Barker, N. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2020

Genome-Scale CRISPR Screening reveals novel factors regulating Wnt-dependent regeneration of mouse gastric organoids

An ability to safely harness the powerful regenerative potential of adult stem cells for clinical applications is critically dependent on a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms regulating their activity. Epithelial organoid cultures accurately recapitulate many features of in vivo stem cell-driven epithelial regeneration, providing an excellent ex vivo platform for interrogation of key regulatory mechanisms. Here, we employed a Genome-Scale CRISPR Knock-Out (GeCKO) screening assay using mouse gastric epithelial organoids to identify novel modulators of Wnt-driven stem cell-dependent epithelial regeneration in the gastric mucosa. In addition to known Wnt pathway regulators such as Apc, we found that knock-out (KO) of Alk, Bclaf3 or Prkra supports the Wnt independent self-renewal of gastric epithelial cells ex vivo. In adult mice, expression of these factors is predominantly restricted to non Lgr5-expressing stem cell zones above the gland base, implicating a critical role for these factors in suppressing Wnt-dependent self-renewal of gastric epithelia. Furthermore, using comprehensive RNA-sequencing analysis, we found that these factors influence epithelial regeneration by regulating Wnt signalling, apoptosis and expression of Reg family genes which could contribute to the epithelial regeneration through JAK/STAT3 pathway.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Purifying selection can reduce intraspecific mitochondrial gene variation to that of slowly-evolving nuclear rRNA

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has long been used to date the divergence between species, and to explore the time when species effective population sizes changed. The idea that mitochondrial DNA is useful for molecular dating rests on the premise that its evolution is neutral. This premise was questionable to begin with, and even though it has long been challenged, the evidence against clock-like evolution of mtDNA is usually ignored. Here, we present a particularly clear and simple example to illustrate the implications of violations of the assumption of selective neutrality. DNA sequences were generated for the mtDNA COI gene and the nuclear 28S rRNA of two closely related and widely distributed rocky shore snails whose geographical ranges are defined by different thermal preferences. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use nuclear rRNA sequence for studying species-level genealogies instead of phylogenetics, presumably because this marker is considered to be uninformative at this taxonomic level. Even though the COI gene evolves at least an order of magnitude faster, which was reflected in high inter-specific divergence, intraspecific genetic variation was similar for both markers. As a result, estimates of population expansion times based on mismatch distributions were completely different for the two markers. Assuming that 28S evolves effectively clock-like, these findings likely illustrate variation-reducing purifying selection in mtDNA at the species level, and an elevated divergence rate caused by divergent selection between the two species. Although these two selective forces together make mtDNA suitable as a DNA barcoding marker because they create a barcoding gap, estimates of demographic change can be expected to be highly unreliable. Our study contributes to the growing evidence that the utility of mtDNA beyond DNA barcoding is limited.

genetics↗