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Retinoic acid-induced changes in polysialyltransferase mRNA expression and NCAM polysialylation in human neuroblastoma cells.

Polysialic acid (PSA) is a dynamically regulated carbohydrate modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule NCAM, which is implicated in neural differentiation and cellular plasticity. The cloning and characterization of two polysialyltransferases, termed ST8SiaII (STX) and ST8SiaIV (PST), opened up new perspectives in the search for factors that control this unique cell surface glycosylation. In vitro and transfection approaches revealed that ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV are independently capable of synthesizing PSA on NCAM with slightly different specificities towards the major NCAM isoforms and glycosylation sites. Their overlapping but distinct expression patterns during brain development point towards an independent transcriptional regulation. However, the factors driving their joint or distinct expression, as well as the significance of divergent expression patterns in vivo, are not yet understood. In the present study, the mRNA expression of ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV was comparatively analyzed in neuronal differentiation of PSA-positive human neuroblastoma cell lines induced by retinoic acid (RA), phorbolester, or growth factors. Using a semiquantitative RT-PCR strategy, we demonstrated a general decrease in the mRNA level of ST8SiaII upon differentiation of SH-SY5Y and LAN-5 cells. In contrast, a drastic increase of ST8SiaIV was specifically induced by RA-treatment of SH-SY5Y cells. To explore the significance of these changes, the cellular capacity to perform PSA synthesis and the degree of NCAM polysialylation were analyzed. Our data indicate that the increased expression of ST8SiaIV enables an accelerated polysialylation of NCAM, which, however, is not converted into higher amounts of PSA.

Antigens, Surface↗

Incongruent expression profiles between human and mouse orthologous genes suggest widespread neutral evolution of transcription control.

Rapid rates of evolution can signify either a lack of selective constraint and the consequent accumulation of neutral alleles, or positive Darwinian selection driving the fixation of advantageous alleles. Based on a comparison of 1,350 orthologous gene pairs from human and mouse, we show that the evolution of gene expression profiles is so rapid that it is comparable to that of paralogous gene pairs or randomly paired genes. The expression divergence in the entire set of orthologous pairs neither strongly correlates with sequence divergence, nor focuses in any particular tissue. Moreover, comparing tissue expressions across the orthologous gene pairs, we observe that any human tissue is more similar to any other human tissue examined than to its corresponding mouse tissue. Collectively, these results indicate that, while some differences in expression profiles may be due to adaptive evolution, the levels of divergence are mostly compatible with a neutral mode of evolution, in which a mutation for ectopic expression may rise to fixation by random drift without significantly affecting the fitness. A disturbing corollary of these findings is that knowledge of where the gene is expressed may not carry information about its function.

Animals↗

Evolution of cis-regulatory elements in duplicated genes of yeast.

An increasing number of studies report that functional divergence in duplicated genes is accompanied by gene expression changes, although the evolutionary mechanism behind this process remains unclear. Our genomic analysis on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae shows that the number of shared regulatory motifs in the duplicates decreases with evolutionary time, whereas the total number of regulatory motifs remains unchanged. Moreover, genes with numerous paralogs in the yeast genome do not have especially low number of regulatory motifs. These findings indicate that degenerative complementation is not the sole mechanism behind expression divergence in yeast. Moreover, we found some evidence for the action of positive selection on cis-regulatory motifs after gene duplication. These results suggest that the evolution of functional novelty has a substantial role in yeast duplicate gene evolution.

Evolution, Molecular↗

Different spatiotemporal expression of DOC2 genes in the developing rat brain argues for an additional, nonsynaptic role of DOC2B in early development.

DOC2A and DOC2B are two homologous genes implicated in synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Their complementary, nonoverlapping expression patterns in adult rat brain suggest that they exert similar functions in different neurons. We have analysed the expression pattern of the two genes in the developing rat brain by in situ hybridization. Unexpectedly, we found no parallel expression of the two genes during development. DOC2B mRNA was highly expressed as early as embryonic day 12 (E12) throughout the neuroepithelium, long before synaptic transmission is functional, and the expression remained abundant from E12 onwards. In contrast, faint expression of DOC2A transcripts was first detected at E17 in ventral brain areas, and it extended gradually to other brain structures in the sequence of their ontology, i.e. structures that had formed first also expressed DOC2A first. At postnatal day 3, both genes were highly expressed throughout the brain. This overlapping expression diverged to the complementary distribution of the adult brain. The temporal and spatial differences in expression point to a functional divergence between these homologous genes during brain development: the pattern of DOC2A is consistent with its proposed synaptic function, whereas that of DOC2B suggests an additional, nonsynaptic role in proliferating cells.

Aging↗

The structure and expression of the Xenopus Krox-20 gene: conserved and divergent patterns of expression in rhombomeres and neural crest.

Recent studies in the chick have indicated that rhombomeres (r) are segments that underlie the patterning of hindbrain nerves. These segments may also be important for the specification of branchial arch structures since alternating rhombomeres, r2, r4 and r6, each contribute crest to a specific arch. Krox-20 has been implicated in the segmental patterning of the hindbrain in the mouse by its expression prior to segment formation in alternating domains, which later correspond to r3 and r5. Here, we describe the sequence and developmental expression of the Xenopus Krox-20 gene, XKrox-20. Alternating domains of XKrox-20 expression appear in the early neurula, later correspond to r3 and r5, and persist until late tadpole stages. In contrast to this conserved spatial expression in rhombomeres, we find a pattern in the neural crest of Xenopus that appears different from that found in the mouse: expression occurs in crest that migrates from r5 into the third visceral arch. We speculate that this may reflect a distinct route of neural crest migration due to anatomical differences between these systems, rather than a difference in the site of origin of Krox-20-expressing crest.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Duplicate sfrp1 genes in zebrafish: sfrp1a is dynamically expressed in the developing central nervous system, gut and lateral line.

The secreted frizzled-related proteins (Sfrp) are a family of soluble proteins with diverse biological functions having the capacity to bind Wnt ligands, to modulate Wnt signalling, and to signal directly via the Wnt receptor, Frizzled. In an enhancer trap screen for embryonic expression in zebrafish we identified an sfrp1 gene. Previous studies suggest an important role for sfrp1 in eye development, however, no data have been reported using the zebrafish model. In this paper, we describe duplicate sfrp1 genes in zebrafish and present a detailed analysis of the expression profile of both genes. Whole mount in situ hybridisation analyses of sfrp1a during embryonic and larval development revealed a dynamic expression profile, including: the central nervous system, where sfrp1a was regionally expressed throughout the brain and developing eye; the posterior gut, from the time of endodermal cell condensation; the lateral line, where sfrp1a was expressed in the migrating primordia and interneuromast cells that give rise to the sensory organs. Other sites included the blastoderm, segmenting mesoderm, olfactory placode, developing ear, pronephros and fin-bud. We have also analysed sfrp1b expression during embryonic development. Surprisingly this gene exhibited a divergent expression profile being limited to the yolk syncytium under the elongating tail-bud, which later covered the distal yolk extension, and transiently in the tail-bud mesenchyme. Overall, our studies provide a basis for future analyses of these developmentally important factors using the zebrafish model.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The asymmetry in idiotype-isotype expression in the response to phosphocholine is due to divergence in the expressed repertoires of Lyb-5+ and Lyb-5- B cells.

The X-linked CBA/N immune defect was used to investigate the roles of Lyb-5- and Lyb-5+ B cells in the memory response to PC-KLH (phosphocholine-conjugated keyhole limpet hemocyanin). (CBA/N X BALB/c)F1 (CB) male mice express the xid mutation and thereby lack the Lyb-5+ B cell subset, whereas their female littermates are normal and express both Lyb-5+ and Lyb-5- B cells. After priming with PC-conjugated hemocyanin (PC-Hy) in complete Freund's adjuvant, female B cells produce three phenotypic sets of PC-KLH-specific antibody. The first set (group I) is dominated by T15+, IgM, IgA, and IgG3, PC-specific antibodies. The second subset (group II) is specific for phenylphosphocholine (PPC), and is dominated by T15-, IgG1, and IgG2 antibodies. The third set (group III) recognizes an epitope(s) composed of both the PPC hapten and carrier determinants. PC-Hy-primed B cells from immune defective CB male mice produce the same number of IgG1 and IgG2 plaque-forming cells (PFC) as do PC-Hy-primed normal female cells, and these PFC are also predominantly T15- and PPC specific (group II). In addition, a significant amount of group III IgG1 and IgG2 antibody is observed in the immune defective male response. In contrast to female B cells, immune defective male B cells produce a low IgM, IgA, and IgG3 memory response that is not composed of PC-specific (group I) antibodies; in fact, most of these antibodies arise from group III precursors and are not inhibited by either PC or PPC. PC-specific antibodies usually represent less than 25% of the anti-PC-KLH response in immune defective mice; however, these PC-specific antibodies are predominantly T15-. These data suggest that the Lyb-5-B cells in both normal and immune defective mice produce the T15-, IgG1, and IgG2 antibodies that dominate the secondary immune response to PC-KLH, and that the Lyb-5+ B cells produce the T15+, IgM, IgA, and IgG3 portion of the secondary response in normal mice. This hypothesis was confirmed by priming normal mice with the R36a strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae or with PC-Hy in saline. These forms of PC-antigen prime only the Lyb-5+ B cell subset. The adoptive transfer of these two B cell sources results in an anti-PC-KLH response that is T15 dominant and totally PC inhibitable.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

Meprin mRNA in rat intestine during normal and glucocorticoid-induced maturation: divergent patterns of expression of alpha and beta subunits.

Meprin is a zinc-metalloendopeptidase expressed in intestinal epithelial cells. In rat jejunum collected from postnatal day 4 (P4) through P25 meprins alpha mRNA exhibited uniform levels for the first three postnatal weeks and then declined, whereas meprin beta mRNA showed a biphasic pattern with high levels in the first postnatal week followed by low levels from P7 through P19 and then a marked rise at P22 and P25. Dexamethasone treatment beginning at P10 had no significant effect on levels of meprins a mRNA, whereas this treatment caused a precocious increase in expression of meprin beta mRNA. These divergent patterns of expression of meprins alpha and beta mRNA suggest distinct roles for the two subunits during the suckling and weaning phases of rodent intestinal development.

Aging↗

A spatiotemporal resolution to genetic redundancy: MIR164 diversification coordinates development and metabolism in Brassica.

Whole-genome duplication (WGD) events create genetic redundancy, posing the evolutionary challenge of how paralogs escape functional overlap to drive innovation. Here, we demonstrate that the MIR164 family in Brassica oleracea resolves this redundancy through spatiotemporal niche partitioning. Following WGD, the family expanded to eight members, which subsequently underwent divergent selection-some preserved under purifying selection, while others showed signals of positive selection. This led to expression divergence, with Bol-MIR164a1 emerging as a key universally expressed paralog. CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis of Bol-MIR164a1 revealed its essential role in coordinating two pivotal traits: leaf serration and leaf coloration. Mutants exhibited enhanced leaf serration due to spatial deregulation of CUC2 at organ boundaries, concurrently with yellow-green leaves and elevated flavonoid accumulation. We mechanistically linked the metabolic phenotype to direct transactivation of the anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) promoter by NAC100, alongside its upregulation of chlorophyll catabolism genes. Our findings establish a paradigm in which spatial segregation of target gene expression domains enables a single, widely expressed miRNA paralog to resolve genetic redundancy by independently orchestrating distinct regulatory programs. This provides a fundamental framework for understanding complex trait evolution in polyploids. This allows a single miRNA locus to independently orchestrate both morphological patterning and metabolic programming, providing a fundamental framework for understanding complex trait evolution in polyploid crops.

MicroRNAs↗

Correlation of diversity of leg morphology in Gryllus bimaculatus (cricket) with divergence in dpp expression pattern during leg development.

Insects can be grouped into mainly two categories, holometabolous and hemimetabolous, according to the extent of their morphological change during metamorphosis. The three thoracic legs, for example, are known to develop through two overtly different pathways: holometabolous insects make legs through their imaginal discs, while hemimetabolous legs develop from their leg buds. Thus, how the molecular mechanisms of leg development differ from each other is an intriguing question. In the holometabolous long-germ insect, these mechanisms have been extensively studied using Drosophila melanogaster. However, little is known about the mechanism in the hemimetabolous insect. Thus, we studied leg development of the hemimetabolous short-germ insect, Gryllus bimaculatus (cricket), focusing on expression patterns of the three key signaling molecules, hedgehog (hh), wingless (wg) and decapentaplegic (dpp), which are essential during leg development in Drosophila. In Gryllus embryos, expression of hh is restricted in the posterior half of each leg bud, while dpp and wg are expressed in the dorsal and ventral sides of its anteroposterior (A/P) boundary, respectively. Their expression patterns are essentially comparable with those of the three genes in Drosophila leg imaginal discs, suggesting the existence of the common mechanism for leg pattern formation. However, we found that expression pattern of dpp was significantly divergent among Gryllus, Schistocerca (grasshopper) and Drosophila embryos, while expression patterns of hh and wg are conserved. Furthermore, the divergence was found between the pro/mesothoracic and metathoracic Gryllus leg buds. These observations imply that the divergence in the dpp expression pattern may correlate with diversity of leg morphology.

Animals↗

The endo-beta-mannanase gene families in Arabidopsis, rice, and poplar.

Mannans are widespread hemicellulosic polysaccharides in plant cell walls. Hydrolysis of the internal beta-1,4-D: -mannopyranosyl linkage in the backbone of mannans is catalyzed by endo-beta-mannanase. Plant endo-beta-mannanase has been well studied for its function in seed germination. Its involvement in other plant biological processes, however, remains poorly characterized or elusive. The completed genome sequences of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), rice (Oryza sativa), and poplar (Populus trichocarpa) provide an opportunity to conduct comparative genomic analysis of endo-beta-mannanase genes in these three species. In silico sequence analysis led to the identification of eight, nine and 11 endo-beta-mannanase genes in the genomes of Arabidopsis, rice, and poplar, respectively. Sequence comparisons revealed the conserved amino acids and motifs that are critical for the active site of endo-beta-mannanases. Intron/exon structure analysis in conjunction with phylogenetic analysis implied that both intron gain and intron loss has played roles in the evolution of endo-beta-mannanase genes. The phylogenetic analysis that included the endo-beta-mannanases from plants and other organisms implied that plant endo-beta-mannanases have an ancient evolutionary origin. Comprehensive expression analysis of all Arabidopsis and rice endo-beta-mannanase genes showed divergent expression patterns of individual genes, suggesting that the enzymes encoded by these genes, while carrying out the same biochemical reaction, are involved in diverse biological processes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Inducible cephalosporinase production in clinical isolates of Enterobacter cloacae is controlled by a regulatory gene that has been deleted from Escherichia coli.

Cephalosporin hyper-resistant Enterobacter cloacae strains are isolated with increasing frequency from hospital infections. Resistance is principally due to the chromosomal ampC gene encoding a cephalosporinase. In contrast to Escherichia coli which expresses ampC constitutively from a promoter located in the upstream frdD gene, E. cloacae displays inducible ampC expression. By cloning the ampC gene it was shown that a linked genetic locus, ampR, mediated the induction by beta-lactams. In the absence of the antibiotic the 30,500 dalton AmpR protein represses ampC expression. The ampR gene shows a highly compact arrangement and is situated between the divergently expressed ampC gene and the frd operon from which it is separated by a bifunctional transcription terminator. The promoters for ampR and ampC substantially overlap and mRNA analyses showed that on induction transcription from the ampC promoter increased greatly whereas that from ampR did not. Two regions of sequence homology flank the ampR gene and it is proposed that a homologous recombination event between these in an ancestral enteric bacterium may have led to the deletion of ampR from the E. coli genome.

Base Sequence↗

The transcriptional consequences of mutation and natural selection in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The evolutionary importance of gene-expression divergence is unclear: some studies suggest that it is an important mechanism for evolution by natural selection, whereas others claim that most between-species regulatory changes are neutral or nearly neutral. We examined global transcriptional divergence patterns in a set of Caenorhabditis elegans mutation-accumulation lines and natural isolate lines to provide insights into the evolutionary importance of transcriptional variation and to discriminate between the forces of mutation and natural selection in shaping the evolution of gene expression. We detected the effects of selection on transcriptional divergence patterns and characterized them with respect to coexpressed gene sets, chromosomal clustering of expression changes and functional gene categories. We directly compared observed transcriptional variation patterns in the mutation-accumulation and natural isolate lines to a neutral model of transcriptome evolution to show that strong stabilizing selection dominates the evolution of transcriptional change for thousands of C. elegans expressed sequences.

Animals↗

Expression of chick Tbx-2, Tbx-3, and Tbx-5 genes during early heart development: evidence for BMP2 induction of Tbx2.

Expression patterns of Tbx2, -3, and -5 genes were analyzed during chick embryonic heart development. Transcripts of these three cTbx genes were detected in overlapping patterns in the early cardiac crescent. cTbx2 and cTbx3 expression patterns closely overlapped with that of bmp2. cTbx5 expression diverged from cTbx2 and bmp2 during the elaboration and folding of the heart tube. In comparison, cTbx2 expression overlapped significantly with that of bmp2 and bmp4 during all stages of heart development and during later embryonic stages, suggestive of a specialized role for Tbx2 in septation. Coexpression of cTbx 2 and cTbx3 genes with bmp2 transcripts raised the possibility that these cTbx genes might be downstream bmp2 targets. Application of bmp2 selectively induced cTbx2 and cTbx3 expression in noncardiogenic embryonic tissue, and the bmp antagonist Noggin down-regulated cTbx2 gene activity. Moreover, the appearance of murine mTbx2 was blocked in bmp2 null mouse embryos. cTbx2 and to a lesser extent cTbx3 gene activity appears to be directed by BMPs during early cardiogenesis.

Animals↗

Different expression of adhesion molecules on stromal cells and endothelial cells of capillary hemangioblastoma.

Cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions are essential for many basic functions, including differentiation and development. In pathological conditions such as inflammation and tumorigenesis adhesive events also play a major role. Cellular adhesion is mediated by specific molecules expressed by both normal and neoplastic tissues. Capillary hemangioblastoma is a tumor of controversial origin, characterized by two major components, vacuolated stromal cells and a capillary network. In order to shed light on the differentiation of the stromal cells and the interactions between the two major components of hemangioblastoma we studied the expression of several adhesion molecules by immunocytochemistry. The endothelium-associated adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, ICAM-2, VCAM-1, PECAM-1 and ELAM-1) were expressed by endothelial cells within the tumors, but not by stromal cells. In contrast, the stromal cells showed strong neuronal cell adhesion molecule (NCAM/CD56) expression, further distinguishing them from endothelial cells. In addition, the stromal cells expressed CD44, which is of interest, as this membrane protein is linked to ezrin, a cytoskeleton-associated protein also expressed by stromal cells. We conclude that the stromal cells and endothelial cells of capillary hemangioblastoma exhibit quite divergent expression patterns of adhesion molecules. The NCAM expression in stromal cells suggests neuroectodermal or mesenchymal differentiation of this tumor. In addition, the NCAM expression could contribute to the sometimes problematic differential diagnosis between capillary hemangioblastoma and metastatic renal cell carcinoma of the central nervous system.

Capillaries↗

Transposable element derived DNaseI-hypersensitive sites in the human genome.

BACKGROUND: Transposable elements (TEs) are abundant genomic sequences that have been found to contribute to genome evolution in unexpected ways. Here, we characterize the evolutionary and functional characteristics of TE-derived human genome regulatory sequences uncovered by the high throughput mapping of DNaseI-hypersensitive (HS) sites. RESULTS: Human genome TEs were found to contribute substantially to HS regulatory sequences characterized in CD4+ T cells: 23% of HS sites contain TE-derived sequences. While HS sites are far more evolutionarily conserved than non HS sites in the human genome, consistent with their functional importance, TE-derived HS sites are highly divergent. Nevertheless, TE-derived HS sites were shown to be functionally relevant in terms of driving gene expression in CD4+ T cells. Genes involved in immune response are statistically over-represented among genes with TE-derived HS sites. A number of genes with both TE-derived HS sites and immune tissue related expression patterns were found to encode proteins involved in immune response such as T cell specific receptor antigens and secreted cytokines as well as proteins with clinical relevance to HIV and cancer. Genes with TE-derived HS sites have higher average levels of sequence and expression divergence between human and mouse orthologs compared to genes with non TE-derived HS sites. CONCLUSION: The results reported here support the notion that TEs provide a specific genome-wide mechanism for generating functionally relevant gene regulatory divergence between evolutionary lineages. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Wolfgang J. Miller (nominated by Jerzy Jurka), Itai Yanai and Mikhail S.Gelfand.

Journal Article↗

Evolutionary changes in sites and timing of actin gene expression in embryos of the direct- and indirect-developing sea urchins, Heliocidaris erythrogramma and H. tuberculata.

We describe an evolutionary comparison of expression of the actin gene families of two congeneric sea urchins. Heliocidaris tuberculata develops indirectly via a planktonic feeding pluteus that forms a juvenile rudiment after a long period of larval development. H. erythrogramma is a direct developer that initiates formation of a juvenile rudiment immediately following gastrulation. The developmental expression of each actin isoform of both species was determined by in situ hybridization. The observed expression patterns are compared with known expression patterns in a related indirect-developing sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Comparisons reveal unexpected patterns of conserved and divergent expression. Cytoplasmic actin, CyIII, is expressed in the aboral ectoderm cells of the indirect developers, but is an unexpressed pseudogene in H. erythrogramma, which lacks aboral ectoderm. This change is correlated with developmental mode. Two CyII actins are expressed in S. purpuratus, and one in H. erythrogramma, but no CyII is expressed in H. tuberculata despite its great developmental similarity to S. purpuratus. CyI expression differs slightly between Heliocidaris and Strongylocentrotus with more ectodermal expression in Heliocidaris. Evolutionary changes in actin gene expression reflect both evolution of developmental mode as well as a surprising flexibility in gene expression within a developmental mode.

Actins↗

Genetic linkage in Pseudomonas aeruginosa of algT and nadB: mutation in nadB does not affect NAD biosynthesis or alginate production.

The 68-min region of the chromosome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) contains the gene algT, encoding a putative alternate sigma factor similar to sigma E in Escherichia coli, that is required for the expression of several genes in the alginate biosynthetic regulon. Sequences immediately upstream from algT were found to contain a divergently expressed open reading frame encoding a 60-kDa protein with 64 and 36% identity to the nadB gene products of E. coli and Bacillus subtilis, respectively. The nadB gene encodes L-aspartate oxidase and has been shown in several bacteria to be essential for de novo nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide (NAD) biosynthesis. Pa nadB complemented the growth requirement for nicotinic acid in a nadB mutant strain of E. coli, suggesting that this gene encodes a functional homologue of L-aspartate oxidase. A nadB::Tn501 mutant was constructed by gene replacement in the alginate-producing strain, Pa FRD. This NadB- mutant still produced alginate and appeared normal with respect to the regulation of alginate synthesis. Interestingly, the NadB- mutant did not have an auxotrophic phenotype for nicotinic acid, indicating that this nadB was not essential for NAD biosynthesis in Pa. These results suggest the possibility that Pa has an alternate mechanism for de novo NAD biosynthesis.

Alginates↗