ALBERT

Description: Molecular regulation of embryonic stem cell (ESC) fate involves a coordinated interaction between epigenetic, transcriptional and translational mechanisms. It is unclear how these different molecular regulatory mechanisms interact to regulate changes in stem cell fate. Here we present a dynamic systems-level study of cell fate change in murine ESCs following a well-defined perturbation. Global changes in histone acetylation, chromatin-bound RNA polymerase II, messenger RNA (mRNA), and nuclear protein levels were measured over 5 days after downregulation of Nanog, a key pluripotency regulator. Our data demonstrate how a single genetic perturbation leads to progressive widespread changes in several molecular regulatory layers, and provide a dynamic view of information flow in the epigenome, transcriptome and proteome. We observe that a large proportion of changes in nuclear protein levels are not accompanied by concordant changes in the expression of corresponding mRNAs, indicating important roles for translational and post-translational regulation of ESC fate. Gene-ontology analysis across different molecular layers indicates that although chromatin reconfiguration is important for altering cell fate, it is preceded by transcription-factor-mediated regulatory events. The temporal order of gene expression alterations shows the order of the regulatory network reconfiguration and offers further insight into the gene regulatory network. Our studies extend the conventional systems biology approach to include many molecular species, regulatory layers and temporal series, and underscore the complexity of the multilayer regulatory mechanisms responsible for changes in protein expression that determine stem cell fate.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3199216/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3199216/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lu, Rong -- Markowetz, Florian -- Unwin, Richard D -- Leek, Jeffrey T -- Airoldi, Edoardo M -- MacArthur, Ben D -- Lachmann, Alexander -- Rozov, Roye -- Ma'ayan, Avi -- Boyer, Laurie A -- Troyanskaya, Olga G -- Whetton, Anthony D -- Lemischka, Ihor R -- P50 GM071558/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM071558-01A20007/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM071558-020007/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM071558-030007/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2009 Nov 19;462(7271):358-62. doi: 10.1038/nature08575.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA. rlu@stanford.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19924215" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is required for the DNA cleavage step in immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR). AID is proposed to deaminate cytosine to generate uracil (U) in either mRNA or DNA. In the second instance, DNA cleavage depends on uracil DNA glycosylase (UNG) for removal of U. Using phosphorylated histone gamma-H2AX focus formation as a marker of DNA cleavage, we found that the UNG inhibitor Ugi did not inhibit DNA cleavage in immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) locus during CSR, even though Ugi blocked UNG binding to DNA and strongly inhibited CSR. Strikingly, UNG mutants that had lost the capability of removing U rescued CSR in UNG-/- B cells. These results indicate that UNG is involved in the repair step of CSR yet by an unknown mechanism. The dispensability of U removal in the DNA cleavage step of CSR requires a reconsideration of the model of DNA deamination by AID.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Begum, Nasim A -- Kinoshita, Kazuo -- Kakazu, Naoki -- Muramatsu, Masamichi -- Nagaoka, Hitoshi -- Shinkura, Reiko -- Biniszkiewicz, Detlev -- Boyer, Laurie A -- Jaenisch, Rudolf -- Honjo, Tasuku -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Aug 20;305(5687):1160-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Medical Chemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15326357" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The reference human genome sequence set the stage for studies of genetic variation and its association with human disease, but epigenomic studies lack a similar reference. To address this need, the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium generated the largest collection so far of human epigenomes for primary cells and tissues. Here we describe the integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes generated as part of the programme, profiled for histone modification patterns, DNA accessibility, DNA methylation and RNA expression. We establish global maps of regulatory elements, define regulatory modules of coordinated activity, and their likely activators and repressors. We show that disease- and trait-associated genetic variants are enriched in tissue-specific epigenomic marks, revealing biologically relevant cell types for diverse human traits, and providing a resource for interpreting the molecular basis of human disease. Our results demonstrate the central role of epigenomic information for understanding gene regulation, cellular differentiation and human disease.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530010/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530010/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium -- Kundaje, Anshul -- Meuleman, Wouter -- Ernst, Jason -- Bilenky, Misha -- Yen, Angela -- Heravi-Moussavi, Alireza -- Kheradpour, Pouya -- Zhang, Zhizhuo -- Wang, Jianrong -- Ziller, Michael J -- Amin, Viren -- Whitaker, John W -- Schultz, Matthew D -- Ward, Lucas D -- Sarkar, Abhishek -- Quon, Gerald -- Sandstrom, Richard S -- Eaton, Matthew L -- Wu, Yi-Chieh -- Pfenning, Andreas R -- Wang, Xinchen -- Claussnitzer, Melina -- Liu, Yaping -- Coarfa, Cristian -- Harris, R Alan -- Shoresh, Noam -- Epstein, Charles B -- Gjoneska, Elizabeta -- Leung, Danny -- Xie, Wei -- Hawkins, R David -- Lister, Ryan -- Hong, Chibo -- Gascard, Philippe -- Mungall, Andrew J -- Moore, Richard -- Chuah, Eric -- Tam, Angela -- Canfield, Theresa K -- Hansen, R Scott -- Kaul, Rajinder -- Sabo, Peter J -- Bansal, Mukul S -- Carles, Annaick -- Dixon, Jesse R -- Farh, Kai-How -- Feizi, Soheil -- Karlic, Rosa -- Kim, Ah-Ram -- Kulkarni, Ashwinikumar -- Li, Daofeng -- Lowdon, Rebecca -- Elliott, GiNell -- Mercer, Tim R -- Neph, Shane J -- Onuchic, Vitor -- Polak, Paz -- Rajagopal, Nisha -- Ray, Pradipta -- Sallari, Richard C -- Siebenthall, Kyle T -- Sinnott-Armstrong, Nicholas A -- Stevens, Michael -- Thurman, Robert E -- Wu, Jie -- Zhang, Bo -- Zhou, Xin -- Beaudet, Arthur E -- Boyer, Laurie A -- De Jager, Philip L -- Farnham, Peggy J -- Fisher, Susan J -- Haussler, David -- Jones, Steven J M -- Li, Wei -- Marra, Marco A -- McManus, Michael T -- Sunyaev, Shamil -- Thomson, James A -- Tlsty, Thea D -- Tsai, Li-Huei -- Wang, Wei -- Waterland, Robert A -- Zhang, Michael Q -- Chadwick, Lisa H -- Bernstein, Bradley E -- Costello, Joseph F -- Ecker, Joseph R -- Hirst, Martin -- Meissner, Alexander -- Milosavljevic, Aleksandar -- Ren, Bing -- Stamatoyannopoulos, John A -- Wang, Ting -- Kellis, Manolis -- 5R24HD000836/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- ES017166/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- F32 HL110473/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- F32HL110473/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- K99 HL119617/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- K99HL119617/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 DA008227/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- P30AG10161/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- P50 MH096890/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG015819/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG017917/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 ES024984/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- R01 ES024992/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- R01 HG004037/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HG007175/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HG007354/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01AG15819/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01AG17917/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01HG004037/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01HG004037-S1/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01NS078839/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- RC1HG005334/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- RF1 AG015819/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- T32 ES007032/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007198/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007266/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM081739/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 ES017154/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- U01AG46152/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- U01DA025956/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- U01ES017154/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- U01ES017155/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- U01ES017156/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- U01ES017166/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2015 Feb 19;518(7539):317-30. doi: 10.1038/nature14248.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. [2] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [3] Department of Genetics, Department of Computer Science, 300 Pasteur Dr., Lane Building, L301, Stanford, California 94305-5120, USA. ; 1] Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. [2] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; 1] Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. [2] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [3] Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 615 Charles E Young Dr South, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. ; Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1L3, Canada. ; 1] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [2] Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, 7 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; Epigenome Center, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Institute of Genomic Medicine, Moores Cancer Center, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. ; Genomic Analysis Laboratory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute &The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. ; Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, 3720 15th Ave. NE, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; 1] Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. [2] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [3] Biology Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 31 Ames St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; 1] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [2] The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. ; 1] Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Institute of Genomic Medicine, Moores Cancer Center, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. [2] Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. ; Department of Neurosurgery, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco, 1450 3rd Street, San Francisco, California 94158, USA. ; Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California 94143-0511, USA. ; Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Genetics, University of Washington, 2211 Elliot Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98121, USA. ; 1] Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. [2] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [3] Department of Computer Science &Engineering, University of Connecticut, 371 Fairfield Way, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Centre for High-Throughput Biology, University of British Columbia, 2125 East Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada. ; Bioinformatics Group, Department of Molecular Biology, Division of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. ; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Center for Systems Biology, The University of Texas, Dallas, NSERL, RL10, 800 W Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75080, USA. ; Department of Genetics, Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University in St Louis, 4444 Forest Park Ave, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA. ; Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. ; 1] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [2] Brigham &Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; 1] Department of Genetics, Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University in St Louis, 4444 Forest Park Ave, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA. [2] Department of Computer Science and Engineeering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA. ; 1] Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3600, USA. [2] Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA. ; Molecular and Human Genetics Department, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; Biology Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 31 Ames St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; 1] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [2] Brigham &Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. [3] Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck St, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 1450 Biggy Street, Los Angeles, California 90089-9601, USA. ; ObGyn, Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Francisco, 35 Medical Center Way, San Francisco, California 94143, USA. ; Center for Biomolecular Sciences and Engineering, University of Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA. ; 1] Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1L3, Canada. [2] Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada. [3] Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, 2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4. ; Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; 1] Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1L3, Canada. [2] Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, 2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Diabetes Center, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, California 94143-0534, USA. ; 1] University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA. [2] Morgridge Institute for Research, 330 N. Orchard Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53707, USA. ; USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 1100 Bates Street, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; 1] Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Center for Systems Biology, The University of Texas, Dallas, NSERL, RL10, 800 W Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75080, USA. [2] Bioinformatics Division, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, TNLIST, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. ; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 111 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA. ; 1] The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. [2] Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit St, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. [3] Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815-6789, USA. ; 1] Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1L3, Canada. [2] Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Centre for High-Throughput Biology, University of British Columbia, 2125 East Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25693563" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Motor units are the fundamental elements responsible for muscle movement. They are formed by lower motor neurons and their muscle targets, synapsed via neuromuscular junctions (NMJs). The loss of NMJs in neurodegenerative disorders (such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal muscle atrophy) or as a result of traumatic injuries affects millions of lives each year. Developing in vitro assays that closely recapitulate the physiology of neuromuscular tissues is crucial to understand the formation and maturation of NMJs, as well as to help unravel the mechanisms leading to their degeneration and repair. We present a microfluidic platform designed to coculture myoblast-derived muscle strips and motor neurons differentiated from mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) within a three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel. The device geometry mimics the spinal cord–limb physical separation by compartmentalizing the two cell types, which also facilitates the observation of 3D neurite outgrowth and remote muscle innervation. Moreover, the use of compliant pillars as anchors for muscle strips provides a quantitative functional readout of force generation. Finally, photosensitizing the ESC provides a pool of source cells that can be differentiated into optically excitable motor neurons, allowing for spatiodynamic, versatile, and noninvasive in vitro control of the motor units.

Description: The aggregation of proteins into oligomers and amyloid fibrils is characteristic of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson disease (PD). In PD, the process of aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) from monomers, via oligomeric intermediates, into amyloid fibrils is considered the disease-causative toxic mechanism. We developed α-syn mutants that promote oligomer or fibril formation and tested the toxicity of these mutants by using a rat lentivirus system to investigate loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The most severe dopaminergic loss in the substantia nigra is observed in animals with the α-syn variants that form oligomers (i.e., E57K and E35K), whereas the α-syn variants that form fibrils very quickly are less toxic. We show that α-syn oligomers are toxic in vivo and that α-syn oligomers might interact with and potentially disrupt membranes.

Description: Radio controlled balloon-borne astronomical tele- scope - stratoscope ii

Description: Programmable integrating image-orthicon TV chain for application to Stratoscope II balloon-borne astronomical telescope