Regulation of retinal amacrine cell generation by miR-216b and Foxn3.

The mammalian retina contains a complex mixture of different types of neurons. We find that microRNA miR-216b is preferentially expressed in postmitotic retinal amacrine cells in the mouse retina, and expression of miR-216a/b and miR-217 in retina depend in part on Ptf1a, a transcription factor required for amacrine cell differentiation. Surprisingly, ectopic expression of miR-216b directed the formation of additional amacrine cells and reduced bipolar neurons in the developing retina. We identify the Foxn3 mRNA as a retinal target of miR-216b by Argonaute PAR-CLIP and reporter analysis. Inhibition of Foxn3, a transcription factor, in the postnatal developing retina by RNAi increased the formation of amacrine cells and reduced bipolar cell formation. Foxn3 disruption by CRISPR in embryonic retinal explants also increased amacrine cell formation, whereas Foxn3 overexpression inhibited amacrine cell formation prior to Ptf1a expression. Co-expression of Foxn3 partially reversed the effects of ectopic miR-216b on retinal cell formation. Our results identify Foxn3 as a novel regulator of interneuron formation in the developing retina and suggest that miR-216b likely regulates Foxn3 and other genes in amacrine cells.

Phage display broadly identifies inhibitor-reactive regions in von Willebrand factor.

BACKGROUND: Correction of von Willebrand factor (VWF) deficiency with replacement products containing VWF can lead to the development of anti-VWF alloantibodies (i.e., VWF inhibitors) in patients with severe von Willebrand disease (VWD). OBJECTIVE: Locate inhibitor-reactive regions within VWF using phage display. METHODS: We screened a phage library displaying random, overlapping fragments covering the full-length VWF protein sequence for binding to a commercial anti-VWF antibody or to immunoglobulins from three type 3 VWD patients who developed VWF inhibitors in response to treatment with plasma-derived VWF. Immunoreactive phage clones were identified and quantified by next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS). RESULTS: Next-generation DNA sequencing markedly increased the number of phages analyzed for locating immunoreactive regions within VWF following a single round of selection and identified regions not recognized in previous reports using standard phage display methods. Extending this approach to characterize VWF inhibitors from three type 3 VWD patients (including two siblings homozygous for the same VWF gene deletion) revealed patterns of immunoreactivity distinct from the commercial antibody and between unrelated patients, though with notable areas of overlap. Alloantibody reactivity against the VWF propeptide is consistent with incomplete removal of the propeptide from plasma-derived VWF replacement products. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate the utility of phage display and NGS to characterize diverse anti-VWF antibody reactivities.

microRNA-mRNA Profile of Skeletal Muscle Differentiation and Relevance to Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy.

microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate messenger RNA (mRNA) abundance and translation during key developmental processes including muscle differentiation. Assessment of miRNA targets can provide insight into muscle biology and gene expression profiles altered by disease. mRNA and miRNA libraries were generated from C2C12 myoblasts during differentiation, and predicted miRNA targets were identified based on presence of miRNA binding sites and reciprocal expression. Seventeen miRNAs were differentially expressed at all time intervals (comparing days 0, 2, and 5) of differentiation. mRNA targets of differentially expressed miRNAs were enriched for functions related to calcium signaling and sarcomere formation. To evaluate this relationship in a disease state, we evaluated the miRNAs differentially expressed in human congenital myotonic dystrophy (CMD) myoblasts and compared with normal control. Seventy-four miRNAs were differentially expressed during healthy human myocyte maturation, of which only 12 were also up- or downregulated in CMD patient cells. The 62 miRNAs that were only differentially expressed in healthy cells were compared with differentiating C2C12 cells. Eighteen of the 62 were conserved in mouse and up- or down-regulated during mouse myoblast differentiation, and their C2C12 targets were enriched for functions related to muscle differentiation and contraction.

Rapid molecular assays to study human centromere genomics.

The centromere is the structural unit responsible for the faithful segregation of chromosomes. Although regulation of centromeric function by epigenetic factors has been well-studied, the contributions of the underlying DNA sequences have been much less well defined, and existing methodologies for studying centromere genomics in biology are laborious. We have identified specific markers in the centromere of 23 of the 24 human chromosomes that allow for rapid PCR assays capable of capturing the genomic landscape of human centromeres at a given time. Use of this genetic strategy can also delineate which specific centromere arrays in each chromosome drive the recruitment of epigenetic modulators. We further show that, surprisingly, loss and rearrangement of DNA in centromere 21 is associated with trisomy 21. This new approach can thus be used to rapidly take a snapshot of the genetics and epigenetics of each specific human centromere in nondisjunction disorders and other biological settings.

The microRNA network is altered in anterior cingulate cortex of patients with unipolar and bipolar depression.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs acting as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Though implicated in multiple CNS disorders, miRNAs have not been examined in any psychiatric disease state in anterior cingulate cortex (AnCg), a brain region centrally involved in regulating mood. We performed qPCR analyses of 29 miRNAs previously implicated in psychiatric illness (major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BP) and/or schizophrenia (SZ)) in AnCg of patients with MDD and BP versus controls. miR-132, miR-133a and miR-212 were initially identified as differentially expressed in BP, miR-184 in MDD and miR-34a in both MDD and BP (although none survived multiple correction testing and must be considered preliminary). In silico target prediction algorithms identified putative targets of differentially expressed miRNAs. Nuclear Co-Activator 1 (NCOA1), Nuclear Co-Repressor 2 (NCOR2) and Phosphodiesterase 4B (PDE4B) were selected based upon predicted targeting by miR-34a (with NCOR2 and PDE4B both targeted by miR-184) and published relevance to psychiatric illness. Luciferase assays identified PDE4B as a target of miR-34a and miR-184, while NCOA1 and NCOR2 were targeted by miR-34a and 184, respectively. qPCR analyses were performed to determine whether changes in miRNA levels correlated with mRNA levels of validated targets. NCOA1 showed an inverse correlation with miR-34a in BP, while NCOR2 demonstrated a positive correlation. In sum, this is the first study to demonstrate miRNA changes in AnCg in psychiatric illness and validate miR-34a as differentially expressed in CNS in MDD. These findings support a mechanistic role for miRNAs in the regulation of stress-responsive genes disrupted in psychiatric illness.

Massively parallel enzyme kinetics reveals the substrate recognition landscape of the metalloprotease ADAMTS13.

Proteases play important roles in many biologic processes and are key mediators of cancer, inflammation, and thrombosis. However, comprehensive and quantitative techniques to define the substrate specificity profile of proteases are lacking. The metalloprotease ADAMTS13 regulates blood coagulation by cleaving von Willebrand factor (VWF), reducing its procoagulant activity. A mutagenized substrate phage display library based on a 73-amino acid fragment of VWF was constructed, and the ADAMTS13-dependent change in library complexity was evaluated over reaction time points, using high-throughput sequencing. Reaction rate constants (kcat/KM) were calculated for nearly every possible single amino acid substitution within this fragment. This massively parallel enzyme kinetics analysis detailed the specificity of ADAMTS13 and demonstrated the critical importance of the P1-P1' substrate residues while defining exosite binding domains. These data provided empirical evidence for the propensity for epistasis within VWF and showed strong correlation to conservation across orthologs, highlighting evolutionary selective pressures for VWF.

Human Endogenous Retrovirus Type K (HERV-K) Particles Package and Transmit HERV-K-Related Sequences.

UNLABELLED: Human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) make up 8% of the human genome. While the youngest of these retroviruses, HERV-K(HML-2), termed HK2, is able to code for all viral proteins and produce virus-like particles, it is not known if these virus particles package and transmit HK2-related sequences. Here, we analyzed the capacity of HK2 for packaging and transmitting HK2 sequences. We created an HK2 probe, termed Bogota, which can be packaged into HK2 viruses, and transfected it into cells that make HK2 particles. Supernatants of the transfected cells, which contained HK2 viral particles, then were added to target cells, and the transmissibility of the HK2 Bogota reporter was tracked by G418 resistance. Our studies revealed that contemporary HK2 virions produced by some teratocarcinoma and breast cancer cell lines, as well as by peripheral blood lymphocytes from lymphoma patients, can package HK2 Bogota probes, and these viruses transmitted these probes to other cells. After transmission, HK2 Bogota transcripts undergo reverse transcription, a step impaired by antiretroviral agents or by introduction of mutations into the probe sequences required for reverse transcription. HK2 viruses were more efficiently transmitted in the presence of HK2 Rec or HIV-1 Tat and Vif. Transmitted Bogota probes formed episomes but did not integrate into the cellular genome. Resistance to integration might explain the relatively low number of HK2 insertions that were acquired during the last 25 million years of evolution. Whether transient transmission of modern HK2 sequences, which encode two putative oncoproteins, can lead to disease remains to be studied. IMPORTANCE: Retroviruses invaded the genome of human ancestors over the course of millions of years, yet these viruses generally have been inactivated during evolution, with only remnants of these infectious sequences remaining in the human genome. One of these viruses, termed HK2, still is capable of producing virus particles, although these particles have been regarded as being noninfectious. Using a genetic probe derived from HK2, we have discovered that HK2 viruses produced in modern humans can package HK2 sequences and transmit them to various other cells. Furthermore, the genetic sequences packaged in HK2 undergo reverse transcription. The transmitted probe circularized in the cell and failed to integrate into the cellular genome. These findings suggest that modern HK2 viruses can package viral RNA and transmit it to other cells. Contrary to previous views, we provide evidence of an extracellular viral phase of modern HK2 viruses. We have no evidence of sustained, spreading infection.

Expansion of a novel endogenous retrovirus throughout the pericentromeres of modern humans.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 8% of the human genome consists of sequences of retroviral origin, a result of ancestral infections of the germ line over millions of years of evolution. The most recent of these infections is attributed to members of the human endogenous retrovirus type-K (HERV-K) (HML-2) family. We recently reported that a previously undetected, large group of HERV-K (HML-2) proviruses, which are descendants of the ancestral K111 infection, are spread throughout human centromeres. RESULTS: Studying the genomes of certain cell lines and the DNA of healthy individuals that seemingly lack K111, we discover new HERV-K (HML-2) members hidden in pericentromeres of several human chromosomes. All are related through a common ancestor, termed K222, which is a virus that infected the germ line approximately 25 million years ago. K222 exists as a single copy in the genomes of baboons and high order primates, but not New World monkeys, suggesting that progenitor K222 infected the primate germ line after the split between New and Old World monkeys. K222 exists in modern humans at multiple loci spread across the pericentromeres of nine chromosomes, indicating it was amplified during the evolution of modern humans. CONCLUSIONS: Copying of K222 may have occurred through recombination of the pericentromeres of different chromosomes during human evolution. Evidence of recombination between K111 and K222 suggests that these retroviral sequences have been templates for frequent cross-over events during the process of centromere recombination in humans.

Regulation of the human endogenous retrovirus K (HML-2) transcriptome by the HIV-1 Tat protein.

UNLABELLED: Approximately 8% of the human genome is made up of endogenous retroviral sequences. As the HIV-1 Tat protein activates the overall expression of the human endogenous retrovirus type K (HERV-K) (HML-2), we used next-generation sequencing to determine which of the 91 currently annotated HERV-K (HML-2) proviruses are regulated by Tat. Transcriptome sequencing of total RNA isolated from Tat- and vehicle-treated peripheral blood lymphocytes from a healthy donor showed that Tat significantly activates expression of 26 unique HERV-K (HML-2) proviruses, silences 12, and does not significantly alter the expression of the remaining proviruses. Quantitative reverse transcription-PCR validation of the sequencing data was performed on Tat-treated PBLs of seven donors using provirus-specific primers and corroborated the results with a substantial degree of quantitative similarity. IMPORTANCE: The expression of HERV-K (HML-2) is tightly regulated but becomes markedly increased following infection with HIV-1, in part due to the HIV-1 Tat protein. The findings reported here demonstrate the complexity of the genome-wide regulation of HERV-K (HML-2) expression by Tat. This work also demonstrates that although HERV-K (HML-2) proviruses in the human genome are highly similar in terms of DNA sequence, modulation of the expression of specific proviruses in a given biological situation can be ascertained using next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis.

HIV infection reveals widespread expansion of novel centromeric human endogenous retroviruses.

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) make up 8% of the human genome. The HERV-K (HML-2) family is the most recent group of these viruses to have inserted into the genome, and we have detected the activation of HERV-K (HML-2) proviruses in the blood of patients with HIV-1 infection. We report that HIV-1 infection activates expression of a novel HERV-K (HML-2) provirus, termed K111, present in multiple copies in the centromeres of chromosomes throughout the human genome yet not annotated in the most recent human genome assembly. Infection with HIV-1 or stimulation with the HIV-1 Tat protein leads to the activation of K111 proviruses. K111 is present as a single copy in the genome of the chimpanzee, yet K111 is not found in the genomes of other primates. Remarkably, K111 proviruses appear in the genomes of the extinct Neanderthal and Denisovan, while modern humans have at least 100 K111 proviruses spread across the centromeres of 15 chromosomes. Our studies suggest that the progenitor K111 integrated before the Homo-Pan divergence and expanded in copy number during the evolution of hominins, perhaps by recombination. The expansion of K111 provides sequence evidence suggesting that recombination between the centromeres of various chromosomes took place during the evolution of humans. K111 proviruses show significant sequence variations in each individual centromere, which may serve as markers in future efforts to annotate human centromere sequences. Further, this work is an example of the potential to discover previously unknown genomic sequences through the analysis of nucleic acids found in the blood of patients.

Impact of experimental noise and annotation imprecision on data quality in microarray experiments.

Data quality is intrinsically influenced by design, technical, and analytical parameters. Quality parameters have not yet been well defined for gene expression analysis by microarrays, though ad interim, following recommended good experimental practice guidelines should ensure generation of reliable and reproducible data. Here we summarize essential practical recommendations for experimental design, technical considerations, feature annotation issues, and standardization efforts.

G protein-linked signaling pathways in bipolar and major depressive disorders.

The G-protein linked signaling system (GPLS) comprises a large number of G-proteins, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), GPCR ligands, and downstream effector molecules. G-proteins interact with both GPCRs and downstream effectors such as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), phosphatidylinositols, and ion channels. The GPLS is implicated in the pathophysiology and pharmacology of both major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BPD). This study evaluated whether GPLS is altered at the transcript level. The gene expression in the dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) were compared from MDD, BPD, and control subjects using Affymetrix Gene Chips and real time quantitative PCR. High quality brain tissue was used in the study to control for confounding effects of agonal events, tissue pH, RNA integrity, gender, and age. GPLS signaling transcripts were altered especially in the ACC of BPD and MDD subjects. Transcript levels of molecules which repress cAMP activity were increased in BPD and decreased in MDD. Two orphan GPCRs, GPRC5B and GPR37, showed significantly decreased expression levels in MDD, and significantly increased expression levels in BPD. Our results suggest opposite changes in BPD and MDD in the GPLS, "activated" cAMP signaling activity in BPD and "blunted" cAMP signaling activity in MDD. GPRC5B and GPR37 both appear to have behavioral effects, and are also candidate genes for neurodegenerative disorders. In the context of the opposite changes observed in BPD and MDD, these GPCRs warrant further study of their brain effects.

NGSQC: cross-platform quality analysis pipeline for deep sequencing data.

BACKGROUND: While the accuracy and precision of deep sequencing data is significantly better than those obtained by the earlier generation of hybridization-based high throughput technologies, the digital nature of deep sequencing output often leads to unwarranted confidence in their reliability. RESULTS: The NGSQC (Next Generation Sequencing Quality Control) pipeline provides a set of novel quality control measures for quickly detecting a wide variety of quality issues in deep sequencing data derived from two dimensional surfaces, regardless of the assay technology used. It also enables researchers to determine whether sequencing data related to their most interesting biological discoveries are caused by sequencing quality issues. CONCLUSIONS: Next generation sequencing platforms have their own share of quality issues and there can be significant lab-to-lab, batch-to-batch and even within chip/slide variations. NGSQC can help to ensure that biological conclusions, in particular those based on relatively rare sequence alterations, are not caused by low quality sequencing.

Cross-domain neurobiology data integration and exploration.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the biomedical implications of data from high throughput experiments requires solutions for effective cross-scale and cross-domain data exploration. However, existing solutions do not provide sufficient support for linking molecular level data to neuroanatomical structures, which is critical for understanding high level neurobiological functions. RESULTS: Our work integrates molecular level data with high level biological functions and we present results using anatomical structure as a scaffold. Our solution also allows the sharing of intermediate data exploration results with other web applications, greatly increasing the power of cross-domain data exploration and mining. CONCLUSIONS: The Flex-based PubAnatomy web application we developed enables highly interactive visual exploration of literature and experimental data for understanding the relationships between molecular level changes, pathways, brain circuits and pathophysiological processes. The prototype of PubAnatomy is freely accessible at: [http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/Brainarray/prototype/PubAnatomy].

Open Biomedical Ontology-based Medline exploration.

BACKGROUND: Effective Medline database exploration is critical for the understanding of high throughput experimental results and the development of novel hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying the targeted biological processes. While existing solutions enhance Medline exploration through different approaches such as document clustering, network presentations of underlying conceptual relationships and the mapping of search results to MeSH and Gene Ontology trees, we believe the use of multiple ontologies from the Open Biomedical Ontology can greatly help researchers to explore literature from different perspectives as well as to quickly locate the most relevant Medline records for further investigation. RESULTS: We developed an ontology-based interactive Medline exploration solution called PubOnto to enable the interactive exploration and filtering of search results through the use of multiple ontologies from the OBO foundry. The PubOnto program is a rich internet application based on the FLEX platform. It contains a number of interactive tools, visualization capabilities, an open service architecture, and a customizable user interface. It is freely accessible at: http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/brainarray/prototype/pubonto.

A diagram editor for efficient biomedical knowledge capture and integration.

Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying complex disorders requires the integration of data and knowledge from different sources including free text literature and various biomedical databases. To facilitate this process, we created the Biomedical Concept Diagram Editor (BCDE) to help researchers distill knowledge from data and literature and aid the process of hypothesis development. A key feature of BCDE is the ability to capture information with a simple drag-and-drop. This is a vast improvement over manual methods of knowledge and data recording and greatly increases the efficiency of the biomedical researcher. BCDE also provides a unique concept matching function to enforce consistent terminology, which enables conceptual relationships deposited by different researchers in the BCDE database to be mined and integrated for intelligible and useful results. We hope BCDE will promote the sharing and integration of knowledge from different researchers for effective hypothesis development.

An active visual search interface for Medline.

Searching the Medline database is almost a daily necessity for many biomedical researchers. However, available Medline search solutions are mainly designed for the quick retrieval of a small set of most relevant documents. Because of this search model, they are not suitable for the large-scale exploration of literature and the underlying biomedical conceptual relationships, which are common tasks in the age of high throughput experimental data analysis and cross-discipline research. We try to develop a new Medline exploration approach by incorporating interactive visualization together with powerful grouping, summary, sorting and active external content retrieval functions. Our solution, PubViz, is based on the FLEX platform designed for interactive web applications and its prototype is publicly available at: http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/Brainarray/DataMining/PubViz.

Supercomputing with toys: harnessing the power of NVIDIA 8800GTX and playstation 3 for bioinformatics problem.

Modern video cards and game consoles typically have much better performance to price ratios than that of general purpose CPUs. The parallel processing capabilities of game hardware are well-suited for high throughput biomedical data analysis. Our initial results suggest that game hardware is a cost-effective platform for some computationally demanding bioinformatics problems.

Web-based GeneChip analysis system for large-scale collaborative projects.

UNLABELLED: The Web-Based GeneChip Analysis System (WGAS) is developed to overcome limitations in analysis setup efficiency, data and procedure sharing, as well as security issues in existing commercial and public domain solutions. It also incorporates unique functions and resources for more accurate and flexible GeneChip analysis. AVAILABILITY: WGAS is freely available at: http://arrayanalysis.mbni.med.umich.edu/arrayanalysis.html.

SNP Function Portal: a web database for exploring the function implication of SNP alleles.

MOTIVATION: Finding the potential functional significance of SNPs is a major bottleneck in understanding genome-wide SNP scanning results, as the related functional data are distributed across many different databases. The SNP Function Portal is designed to be a clearing house for all public domain SNP functional annotation data, as well as in-house functional annotations derived from different data sources. It currently contains SNP functional annotations in six major categories including genomic elements, transcription regulation, protein function, pathway, disease and population genetics. Besides extensive SNP functional annotations, the SNP Function Portal includes a powerful search engine that accepts different types of genetic markers as input and identifies all genetically related SNPs based on the HapMap Phase II data as well as the relationship of different markers to known genes. As a result, our system allows users to identify the potential biological impact of genetic markers and complex relationships among genetic markers and genes, and it greatly facilitates knowledge discovery in genome-wide SNP scanning experiments. AVAILABILITY: http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/Brainarray/Database/SearchSNP/snpfunc.aspx.