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Biology subjects

Davidson, J. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Davidson, J. M..

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Regional connectivity and viability selection in a range-expanding marine species

Identifying spatial and temporal patterns of connectivity among populations is fundamental to marine ecology, evolutionary biology, and fisheries management. Yet, due to large population sizes and low genetic differentiation among populations, empirical quantification of population connectivity across a species entire range has not been achieved for an open-coast marine organism. Here, we leverage experimental transcriptomics to develop a genotyping-in-thousands by sequencing (GT-seq) panel to support assignment of recruits of the kelp forest gastropod, Kellets whelk (Kelletia kelletii), collected across the species biogeographic range. Over a three-year period, we identified high self-recruitment in the historical range (100%) and low self-recruitment in the expanded range (10.53 - 13.73%). Additionally, self-recruitment within the expanded range generally increased with recruit age, from 27.14% at 0.93 years to 43.40% at 1.93 years, indicating that the locally spawned individuals were more likely to survive to older ages than migrants from the historical range. Together, these results reveal limited self-recruitment in the expanded range and suggest that a post-settlement selective filter contributes to differential survival in a high gene flow marine system.

evolutionary biology↗

Transcriptomic Profiling of Diabetic Porcine Wound Healing Model Identifies Key Metabolic, Inflammatory, and Oxidative Stress Pathways

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) remain a major clinical challenge as diabetes prevalence rises, emphasizing the need for improved therapeutics and relevant preclinical models. Common rodent wound-healing models poorly recapitulate human skin anatomy and repair. Although porcine skin is comparable to human skin, many studies employ young, healthy pigs that do not reflect typical chronic human wounds. Here, we evaluated wound healing in full-thickness skin wounds in non-diabetic and diabetic Yucatan minipigs. RNA sequencing identified key transcriptional differences in wounds of diabetic versus non-diabetic animals, including pathways linked to increased inflammation and oxidative stress, as well as decreased metabolism and extracellular matrix organization, known hallmarks of DFUs. These findings support this preclinical model as a powerful approach for discovery and therapeutic testing in diabetic wounds and provide a novel data set for further mining of potential gene targets for diabetic wound intervention.

pathology↗

Bridging Domains in Chronic Lower Back Pain: Large Language Models and Ontology-driven Strategies for Knowledge Graph Construction

Link prediction and entity resolution play pivotal roles in uncovering hidden relationships within networks and ensuring data quality in the era of heterogeneous data integration. This paper explores the utilization of large language models to enhance link prediction, particularly through knowledge graphs derived from transdisciplinary literature. Investigating zero-shot entity resolution techniques, we examine the impact of ontology-based and large language model approaches on the stability of link prediction results. Through a case study focusing on chronic lower back pain research, we analyze workflow decisions and their influence on prediction outcomes. Our research underscores the importance of robust methodologies in improving predictive accuracy and data integration across diverse domains.

bioinformatics↗

De novo genome assembly and comparative genomics for a colonial ascidian

Ascidians have the potential to reveal fundamental biological insights related to coloniality, regeneration, immune function, and the evolution of these traits. This study implements a hybrid assembly technique to produce a genome assembly and annotation for the botryllid ascidian, Botrylloides violaceus. A hybrid genome assembly was produced using Illumina, Inc. short and Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencing technologies. The resulting assembly is comprised of 831 contigs, has a total length of 121 Mbp, N50 of 1 Mbp and a BUSCO score of 96.1%. Genome annotation identified 13K protein-coding genes. Comparative genomic analysis with other tunicates reveals patterns of conservation and divergence within orthologous gene families even among closely related species. Characterization of the Wnt gene family, encoding signaling ligands involved in development and regeneration, reveals conserved patterns of subfamily presence and gene copy number among botryllids. This supports the use of genomic data from non-model organisms in the investigation of biological phenomena.

genomics↗

refMLST: Reference-based Multilocus Sequence Typing Enables Universal Bacterial Typing

SummaryCommonly used approaches for genomic investigation of bacterial outbreaks, including SNP and gene-by-gene approaches, are limited by the requirement for curated allele schemes. As a result, they only work on a select subset of known organisms, and fail on novel or less studied pathogens. We introduce refMLST, a gene-by-gene approach using the reference genome of a bacterium to form a scalable, reproducible and robust method to perform outbreak investigation. When applied to 1263 Salmonella enterica genomes, refMLST enabled consistent clustering, improved resolution and faster processing in comparison to chewieSnake. refMLST is applicable to any bacterial species with a public genome, does not require a curated scheme, and automatically accounts for genetic recombination. Availability and ImplementationrefMLST is freely available for academic use at https://bugseq.com/academic.

bioinformatics↗

The ENCODE Uniform Analysis Pipelines

The Encyclopedia of DNA elements (ENCODE) project is a collaborative effort to create a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the human genome. The current database comprises more than 19000 functional genomics experiments across more than 1000 cell lines and tissues using a wide array of experimental techniques to study the chromatin structure, regulatory and transcriptional landscape of the Homo sapiens and Mus musculus genomes. All experimental data, metadata, and associated computational analyses created by the ENCODE consortium are submitted to the Data Coordination Center (DCC) for validation, tracking, storage, and distribution to community resources and the scientific community. The ENCODE project has engineered and distributed uniform processing pipelines in order to promote data provenance and reproducibility as well as allow interoperability between genomic resources and other consortia. All data files, reference genome versions, software versions, and parameters used by the pipelines are captured and available via the ENCODE Portal. The pipeline code, developed using Docker and Workflow Description Language (WDL; https://openwdl.org/) is publicly available in GitHub, with images available on Dockerhub (https://hub.docker.com), enabling access to a diverse range of biomedical researchers. ENCODE pipelines maintained and used by the DCC can be installed to run on personal computers, local HPC clusters, or in cloud computing environments via Cromwell. Access to the pipelines and data via the cloud allows small labs the ability to use the data or software without access to institutional compute clusters. Standardization of the computational methodologies for analysis and quality control leads to comparable results from different ENCODE collections - a prerequisite for successful integrative analyses. Database URL: https://www.encodeproject.org/

bioinformatics↗

ROS-Degradable Polythioketal Urethane Foam Dressings to Promote Porcine Skin Wound Repair

Impaired skin healing and progression into chronic wounds is a prevalent and growing medical problem. Porous, resorbable biomaterials can be used as temporary substrates placed into skin defects to support cell infiltration, neo-tissue formation, and remodeling of nonhealing wounds. Naturally-derived biomaterials have promising healing benefits, but their low mechanical properties and exuberant costs limit their performance and use. Synthetic materials can be affordably manufactured and tuned across a broader range of physiochemical properties, but opportunities remain for tailoring them for ideal host immune and regenerative responses. Polyesters are the most clinically-tested class of synthetic biomaterials, but their hydrolysis releases acidic degradation products that can cause autocatalytic degradation processes that are poorly controlled and are not tied to cellular or other biologic activities. Here, we systemically explored a series of ROS-degradable polythioketal (PTK) urethane (UR) foams with varied hydrophilicity as an alternative class of synthetic biomaterials for wound healing. It was found that the most hydrophilic PTK- UR variant, which had 7 ethylene glycol (EG7) repeats flanking each side of each thioketal bond, had the highest ROS reactivity of the PTK-URs tested. In an in vivo porcine excisional skin wound healing model, hydrophilic EG7 PTK-UR foams more effectively promoted tissue integration, ECM deposition, and re- epithelialization of full-thickness skin wound compared to more hydrophobic PTK-UR variants. Resolution of type 1 inflammation and lower foreign body response to scaffold remnants was also observed for EG7 versus more hydrophobic PTK-UR scaffolds. Finally, porcine wound healing studies showed that EG7 PTK-UR foams had similar wound healing response to a collagen-based clinical gold standard product, Integra Bilayer Wound Matrix (BWM), while outperforming polyester UR foam-based NovoSorb Biodegradable Temporizing Matrix (BTM) with respect to increased ECM production, vascularization, and biomaterial-associated immune phenotype. In sum, PTK-UR foams warrant further development toward a new class of synthetic biomaterial foams for skin wound healing applications.

bioengineering↗

Bleaching resistant corals retain heat tolerance following acclimatization to environmentally distinct reefs

Urgent action is needed to prevent the demise of coral reefs as the climate crisis leads to an increasingly warmer and more acidic ocean. Propagating climate change resistant corals to restore degraded reefs is one promising strategy; however, empirical evidence is needed to determine if resistance is retained following transplantation within or beyond a corals natal reef. Here we assessed the performance of bleaching-resistant individuals of two coral species following reciprocal transplantation between environmentally distinct reefs (low vs high diel variability) to determine if stress resistance is retained following transplantation. Critically, transplantation to either environment had no influence on coral bleaching resistance, indicating that this trait was relatively fixed and is thus a useful metric for selecting corals for reef restoration within their native range. In contrast, growth was highly plastic, and native performance was not predictive of performance in the novel environment. Coral metabolism was also plastic, with cross transplants of both species matching the performance of native corals at both reefs within three months. Coral physiology (autotrophy, heterotrophy, and metabolism) and overall fitness (survival, growth, and reproduction) were higher at the reef with higher flow and fluctuations in diel pH and dissolved oxygen, and did not differ between native corals and cross-transplants. Conversely, cross-transplants at the low-variability reef had higher fitness than native corals, thus increasing overall fitness of the recipient population. This experiment was conducted during a non-bleaching year, which suggests that introduction of these bleaching-resistant individuals will provide even greater fitness benefits to recipient populations during bleaching years. In summary, this study demonstrates that propagating and transplanting bleaching-resistant corals can elevate the resistance of coral populations to ocean warming while simultaneously maintaining reef function as the climate crisis worsens.

ecology↗

BioID analysis of the cyclin F interactome reveals that ALS-variant cyclin F alters the homeostasis of paraspeckle-associated proteins

BackgroundPreviously, we identified missense mutations in CCNF that are causative of familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). CCNF encodes for the protein cyclin F, a substrate recognition component of the E3-ubiquitin ligase, SCFcyclin F. We have previously shown that mutations in CCNF cause disruptions to overall protein homeostasis; causing a build-up of ubiquitylated proteins (1) as well as defects in autophagic machinery (2). MethodsHere, we have used an unbiased proteomic screening workflow using BioID, as well as standard immunoprecipitations to identify novel interaction partners of cyclin F, identifying the interaction between cyclin F and a series of paraspeckle proteins. The homeostasis of these new cyclin F interaction partners, RBM14, NONO and SFPQ were monitored in primary neurons using immunoblotting. In addition, the homeostasis of RBM14 was compared between control and ALS/FTD patient tissue using standard IHC studies. ResultsUsing BioID, we found over 100 putative interaction partners of cyclin F and demonstrated that cyclin F closely associates with a number of essential paraspeckle proteins, which are stress-responsive proteins that have recently been implicated in ALS pathogenesis. We further demonstrate that the turnover of these novel binding partners are defective when cyclin F carries an ALS/FTD-causing mutation. In addition the analysis of RBM14 levels in ALS patient post-mortem tissue revealed that RBM14 levels were significantly reduced in post-mortem ALS patient motor cortex and significantly reduced in the neurons of spinal cord tissue. ConclusionOverall, our data demonstrate that the dysregulation of paraspeckle components may be contributing factors to the molecular pathogenesis of ALS/FTD. HighlightsO_LIPreviously, we identified missense mutations in CCNF that are linked to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD) and have shown that a single mutation in cyclin F can cause defects to major protein degradation systems in dividing cells. C_LIO_LICyclin F has very few known interaction partners, many of which have roles in cell cycle progression. Accordingly, we used BioID and mass spectrometry to identify novel binding partners of cyclin F that may reveal insight into the role of cyclin F in neurodegeneration. C_LIO_LIMass spectrometry and bioinformatic studies demonstrate that cyclin F interacts with several RNA binding proteins. This includes the essential paraspeckle proteins, RBM14. Notably, this interaction could be validated by standard immunoprecipitations and immunoblotting. Cyclin F could also be found to interact with a series of essential proteins which form the paraspeckle complex. C_LIO_LIWe further evaluated the effect of cyclin F(S621G) on the homeostasis of these novel interaction partners in primary neurons in response to a known paraspeckle inducer, MG132. Notably, we demonstrate significant defects in the homeostasis of RBM14 and SFPQ, but not NONO, when cyclin F carries an S621G mutation. C_LIO_LIUnlike other paraspeckle proteins, RBM14 levels have not previously been reported in the post-mortem brain and spinal cord of ALS patient post-mortem tissue. Here, we note significant defects in the homeostasis of RBM14 in the post-mortem tissue of ALS patients. C_LI

neuroscience↗

Identification of rare-disease genes in diverse undiagnosed cases using whole blood transcriptome sequencing and large control cohorts

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a complementary approach for Mendelian disease diagnosis for patients in whom exome-sequencing is not informative. For both rare neuromuscular and mitochondrial disorders, its application has improved diagnostic rates. However, the generalizability of this approach to diverse Mendelian diseases has yet to be evaluated. We sequenced whole blood RNA from 56 cases with undiagnosed rare diseases spanning 11 diverse disease categories to evaluate the general application of RNA-seq to Mendelian disease diagnosis. We developed a robust approach to compare rare disease cases to existing large sets of RNA-seq controls (N=1,594 external and N=31 family-based controls) and demonstrated the substantial impacts of gene and variant filtering strategies on disease gene identification when combined with RNA-seq. Across our cohort, we observed that RNA-seq yields a 8.5% diagnostic rate. These diagnoses included diseases where blood would not intuitively reflect evidence of disease. We identified RARS2 as an under-expression outlier containing compound heterozygous pathogenic variants for an individual exhibiting profound global developmental delay, seizures, microcephaly, hypotonia, and progressive scoliosis. We also identified a new splicing junction in KCTD7 for an individual with global developmental delay, loss of milestones, tremors and seizures. Our study provides a broad evaluation of blood RNA-seq for the diagnosis of rare disease.

genomics↗

Nurtured by nature: Considering the role of environmental and parental legacies in coral ecological performance

The persistence of reef building corals is threatened by human-induced environmental change. Maintaining coral reefs into the future requires not only the survival of adults, but also the influx of recruits to promote genetic diversity and retain cover following adult mortality. Few studies examine the linkages among multiple life stages of corals, despite a growing knowledge of carryover effects in other systems. We provide a novel test of coral parental preconditioning to ocean acidification (OA) to better understand impacts on the processes of offspring recruitment and growth. Coral planulation was tracked for three months following adult exposure to high pCO2 and offspring from the second month were reciprocally exposed to ambient and high pCO2. Offspring of parents exposed to high pCO2 had greater settlement and survivorship immediately following release, retained survivorship benefits during one and six months of continued exposure, and further displayed growth benefits to at least one month post release. Enhanced performance of offspring from parents exposed to high conditions was maintained despite the survivorship in both treatments declining in continued exposure to OA. Preconditioning of the adults while they brood their larvae may provide a form of hormetic conditioning, or environmental priming that elicits stimulatory effects. Defining mechanisms of positive carryover effects, or positive trans-generational plasticity, is critical to better understanding ecological and evolutionary dynamics of corals under regimes of increasing environmental disturbance. Considering parental and environmental legacies in ecological and evolutionary projections may better account for coral reef response to the chronic stress regimes characteristic of climate change.

physiology↗

Systematic mapping of chromatin state landscapes during mouse development

Embryogenesis requires epigenetic information that allows each cell to respond appropriately to developmental cues. Histone modifications are core components of a cells epigenome, giving rise to chromatin states that modulate genome function. Here, we systematically profile histone modifications in a diverse panel of mouse tissues at 8 developmental stages from 10.5 days post conception until birth, performing a total of 1,128 ChIP-seq assays across 72 distinct tissue-stages. We combine these histone modification profiles into a unified set of chromatin state annotations, and track their activity across developmental time and space. Through integrative analysis we identify dynamic enhancers, reveal key transcriptional regulators, and characterize the role of chromatin-based repression in developmental gene regulation. We also leverage these data to link enhancers to putative target genes, revealing connections between coding and non-coding sequence variation in disease etiology. Our study provides a compendium of resources for biomedical researchers, and achieves the most comprehensive view of embryonic chromatin states to date.

genomics↗