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Results for “Developmental Biology”

Search indexed bioRxiv preprints in genomics, neuroscience, cell biology and bioinformatics. Read source abstracts and check manuscript versions; preprints are not peer reviewed.

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bioRxiv2018

Optimal feedback mechanisms for regulating cell numbers

How living cells employ counting mechanisms to regulate their numbers or density is a long-standing problem in developmental biology that ties directly with organism or tissue size. Diverse cells types have been shown to regulate their numbers via secretion of factors in the extracellular space. These factors act as a proxy for the number of cells and function to reduce cellular proliferation rates creating a negative feedback. It is desirable that the production rate of such factors be kept as low as possible to minimize energy costs and detection by predators. Here we formulate a stochastic model of cell proliferation with feedback control via a secreted extracellular factor. Our results show that while low levels of feedback minimizes random fluctuations in cell numbers around a given set point, high levels of feedback amplify Poisson fluctuations in secreted-factor copy numbers. This trade-off results in an optimal feedback strength, and sets a fundamental limit to noise suppression in cell numbers. Intriguingly, this fundamental limit depends additively on two variables: relative half-life of the secreted factor with respect to the cell proliferation rate, and the average number of factors secreted in a cells lifespan. We further expand the model to consider external disturbances in key physiological parameters, such as, proliferation and factor synthesis rates. Intriguingly, while negative feedback effectively mitigates disturbances in the proliferation rate, it amplifies disturbances in the synthesis rate. In summary, these results provide unique insights into the functioning of feedback-based counting mechanisms, and apply to organisms ranging from unicellular prokaryotes and eukaryotes to human cells.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Conversion of iPS derived hepatic progenitors into scalable, functional and developmentally relevant human organoids using an inverted colloidal crystal poly (ethylene glycol) scaffold engineered from collagen-coated pores of defined size

Generation of human organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offers exciting possibilities for developmental biology, disease modelling and cell therapy. Significant advances towards those goals have been hampered by dependence on animal derived matrices (e.g. Matrigel), immortalized cell lines and resultant structures that are difficult to control or scale. To address these challenges, we aimed to develop a fully defined liver organoid platform using inverted colloid crystal (ICC) whose 3-dimensional mechanical properties could be engineered to recapitulate the extracellular niche sensed by hepatic progenitors during human development. iPSC derived hepatic progenitors (IH) formed organoids most optimally in ICC scaffolds constructed with 140 {micro}m diameter pores coated with Collagen in a two-step process mimicking liver bud formation. The resultant organoids were closer to adult tissue, compared to 2D and 3D controls, with respect to morphology, gene expression, protein secretion, drug metabolism and viral infection and could integrate, vascularize and function following implantation into livers of immune-deficient mice. Preliminary interrogation of the underpinning mechanisms highlighted the importance of TGF{beta} and hedgehog signalling pathways. The combination of functional relevance with tuneable mechanical properties leads us to propose this bioengineered platform to be ideally suited for a range of future mechanistic and clinical organoid related applications.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2018

Comparative analysis of droplet-based ultra-high-throughput single-cell RNA-seq systems

Since its establishment in 2009, single-cell RNA-seq has been a major driver behind progress in biomedical research. In developmental biology and stem cell studies, the ability to profile single cells confers particular benefits. While most studies still focus on individual tissues or organs, the recent development of ultra-high-throughput single-cell RNA-seq has demonstrated potential power in characterizing more complex systems or even the entire body. However, although multiple ultra-high-throughput single-cell RNA-seq systems have attracted attention, no systematic comparison of these systems has been performed. Here, we focus on three widely used droplet-based ultra-high-throughput single-cell RNA-seq systems, inDrop, Drop-seq, and 10X Genomics Chromium. While each system is capable of profiling single-cell transcriptomes, their detailed comparison revealed the distinguishing features and suitable applications for each system.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

Generation of white-eyed Daphnia magna mutants lacking scarlet function

The crustacean Daphnia magna is an important model in multi-disciplinary scientific fields such as genetics, evolutionary developmental biology, toxicology, and ecology. Recently, draft genome sequence and transcriptome data became publicly available for this species. Genetic transformation by introduction of plasmid DNA into a genome has been achieved. To further advance D. magna functional genomics, identification of a screenable marker gene and generation of its mutant are indispensable. Because Daphnia is more closely related to insects among crustaceans, we hypothesized that eye color-related genes can function as a marker gene as used in Drosophila genetics. We searched orthologs of Drosophila eye pigment transporters White, Scarlet, and Brown in the genome of D. magna. Amino acid sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis suggested that D. magna has six white and one scarlet orthologs, but lacks the brown ortholog. Due to a multiplicity of white orthologs, we analyzed function of the scarlet ortholog, DapmaSt, using RNA interference. DapmaSt RNAi embryos showed disappearance of black pigments both in the compound eye and in the ocellus, suggesting that DapmaSt is necessary for black pigmentation in Daphnia eyes. To disrupt DapmaSt by using the Crispr/Cas9 system, we co-injected DapmaSt-targeting gRNAs with Cas9 mRNAs into eggs and established white-eyed DapmaSt mutant lines that lack eye pigments throughout their lifespan. Our results suggest that DapmaSt can be used as a transformation marker in D. magng+a and the DapmaSt mutants would be an important resource for genetic transformation of this species in the future.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2018

Linear stability analysis of morphodynamics during tissue regeneration in plants

One of the key characteristics of multicellular organisms is the ability to establish and maintain shapes, or morphologies, under a variety of physical and chemical perturbations. A quantitative description of the underlying morphological dynamics is a critical step to fully understand the self-organising properties of multicellular systems. Although many powerful mathematical tools have been developed to analyse stochastic dynamics, rarely these are applied to experimental developmental biology.\n\nHere, we take root tip regeneration in the plant model system Arabidopsis thaliana as an example of robust morphogenesis in living tissue, and present a novel approach to quantify and model the relaxation of the system to its unperturbed morphology. By generating and analysing time-lapse series of regenerating root tips captured with confocal microscopy, we are able to extract and model the dynamics of key morphological traits at cellular resolution. We present a linear stability analysis of its Markovian dynamics, with the stationary state representing the intact root in the space of morphological traits. We find that the resulting eigenvalues can be classified into two groups, suggesting the co-existence of two distinct temporal scales during the process of regeneration.\n\nWe discuss the possible biological implications of our specific results, and suggest future experiments to further probe the self-organising properties of living tissue.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Integration and modularity in Procrustes shape data: is there a risk of spurious results?

Studies of morphological integration and modularity are a hot topic in evolutionary developmental biology. Geometric morphometrics using Procrustes methods offers powerful tools to quantitatively investigate morphological variation and, within this methodological framework, a number of different methods has been put forward to test if different regions within an anatomical structure behave like modules or, vice versa, are highly integrated and covary strongly. Although some exploratory techniques do not require a priori modules, commonly modules are specified in advance based on prior knowledge. Once this is done, most of the methods can be applied either by subdividing modules and performing separate Procrustes alignments or by splitting shape coordinates of anatomical landmarks into modules after a common superimposition. This second approach is particularly interesting because, contrary to completely separate blocks analyses, it preserves information on relative size and position of the putative modules. However, it also violates one of the fundamental assumptions on which Procrustes methods are based, which is that one should not analyse or interpret subsets of landmarks from a common superimposition, because the choice of that superimposition is purely based on statistical convenience (although with sound theoretical foundations) and not on a biological model of variance and covariance. In this study, I offer a first investigation of the effects of testing integration and modularity within a configuration of commonly superimposed landmarks using some of the most widely employed statistical methods available to this aim. When applied to simulated shapes with random non-modular isotropic variation, standard methods frequently recovered significant but arbitrary patterns of integration and modularity. Re-superimposing landmarks within each module, before testing integration or modularity, generally removes this artifact. The study, although preliminary and exploratory in nature, raises an important issue and indicates an avenue for future research. It also suggests that great caution should be exercised in the application and interpretation of findings from analyses of modularity and integration using Procrustes shape data, and that issues might be even more serious using some of the most common methods for handling the increasing popular semilandmark data used to analyse 2D outlines and 3D surfaces.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Identification of novel circadian transcripts in the zebrafish retina

High fecundity, transparent embryos for monitoring the rapid development of organs and the availability of a well-annotated genome has made zebrafish a model organism of choice for developmental biology and neurobiology. This vertebrate model, a favourite in chronobiology studies, shows striking circadian rhythmicity in behaviour. Here, we identify novel genes in the zebrafish genome, which shows their expression in the zebrafish retina. We further resolve the expression pattern over time and assign specific novel transcripts to the retinal cell type, predominantly in the inner nuclear layer. Using chemical ablation and free run experiments we segregate the transcripts that are rhythmic when entrained by light from those that show sustained oscillations in the absence of external cues. The transcripts reported here with rigorous annotation and specific functions in circadian biology provide the groundwork for functional characterisation of novel players in the zebrafish retinal clock.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Tracking transient fluorescent events in structured point clouds

BackgroundParticle-tracking in 3D is an indispensable computational tool to extract critical information on dynamical processes from raw time-lapse imaging. This is particularly true with in vivo time-lapse fluorescence imaging in cell and developmental biology, where complex dynamics are observed at high temporal resolution. Common tracking algorithms used with time-lapse data in fluorescence microscopy typically assume a continuous signal where background, recognisable keypoints and independently moving objects of interest are permanently visible. Under these conditions, simple registration and identity management algorithms can track the objects of interest over time. In contrast, here we consider the case of transient signals and objects whose movements are constrained within a tissue, where standard algorithms fail to provide robust tracking. ResultsTo optimize 3D tracking in these conditions, we propose the merging of registration and tracking tasks into a fuzzy registration algorithm to solve the identity management problem. We describe the design and application of such an algorithm, illustrated in the domain of plant biology, and make it available as an open-source software implementation. The algorithm is tested on mitotic events in 4D data-sets obtained with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy on growing Arabidopsis thaliana roots expressing CYCB::GFP. We validate the method by comparing the algorithm performance against both surrogate data and manual tracking. ConclusionThis method fills a gap in existing tracking techniques, following mitotic events in challenging data-sets using transient fluorescent markers in unregistered images.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2018

Switching toxic protein function in life cells

Toxic proteins are prime targets for molecular farming and efficient tools for targeted cell ablation in genetics, developmental biology, and biotechnology. Achieving conditional activity of cytotoxins and their maintenance in form of stably transformed transgenes is challenging. We demonstrate here a switchable version of the highly cytotoxic bacterial ribonuclease barnase by using efficient temperature-dependent control of protein accumulation in living multicellular organisms. By tuning the levels of the protein, we were able to control the fate of a plant organ in vivo. The on-demand-formation of specialized epidermal cells (trichomes) through manipulating stabilization versus destabilization of barnase is a proof-of-concept for a robust and powerful tool for conditional switchable cell arrest. We present this tool both as a potential novel strategy for the manufacture and accumulation of cytotoxic proteins and toxic high-value products in plants or for conditional genetic cell ablation.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2017

A safer, urea-based in situ hybridization method improves detection of gene expression in diverse animal species

In situ hybridization is a widely employed technique allowing spatial visualization of gene expression in fixed specimens. It has proven to be essential to our understanding of biological processes, including developmental regulation. In situ protocols are today routine in numerous laboratories, and although details might change, they all include a hybridization step, where specific antisense RNA or DNA probes anneal to the target nucleic acids strand. This step, in general, is carried out at high temperatures and in a denaturing solution, the hybridization buffer, commonly containing 50% (v/v) formamide. An important drawback is that hot formamide poses a significant health risk and so must be handled with great care.\n\nWe were prompted to test alternative hybridization solutions for in situ detection of gene expression in the medusa of the hydrozoan Clytia hemisphaerica, where traditional protocols caused extensive deterioration of the morphology and texture during hybridization, hindering observation and interpretation of results. Inspired by optimized protocols for Northern and Southern blot analysis, we substituted the 50% formamide with an equal volume of 8 M urea solution in the hybridization buffer. The new protocol yielded better morphologies and consistency of tissues, and also notably improved the resolution of the signal, allowing more precise localization of gene expression, as well as reduced staining at non-specific sites. Given the improved results using a less toxic hybridization solution, we tested the urea protocol on a number of other metazoans: two brachiopod species (Novocrania anomala and Terebratalia transversa) and the worm Priapulus caudatus, obtaining a similar reduction of aspecific probe binding. Overall, substitution of formamide by urea in in situ hybridization offers safer alternative protocols, potentially useful in research, medical and teaching contexts. We encourage other workers to test this approach on their study organisms, and hope that they will also obtain better sample preservation, more precise expression patterns and fewer problems due to aspecific staining, as we report here for Clytia medusae and Novocrania and Terebratalia developing larvae.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Anisotropic Crb accumulation, modulated by Src42A, orients epithelial tube growth in Drosophila

Size control of internal tubular organs, such as the lungs or vascular system, is critical for proper physiological activity and to prevent disease or malformations. This control incorporates the intrinsic physical anisotropy of tubes to generate proportionate organs that match their function. The exact mechanisms underlying tube size control and how tubular anisotropy is translated at the cellular level are still not fully understood. Here we investigate these mechanisms using the Drosophila tracheal system. We show that the apical polarity protein Crumbs transiently accumulates anisotropically at longitudinal cell junctions during tube elongation. We provide evidence indicating that the accumulation of Crumbs in specific apical domains correlates with apical surface growth. Hence, we propose that the anisotropic accumulation of Crb at the cellular level promotes a bias towards longitudinal membrane growth, orienting cell elongation and, as a consequence, longitudinal growth at the tissue level. We find that Src42A promotes Crb anisotropic accumulation, thereby identifying the first polarised cell behaviour downstream of Src42A. Our results indicate that Src42A activity favours a higher turnover of Crb protein at longitudinal junctions, possibly through a mechanism regulating protein trafficking and/or recycling. We propose a model where Src42A would sense the inherent anisotropic mechanical tension of the tube and translate it into a polarised Crumbs-mediated membrane growth, orienting longitudinal tube growth. This work provides new insights into the key question of how organ growth is controlled and polarised and unveils the function of two conserved proteins, Crumbs and Src42A, with important roles in development and homeostasis as well as in disease, in this biological process.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2017

R-spondins can potentiate WNT signaling without LGR receptors

The WNT signaling pathway regulates patterning and morphogenesis during embryonic development and promotes tissue renewal and regeneration in adults. Some WNT responses in vertebrates depend on a second signal provided by the R-spondin family of four secreted proteins (RSPO1-4) that drive the renewal of stem cells in many tissues. RSPOs markedly amplify target cell sensitivity to WNT ligands by neutralizing two transmembrane E3 ligases, ZNRF3 and RNF43, which reduce cell-surface levels of WNT receptors. Chromosomal translocations that increase RSPO expression or that inactivate ZNRF3/RNF43 can drive human cancers. RSPOs contain tandem furin-like repeats (FU1 and FU2), a thrombospondin type I (TSP) domain, and a basic region (BR). RSPOs simultaneously engage ZNRF3/RNF43 through their FU1 domain and one of three leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptors (LGR4-6) through their FU2 domain, triggering the clearance of ZNRF3/RNF43 and the consequent rise in WNT receptor levels. LGRs are selectively expressed in various tissue stem cells and are considered the primary high-affinity receptors for RSPOs. Using purified mutant and chimeric RSPOs and cell lines lacking various receptors, we show that RSPO2 and RSPO3, but not RSPO1 and RSPO4, can potentiate WNT/{beta}-catenin signaling in the absence of all three LGRs. The ZNRF3/RNF43-interacting FU1 domain was necessary for LGR-independent signaling, while the LGR-interacting FU2 domain was dispensable. The FU1 domain of RSPO3 was also sufficient to confer LGR-independence when transplanted to RSPO1, demonstrating that its interaction with ZNRF3/RNF43 dictates LGR-independent signaling. The enigmatic TSP/BR domains of RSPOs and their interaction with heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), previously considered dispensable for WNT/{beta}-catenin signaling, became essential in the absence of LGRs. These results define two alternative modes of RSPO-mediated signaling that share a common dependence on ZNRF3/RNF43, but differ in their use of either LGRs or HSPGs, with implications for understanding their mechanism of action, biological functions and evolutionary origins.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2018

The Ly6/uPAR protein Bouncer is necessary and sufficient for species-specific fertilization

Fertilization is fundamental for sexual reproduction, yet its molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we identify an oocyte-expressed Ly6/uPAR protein, which we call Bouncer, as a crucial fertilization factor in zebrafish. We show that membrane-bound Bouncer mediates sperm-egg binding and is thus essential for sperm entry into the egg. Remarkably, Bouncer is not only required for sperm-egg interaction, but also sufficient to allow cross-species fertilization between zebrafish and medaka, two fish species that diverged over 150 million years ago. Our study thus identifies Bouncer as a key determinant of species-specific fertilization in fish. Bouncers closest homolog in tetrapods, SPACA4, is restricted to the male gonad in internally fertilizing vertebrates, suggesting that our findings in fish have relevance to human biology.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Xenopus hybrids provide insight into cell and organism size control

Determining how size is controlled is a fundamental question in biology that is poorly understood at the organismal, cellular and subcellular levels. The Xenopus species, X. laevis and X. tropicalis differ in size at all three of these levels. Despite these differences, fertilization of X. laevis eggs with X. tropicalis sperm gives rise to viable hybrid animals that are intermediate in size. We observed that although hybrid and X. laevis embryogenesis initiates from the same sized zygote and proceeds synchronously through development, hybrid animals were smaller by the tailbud stage, and a change in the ratio of nuclear size to cell size was observed shortly after zygotic genome activation (ZGA), suggesting that differential gene expression contributes to size differences. Transcriptome analysis at the onset of ZGA identified twelve transcription factors paternally expressed in hybrids. A screen of these X. tropicalis factors by expression in X. laevis embryos revealed that Hes7 and Ventx2 significantly reduced X. laevis body length size by the tailbud stage, although nuclear to cell size scaling relationships were not affected as in the hybrid. Together, these results suggest that transcriptional regulation contributes to biological size control in Xenopus.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2016

An RNA binding polymer specifies nematode sperm fate

Metazoan germ cells develop as sperm or oocytes, depending on chromosomal sex, extrinsic signaling from somatic tissue and intrinsic factors within the germ cells. Gamete fate regulatory networks have been analyzed in nematodes, flies and mammals, but only in C. elegans have terminal intrinsic regulators been identified, which include a Tob/BTG protein family member, FOG-3. Canonical Tob/BTG proteins function as monomeric adaptor proteins that link RNA binding proteins to deadenylases. To ask if FOG-3 functions similarly, we first determined its crystal structure. FOG-3 harbors a classical Tob/BTG fold, but unlike other Tob/BTG proteins, FOG-3 dimerizes and these FOG-3 dimers assemble into polymers. The importance of FOG-3 polymers to sperm fate specification was confirmed in vivo using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to create mutations designed to disrupt the polymer interface. The FOG-3 surface potential is highly basic, suggesting binding to nucleic acid. We find that FOG-3 binds RNA directly with a strong preference for 3UTRs of oogenic mRNAs. Our results reveal a divergent but striking molecular assembly for proteins with a Tob/BTG fold, make key advances in understanding the mechanism of sperm fate specification and highlight the potential for undiscovered protein polymers in biology.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Highly efficient CRISPR/Cas9-mediated tissue specific mutagenesis in Drosophila

Tissue-specific loss-of-function (LOF) analysis is an essential approach for characterizing gene function. Here we describe an efficient CRISPR-mediated tissue-restricted mutagenesis (CRISPR-TRiM) method for ablating gene function in Drosophila. This binary system consists of a tissue-specific Cas9 and a ubiquitously expressed multi-guide RNA (gRNA) transgene. To facilitate the construction of these components, we developed convenient tools for generating and evaluating enhancer-driven Cas9 lines, identified a multi-gRNA design that is highly efficient in mutagenizing somatic cells, and established an assay for testing the efficiency of multi-gRNAs in creating double-stranded breaks. We found that excision of genomic DNA induced by two gRNAs is infrequent in somatic cells, while indels more reliably cause tissue-specific LOF. Furthermore, we show that enhancer-driven Cas9 is less cytotoxic yet results in more complete gene removal than Gal4-driven Cas9 in larval neurons. Finally, we demonstrate that CRISPR-TRiM efficiently unmasks redundant gene functions in neuronal morphogenesis. Importantly, two Cas9 transgenes that turn on with different timings in the neuronal lineage revealed the extent to which gene products persist in cells after tissue-specific gene knockout. These CRISRPR tools can be applied to analyze tissue-specific gene function in many biological processes.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2016

A microRNA family exerts maternal control on sex determination in C. elegans

Gene expression in early animal embryogenesis is in large part controlled post-transcriptionally. Maternally-contributed microRNAs may therefore play important roles in early development. We have elucidated a major biological role of the nematode mir-35 family of maternally-contributed, essential microRNAs. We show that this microRNA family regulates the sex determination pathway at multiple levels, acting both upstream and downstream of her-1 to prevent aberrantly activated male developmental programs in hermaphrodite embryos. The predicted target genes that act downstream of the mir-35 family in this process, sup-26 and nhl-2, both encode RNA binding proteins, thus delineating a previously unknown post-transcriptional regulatory subnetwork within the well-studied sex determination pathway of C. elegans. Genome-wide profiling of SUP-26 binding targets reveals 775 mRNAs, most of which have no known role in sex determination, suggesting that the mir-35 family may modulate numerous other pathways via regulation of sup-26. Since sex determination in C. elegans requires zygotic gene expression to read the sex chromosome karyotype, early embryos must remain gender-naive; our findings show that the mir-35 family microRNAs act in the early embryo to function as a developmental timer that preserves naivete and prevents premature deleterious developmental decisions.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2017

An adaptable chromosome preparation methodology for use in invertebrate research organisms

BackgroundThe ability to efficiently visualize and manipulate chromosomes is fundamental to understand the genetic architecture of organisms. This can be challenging for many invertebrates because conventional chromosome preparation protocols deal primarily hypotonic conditions tailored for use with vertebrates and rely extensively on cultured cells which are rarely available for invertebrates. Hence, a simple and inexpensive chromosome preparation protocol, adaptable to multiple invertebrate model species is needed.\n\nResultsWe optimized a chromosome preparation protocol and applied it to several planarian species (Phylum: Platyhelminthes), the freshwater apple snail Pomacea canaliculata (Phylum: Mollusca), and the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis (Phylum: Cnidaria). We showed that both mitotically active adult tissues and embryos can be used as sources of metaphase chromosomes, expanding the potential use of this technique to invertebrates lacking cell lines and/or with limited access to the complete life cycle. Simple hypotonic treatment with DI water was sufficient for karyotyping. The karyotypes we obtained allowed the identification of differences in ploidy and chromosome architecture among otherwise morphologically indistinguishable organisms, as in the case of a mixed population of planarians collected in the wild. Furthermore, we showed that in all tested organisms representing three different phyla, this protocol can be effectively coupled with downstream applications, such as chromosome fluorescent in situ hybridization.\n\nConclusionThe simple and inexpensive chromosome preparation protocol reported here can be readily adapted to new invertebrate research organisms in order to expand and accelerate the discovery of new biology in understudied branches of the tree of life.

developmental biology↗