Characterization of Commercially Available Human Primary Alveolar Epithelial Cells.

In vitro lung research requires appropriate cell culture models that adequately mimic in vivo structure and function. Previously, researchers extensively used commercially available and easily expandable A549 and NCI-H441 cells, which replicate some but not all features of alveolar epithelial cells. Specifically, these cells are often restricted by terminally altered expression while lacking important alveolar epithelial characteristics. Of late, human primary alveolar epithelial cells (hPAEpCs) have become commercially available but are so far poorly specified. Here, we applied a comprehensive set of technologies to characterize their morphology, surface marker expression, transcriptomic profile, and functional properties. At optimized seeding numbers of 7,500 cells per square centimeter and growth at a gas-liquid interface, hPAEpCs formed regular monolayers with tight junctions and amiloride-sensitive transepithelial ion transport. Electron microscopy revealed lamellar body and microvilli formation characteristic for alveolar type II cells. Protein and single-cell transcriptomic analyses revealed expression of alveolar type I and type II cell markers; yet, transcriptomic data failed to detect NKX2-1, an important transcriptional regulator of alveolar cell differentiation. With increasing passage number, hPAEpCs transdifferentiated toward alveolar-basal intermediates characterized as SFTPC-, KRT8high, and KRT5- cells. In spite of marked changes in the transcriptome as a function of passaging, Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection plots did not reveal major shifts in cell clusters, and epithelial permeability was unaffected. The present work delineates optimized culture conditions, cellular characteristics, and functional properties of commercially available hPAEpCs. hPAEpCs may provide a useful model system for studies on drug delivery, barrier function, and transepithelial ion transport in vitro.

Corrigendum: Maintained larval growth in mussel larvae exposed to acidified under-saturated seawater.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep23728.

A Fosmid Pool-Based Next Generation Sequencing Approach to Haplotype-Resolve Whole Genomes.

Haplotype resolution of human genomes is essential to describe and interpret genetic variation and its impact on biology and disease. Our approach to haplotyping relies on converting genomic DNA into a fosmid library, which represents the entire diploid genome as a collection of haploid DNA clones of ~40 kb in size. These can be partitioned into pools such that the probability that the same pool contains both parental haplotypes is reduced to ~1 %. This is the key principle of this method, allowing entire pools of fosmids to be massively parallel sequenced, yielding haploid sequence output. Here, we present a detailed protocol for fosmid pool-based next generation sequencing to haplotype-resolve whole genomes including the following steps: (1) generation of high molecular weight DNA fragments of ~40 kb in size from genomic DNA; (2) fosmid cloning and partitioning into 96-well plates; (3) barcoded sequencing library preparation from fosmid pools for next generation sequencing; and (4) computational analysis of fosmid sequences and assembly into contiguous haploid sequences.This method can be used in combination with, but also without, whole genome shotgun sequencing to extensively resolve heterozygous SNPs and structural variants within genomic regions, resulting in haploid contigs of several hundred kb up to several Mb. This method has a broad range of applications including population and ancestry genetics, the clinical interpretation of mutations in personal genomes, the analysis of cancer genomes and highly complex disease gene regions such as MHC. Moreover, haplotype-resolved genome sequencing allows description and interpretation of the diploid nature of genome biology, for example through the analysis of haploid gene forms and allele-specific phenomena. Application of this method has enabled the production of most of the molecular haplotype-resolved genomes reported to date.

Maintained larval growth in mussel larvae exposed to acidified under-saturated seawater.

Ocean acidification (OA) is known to affect bivalve early life-stages. We tested responses of blue mussel larvae to a wide range of pH in order to identify their tolerance threshold. Our results confirmed that decreasing seawater pH and decreasing saturation state increases larval mortality rate and the percentage of abnormally developing larvae. Virtually no larvae reared at average pHT 7.16 were able to feed or reach the D-shell stage and their development appeared to be arrested at the trochophore stage. However larvae were capable of reaching the D-shell stage under milder acidification (pHT ≈ 7.35, 7.6, 7.85) including in under-saturated seawater with Ωa as low as 0.54 ± 0.01 (mean ± s. e. m.), with a tipping point for normal development identified at pHT 7.765. Additionally growth rate of normally developing larvae was not affected by lower pHT despite potential increased energy costs associated with compensatory calcification in response to increased shell dissolution. Overall, our results on OA impacts on mussel larvae suggest an average pHT of 7.16 is beyond their physiological tolerance threshold and indicate a shift in energy allocation towards growth in some individuals revealing potential OA resilience.

Multiple haplotype-resolved genomes reveal population patterns of gene and protein diplotypes.

To fully understand human biology and link genotype to phenotype, the phase of DNA variants must be known. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of haplotype-resolved genomes to assess the nature and variation of haplotypes and their pairs, diplotypes, in European population samples. We use a set of 14 haplotype-resolved genomes generated by fosmid clone-based sequencing, complemented and expanded by up to 372 statistically resolved genomes from the 1000 Genomes Project. We find immense diversity of both haploid and diploid gene forms, up to 4.1 and 3.9 million corresponding to 249 and 235 per gene on average. Less than 15% of autosomal genes have a predominant form. We describe a 'common diplotypic proteome', a set of 4,269 genes encoding two different proteins in over 30% of genomes. We show moreover an abundance of cis configurations of mutations in the 386 genomes with an average cis/trans ratio of 60:40, and distinguishable classes of cis- versus trans-abundant genes. This work identifies key features characterizing the diplotypic nature of human genomes and provides a conceptual and analytical framework, rich resources and novel hypotheses on the functional importance of diploidy.

Fosmid-based whole genome haplotyping of a HapMap trio child: evaluation of Single Individual Haplotyping techniques.

Determining the underlying haplotypes of individual human genomes is an essential, but currently difficult, step toward a complete understanding of genome function. Fosmid pool-based next-generation sequencing allows genome-wide generation of 40-kb haploid DNA segments, which can be phased into contiguous molecular haplotypes computationally by Single Individual Haplotyping (SIH). Many SIH algorithms have been proposed, but the accuracy of such methods has been difficult to assess due to the lack of real benchmark data. To address this problem, we generated whole genome fosmid sequence data from a HapMap trio child, NA12878, for which reliable haplotypes have already been produced. We assembled haplotypes using eight algorithms for SIH and carried out direct comparisons of their accuracy, completeness and efficiency. Our comparisons indicate that fosmid-based haplotyping can deliver highly accurate results even at low coverage and that our SIH algorithm, ReFHap, is able to efficiently produce high-quality haplotypes. We expanded the haplotypes for NA12878 by combining the current haplotypes with our fosmid-based haplotypes, producing near-to-complete new gold-standard haplotypes containing almost 98% of heterozygous SNPs. This improvement includes notable fractions of disease-related and GWA SNPs. Integrated with other molecular biological data sets, this phase information will advance the emerging field of diploid genomics.

A comprehensively molecular haplotype-resolved genome of a European individual.

Independent determination of both haplotype sequences of an individual genome is essential to relate genetic variation to genome function, phenotype, and disease. To address the importance of phase, we have generated the most complete haplotype-resolved genome to date, "Max Planck One" (MP1), by fosmid pool-based next generation sequencing. Virtually all SNPs (>99%) and 80,000 indels were phased into haploid sequences of up to 6.3 Mb (N50 ~1 Mb). The completeness of phasing allowed determination of the concrete molecular haplotype pairs for the vast majority of genes (81%) including potential regulatory sequences, of which >90% were found to be constituted by two different molecular forms. A subset of 159 genes with potentially severe mutations in either cis or trans configurations exemplified in particular the role of phase for gene function, disease, and clinical interpretation of personal genomes (e.g., BRCA1). Extended genomic regions harboring manifold combinations of physically and/or functionally related genes and regulatory elements were resolved into their underlying "haploid landscapes," which may define the functional genome. Moreover, the majority of genes and functional sequences were found to contain individual or rare SNPs, which cannot be phased from population data alone, emphasizing the importance of molecular phasing for characterizing a genome in its molecular individuality. Our work provides the foundation to understand that the distinction of molecular haplotypes is essential to resolve the (inherently individual) biology of genes, genomes, and disease, establishing a reference point for "phase-sensitive" personal genomics. MP1's annotated haploid genomes are available as a public resource.

Genome-wide association analysis in sarcoidosis and Crohn's disease unravels a common susceptibility locus on 10p12.2.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Crohn's disease (CD) and sarcoidosis (SA) are chronic inflammatory barrier diseases that share several clinical and immunological features, including the occurrence of granulomas. METHODS: A 100k genome-wide association study with 83,360 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was performed on 382 CD patients, 398 SA patients, and 394 control individuals. The 24 SNPs that were most strongly associated in the combined CD/SA phenotype were selected for verification in an independent sample of 1,317 patients (660 CD and 657 SA) and 1,091 controls. RESULTS: The most significant association (Bonferroni corrected P = .036) was obtained at SNP rs1398024 on chromosome 10p12.2, with an odds ratio (OR) for both diseases of 0.81 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.69-0.96) for carriership of the rarer allele A. The P value in the overall combined sample was 4.24 x 10(-6). During further follow-up, a moderate association (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.72-0.96; P = .015) was observed between rs1398024 and ulcerative colitis (1,080 patients vs 1,091 controls), the second main subphenotype of inflammatory bowel disease in addition to CD. Extensive fine mapping of the 10p12.2 locus points to yet unidentified variants in the C10ORF67 gene region as the most likely underlying risk factors. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that the combined analysis of different, albeit clinically related, phenotypes can lead to the identification of common susceptibility loci.

Intramolecular hydroamination with homogeneous zinc catalysts: evaluation of substituent effects in N,N'-disubstituted aminotroponiminate zinc complexes.

A series of symmetrical and unsymmetrical N,N'-disubstituted aminotroponimines (ATIHs) have been prepared. Substituents ranging from linear to cyclic alkyl groups, chelating ethers, and aryl groups were employed. The corresponding aminotroponiminate zinc complexes were then synthesized and characterized by a number of techniques, including by X-ray crystallography. Herein we report on the investigations into their activity in the intramolecular hydroamination of nonactivated alkenes. We also demonstrate that complexes bearing ligands with cyclic alkyl groups show superior activity in a number of selected reactions with functionalized aminoalkenes.