. Applying this pattern language to the E. coli central metabolic reaction network, the yeast pheromone response signaling network, and other examples lends new insights into these systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Steven S. Andrews
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - H. Steven Wiley
- Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
| | - Herbert M. Sauro
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Yin F, Song T, Wang Z, Liu J, Zhang H, Tang Y, Zhang Z. Hsp70-Bim incoherent feedforward loop contributes to cell-fate heterogeneity and fractional killing. Br J Pharmacol 2024; 181:659-669. [PMID: 37706555 DOI: 10.1111/bph.16245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Revised: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although chemotherapeutics or molecular targeted drugs often elicit profound initial responses, fractional killing capable of driving acquired resistance can persist. Identifying stress-induced negative feedback or an incoherent feedforward loop (IFFL), which may contribute to fractional killing, is urgently needed. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Mathematical modelling was used to identify how and to what extent a recently reported Hsp70-Bim protein-protein interaction (PPI) contributes to the adaptation of the Bcl-2 network. Experimental validation was made by using a specific inhibitor of Hsp70-Bim PPI, S1g-2, as chemical tool. Bifurcation analysis and stochastic simulation were used for the theoretical study of the impact of Hsp70-Bim PPI on cell-fate heterogeneity and factional killing. KEY RESULTS The Hsp70-Bim-AKT circuit forms an IFFL that greatly contributes to the adaptation of the Bcl-2-regulated apoptosis network, thus leading to fractional killing. This adaptive programme enhances noise-induced cell-fate heterogeneity by shifting from a saddle-node to a saddle-collision transition scenario. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Hsp70-Bim IFFL serves as a molecular pathway induced by DNA damaging drugs or tyrosine kinase inhibitors that enabled fractional killing, whereby acquired resistance emerges. A synergistic strategy is unveiled for overcoming fractional killing by suppressing Hsp70-Bim PPI.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fangkui Yin
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Ting Song
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Ziqian Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Jingjing Liu
- School of Life Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Hong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Yao Tang
- School of Life Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Zhichao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Walls AW, Rosenthal AZ. Bacterial phenotypic heterogeneity through the lens of single-cell RNA sequencing. Transcription 2024; 15:48-62. [PMID: 38532542 DOI: 10.1080/21541264.2024.2334110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Bacterial transcription is not monolithic. Microbes exist in a wide variety of cell states that help them adapt to their environment, acquire and produce essential nutrients, and engage in both competition and cooperation with their neighbors. While we typically think of bacterial adaptation as a group behavior, where all cells respond in unison, there is often a mixture of phenotypic responses within a bacterial population, where distinct cell types arise. A primary phenomenon driving these distinct cell states is transcriptional heterogeneity. Given that bacterial mRNA transcripts are extremely short-lived compared to eukaryotes, their transcriptional state is closely associated with their physiology, and thus the transcriptome of a bacterial cell acts as a snapshot of the behavior of that bacterium. Therefore, the application of single-cell transcriptomics to microbial populations will provide novel insight into cellular differentiation and bacterial ecology. In this review, we provide an overview of transcriptional heterogeneity in microbial systems, discuss the findings already provided by single-cell approaches, and plot new avenues of inquiry in transcriptional regulation, cellular biology, and mechanisms of heterogeneity that are made possible when microbial communities are analyzed at single-cell resolution.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alex W Walls
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Adam Z Rosenthal
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Fu RZ, Cottrell O, Cutillo L, Rowntree A, Zador Z, Wurdak H, Papalopulu N, Marinopoulou E. Identification of genes with oscillatory expression in glioblastoma: the paradigm of SOX2. Sci Rep 2024; 14:2123. [PMID: 38267500 PMCID: PMC10808450 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51340-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Quiescence, a reversible state of cell-cycle arrest, is an important state during both normal development and cancer progression. For example, in glioblastoma (GBM) quiescent glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) play an important role in re-establishing the tumour, leading to relapse. While most studies have focused on identifying differentially expressed genes between proliferative and quiescent cells as potential drivers of this transition, recent studies have shown the importance of protein oscillations in controlling the exit from quiescence of neural stem cells. Here, we have undertaken a genome-wide bioinformatic inference approach to identify genes whose expression oscillates and which may be good candidates for controlling the transition to and from the quiescent cell state in GBM. Our analysis identified, among others, a list of important transcription regulators as potential oscillators, including the stemness gene SOX2, which we verified to oscillate in quiescent GSCs. These findings expand on the way we think about gene regulation and introduce new candidate genes as key regulators of quiescence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Richard Zhiming Fu
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK
- Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
- Department of Neurosurgery, Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences, Salford Care Organisation, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, Salford Royal, Stott Lane, Salford, M6 8HD, UK
| | - Oliver Cottrell
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK
| | - Luisa Cutillo
- School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Woodhouse, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Andrew Rowntree
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK
| | - Zsolt Zador
- Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, 36 Queen St E, Toronto, ON, M5B 1W8, Canada
- Department of Surgery, McMaster University, 1280 Mains St W, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada
- Center for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR), McMaster University, 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - Heiko Wurdak
- Stem Cell and Brain Tumour Group, Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS9 7TF, UK
| | - Nancy Papalopulu
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
| | - Elli Marinopoulou
- Division of Developmental Biology and Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Qiao S, Bernasek S, Gallagher KD, O'Connell J, Yamada S, Bagheri N, Amaral LAN, Carthew RW. Energy metabolism modulates the regulatory impact of activators on gene expression. Development 2024; 151:dev201986. [PMID: 38063847 PMCID: PMC10820824 DOI: 10.1242/dev.201986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Gene expression is a regulated process fueled by ATP consumption. Therefore, regulation must be coupled to constraints imposed by the level of energy metabolism. Here, we explore this relationship both theoretically and experimentally. A stylized mathematical model predicts that activators of gene expression have variable impact depending on metabolic rate. Activators become less essential when metabolic rate is reduced and more essential when metabolic rate is enhanced. We find that, in the Drosophila eye, expression dynamics of the yan gene are less affected by loss of EGFR-mediated activation when metabolism is reduced, and the opposite effect is seen when metabolism is enhanced. The effects are also seen at the level of pattern regularity in the adult eye, where loss of EGFR-mediated activation is mitigated by lower metabolism. We propose that gene activation is tuned by energy metabolism to allow for faithful expression dynamics in the face of variable metabolic conditions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sha Qiao
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Sebastian Bernasek
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Kevin D. Gallagher
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Jessica O'Connell
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Shigehiro Yamada
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Neda Bagheri
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Luis A. N. Amaral
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Richard W. Carthew
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Kizilirmak C, Monteleone E, García-Manteiga JM, Brambilla F, Agresti A, Bianchi ME, Zambrano S. Small transcriptional differences among cell clones lead to distinct NF-κB dynamics. iScience 2023; 26:108573. [PMID: 38144455 PMCID: PMC10746373 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2023] [Revised: 10/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Transcription factor dynamics is fundamental to determine the activation of accurate transcriptional programs and yet is heterogeneous at a single-cell level, even within homogeneous populations. We asked how such heterogeneity emerges for the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB). We found that clonal populations of immortalized fibroblasts derived from a single mouse embryo display robustly distinct NF-κB dynamics upon tumor necrosis factor ɑ (TNF-ɑ) stimulation including persistent, oscillatory, and weak activation, giving rise to differences in the transcription of its targets. By combining transcriptomics and simulations we show how less than two-fold differences in the expression levels of genes coding for key proteins of the signaling cascade and feedback system are predictive of the differences of the NF-κB dynamic response of the clones to TNF-ɑ and IL-1β. We propose that small transcriptional differences in the regulatory circuit of a transcription factor can lead to distinct signaling dynamics in cells within homogeneous cell populations and among different cell types.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cise Kizilirmak
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Emanuele Monteleone
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | | | - Francesca Brambilla
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandra Agresti
- Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Marco E. Bianchi
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Samuel Zambrano
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Ram A, Murphy D, DeCuzzi N, Patankar M, Hu J, Pargett M, Albeck JG. A guide to ERK dynamics, part 2: downstream decoding. Biochem J 2023; 480:1909-1928. [PMID: 38038975 PMCID: PMC10754290 DOI: 10.1042/bcj20230277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
Signaling by the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway controls many cellular processes, including cell division, death, and differentiation. In this second installment of a two-part review, we address the question of how the ERK pathway exerts distinct and context-specific effects on multiple processes. We discuss how the dynamics of ERK activity induce selective changes in gene expression programs, with insights from both experiments and computational models. With a focus on single-cell biosensor-based studies, we summarize four major functional modes for ERK signaling in tissues: adjusting the size of cell populations, gradient-based patterning, wave propagation of morphological changes, and diversification of cellular gene expression states. These modes of operation are disrupted in cancer and other related diseases and represent potential targets for therapeutic intervention. By understanding the dynamic mechanisms involved in ERK signaling, there is potential for pharmacological strategies that not only simply inhibit ERK, but also restore functional activity patterns and improve disease outcomes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Abhineet Ram
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| | - Devan Murphy
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| | - Nicholaus DeCuzzi
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| | - Madhura Patankar
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| | - Jason Hu
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| | - Michael Pargett
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| | - John G. Albeck
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Vink CS, Popravko A, Dzierzak E. De novo hematopoietic (stem) cell generation - A differentiation or stochastic process? Curr Opin Cell Biol 2023; 85:102255. [PMID: 37806296 DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2023.102255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2023] [Revised: 08/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/10/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023]
Abstract
The hematopoietic system is one of the earliest tissues to develop. De novo generation of hematopoietic progenitor and stem cells occurs through a transdifferentiation of (hemogenic) endothelial cells to hematopoietic identity, resulting in the formation of intra-aortic hematopoietic cluster (IAHC) cells. Heterogeneity of IAHC cell phenotypes and functions has stymied the field in its search for the transcriptional program of emerging hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), given that an individual IAHC cannot be simultaneously examined for function and transcriptome. Several models could account for this heterogeneity, including a novel model suggesting that the transcriptomes of individual emerging IAHC cells are in an unstable/metastable state, with pivotal hematopoietic transcription factors expressed dynamically due to transcriptional pulsing and combinatorial activities. The question remains - how is functional hematopoietic cell fate established - is the process stochastic? This article touches upon these important issues, which may be relevant to the field's inability to make HSCs ex vivo.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chris S Vink
- The University of Edinburgh, Centre for Inflammation Research, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, EH16 4UU, UK
| | - Anna Popravko
- The University of Edinburgh, Centre for Inflammation Research, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, EH16 4UU, UK
| | - Elaine Dzierzak
- The University of Edinburgh, Centre for Inflammation Research, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, EH16 4UU, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Qiao S, Bernasek S, Gallagher KD, Yamada S, Bagheri N, Amaral LA, Carthew RW. Energy metabolism modulates the regulatory impact of activators on gene expression. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.10.24.563842. [PMID: 37961620 PMCID: PMC10634812 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.24.563842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Gene expression is a regulated process fueled by ATP consumption. Therefore, regulation must be coupled to constraints imposed by the level of energy metabolism. Here, we explore this relationship both theoretically and experimentally. A stylized mathematical model predicts that activators of gene expression have variable impact depending on metabolic rate. Activators become less essential when metabolic rate is reduced and more essential when metabolic rate is enhanced. We find that in the Drosophila eye, expression dynamics of the yan gene are less affected by loss of EGFR-mediated activation when metabolism is reduced, and the opposite effect is seen when metabolism is enhanced. The effects are also seen at the level of pattern regularity in the adult eye, where loss of EGFR-mediated activation is mitigated by lower metabolism. We propose that gene activation is tuned by energy metabolism to allow for faithful expression dynamics in the face of variable metabolic conditions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sha Qiao
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Sebastian Bernasek
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Kevin D. Gallagher
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Shigehiro Yamada
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Neda Bagheri
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Luis A.N. Amaral
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Richard W. Carthew
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Lead Contact
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Henrion L, Martinez JA, Vandenbroucke V, Delvenne M, Telek S, Zicler A, Grünberger A, Delvigne F. Fitness cost associated with cell phenotypic switching drives population diversification dynamics and controllability. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6128. [PMID: 37783690 PMCID: PMC10545768 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41917-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/23/2023] [Indexed: 10/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Isogenic cell populations can cope with stress conditions by switching to alternative phenotypes. Even if it can lead to increased fitness in a natural context, this feature is typically unwanted for a range of applications (e.g., bioproduction, synthetic biology, and biomedicine) where it tends to make cellular response unpredictable. However, little is known about the diversification profiles that can be adopted by a cell population. Here, we characterize the diversification dynamics for various systems (bacteria and yeast) and for different phenotypes (utilization of alternative carbon sources, general stress response and more complex development patterns). Our results suggest that the diversification dynamics and the fitness cost associated with cell switching are coupled. To quantify the contribution of the switching cost on population dynamics, we design a stochastic model that let us reproduce the dynamics observed experimentally and identify three diversification regimes, i.e., constrained (at low switching cost), dispersed (at medium and high switching cost), and bursty (for very high switching cost). Furthermore, we use a cell-machine interface called Segregostat to demonstrate that different levels of control can be applied to these diversification regimes, enabling applications involving more precise cellular responses.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Henrion
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Juan Andres Martinez
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Vincent Vandenbroucke
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Mathéo Delvenne
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Samuel Telek
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Andrew Zicler
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Alexander Grünberger
- Microsystems in Bioprocess Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Frank Delvigne
- Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium.
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Zhong Z, Lin W, Qin BW. Modulating Biological Rhythms: A Noncomputational Strategy Harnessing Nonlinearity and Decoupling Frequency and Amplitude. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2023; 131:138401. [PMID: 37832005 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.131.138401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023]
Abstract
Understanding and achieving concurrent modulation of amplitude and frequency, particularly adjusting one quantity and simultaneously sustaining the other at an invariant level, are of paramount importance for complex biophysical systems, including the signal pathway where different frequency indicates different upstream signal yielding a certain downstream physiological function while different amplitude further determines different efficacy of a downstream output. However, such modulators with clearly described and universally valid mechanisms are still lacking. Here, we rigorously propose an easy-to-use control strategy containing only one or two steps, leveraging the nonlinearity in the modulated systems to decouple frequency and amplitude in a noncomputational manner. The strategy's efficacy is demonstrated using representative biochemical systems and, thus, it could be potentially applicable to modulating rhythms in experiments of biochemistry and synthetic biology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhaoyue Zhong
- School of Mathematical Sciences and Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences, Fudan University, 200433 Shanghai, China
| | - Wei Lin
- School of Mathematical Sciences and Shanghai Center for Mathematical Sciences, Fudan University, 200433 Shanghai, China
- Research Institute of Intelligent Complex Systems, Fudan University, 200433 Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 200232 Shanghai, China
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institute of Brain Science, Fudan University, 200032 Shanghai, China
| | - Bo-Wei Qin
- Research Institute of Intelligent Complex Systems, Fudan University, 200433 Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 200232 Shanghai, China
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institute of Brain Science, Fudan University, 200032 Shanghai, China
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Bucci J, Irmisch P, Del Grosso E, Seidel R, Ricci F. Timed Pulses in DNA Strand Displacement Reactions. J Am Chem Soc 2023; 145:20968-20974. [PMID: 37710955 PMCID: PMC10540199 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c06664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
Inspired by naturally occurring regulatory mechanisms that allow complex temporal pulse features with programmable delays, we demonstrate here a strategy to achieve temporally programmed pulse output signals in DNA-based strand displacement reactions (SDRs). To achieve this, we rationally designed input strands that, once bound to their target duplex, can be gradually degraded, resulting in a pulse output signal. We also designed blocker strands that suppress strand displacement and determine the time at which the pulse reaction is generated. We show that by controlling the degradation rate of blocker and input strands, we can finely control the delayed pulse output over a range of 10 h. We also prove that it is possible to orthogonally delay two different pulse reactions in the same solution by taking advantage of the specificity of the degradation reactions for the input and blocker strands. Finally, we show here two possible applications of such delayed pulse SDRs: the time-programmed pulse decoration of DNA nanostructures and the sequentially appearing and self-erasing formation of DNA-based patterns.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Juliette Bucci
- Department
of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, University
of Rome, Tor Vergata,
Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Patrick Irmisch
- Molecular
Biophysics Group, Peter Debye Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Universität Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Erica Del Grosso
- Department
of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, University
of Rome, Tor Vergata,
Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Ralf Seidel
- Molecular
Biophysics Group, Peter Debye Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Universität Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Francesco Ricci
- Department
of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, University
of Rome, Tor Vergata,
Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Rome, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Xue L, Wu Y, Lin Y. Dissecting and improving gene regulatory network inference using single-cell transcriptome data. Genome Res 2023; 33:1609-1621. [PMID: 37580132 PMCID: PMC10620053 DOI: 10.1101/gr.277488.122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023]
Abstract
Single-cell transcriptome data has been widely used to reconstruct gene regulatory networks (GRNs) controlling critical biological processes such as development and differentiation. Although a growing list of algorithms has been developed to infer GRNs using such data, achieving an inference accuracy consistently higher than random guessing has remained challenging. To address this, it is essential to delineate how the accuracy of regulatory inference is limited. Here, we systematically characterized factors limiting the accuracy of inferred GRNs and demonstrated that using pre-mRNA information can help improve regulatory inference compared to the typically used information (i.e., mature mRNA). Using kinetic modeling and simulated single-cell data sets, we showed that target genes' mature mRNA levels often fail to accurately report upstream regulatory activities because of gene-level and network-level factors, which can be improved by using pre-mRNA levels. We tested this finding on public single-cell RNA-seq data sets using intronic reads as proxies of pre-mRNA levels and can indeed achieve a higher inference accuracy compared to using exonic reads (corresponding to mature mRNAs). Using experimental data sets, we further validated findings from the simulated data sets and identified factors such as transcription factor activity dynamics influencing the accuracy of pre-mRNA-based inference. This work delineates the fundamental limitations of gene regulatory inference and helps improve GRN inference using single-cell RNA-seq data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lingfeng Xue
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871
| | - Yan Wu
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871
- The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871
| | - Yihan Lin
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871;
- The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Aranda S, Alcaine-Colet A, Ballaré C, Blanco E, Mocavini I, Sparavier A, Vizán P, Borràs E, Sabidó E, Di Croce L. Thymine DNA glycosylase regulates cell-cycle-driven p53 transcriptional control in pluripotent cells. Mol Cell 2023:S1097-2765(23)00517-8. [PMID: 37506700 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Revised: 04/11/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
Cell cycle progression is linked to transcriptome dynamics and variations in the response of pluripotent cells to differentiation cues, mostly through unknown determinants. Here, we characterized the cell-cycle-associated transcriptome and proteome of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) in naive ground state. We found that the thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) is a cell-cycle-regulated co-factor of the tumor suppressor p53. Furthermore, TDG and p53 co-bind ESC-specific cis-regulatory elements and thereby control transcription of p53-dependent genes during self-renewal. We determined that the dynamic expression of TDG is required to promote the cell-cycle-associated transcriptional heterogeneity. Moreover, we demonstrated that transient depletion of TDG influences cell fate decisions during the early differentiation of mESCs. Our findings reveal an unanticipated role of TDG in promoting molecular heterogeneity during the cell cycle and highlight the central role of protein dynamics for the temporal control of cell fate during development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sergi Aranda
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain.
| | - Anna Alcaine-Colet
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain
| | - Cecilia Ballaré
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain
| | - Enrique Blanco
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain
| | - Ivano Mocavini
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain
| | | | - Pedro Vizán
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain; Blanquerna School of Health Science, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona 08025, Spain
| | - Eva Borràs
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Eduard Sabidó
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Luciano Di Croce
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, Barcelona 08003, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain; ICREA, Pg. Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona 08010, Spain.
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Huang W, Lin W, Chen B, Zhang J, Gao P, Fan Y, Lin Y, Wei P. NFAT and NF-κB dynamically co-regulate TCR and CAR signaling responses in human T cells. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112663. [PMID: 37347664 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 04/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023] Open
Abstract
While it has been established that the responses of T cells to antigens are combinatorially regulated by multiple signaling pathways, it remains elusive what mechanisms cells utilize to quantitatively modulate T cell responses during pathway integration. Here, we show that two key pathways in T cell signaling, calcium/nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) and protein kinase C (PKC)/nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), integrate through a dynamic and combinatorial strategy to fine-tune T cell response genes. At the cis-regulatory level, the two pathways integrate through co-binding of NFAT and NF-κB to immune response genes. Pathway integration is further regulated temporally, where T cell receptor (TCR) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) activation signals modulate the temporal relationships between the nuclear localization dynamics of NFAT and NF-κB. Such physical and temporal integrations together contribute to distinct modes of expression modulation for genes. Thus, the temporal relationships between regulators can be modulated to affect their co-targets during immune responses, underscoring the importance of dynamic combinatorial regulation in cellular signaling.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wen Huang
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Wei Lin
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Baoqiang Chen
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jianhan Zhang
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Peifen Gao
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Yingying Fan
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Yihan Lin
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
| | - Ping Wei
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Maeda Y, Isomura A, Masaki T, Kageyama R. Differential cell-cycle control by oscillatory versus sustained Hes1 expression via p21. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112520. [PMID: 37200191 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Oscillatory Hes1 expression activates cell proliferation, while high and sustained Hes1 expression induces quiescence, but the mechanism by which Hes1 differentially controls cell proliferation depending on its expression dynamics is unclear. Here, we show that oscillatory Hes1 expression down-regulates the expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (Cdkn1a), which delays cell-cycle progression, and thereby activates the proliferation of mouse neural stem cells (NSCs). By contrast, sustained Hes1 overexpression up-regulates p21 expression and inhibits NSC proliferation, although it initially down-regulates p21 expression. Compared with Hes1 oscillation, sustained Hes1 overexpression represses Dusp7, a phosphatase for phosphorylated Erk (p-Erk), and increases the levels of p-Erk, which can up-regulate p21 expression. These results indicate that p21 expression is directly repressed by oscillatory Hes1 expression, but indirectly up-regulated by sustained Hes1 overexpression, suggesting that depending on its expression dynamics, Hes1 differentially controls NSC proliferation via p21.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuki Maeda
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako 351-0198, Japan; Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Akihiro Isomura
- Institute for Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan; Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Japan Science and Technology Agency, PRESTO, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Taimu Masaki
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako 351-0198, Japan
| | - Ryoichiro Kageyama
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako 351-0198, Japan; Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Lamprecht O, Ratnikava M, Jacek P, Kaganovitch E, Buettner N, Fritz K, Biazruchka I, Köhler R, Pietsch J, Sourjik V. Regulation by cyclic di-GMP attenuates dynamics and enhances robustness of bimodal curli gene activation in Escherichia coli. PLoS Genet 2023; 19:e1010750. [PMID: 37186613 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Curli amyloid fibers are a major constituent of the extracellular biofilm matrix formed by bacteria of the Enterobacteriaceae family. Within Escherichia coli biofilms, curli gene expression is limited to a subpopulation of bacteria, leading to heterogeneity of extracellular matrix synthesis. Here we show that bimodal activation of curli gene expression also occurs in well-mixed planktonic cultures of E. coli, resulting in all-or-none stochastic differentiation into distinct subpopulations of curli-positive and curli-negative cells at the entry into the stationary phase of growth. Stochastic curli activation in individual E. coli cells could further be observed during continuous growth in a conditioned medium in a microfluidic device, which further revealed that the curli-positive state is only metastable. In agreement with previous reports, regulation of curli gene expression by the second messenger c-di-GMP via two pairs of diguanylate cyclase and phosphodiesterase enzymes, DgcE/PdeH and DgcM/PdeR, modulates the fraction of curli-positive cells. Unexpectedly, removal of this regulatory network does not abolish the bimodality of curli gene expression, although it affects dynamics of activation and increases heterogeneity of expression levels among individual cells. Moreover, the fraction of curli-positive cells within an E. coli population shows stronger dependence on growth conditions in the absence of regulation by DgcE/PdeH and DgcM/PdeR pairs. We thus conclude that, while not required for the emergence of bimodal curli gene expression in E. coli, this c-di-GMP regulatory network attenuates the frequency and dynamics of gene activation and increases its robustness to cellular heterogeneity and environmental variation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Olga Lamprecht
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Maryia Ratnikava
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Paulina Jacek
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Eugen Kaganovitch
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Nina Buettner
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Kirstin Fritz
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Ina Biazruchka
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Robin Köhler
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Julian Pietsch
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| | - Victor Sourjik
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Mathews J, Chang A(J, Devlin L, Levin M. Cellular signaling pathways as plastic, proto-cognitive systems: Implications for biomedicine. PATTERNS (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2023; 4:100737. [PMID: 37223267 PMCID: PMC10201306 DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2023.100737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Many aspects of health and disease are modeled using the abstraction of a "pathway"-a set of protein or other subcellular activities with specified functional linkages between them. This metaphor is a paradigmatic case of a deterministic, mechanistic framework that focuses biomedical intervention strategies on altering the members of this network or the up-/down-regulation links between them-rewiring the molecular hardware. However, protein pathways and transcriptional networks exhibit interesting and unexpected capabilities such as trainability (memory) and information processing in a context-sensitive manner. Specifically, they may be amenable to manipulation via their history of stimuli (equivalent to experiences in behavioral science). If true, this would enable a new class of biomedical interventions that target aspects of the dynamic physiological "software" implemented by pathways and gene-regulatory networks. Here, we briefly review clinical and laboratory data that show how high-level cognitive inputs and mechanistic pathway modulation interact to determine outcomes in vivo. Further, we propose an expanded view of pathways from the perspective of basal cognition and argue that a broader understanding of pathways and how they process contextual information across scales will catalyze progress in many areas of physiology and neurobiology. We argue that this fuller understanding of the functionality and tractability of pathways must go beyond a focus on the mechanistic details of protein and drug structure to encompass their physiological history as well as their embedding within higher levels of organization in the organism, with numerous implications for data science addressing health and disease. Exploiting tools and concepts from behavioral and cognitive sciences to explore a proto-cognitive metaphor for the pathways underlying health and disease is more than a philosophical stance on biochemical processes; at stake is a new roadmap for overcoming the limitations of today's pharmacological strategies and for inferring future therapeutic interventions for a wide range of disease states.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Juanita Mathews
- Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
| | | | - Liam Devlin
- Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
| | - Michael Levin
- Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Si W, Fan YY, Qiu SZ, Li X, Wu EY, Ju JQ, Huang W, Wang HP, Wei P. Design of diversified chimeric antigen receptors through rational module recombination. iScience 2023; 26:106529. [PMID: 37102149 PMCID: PMC10123334 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells have shown great promise in cancer therapy. However, the anti-tumor efficiency is limited due to the CAR-induced T cell apoptosis or exhaustion. The intracellular domain of CAR comprised of various signaling modules orchestrates CAR-T cell behaviors. The modularity of CAR signaling domain functions as the "mainboard" to assemble diversified downstream signaling components. Here, we implemented the modular recombination strategy to construct a library of CARs with synthetic co-signaling modules adopted from immunoglobin-like superfamily (IgSF) and tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily (TNFRSF). We quantitatively characterized the signaling behaviors of these recombinants by both NFAT and NF-κB reporter, and identified a set of new CARs with diverse signaling behaviors. Specifically, the 28(NM)-BB(MC) CAR-T cells exhibited improved cytotoxicity and T cell persistence. The synthetic approach can promote our understanding of the signaling principles of CAR molecule, and provide a powerful tool box for CAR-T cell engineering.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wen Si
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Ying-Ying Fan
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Shi-Zhen Qiu
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Xin Li
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Er-Yi Wu
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Jian-Qi Ju
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Wen Huang
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Hao-Peng Wang
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Ping Wei
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology and Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Corresponding author
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Modulation of transcription factor dynamics allows versatile information transmission. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2652. [PMID: 36788258 PMCID: PMC9929046 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29539-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Cells detect changes in their environment and generate responses, often involving changes in gene expression. In this paper we use information theory and a simple transcription model to analyze whether the resulting gene expression serves to identify extracellular stimuli and assess their intensity when they are encoded in the amplitude, duration or frequency of pulses of a transcription factor's nuclear concentration (or activation state). We find, for all cases, that about three ranges of input strengths can be distinguished and that maximum information transmission occurs for fast and high activation threshold promoters. The three input modulation modes differ in the sensitivity to changes in the promoters parameters. Frequency modulation is the most sensitive and duration modulation, the least. This is key for signal identification: there are promoter parameters that yield a relatively high information transmission for duration or amplitude modulation and a much smaller value for frequency modulation. The reverse situation cannot be found with a single promoter transcription model. Thus, pulses of transcription factors can selectively activate the "frequency-tuned" promoter while prolonged nuclear accumulation would activate promoters of all three modes simultaneously. Frequency modulation is therefore highly selective and better suited than the other encoding modes for signal identification without requiring other mediators of the transduction process.
Collapse
|
29
|
Biswas S, Clawson W, Levin M. Learning in Transcriptional Network Models: Computational Discovery of Pathway-Level Memory and Effective Interventions. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 24:285. [PMID: 36613729 PMCID: PMC9820177 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24010285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2022] [Revised: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Trainability, in any substrate, refers to the ability to change future behavior based on past experiences. An understanding of such capacity within biological cells and tissues would enable a particularly powerful set of methods for prediction and control of their behavior through specific patterns of stimuli. This top-down mode of control (as an alternative to bottom-up modification of hardware) has been extensively exploited by computer science and the behavioral sciences; in biology however, it is usually reserved for organism-level behavior in animals with brains, such as training animals towards a desired response. Exciting work in the field of basal cognition has begun to reveal degrees and forms of unconventional memory in non-neural tissues and even in subcellular biochemical dynamics. Here, we characterize biological gene regulatory circuit models and protein pathways and find them capable of several different kinds of memory. We extend prior results on learning in binary transcriptional networks to continuous models and identify specific interventions (regimes of stimulation, as opposed to network rewiring) that abolish undesirable network behavior such as drug pharmacoresistance and drug sensitization. We also explore the stability of created memories by assessing their long-term behavior and find that most memories do not decay over long time periods. Additionally, we find that the memory properties are quite robust to noise; surprisingly, in many cases noise actually increases memory potential. We examine various network properties associated with these behaviors and find that no one network property is indicative of memory. Random networks do not show similar memory behavior as models of biological processes, indicating that generic network dynamics are not solely responsible for trainability. Rational control of dynamic pathway function using stimuli derived from computational models opens the door to empirical studies of proto-cognitive capacities in unconventional embodiments and suggests numerous possible applications in biomedicine, where behavior shaping of pathway responses stand as a potential alternative to gene therapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Surama Biswas
- Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Department of Computer Science & Engineering and Information Technology, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, Kolkata 700150, India
| | - Wesley Clawson
- Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
| | - Michael Levin
- Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Abstract
The ability of bacteria to respond to changes in their environment is critical to their survival, allowing them to withstand stress, form complex communities, and induce virulence responses during host infection. A remarkable feature of many of these bacterial responses is that they are often variable across individual cells, despite occurring in an isogenic population exposed to a homogeneous environmental change, a phenomenon known as phenotypic heterogeneity. Phenotypic heterogeneity can enable bet-hedging or division of labor strategies that allow bacteria to survive fluctuating conditions. Investigating the significance of phenotypic heterogeneity in environmental transitions requires dynamic, single-cell data. Technical advances in quantitative single-cell measurements, imaging, and microfluidics have led to a surge of publications on this topic. Here, we review recent discoveries on single-cell bacterial responses to environmental transitions of various origins and complexities, from simple diauxic shifts to community behaviors in biofilm formation to virulence regulation during infection. We describe how these studies firmly establish that this form of heterogeneity is prevalent and a conserved mechanism by which bacteria cope with fluctuating conditions. We end with an outline of current challenges and future directions for the field. While it remains challenging to predict how an individual bacterium will respond to a given environmental input, we anticipate that capturing the dynamics of the process will begin to resolve this and facilitate rational perturbation of environmental responses for therapeutic and bioengineering purposes.
Collapse
|
31
|
Schultz D, Stevanovic M, Tsimring LS. Optimal transcriptional regulation of dynamic bacterial responses to sudden drug exposures. Biophys J 2022; 121:4137-4152. [PMID: 36168291 PMCID: PMC9675034 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.09.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Cellular responses to the presence of toxic compounds in their environment require prompt expression of the correct levels of the appropriate enzymes, which are typically regulated by transcription factors that control gene expression for the duration of the response. The characteristics of each response dictate the choice of regulatory parameters such as the affinity of the transcription factor to its binding sites and the strength of the promoters it regulates. Although much is known about the dynamics of cellular responses, we still lack a framework to understand how different regulatory strategies evolved in natural systems relate to the selective pressures acting in each particular case. Here, we analyze a dynamical model of a typical antibiotic response in bacteria, where a transcriptionally repressed enzyme is induced by a sudden exposure to the drug that it processes. We identify strategies of gene regulation that optimize this response for different types of selective pressures, which we define as a set of costs associated with the drug, enzyme, and repressor concentrations during the response. We find that regulation happens in a limited region of the regulatory parameter space. While responses to more costly (toxic) drugs favor the usage of strongly self-regulated repressors, responses where expression of enzyme is more costly favor the usage of constitutively expressed repressors. Only a very narrow range of selective pressures favor weakly self-regulated repressors. We use this framework to determine which costs and benefits are most critical for the evolution of a variety of natural cellular responses that satisfy the approximations in our model and to analyze how regulation is optimized in new environments with different demands.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Schultz
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire.
| | - Mirjana Stevanovic
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire
| | - Lev S Tsimring
- Synthetic Biology Institute, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Rahman SMT, Aqdas M, Martin EW, Tomassoni Ardori F, Songkiatisak P, Oh KS, Uderhardt S, Yun S, Claybourne QC, McDevitt RA, Greco V, Germain RN, Tessarollo L, Sung MH. Double knockin mice show NF-κB trajectories in immune signaling and aging. Cell Rep 2022; 41:111682. [DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Revised: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
|
33
|
Liang G, Yin H, Allard J, Ding F. Cost-efficient boundary-free surface patterning achieves high effective-throughput of time-lapse microscopy experiments. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0275804. [PMID: 36301804 PMCID: PMC9612557 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Time-lapse microscopy plays critical roles in the studies of cellular dynamics. However, setting up a time-lapse movie experiments is not only laborious but also with low output, mainly due to the cell-losing problem (i.e., cells moving out of limited field of view), especially in a long-time recording. To overcome this issue, we have designed a cost-efficient way that enables cell patterning on the imaging surfaces without any physical boundaries. Using mouse embryonic stem cells as an example system, we have demonstrated that our boundary-free patterned surface solves the cell-losing problem without disturbing their cellular phenotype. Statistically, the presented system increases the effective-throughput of time-lapse microscopy experiments by an order of magnitude.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Guohao Liang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
| | - Hong Yin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
| | - Jun Allard
- Department of Mathematics, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
- Center for Complex Biological Systems, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
| | - Fangyuan Ding
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
- Department of Mathematics, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Casani-Galdon P, Garcia-Ojalvo J. Signaling oscillations: Molecular mechanisms and functional roles. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2022; 78:102130. [PMID: 36130445 DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2022.102130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Revised: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Mounting evidence shows that oscillatory activity is widespread in cell signaling. Here, we review some of this recent evidence, focusing on both the molecular mechanisms that potentially underlie such dynamical behavior, and the potential advantages that signaling oscillations might have in cell function. The biological processes considered include cellular differentiation and tissue maintenance, intermittent responses in pluripotent stem cells, and collective cell migration during wound healing. With the aid of mathematical modeling, we review recent examples in which delayed negative feedback has been seen to act as a unifying principle that underpins this wide variety of phenomena.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Casani-Galdon
- Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo
- Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Xiong L, Garfinkel A. A common pathway to cancer: Oncogenic mutations abolish p53 oscillations. PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2022; 174:28-40. [PMID: 35752348 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2022.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 06/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The tumor suppressor p53 oscillates in response to DNA double-strand breaks, a behavior that has been suggested to be essential to its anti-cancer function. Nearly all human cancers have genetic alterations in the p53 pathway; a number of these alterations have been shown to be oncogenic by experiment. These alterations include somatic mutations and copy number variations as well as germline polymorphisms. Intriguingly, they exhibit a mixed pattern of interactions in tumors, such as co-occurrence, mutual exclusivity, and paradoxically, mutual antagonism. Using a differential equation model of p53-Mdm2 dynamics, we employ Hopf bifurcation analysis to show that these alterations have a common mode of action, to abolish the oscillatory competence of p53, thereby, we suggest, impairing its tumor suppressive function. In this analysis, diverse genetic alterations, widely associated with human cancers clinically, have a unified mechanistic explanation of their role in oncogenesis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lingyun Xiong
- Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90007 USA; Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, USA; Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7DQ, UK
| | - Alan Garfinkel
- Departments of Medicine (Cardiology) and Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA; Newton-Abraham Visiting Professor (2019-2020), Lincoln College and Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3DR, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Kalliara E, Kardynska M, Bagnall J, Spiller DG, Müller W, Ruckerl D, Śmieja J, Biswas SK, Paszek P. Post-transcriptional regulatory feedback encodes JAK-STAT signal memory of interferon stimulation. Front Immunol 2022; 13:947213. [PMID: 36238296 PMCID: PMC9552616 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.947213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Immune cells fine tune their responses to infection and inflammatory cues. Here, using live-cell confocal microscopy and mathematical modelling, we investigate interferon-induced JAK-STAT signalling in innate immune macrophages. We demonstrate that transient exposure to IFN-γ stimulation induces a long-term desensitisation of STAT1 signalling and gene expression responses, revealing a dose- and time-dependent regulatory feedback that controls JAK-STAT responses upon re-exposure to stimulus. We show that IFN-α/β1 elicit different level of desensitisation from IFN-γ, where cells refractory to IFN-α/β1 are sensitive to IFN-γ, but not vice versa. We experimentally demonstrate that the underlying feedback mechanism involves regulation of STAT1 phosphorylation but is independent of new mRNA synthesis and cognate receptor expression. A new feedback model of the protein tyrosine phosphatase activity recapitulates experimental data and demonstrates JAK-STAT network’s ability to decode relative changes of dose, timing, and type of temporal interferon stimulation. These findings reveal that STAT desensitisation renders cells with signalling memory of type I and II interferon stimulation, which in the future may improve administration of interferon therapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eirini Kalliara
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
- Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | - Malgorzata Kardynska
- Department of Biosensors and Processing of Biomedical Signals, Silesian University of Technology, Zabrze, Poland
- Department of Systems Biology and Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland
| | - James Bagnall
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - David G. Spiller
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Werner Müller
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Dominik Ruckerl
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Jarosław Śmieja
- Department of Systems Biology and Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland
| | - Subhra K. Biswas
- Singapore Immunology Network, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | - Pawel Paszek
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Pawel Paszek,
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Giri R, Brady S, Papadopoulos DK, Carthew RW. Single-cell Senseless protein analysis reveals metastable states during the transition to a sensory organ fate. iScience 2022; 25:105097. [PMID: 36157584 PMCID: PMC9494244 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 08/02/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Cell fate decisions can be envisioned as bifurcating dynamical systems, and the decision that Drosophila cells make during sensory organ differentiation has been described as such. We extended these studies by focusing on the Senseless protein which orchestrates sensory cell fate transitions. Wing cells contain intermediate Senseless numbers before their fate transition, after which they express much greater numbers of Senseless molecules as they differentiate. However, the dynamics are inconsistent with it being a simple bistable system. Cells with intermediate Senseless are best modeled as residing in four discrete states, each with a distinct protein number and occupying a specific region of the tissue. Although the states are stable over time, the number of molecules in each state vary with time. The fold change in molecule number between adjacent states is invariant and robust to absolute protein number variation. Thus, cells transitioning to sensory fates exhibit metastability with relativistic properties.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ritika Giri
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA,NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Shannon Brady
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Dimitrios K. Papadopoulos
- Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM), Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden,Department of Biology, University of Crete, Voutes University Campus, Heraklion, Crete 70013, Greece
| | - Richard W. Carthew
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA,NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA,Corresponding author
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Manousaki A, Bagnall J, Spiller D, Balarezo-Cisneros LN, White M, Delneri D. Quantitative Characterisation of Low Abundant Yeast Mitochondrial Proteins Reveals Compensation for Haplo-Insufficiency in Different Environments. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:8532. [PMID: 35955668 PMCID: PMC9369417 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23158532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 07/15/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The quantification of low abundant membrane-binding proteins such as transcriptional factors and chaperones has proven difficult, even with the most sophisticated analytical technologies. Here, we exploit and optimise the non-invasive Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) for the quantitation of low abundance proteins, and as proof of principle, we choose two interacting proteins involved in the fission of mitochondria in yeast, Fis1p and Mdv1p. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the recruitment of Fis1p and Mdv1p to mitochondria is essential for the scission of the organelles and the retention of functional mitochondrial structures in the cell. We use FCS in single GFP-labelled live yeast cells to quantify the protein abundance in homozygote and heterozygote cells and to investigate the impact of the environments on protein copy number, bound/unbound protein state and mobility kinetics. Both proteins were observed to localise predominantly at mitochondrial structures, with the Mdv1p bound state increasing significantly in a strictly respiratory environment. Moreover, a compensatory mechanism that controls Fis1p abundance upon deletion of one allele was observed in Fis1p but not in Mdv1p, suggesting differential regulation of Fis1p and Mdv1p protein expression.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alkisti Manousaki
- Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester M1 7DN, UK; (A.M.); (L.N.B.-C.)
- Division of Evolution and Genomic Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - James Bagnall
- Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Gastroenterology Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK;
| | - David Spiller
- Platform Sciences, Enabling Technologies & Infrastructure, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK;
| | - Laura Natalia Balarezo-Cisneros
- Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester M1 7DN, UK; (A.M.); (L.N.B.-C.)
- Division of Evolution and Genomic Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Michael White
- Division of Molecular and Cellular Function, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK;
| | - Daniela Delneri
- Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester M1 7DN, UK; (A.M.); (L.N.B.-C.)
- Division of Evolution and Genomic Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Vidiella B, Solé R. Ecological firewalls for synthetic biology. iScience 2022; 25:104658. [PMID: 35832885 PMCID: PMC9272386 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Revised: 04/30/2022] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been recently suggested that engineered microbial strains could be used to protect ecosystems from undesirable tipping points and biodiversity loss. A major concern in this context is the potential unintended consequences, which are usually addressed in terms of designed genetic constructs aimed at controlling overproliferation. Here we present and discuss an alternative view grounded in the nonlinear attractor dynamics of some ecological network motifs. These ecological firewalls are designed to perform novel functionalities (such as plastic removal) while containment is achieved within the resident community. That could help provide a self-regulating biocontainment. In this way, engineered organisms have a limited spread while-when required-preventing their extinction. The basic synthetic designs and their dynamical behavior are presented, each one inspired in a given ecological class of interaction. Their possible applications are discussed and the broader connection with invasion ecology outlined.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Blai Vidiella
- ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dr Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, CSIC-UPF, Pg Maritim de la Barceloneta 37, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
- Centre de Recerca Matemàtica, Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici C, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain
| | - Ricard Solé
- ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dr Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, CSIC-UPF, Pg Maritim de la Barceloneta 37, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
- Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Abstract
![]()
Molecular circuits
capable of processing temporal information are
essential for complex decision making in response to both the presence
and history of a molecular environment. A particular type of temporal
information that has been recognized to be important is the relative
timing of signals. Here we demonstrate the strategy of temporal memory
combined with logic computation in DNA strand-displacement circuits
capable of making decisions based on specific combinations of inputs
as well as their relative timing. The circuit encodes the timing information
on inputs in a set of memory strands, which allows for the construction
of logic gates that act on current and historical signals. We show
that mismatches can be employed to reduce the complexity of circuit
design and that shortening specific toeholds can be useful for improving
the robustness of circuit behavior. We also show that a detailed model
can provide critical insights for guiding certain aspects of experimental
investigations that an abstract model cannot. We envision that the
design principles explored in this study can be generalized to more
complex temporal logic circuits and incorporated into other types
of circuit architectures, including DNA-based neural networks, enabling
the implementation of timing-dependent learning rules and opening
up new opportunities for embedding intelligent behaviors into artificial
molecular machines.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna P Lapteva
- Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
| | - Namita Sarraf
- Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
| | - Lulu Qian
- Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States.,Computer Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
| |
Collapse
|
41
|
Falk HJ, Tomita T, Mönke G, McDole K, Aulehla A. Imaging the onset of oscillatory signaling dynamics during mouse embryo gastrulation. Development 2022; 149:275659. [PMID: 35686648 PMCID: PMC9340547 DOI: 10.1242/dev.200083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
A fundamental requirement for embryonic development is the coordination of signaling activities in space and time. A notable example in vertebrate embryos is found during somitogenesis, where gene expression oscillations linked to the segmentation clock are synchronized across cells in the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) and result in tissue-level wave patterns. To examine their onset during mouse embryo development, we studied the dynamics of the segmentation clock gene Lfng during gastrulation. To this end, we established an imaging setup using selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) that enables culture and simultaneous imaging of up to four embryos (‘SPIM- for-4’). Using SPIM-for-4, combined with genetically encoded signaling reporters, we detected the onset of Lfng oscillations within newly formed mesoderm at presomite stages. Functionally, we found that initial synchrony and the first ∼6-8 oscillation cycles occurred even when Notch signaling was impaired, revealing similarities to previous findings made in zebrafish embryos. Finally, we show that a spatial period gradient is present at the onset of oscillatory activity, providing a potential mechanism accounting for our observation that wave patterns build up gradually over the first oscillation cycles. Summary: A versatile light-sheet imaging setup enabling simultaneous live imaging of multiple mouse embryos for 48 h, an approach that offers insight into the onset of oscillatory signaling dynamics and the segmentation clock.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Henning J Falk
- Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Takehito Tomita
- Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Gregor Mönke
- Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Katie McDole
- Division of Cell Biology, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK
| | - Alexander Aulehla
- Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Guan Y, Chen X, Shao B, Ji X, Xiang Y, Jiang G, Xu L, Lin Z, Ouyang Q, Lou C. Mitigating Host Burden of Genetic Circuits by Engineering Autonegatively Regulated Parts and Improving Functional Prediction. ACS Synth Biol 2022; 11:2361-2371. [PMID: 35772024 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Mitigating unintended interferences between circuits and host cells is key to realize applications of synthetic regulatory systems both for bacteria and mammalian cells. Here, we demonstrated that growth burden and circuit dysregulation occurred in a concentration-dependent manner for specific transcription factors (CymR*/CymR) in E.coli, and direct negative feedback modules were able to control the concentration of CymR*/CymR, mitigate growth burden, and restore circuit functions. A quantitative design scheme was developed for circuits embedded with autorepression modules. Four key parameters were theoretically identified to determine the performance of autoregulated switches and were experimentally modified by fine-tuning promoter architectures and cooperativity. Using this strategy, we synthesized a number of switches and demonstrated its improvement of product titers and host growth controlling the complex deoxyviolacein biosynthesis pathway. Furthermore, we restored functions of a dysregulated multilayer NOR gate by integrating autorepression modules. Our work provides a blueprint for engineering host-adaptable synthetic systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ying Guan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100871, China.,Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Xinmao Chen
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Bin Shao
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Xiangyu Ji
- CAS Key Laboratory of Microbial Physiological and Metabolic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.,College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100149, China
| | - Yanhui Xiang
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Guoqiang Jiang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Lina Xu
- National Protein Science Facility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Zhanglin Lin
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Qi Ouyang
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Chunbo Lou
- Center for Cell and Gene Circuit Design, CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.,College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100149, China
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Kizilirmak C, Bianchi ME, Zambrano S. Insights on the NF-κB System Using Live Cell Imaging: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives. Front Immunol 2022; 13:886127. [PMID: 35844496 PMCID: PMC9277462 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.886127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The transcription factor family of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) proteins is widely recognized as a key player in inflammation and the immune responses, where it plays a fundamental role in translating external inflammatory cues into precise transcriptional programs, including the timely expression of a wide variety of cytokines/chemokines. Live cell imaging in single cells showed approximately 15 years ago that the canonical activation of NF-κB upon stimulus is very dynamic, including oscillations of its nuclear localization with a period close to 1.5 hours. This observation has triggered a fruitful interdisciplinary research line that has provided novel insights on the NF-κB system: how its heterogeneous response differs between cell types but also within homogeneous populations; how NF-κB dynamics translate external cues into intracellular signals and how NF-κB dynamics affects gene expression. Here we review the main features of this live cell imaging approach to the study of NF-κB, highlighting the key findings, the existing gaps of knowledge and hinting towards some of the potential future steps of this thriving research field.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cise Kizilirmak
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
| | - Marco E. Bianchi
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
| | - Samuel Zambrano
- School of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
Keeping Cell Death Alive: An Introduction into the French Cell Death Research Network. Biomolecules 2022; 12:biom12070901. [PMID: 35883457 PMCID: PMC9313292 DOI: 10.3390/biom12070901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Revised: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Since the Nobel Prize award more than twenty years ago for discovering the core apoptotic pathway in C. elegans, apoptosis and various other forms of regulated cell death have been thoroughly characterized by researchers around the world. Although many aspects of regulated cell death still remain to be elucidated in specific cell subtypes and disease conditions, many predicted that research into cell death was inexorably reaching a plateau. However, this was not the case since the last decade saw a multitude of cell death modalities being described, while harnessing their therapeutic potential reached clinical use in certain cases. In line with keeping research into cell death alive, francophone researchers from several institutions in France and Belgium established the French Cell Death Research Network (FCDRN). The research conducted by FCDRN is at the leading edge of emerging topics such as non-apoptotic functions of apoptotic effectors, paracrine effects of cell death, novel canonical and non-canonical mechanisms to induce apoptosis in cell death-resistant cancer cells or regulated forms of necrosis and the associated immunogenic response. Collectively, these various lines of research all emerged from the study of apoptosis and in the next few years will increase the mechanistic knowledge into regulated cell death and how to harness it for therapy.
Collapse
|
45
|
Heltberg M, von Borries M, Bendix PM, Oddershede LB, Jensen MH. Temperature Controls Onset and Period of NF- κB Oscillations and can Lead to Chaotic Dynamics. Front Cell Dev Biol 2022; 10:910738. [PMID: 35794861 PMCID: PMC9251302 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2022.910738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
The transcription factor NF-κB plays a vital role in the control of the immune system, and following stimulation with TNF-α its nuclear concentration shows oscillatory behaviour. How environmental factors, in particular temperature, can control the oscillations and thereby affect gene stimulation is still remains to be resolved question. In this work, we reveal that the period of the oscillations decreases with increasing temperature. We investigate this using a mathematical model, and by applying results from statistical physics, we introduce temperature dependency to all rates, resulting in a remarkable correspondence between model and experiments. Our model predicts how temperature affects downstream protein production and find a crossover, where high affinity genes upregulates at high temperatures. Finally, we show how or that oscillatory temperatures can entrain NF-κB oscillations and lead to chaotic dynamics presenting a simple path to chaotic conditions in cellular biology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Mogens H. Jensen
- Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
A time-coded multi-concentration microfluidic chemical waveform generator for high-throughput probing suspension single-cell signaling. CHINESE CHEM LETT 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cclet.2021.09.080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
|
47
|
Frequency modulation of a bacterial quorum sensing response. Nat Commun 2022; 13:2772. [PMID: 35589697 PMCID: PMC9120067 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30307-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2021] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
In quorum sensing, bacteria secrete or release small molecules into the environment that, once they reach a certain threshold, trigger a behavioural change in the population. As the concentration of these so-called autoinducers is supposed to reflect population density, they were originally assumed to be continuously produced by all cells in a population. However, here we show that in the α-proteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti expression of the autoinducer synthase gene is realized in asynchronous stochastic pulses that result from scarcity and, presumably, low binding affinity of the key activator. Physiological cues modulate pulse frequency, and pulse frequency in turn modulates the velocity with which autoinducer levels in the environment reach the threshold to trigger the quorum sensing response. We therefore propose that frequency-modulated pulsing in S. meliloti represents the molecular mechanism for a collective decision-making process in which each cell's physiological state and need for behavioural adaptation is encoded in the pulse frequency with which it expresses the autoinducer synthase gene; the pulse frequencies of all members of the population are then integrated in the common pool of autoinducers, and only once this vote crosses the threshold, the response behaviour is initiated.
Collapse
|
48
|
Henrion L, Delvenne M, Bajoul Kakahi F, Moreno-Avitia F, Delvigne F. Exploiting Information and Control Theory for Directing Gene Expression in Cell Populations. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:869509. [PMID: 35547126 PMCID: PMC9081792 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.869509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbial populations can adapt to adverse environmental conditions either by appropriately sensing and responding to the changes in their surroundings or by stochastically switching to an alternative phenotypic state. Recent data point out that these two strategies can be exhibited by the same cellular system, depending on the amplitude/frequency of the environmental perturbations and on the architecture of the genetic circuits involved in the adaptation process. Accordingly, several mitigation strategies have been designed for the effective control of microbial populations in different contexts, ranging from biomedicine to bioprocess engineering. Technically, such control strategies have been made possible by the advances made at the level of computational and synthetic biology combined with control theory. However, these control strategies have been applied mostly to synthetic gene circuits, impairing the applicability of the approach to natural circuits. In this review, we argue that it is possible to expand these control strategies to any cellular system and gene circuits based on a metric derived from this information theory, i.e., mutual information (MI). Indeed, based on this metric, it should be possible to characterize the natural frequency of any gene circuits and use it for controlling gene circuits within a population of cells.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Henrion
- Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Mathéo Delvenne
- Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Fatemeh Bajoul Kakahi
- Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Fabian Moreno-Avitia
- Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| | - Frank Delvigne
- Microbial Processes and Interactions (MiPI), Terra Research and Teaching Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Dynamic gene expression and growth underlie cell-to-cell heterogeneity in Escherichia coli stress response. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2115032119. [PMID: 35344432 PMCID: PMC9168488 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2115032119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Individual bacteria that share identical genomes and growth environments can display substantial cell-to-cell differences in expression of stress-response genes and single-cell growth rates. This phenotypic heterogeneity can impact the survival of single cells facing sudden stress. However, the windows of time that cells spend in vulnerable or tolerant states are often unknown. We quantify the temporal expression of a suite of stress-response reporters, while simultaneously monitoring growth. We observe pulsatile expression across genes with a range of stress-response functions, finding that single-cell growth rates are often anticorrelated with reporter levels. These dynamic phenotypic differences have a concrete link to function, in which individual cells undergoing a pulse of elevated expression and slow growth are predisposed to survive antibiotic exposure. Cell-to-cell heterogeneity in gene expression and growth can have critical functional consequences, such as determining whether individual bacteria survive or die following stress. Although phenotypic variability is well documented, the dynamics that underlie it are often unknown. This information is important because dramatically different outcomes can arise from gradual versus rapid changes in expression and growth. Using single-cell time-lapse microscopy, we measured the temporal expression of a suite of stress-response reporters in Escherichia coli, while simultaneously monitoring growth rate. In conditions without stress, we found several examples of pulsatile expression. Single-cell growth rates were often anticorrelated with reporter levels, with changes in growth preceding changes in expression. These dynamics have functional consequences, which we demonstrate by measuring survival after challenging cells with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Our results suggest that fluctuations in both gene expression and growth dynamics in stress-response networks have direct consequences on survival.
Collapse
|
50
|
Synthetic gene networks recapitulate dynamic signal decoding and differential gene expression. Cell Syst 2022; 13:353-364.e6. [PMID: 35298924 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2022.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Cells live in constantly changing environments and employ dynamic signaling pathways to transduce information about the signals they encounter. However, the mechanisms by which dynamic signals are decoded into appropriate gene expression patterns remain poorly understood. Here, we devise networked optogenetic pathways that achieve dynamic signal processing functions that recapitulate cellular information processing. Exploiting light-responsive transcriptional regulators with differing response kinetics, we build a falling edge pulse detector and show that this circuit can be employed to demultiplex dynamically encoded signals. We combine this demultiplexer with dCas9-based gene networks to construct pulsatile signal filters and decoders. Applying information theory, we show that dynamic multiplexing significantly increases the information transmission capacity from signal to gene expression state. Finally, we use dynamic multiplexing for precise multidimensional regulation of a heterologous metabolic pathway. Our results elucidate design principles of dynamic information processing and provide original synthetic systems capable of decoding complex signals for biotechnological applications.
Collapse
|