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Williams RTP, King DC, Mastroianni IR, Hill JL, Apenes NW, Ramirez G, Miner EC, Moore A, Coleman K, Nishimura EO. Transcriptome profiling of the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine reveals that ELT-2 negatively and positively regulates intestinal gene expression within the context of a gene regulatory network. Genetics 2023; 224:iyad088. [PMID: 37183501 PMCID: PMC10411582 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyad088] [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: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/30/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023] Open
Abstract
ELT-2 is the major transcription factor (TF) required for Caenorhabditis elegans intestinal development. ELT-2 expression initiates in embryos to promote development and then persists after hatching through the larval and adult stages. Though the sites of ELT-2 binding are characterized and the transcriptional changes that result from ELT-2 depletion are known, an intestine-specific transcriptome profile spanning developmental time has been missing. We generated this dataset by performing Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting on intestine cells at distinct developmental stages. We analyzed this dataset in conjunction with previously conducted ELT-2 studies to evaluate the role of ELT-2 in directing the intestinal gene regulatory network through development. We found that only 33% of intestine-enriched genes in the embryo were direct targets of ELT-2 but that number increased to 75% by the L3 stage. This suggests additional TFs promote intestinal transcription especially in the embryo. Furthermore, only half of ELT-2's direct target genes were dependent on ELT-2 for their proper expression levels, and an equal proportion of those responded to elt-2 depletion with over-expression as with under-expression. That is, ELT-2 can either activate or repress direct target genes. Additionally, we observed that ELT-2 repressed its own promoter, implicating new models for its autoregulation. Together, our results illustrate that ELT-2 impacts roughly 20-50% of intestine-specific genes, that ELT-2 both positively and negatively controls its direct targets, and that the current model of the intestinal regulatory network is incomplete as the factors responsible for directing the expression of many intestinal genes remain unknown.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert T P Williams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - David C King
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Izabella R Mastroianni
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Jessica L Hill
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Nicolai W Apenes
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Gabriela Ramirez
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - E Catherine Miner
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
- College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Andrew Moore
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Karissa Coleman
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
| | - Erin Osborne Nishimura
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
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Zhao P, Mondal S, Martin C, DuPlissis A, Chizari S, Ma KY, Maiya R, Messing RO, Jiang N, Ben-Yakar A. Femtosecond laser microdissection for isolation of regenerating C. elegans neurons for single-cell RNA sequencing. Nat Methods 2023; 20:590-599. [PMID: 36928074 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-01804-3] [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: 12/30/2020] [Accepted: 01/26/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Our understanding of nerve regeneration can be enhanced by delineating its underlying molecular activities at single-neuron resolution in model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans. Existing cell isolation techniques cannot isolate neurons with specific regeneration phenotypes from C. elegans. We present femtosecond laser microdissection (fs-LM), a single-cell isolation method that dissects specific cells directly from living tissue by leveraging the micrometer-scale precision of fs-laser ablation. We show that fs-LM facilitates sensitive and specific gene expression profiling by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), while mitigating the stress-related transcriptional artifacts induced by tissue dissociation. scRNA-seq of fs-LM isolated regenerating neurons revealed transcriptional programs that are correlated with either successful or failed regeneration in wild-type and dlk-1 (0) animals, respectively. This method also allowed studying heterogeneity displayed by the same type of neuron and found gene modules with expression patterns correlated with axon regrowth rate. Our results establish fs-LM as a spatially resolved single-cell isolation method for phenotype-to-genotype mapping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peisen Zhao
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Sudip Mondal
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Chris Martin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Andrew DuPlissis
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Shahab Chizari
- Deparment of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Ke-Yue Ma
- Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Rajani Maiya
- Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Institute of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Department of Physiology, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - Robert O Messing
- Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Institute of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Ning Jiang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Deparment of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Adela Ben-Yakar
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
- Institute of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
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Malinow RA, Zhu M, Jin Y, Kim KW. Forward genetic screening identifies novel roles for N-terminal acetyltransferase C and histone deacetylase in C. elegans development. Sci Rep 2022; 12:16438. [PMID: 36180459 PMCID: PMC9525577 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-20361-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Coordinating the balance between development and stress responses is critical for organismal survival. However, the cellular signaling controlling this mechanism is not well understood. In Caenorhabditis elegans, it has been hypothesized that a genetic network regulated by NIPI-3/Tibbles may control the balance between animal development and immune response. Using a nipi-3(0) lethality suppressor screen in C. elegans, we reveal a novel role for N-terminal acetyltransferase C complex natc-1/2/3 and histone deacetylase hda-4, in the control of animal development. These signaling proteins act, at least in part, through a PMK-1 p38 MAP kinase pathway (TIR-1-NSY-1-SEK-1-PMK-1), which plays a critical role in the innate immunity against infection. Additionally, using a transcriptional reporter of SEK-1, a signaling molecule within this p38 MAP kinase system that acts directly downstream of C/EBP bZip transcription factor CEBP-1, we find unexpected positive control of sek-1 transcription by SEK-1 along with several other p38 MAP kinase pathway components. Together, these data demonstrate a role for NIPI-3 regulators in animal development, operating, at least in part through a PMK-1 p38 MAPK pathway. Because the C. elegans p38 MAP kinase pathway is well known for its role in cellular stress responses, the novel biological components and mechanisms pertaining to development identified here may also contribute to the balance between stress response and development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rose Aria Malinow
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Ming Zhu
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Yishi Jin
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
| | - Kyung Won Kim
- Department of Life Science, Hallym University, Chuncheon, 24252, South Korea.
- Multidisciplinary Genome Institute, Hallym University, Chuncheon, 24252, South Korea.
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