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Vitale M, Kranjc N, Leigh J, Kyrou K, Courty T, Marston L, Grilli S, Crisanti A, Bernardini F. Y chromosome shredding in Anopheles gambiae: Insight into the cellular dynamics of a novel synthetic sex ratio distorter. PLoS Genet 2024; 20:e1011303. [PMID: 38848445 PMCID: PMC11189259 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011303] [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: 01/11/2024] [Revised: 06/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite efforts to explore the genome of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, the Y chromosome of this species remains enigmatic. The large number of repetitive and heterochromatic DNA sequences makes the Y chromosome exceptionally difficult to fully assemble, hampering the progress of gene editing techniques and functional studies for this chromosome. In this study, we made use of a bioinformatic platform to identify Y-specific repetitive DNA sequences that served as a target site for a CRISPR/Cas9 system. The activity of Cas9 in the reproductive organs of males caused damage to Y-bearing sperm without affecting their fertility, leading to a strong female bias in the progeny. Cytological investigation allowed us to identify meiotic defects and investigate sperm selection in this new synthetic sex ratio distorter system. In addition, alternative promoters enable us to target the Y chromosome in specific tissues and developmental stages of male mosquitoes, enabling studies that shed light on the role of this chromosome in male gametogenesis. This work paves the way for further insight into the poorly characterised Y chromosome of Anopheles gambiae. Moreover, the sex distorter strain we have generated promises to be a valuable tool for the advancement of studies in the field of developmental biology, with the potential to support the progress of genetic strategies aimed at controlling malaria mosquitoes and other pest species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Vitale
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Nace Kranjc
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jessica Leigh
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Kyrous Kyrou
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas Courty
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Louise Marston
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Silvia Grilli
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrea Crisanti
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Federica Bernardini
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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Nanni A, Titus-McQuillan J, Bankole KS, Pardo-Palacios F, Signor S, Vlaho S, Moskalenko O, Morse A, Rogers RL, Conesa A, McIntyre LM. Nucleotide-level distance metrics to quantify alternative splicing implemented in TranD. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:e28. [PMID: 38340337 PMCID: PMC10954468 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkae056] [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: 07/21/2023] [Revised: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Advances in affordable transcriptome sequencing combined with better exon and gene prediction has motivated many to compare transcription across the tree of life. We develop a mathematical framework to calculate complexity and compare transcript models. Structural features, i.e. intron retention (IR), donor/acceptor site variation, alternative exon cassettes, alternative 5'/3' UTRs, are compared and the distance between transcript models is calculated with nucleotide level precision. All metrics are implemented in a PyPi package, TranD and output can be used to summarize splicing patterns for a transcriptome (1GTF) and between transcriptomes (2GTF). TranD output enables quantitative comparisons between: annotations augmented by empirical RNA-seq data and the original transcript models; transcript model prediction tools for longread RNA-seq (e.g. FLAIR versus Isoseq3); alternate annotations for a species (e.g. RefSeq vs Ensembl); and between closely related species. In C. elegans, Z. mays, D. melanogaster, D. simulans and H. sapiens, alternative exons were observed more frequently in combination with an alternative donor/acceptor than alone. Transcript models in RefSeq and Ensembl are linked and both have unique transcript models with empirical support. D. melanogaster and D. simulans, share many transcript models and long-read RNAseq data suggests that both species are under-annotated. We recommend combined references.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adalena Nanni
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - James Titus-McQuillan
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics Charlotte, NC, USA
| | - Kinfeosioluwa S Bankole
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | | | - Sarah Signor
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA
| | - Srna Vlaho
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Oleksandr Moskalenko
- University of Florida Research Computing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - Alison M Morse
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - Rebekah L Rogers
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics Charlotte, NC, USA
| | - Ana Conesa
- Institute for Integrative Systems Biology. Spanish National Research Council, Paterna, Spain
| | - Lauren M McIntyre
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
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Zhang P, Xue B, Yang H, Zhang L. Transcriptome Responses to Different Salinity Conditions in Litoditis marina, Revealed by Long-Read Sequencing. Genes (Basel) 2024; 15:317. [PMID: 38540376 PMCID: PMC10970011 DOI: 10.3390/genes15030317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2024] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
The marine nematode Litoditis marina is widely distributed in intertidal zones around the globe, yet the mechanisms underlying its broad adaptation to salinity remain elusive. In this study, we applied ONT long-read sequencing technology to unravel the transcriptome responses to different salinity conditions in L. marina. Through ONT sequencing under 3‱, 30‱ and 60‱ salinity environments, we obtained 131.78 G clean data and 26,647 non-redundant long-read transcripts, including 6464 novel transcripts. The DEGs obtained from the current ONT lrRNA-seq were highly correlated with those identified in our previously reported Illumina short-read RNA sequencing data. When we compared the 30‱ to the 3‱ salinity condition, we found that GO terms such as oxidoreductase activity, cation transmembrane transport and ion transmembrane transport were shared between the ONT lrRNA-seq and Illumina data. Similarly, GO terms including extracellular space, structural constituents of cuticle, substrate-specific channel activity, ion transport and substrate-specific transmembrane transporter activity were shared between the ONT and Illumina data under 60‱ compared to 30‱ salinity. In addition, we found that 79 genes significantly increased, while 119 genes significantly decreased, as the salinity increased. Furthermore, through the GO enrichment analysis of 214 genes containing DAS, in 30‱ compared to 3‱ salinity, we found that GO terms such as cellular component assembly and coenzyme biosynthetic process were enriched. Additionally, we observed that GO terms such as cellular component assembly and coenzyme biosynthetic process were also enriched in 60‱ compared to 30‱ salinity. Moreover, we found that 86, 125, and 81 genes that contained DAS were also DEGs, in comparisons between 30‱ and 3‱, 60‱ and 30‱, and 60‱ and 3‱ salinity, respectively. In addition, we demonstrated the landscape of alternative polyadenylation in marine nematode under different salinity conditions This report provides several novel insights for the further study of the mechanisms by which euryhalinity formed and evolved, and it might also contribute to the investigation of salinity dynamics induced by global climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengchi Zhang
- CAS and Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; (P.Z.); (B.X.); (H.Y.)
- Laboratory of Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China
- Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao 266071, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Beining Xue
- CAS and Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; (P.Z.); (B.X.); (H.Y.)
- Laboratory of Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China
- Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao 266071, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Hanwen Yang
- CAS and Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; (P.Z.); (B.X.); (H.Y.)
- Laboratory of Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China
- Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao 266071, China
| | - Liusuo Zhang
- CAS and Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; (P.Z.); (B.X.); (H.Y.)
- Laboratory of Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China
- Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao 266071, China
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Ray M, Zaborowsky J, Mahableshwarkar P, Vaidyanathan S, Shum J, Viswanathan R, Huang A, Wang SH, Johnson V, Wake N, Conard AM, Conicella AE, Puterbaugh R, Fawzi NL, Larschan E. Dual DNA/RNA-binding factor regulates dynamics of hnRNP splicing condensates. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.11.575216. [PMID: 38260450 PMCID: PMC10802580 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.11.575216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Despite decades of research, mechanisms by which co-transcriptional alternative splicing events are targeted to the correct genomic locations to drive cell fate decisions remain unknown. By combining structural and molecular approaches, we define a new mechanism by which an essential transcription factor (TF) targets co-transcriptional splicing through physical and functional interaction with RNA and RNA binding proteins (RBPs). We show that an essential TF co-transcriptionally regulates sex-specific alternative splicing by directly interacting with a subset of target RNAs on chromatin and modulating the dynamics of hnRNPA2 homolog nuclear splicing condensates.
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