Tracing the origin of hair follicle stem cells.

Tissue stem cells are generated from a population of embryonic progenitors through organ-specific morphogenetic events1,2. Although tissue stem cells are central to organ homeostasis and regeneration, it remains unclear how they are induced during development, mainly because of the lack of markers that exclusively label prospective stem cells. Here we combine marker-independent long-term 3D live imaging and single-cell transcriptomics to capture a dynamic lineage progression and transcriptome changes in the entire epithelium of the mouse hair follicle as it develops. We found that the precursors of different epithelial lineages were aligned in a 2D concentric manner in the basal layer of the hair placode. Each concentric ring acquired unique transcriptomes and extended to form longitudinally aligned, 3D cylindrical compartments. Prospective bulge stem cells were derived from the peripheral ring of the placode basal layer, but not from suprabasal cells (as was previously suggested3). The fate of placode cells is determined by the cell position, rather than by the orientation of cell division. We also identified 13 gene clusters: the ensemble expression dynamics of these clusters drew the entire transcriptional landscape of epithelial lineage diversification, consistent with cell lineage data. Combining these findings with previous work on the development of appendages in insects4,5, we describe the 'telescope model', a generalized model for the development of ectodermal organs in which 2D concentric zones in the placode telescope out to form 3D longitudinally aligned cylindrical compartments.

Maternal epigenetic factors in embryonic and postnatal development.

Maternal factors present in oocytes and surrounding granulosa cells influence early development of embryos. In this study, we searched for epigenetic regulators that are expressed in oocytes and/or granulosa cells. Some of the 120 epigenetic regulators examined were expressed specifically in oocytes and/or granulosa cells. When their expression was examined in young versus aged oocytes or granulosa cells, many were significantly up- or downregulated in aged cells. The maternal role of six genes in development was investigated by generating oocyte-specific knock-out (MKO) mice. Two genes (Mllt10, Kdm2b) did not show maternal effects on later development, whereas maternal effects were evident for Kdm6a, Kdm4a, Prdm3, and Prdm16 for MKO female mice. Offspring from Kdm6a MKO mice underwent perinatal lethality at a higher rate. Pups derived from Prdm3;Prdm16 double MKO showed a higher incidence of postnatal death. Finally, embryos derived from Kdm4a MKO mice showed early developmental defects as early as the peri-implantation stage. These results suggest that many of maternal epigenetic regulators undergo differential expression upon aging. Some, such as Kdm4a, Kdm6a, Prdm3, and Prdm16, have maternal role in later embryonic or postnatal development.

Developmental excitation-inhibition imbalance underlying psychoses revealed by single-cell analyses of discordant twins-derived cerebral organoids.

Despite extensive genetic and neuroimaging studies, detailed cellular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia and bipolar disorder remain poorly understood. Recent progress in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies enables identification of cell-type-specific pathophysiology. However, its application to psychiatric disorders is challenging because of methodological difficulties in analyzing human brains and the confounds due to a lifetime of illness. Brain organoids derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of the patients are a powerful avenue to investigate the pathophysiological processes. Here, we generated iPSC-derived cerebral organoids from monozygotic twins discordant for psychosis. scRNA-seq analysis of the organoids revealed enhanced GABAergic specification and reduced cell proliferation following diminished Wnt signaling in the patient, which was confirmed in iPSC-derived forebrain neuronal cells. Two additional monozygotic twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia also confirmed the excess GABAergic specification of the patients' neural progenitor cells. With a well-controlled genetic background, our data suggest that unbalanced specification of excitatory and inhibitory neurons during cortical development underlies psychoses.

Developing Heritable Mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana Using a Modified CRISPR/Cas9 Toolkit Comprising PAM-Altered Cas9 Variants and gRNAs.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9), comprising an RNA-guided DNA endonuclease and a programmable guide RNA (gRNA), is currently recognized to be a powerful genome-editing tool and is widely used in biological science. Despite the usefulness of the system, a protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) immediately downstream of the target sequence needs to be taken into account in the design of the gRNA, a requirement which limits the flexibility of the CRISPR-based genome-editing system. To overcome this limitation, a Cas9 isolated from Streptococcus pyogenes, namely SpCas9, engineered to develop several variants of Cas9 nuclease, has been generated. SpCas9 recognizes the NGG sequence as the PAM, whereas its variants are capable of interacting with different PAMs. Despite the potential advantage of the Cas9 variants, their functionalities have not previously been tested in the widely used model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we developed a plant-specific vector series harboring SpCas9-VQR (NGAN or NGNG) or SpCas9-EQR (NGAG) and evaluated their functionalities. These modified Cas9 nucleases efficiently introduced mutations into the CLV3 and AS1 target genes using gRNAs that were compatible with atypical PAMs. Furthermore, the generated mutations were passed on to their offspring. This study illustrated the usefulness of the SpCas9 variants because the ability to generate heritable mutations will be of great benefit in molecular genetic analyses. A greater number of potential SpCas9-variant-recognition sites in these genes are predicted, compared with those of conventional SpCas9. These results demonstrated the usefulness of the SpCas9 variants for genome editing in the field of plant science research.

Cell type-specific transcriptome analysis unveils secreted signaling molecule genes expressed in apical epithelial cap during appendage regeneration.

Wound epidermis (WE) and the apical epithelial cap (AEC) are believed to trigger regeneration of amputated appendages such as limb and tail in amphibians by producing certain secreted signaling molecules. To date, however, only limited information about the molecular signatures of these epidermal structures is available. Here we used a transgenic Xenopus laevis line harboring the enhanced green fluorescent protein (egfp) gene under control of an es1 gene regulatory sequence to isolate WE/AEC cells by performing fluorescence-activated cell sorting during the time course of tail regeneration (day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4 after amputation). Time-course transcriptome analysis of these isolated WE/AEC cells revealed that more than 8,000 genes, including genes involved in signaling pathways such as those of reactive oxygen species, fibroblast growth factor (FGF), canonical and non-canonical Wnt, transforming growth factor ß (TGF ß) and Notch, displayed dynamic changes of their expression during tail regeneration. Notably, this approach enabled us to newly identify seven secreted signaling molecule genes (mdk, fstl, slit1, tgfß1, bmp7.1, angptl2 and egfl6) that are highly expressed in tail AEC cells. Among these genes, five (mdk, fstl, slit1, tgfß1 and bmp7.1) were also highly expressed in limb AEC cells but the other two (angptl2 and egfl6) are specifically expressed in tail AEC cells. Interestingly, there was no expression of fgf8 in tail WE/AEC cells, whose expression and pivotal role in limb AEC cells have been reported previously. Thus, we identified common and different properties between tail and limb AEC cells.

A Collection of Mutants for CLE-Peptide-Encoding Genes in Arabidopsis Generated by CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Targeting.

The ligand-receptor-mediated intercellular communication system plays important roles in coordinating developmental and physiological events in multicellular organisms. In plants, CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION (CLE) peptides and their cognate receptors are thought to be involved in various aspects of the plant life cycle. Although the importance of this communication is broadly recognized, most CLE peptides are yet to be functionally characterized. A major problem in research on small signaling peptide-encoding genes is the limited number of loss-of-function mutants available due to their small gene size. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting has the potential to overcome this problem, as it can be used to generate targeted mutations in essentially any gene, regardless of size. Here we generated a series of mutants of CLE-peptide-encoding genes. Newly generated clv3 and cle40 mutants reproduced the expected mutant phenotypes in the shoot apical meristem and root meristem, respectively. Our results show that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting is a powerful tool for genetic analyses, even of small genes. We also report a novel mutant for CLE44 [which is thought to encode a tracheary elements differentiation inhibitory factor (TDIF)] and show that CLE44 contributes to vascular development. The bioresources presented here will be a powerful tool for further characterization of CLE peptides.

Regulation of chromosomal replication initiation by oriC-proximal DnaA-box clusters in Bacillus subtilis.

Bacterial chromosome replication is initiated by binding of DnaA to a DnaA-box cluster (DBC) within the replication origin (oriC). In Bacillus subtilis, six additional DBCs are found outside of oriC and some are known to be involved in transcriptional regulation of neighboring genes. A deletion mutant lacking the six DBCs (Δ6) initiated replication early. Further, inactivation of spo0J in Δ6 cells yielded a pleiotropic phenotype, accompanied by severe growth inhibition. However, a spontaneous suppressor in soj or a deletion of soj, which stimulates DnaA activity in the absence of Spo0J, counteracted these effects. Such abnormal phenotypic features were not observed in a mutant background in which replication initiation was driven by a plasmid-derived replication origin. Moreover, introduction of a single DBC at various ectopic positions within the Δ6 chromosome partly suppressed the early-initiation phenotype, but this was dependent on insertion location. We propose that DBCs negatively regulate replication initiation by interacting with DnaA molecules and play a major role, together with Spo0J/Soj, in regulating the activity of DnaA.

Auxin modulates the transition from the mitotic cycle to the endocycle in Arabidopsis.

Amplification of genomic DNA by endoreduplication often marks the initiation of cell differentiation in animals and plants. The transition from mitotic cycles to endocycles should be developmentally programmed but how this process is regulated remains largely unknown. We show that the plant growth regulator auxin modulates the switch from mitotic cycles to endocycles in Arabidopsis; high levels of TIR1-AUX/IAA-ARF-dependent auxin signalling are required to repress endocycles, thus maintaining cells in mitotic cycles. By contrast, lower levels of TIR1-AUX/IAA-ARF-dependent auxin signalling trigger an exit from mitotic cycles and an entry into endocycles. Our data further demonstrate that this auxin-mediated modulation of the mitotic-to-endocycle switch is tightly coupled with the developmental transition from cell proliferation to cell differentiation in the Arabidopsis root meristem. The transient reduction of auxin signalling by an auxin antagonist PEO-IAA rapidly downregulates the expression of several core cell cycle genes, and we show that overexpressing one of the genes, CYCLIN A2;3 (CYCA2;3), partially suppresses an early initiation of cell differentiation induced by PEO-IAA. Taken together, these results suggest that auxin-mediated mitotic-to-endocycle transition might be part of the developmental programmes that balance cell proliferation and cell differentiation in the Arabidopsis root meristem.

Single-cell transcriptomics uncovers EGFR signaling-mediated gastric progenitor cell differentiation in stomach homeostasis.

Defects in gastric progenitor cell differentiation are associated with various gastric disorders, including atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying the multilineage differentiation of gastric progenitor cells during healthy homeostasis remain poorly understood. Here, using a single-cell RNA sequencing method, Quartz-Seq2, we analyzed the gene expression dynamics of progenitor cell differentiation toward pit cell, neck cell, and parietal cell lineages in healthy adult mouse corpus tissues. Enrichment analysis of pseudotime-dependent genes and a gastric organoid assay revealed that EGFR-ERK signaling promotes pit cell differentiation, whereas NF-κB signaling maintains gastric progenitor cells in an undifferentiated state. In addition, pharmacological inhibition of EGFR in vivo resulted in a decreased number of pit cells. Although activation of EGFR signaling in gastric progenitor cells has been suggested as one of the major inducers of gastric cancers, our findings unexpectedly identified that EGFR signaling exerts a differentiation-promoting function, not a mitogenic function, in normal gastric homeostasis.

Single-oocyte transcriptome analysis reveals aging-associated effects influenced by life stage and calorie restriction.

Chromosome segregation errors in oocytes lead to the production of aneuploid eggs, which are the leading cause of pregnancy loss and of several congenital diseases such as Down syndrome. The frequency of chromosome segregation errors in oocytes increases with maternal age, especially at a late stage of reproductive life. How aging at various life stages affects oocytes differently remains poorly understood. In this study, we describe aging-associated changes in the transcriptome profile of mouse oocytes throughout reproductive life. Our single-oocyte comprehensive RNA sequencing using RamDA-seq revealed that oocytes undergo transcriptome changes at a late reproductive stage, whereas their surrounding cumulus cells exhibit transcriptome changes at an earlier stage. Calorie restriction, a paradigm that reportedly prevents aging-associated egg aneuploidy, promotes a transcriptome shift in oocytes with the up-regulation of genes involved in chromosome segregation. This shift is accompanied by the improved maintenance of chromosomal cohesin, the loss of which is a hallmark of oocyte aging and causes chromosome segregation errors. These findings have implications for understanding how oocytes undergo aging-associated functional decline throughout their reproductive life in a context-dependent manner.

Derepression of inflammation-related genes link to microglia activation and neural maturation defect in a mouse model of Kleefstra syndrome.

Haploinsufficiency of EHMT1, which encodes histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) methyltransferase G9a-like protein (GLP), causes Kleefstra syndrome (KS), a complex disorder of developmental delay and intellectual disability. Here, we examined whether postnatal supply of GLP can reverse the neurological phenotypes seen in Ehmt1 Δ/+ mice as a KS model. Ubiquitous GLP supply from the juvenile stage ameliorated behavioral abnormalities in Ehmt1 Δ/+ mice. Postnatal neuron-specific GLP supply was not sufficient for the improvement of abnormal behaviors but still reversed the reduction of H3K9me2 and spine number in Ehmt1 Δ/+ mice. Interestingly, some inflammatory genes, including IL-1ß (Il1b), were upregulated and activated microglial cells increased in the Ehmt1 Δ/+ brain, and such phenotypes were also reversed by neuron-specific postnatal GLP supply. Il1b inactivation canceled the microglial and spine number phenotypes in the Ehmt1 Δ/+ mice. Thus, H3K9me2 and some neurological phenotypes are reversible, but behavioral abnormalities are more difficult to improve depending on the timing of GLP supply.

Erratum: Derepression of inflammation-related genes link to microglia activation and neural maturation defect in a mouse model of Kleefstra syndrome.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102741.].

Primed to Naive-Like Conversion of the Common Marmoset Embryonic Stem Cells.

Mammalian pluripotent stem cells are thought to exist in two states: naive and primed. Generally, unlike those in rodents, pluripotent stem cells in primates, including humans, are regarded as being in the primed pluripotent state. Recently, several groups reported the existence of naive pluripotent stem cells in humans. In this study, we report the conversion of primed state embryonic stem cells from common marmoset, a New World monkey, to the naive state using transgenes. The cells showed typical naive state features, including dome-like colony morphology, growth factor requirement, gene expression profile, X chromosome activation state, and energy metabolic status. Moreover, interspecies chimeric embryo formation ability with mouse embryos was increased in the naive state. This technique can be applied in basic medical research using nonhuman primates, such as preclinical use of naive pluripotent stem cells and generating genetically modified primates.

Genome-wide kinetic properties of transcriptional bursting in mouse embryonic stem cells.

Transcriptional bursting is the stochastic activation and inactivation of promoters, contributing to cell-to-cell heterogeneity in gene expression. However, the mechanism underlying the regulation of transcriptional bursting kinetics (burst size and frequency) in mammalian cells remains elusive. In this study, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze the intrinsic noise and mRNA levels for elucidating the transcriptional bursting kinetics in mouse embryonic stem cells. Informatics analyses and functional assays revealed that transcriptional bursting kinetics was regulated by a combination of promoter- and gene body-binding proteins, including the polycomb repressive complex 2 and transcription elongation factors. Furthermore, large-scale CRISPR-Cas9-based screening identified that the Akt/MAPK signaling pathway regulated bursting kinetics by modulating transcription elongation efficiency. These results uncovered the key molecular mechanisms underlying transcriptional bursting and cell-to-cell gene expression noise in mammalian cells.

Differential binding profiles of StpA in wild-type and h-ns mutant cells: a comparative analysis of cooperative partners by chromatin immunoprecipitation-microarray analysis.

We performed chromatin immunoprecipitation-microarray analysis to investigate differences in function between StpA and H-NS in Escherichia coli cells. StpA binding regions essentially overlap those of H-NS in wild-type cells, while they are reduced to one-third in the hns mutant. The H-NS binding profile was unaffected by stpA inactivation.

Functional polymorphisms in carboxylesterase1A2 (CES1A2) gene involves specific protein 1 (Sp1) binding sites.

Carboxylesterase 1 (CES1) is involved in metabolic activation of a variety of prodrugs into active derivatives and plays an important role in pharmacokinetics. We previously reported that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), -816A/C of the CES1A2 gene associates with the responsiveness to an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, imidapril, whose activity is achieved by CES1. To identify relevant functional polymorphisms, we re-sequenced the CES1A2 promoter region ( approximately 1kb) in 100 Japanese hypertensive patients. Altogether 10 SNPs and one insertion/deletion (I/D) were identified, among which seven SNPs and one I/D residing between -62 and -32 were in almost complete linkage disequilibrium (D'=1.00, r2=0.97). They consisted a minor and a major haplotype, the allele frequencies of which were 22% and 74%, respectively. The minor haplotype possessed two putative Sp1 binding sites while the major haplotype did not have any Sp1 binding site. The minor haplotype had a higher transcription and Sp1 binding activities than the major haplotype, invitro. The original -816A/C was in high linkage disequilibrium with these haplotypes (D'=0.92, r2=0.85), and well agreed with the efficacy of imidapril medication. These results suggest that the Sp1 binding site variation in the CES1A2 promoter is functional, and are good candidates for the pharmacogenetic studies of CES1-activated drugs.

Distribution of stable DnaA-binding sites on the Bacillus subtilis genome detected using a modified ChIP-chip method.

We developed a modified ChIP-chip method, designated ChAP-chip (Chromatin Affinity Precipitation coupled with tiling chip). The binding sites of Bacillus subtilis Spo0J determined using this technique were consistent with previous findings. A DNA replication initiator protein, DnaA, formed stable complexes at eight intergenic regions on the B. subtilis genome. Characterization of the binding sequences suggested that two factors -- the local density of DnaA boxes and their affinities for DnaA -- are critical for stable binding. We further showed that in addition to autoregulation, DnaA directly modulate the expression of sda in a positive, and ywlC and yydA in a negative manner. Examination of possible stable DnaA-binding sequences in other Bacillus species suggested that DnaA-dependent regulation of those genes is maintained in most bacteria examined, supporting their biological significance. In addition, a possible stable DnaA-binding site downstream of gcp is also suggested to be conserved. Furthermore, potential DnaA-binding sequences specific for each bacterium have been identified, generally in close proximity to oriC. These findings suggest that DnaA plays several additional roles, such as control of the level of effective initiator, ATP-DnaA, and/or stabilization of the domain structure of the genome around oriC for the proper initiation of chromosome replication.

Involvement of the YneS/YgiH and PlsX proteins in phospholipid biosynthesis in both Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli.

BACKGROUND: Phospholipid biosynthesis commences with the acylation of glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) to form 1-acyl-G3P. This step is catalyzed by the PlsB protein in Escherichia coli. The gene encoding this protein has not been identified, however, in the majority of bacterial genome sequences, including that of Bacillus subtilis. Recently, a new two-step pathway catalyzed by PlsX and PlsY proteins for the initiation of phospholipid formation in Streptococcus pneumoniae has been reported. RESULTS: In B. subtilis, 271 genes have been reported to be indispensable, when inactivated singly, for growth in LB medium. Among these, 11 genes encode proteins with unknown functions. As part of a genetic study to identify the functions of these genes, we show here that the B. subtilis ortholog of S. pneumoniae PlsY, YneS, is required for G3P acyltransferase activity, together with PlsX. The B. subtilis genome lacks plsB, and we show in vivo that the PlsX/Y pathway is indeed essential for the growth of bacteria lacking plsB. Interestingly, in addition to plsB, E. coli possesses plsX and the plsY ortholog, ygiH. We therefore explored the functional relationship between PlsB, PlsX and YgiH in E. coli, and found that plsB is essential for E. coli growth, indicating that PlsB plays an important role in 1-acyl-G3P synthesis in E. coli. We also found, however, that the simultaneous inactivation of plsX and ygiH was impossible, revealing important roles for PlsX and YgiH in E. coli growth. CONCLUSION: Both plsX and yneS are essential for 1-acyl-G3P synthesis in B. subtilis, in agreement with recent reports on their biochemical functions. In E. coli, PlsB plays a principal role in 1-acyl-G3P synthesis and is also essential for bacterial growth. PlsX and YgiH also, however, play important roles in E. coli growth, possibly by regulating the intracellular concentration of acyl-ACP. These proteins are therefore important targets for development of new antibacterial agents.

The putative ABC transporter YheH/YheI is involved in the signalling pathway that activates KinA during sporulation initiation.

The primary kinases that control the supply of phosphate to the phosphorelay are KinA and KinB, although it is not yet known what type of signal(s) activates these kinases. Our systematic study of protein-protein interactions using yeast two-hybrid analysis revealed an interaction between KinA and YheH. YheH with the preceding gene product YheI is categorized as an ABC transporter. Overexpression of yheH/yheI in the kinB mutant resulted in a reduced sporulation efficiency. Moreover, reporter assays using Spo0A approximately P dependent promoters revealed that the deficiency in sporulation is probably due to a failure in the activation of Spo0A. Our results further suggest that the N-terminal region of YheH may play an important role in sensing the signal to be delivered to the C-terminally bound KinA.