@article {65282, title = {A genetic, genomic, and computational resource for exploring neural circuit function.}, journal = {eLife}, volume = {9}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jan 15}, abstract = {

The anatomy of many neural circuits is being characterized with increasing resolution, but their molecular properties remain mostly unknown. Here, we characterize gene expression patterns in distinct neural cell types of the visual system using genetic lines to access individual cell types, the TAPIN-seq method to measure their transcriptomes, and a probabilistic method to interpret these measurements. We used these tools to build a resource of high-resolution transcriptomes for 100 driver lines covering 67 cell types, available at http://www.opticlobe.com. Combining these transcriptomes with recently reported connectomes helps characterize how information is transmitted and processed across a range of scales, from individual synapses to circuit pathways. We describe examples that include identifying neurotransmitters, including cases of apparent co-release, generating functional hypotheses based on receptor expression, as well as identifying strong commonalities between different cell types.

}, issn = {2050-084X}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.50901}, author = {Davis, Fred P and Nern, Aljoscha and Picard, Serge and Reiser, Michael B and Rubin, Gerald M and Eddy, Sean R and Henry, Gilbert L} } @article {49141, title = {Odorant binding protein 69a connects social interaction to modulation of social responsiveness in Drosophila.}, journal = {PLoS Genetics}, volume = {14}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr 09}, pages = {e1007328}, abstract = {

Living in a social environment requires the ability to respond to specific social stimuli and to incorporate information obtained from prior interactions into future ones. One of the mechanisms that facilitates social interaction is pheromone-based communication. In Drosophila melanogaster, the male-specific pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) elicits different responses in male and female flies, and functions to modulate behavior in a context and experience-dependent manner. Although it is the most studied pheromone in flies, the mechanisms that determine the complexity of the response, its intensity and final output with respect to social context, sex and prior interaction, are still not well understood. Here we explored the functional link between social interaction and pheromone-based communication and discovered an odorant binding protein that links social interaction to sex specific changes in cVA related responses. Odorant binding protein 69a (Obp69a) is expressed in auxiliary cells and secreted into the olfactory sensilla. Its expression is inversely regulated in male and female flies by social interactions: cVA exposure reduces its levels in male flies and increases its levels in female flies. Increasing or decreasing Obp69a levels by genetic means establishes a functional link between Obp69a levels and the extent of male aggression and female receptivity. We show that activation of cVA-sensing neurons is sufficeint to regulate Obp69a levels in the absence of cVA, and requires active neurotransmission between the sensory neuron to the second order olfactory neuron. The cross-talk between sensory neurons and non-neuronal auxiliary cells at the olfactory sensilla, represents an additional component in the machinery that promotes behavioral plasticity to the same sensory stimuli in male and female flies.

}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1007328}, author = {Bentzur, Assa and Shmueli, Anat and Omesi, Liora and Ryvkin, Julia and Knapp, Jon-Michael and Parnas, Moshe and Davis, Fred P and Shohat-Ophir, Galit} } @article {48859, title = {A dynamic interplay of enhancer elements regulates Klf4 expression in na{\"\i}ve pluripotency.}, journal = {Genes \& Development}, volume = {31}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 01}, pages = {1795-1808}, abstract = {

Transcription factor (TF)-directed enhanceosome assembly constitutes a fundamental regulatory mechanism driving spatiotemporal gene expression programs during animal development. Despite decades of study, we know little about the dynamics or order of events animating TF assembly at cis-regulatory elements in living cells and the long-range molecular "dialog" between enhancers and promoters. Here, combining genetic, genomic, and imaging approaches, we characterize a complex long-range enhancer cluster governing Kr{\"u}ppel-like factor 4 (Klf4) expression in na{\"\i}ve pluripotency. Genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9 revealed that OCT4 and SOX2 safeguard an accessible chromatin neighborhood to assist the binding of other TFs/cofactors to the enhancer. Single-molecule live-cell imaging uncovered that two na{\"\i}ve pluripotency TFs, STAT3 and ESRRB, interrogate chromatin in a highly dynamic manner, in which SOX2 promotes ESRRB target search and chromatin-binding dynamics through a direct protein-tethering mechanism. Together, our results support a highly dynamic yet intrinsically ordered enhanceosome assembly to maintain the finely balanced transcription program underlying na{\"\i}ve pluripotency.

}, issn = {1549-5477}, doi = {10.1101/gad.303321.117}, author = {Xie, Liangqi and Torigoe, Sharon E and Xiao, Jifang and Mai, Daniel H and Li, Li and Davis, Fred P and Dong, Peng and Marie-Nelly, Herve and Grimm, Jonathan and Lavis, Luke and Darzacq, Xavier and Cattoglio, Claudia and Liu, Zhe and Tjian, Robert} } @article {47412, title = {Epigenomic landscapes of retinal rods and cones.}, journal = {eLife}, volume = {5}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Mar 07}, abstract = {

Rod and cone photoreceptors are highly similar in many respects but they have important functional and molecular differences. Here, we investigate genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility in mouse rods and cones and correlate differences in these features with gene expression, histone marks, transcription factor binding, and DNA sequence motifs. Loss of NR2E3 in rods shifts their epigenomes to a more cone-like state. The data further reveal wide differences in DNA methylation between retinal photoreceptors and brain neurons. Surprisingly, we also find a substantial fraction of DNA hypo-methylated regions in adult rods that are not in active chromatin. Many of these regions exhibit hallmarks of regulatory regions that were active earlier in neuronal development, suggesting that these regions could remain undermethylated due to the highly compact chromatin in mature rods. This work defines the epigenomic landscapes of rods and cones, revealing features relevant to photoreceptor development and function.

}, issn = {2050-084X}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.11613}, author = {Mo, Alisa and Luo, Chongyuan and Davis, Fred P and Mukamel, Eran A and Henry, Gilbert L and Nery, Joseph R and Urich, Mark A and Picard, Serge and Lister, Ryan and Eddy, Sean R and Beer, Michael A and Ecker, Joseph R and Nathans, Jeremy} } @article {48043, title = {Evolved repression overcomes enhancer robustness.}, journal = {Developmental Cell}, volume = {39}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 10}, pages = {572-84}, abstract = {

Biological systems display extraordinary robustness. Robustness of transcriptional enhancers results mainly from clusters of binding sites for the same transcription factor, and it is not clear how robust enhancers can evolve loss of expression through point mutations. Here, we report the high-resolution functional dissection of a robust enhancer of the\ shavenbaby\ gene that has contributed to morphological evolution. We found that robustness is encoded by many binding sites for the transcriptional activator Arrowhead and that, during evolution, some of these activator sites were lost, weakening enhancer activity. Complete silencing of enhancer function, however, required evolution of a binding site for the spatially restricted potent repressor Abrupt. These findings illustrate that recruitment of\ repressor binding sites can overcome enhancer robustness and may minimize pleiotropic consequences of enhancer evolution. Recruitment of repression may be a general mode of evolution to break robust regulatory linkages.

}, doi = {10.1016/j.devcel.2016.10.010}, author = {Preger-Ben Noon, Ella and Davis, Fred P and Stern, David L} } @article {46852, title = {Epigenomic signatures of neuronal diversity in the mammalian brain.}, journal = {Neuron}, volume = {86}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jun 17}, pages = {1369-1384}, abstract = {

Neuronal diversity is essential for mammalian brain function but poses a challenge to molecular profiling. To address the need for tools that facilitate cell-type-specific epigenomic studies, we developed the first\ affinity purification approach to isolate nuclei from genetically defined cell types in a mammal. We\ combine this technique with next-generation sequencing to show that three subtypes of neocortical neurons have highly distinctive epigenomic landscapes. Over 200,000 regions differ in chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation signatures characteristic of gene regulatory regions. By footprinting and motif analyses, these regions are predicted to bind distinct cohorts of neuron subtype-specific transcription factors. Neuronal epigenomes reflect both past and present gene expression, with DNA hyper-methylation at developmentally critical genes appearing as a novel epigenomic signature in mature neurons. Taken together, our findings link the functional and transcriptional complexity of neurons to their underlying epigenomic diversity.

}, issn = {1097-4199}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuron.2015.05.018}, author = {Mo, Alisa and Mukamel, Eran A and Davis, Fred P and Luo, Chongyuan and Henry, Gilbert L and Picard, Serge and Urich, Mark A and Nery, Joseph R and Sejnowski, Terrence J and Lister, Ryan and Eddy, Sean R and Ecker, Joseph R and Nathans, Jeremy} } @article {6265, title = {Transcription factors that convert adult cell identity are differentially polycomb repressed.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {e63407}, abstract = {

Transcription factors that can convert adult cells of one type to another are usually discovered empirically by testing factors with a known developmental role in the target cell. Here we show that standard genomic methods (RNA-seq and ChIP-seq) can help identify these factors, as most are more strongly Polycomb repressed in the source cell and more highly expressed in the target cell. This criterion is an effective genome-wide screen that significantly enriches for factors that can transdifferentiate several mammalian cell types including neural stem cells, neurons, pancreatic islets, and hepatocytes. These results suggest that barriers between adult cell types, as depicted in Waddington{\textquoteright}s "epigenetic landscape", consist in part of differentially Polycomb-repressed transcription factors. This genomic model of cell identity helps rationalize a growing number of transdifferentiation protocols and may help facilitate the engineering of cell identity for regenerative medicine.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0063407}, author = {Davis, Fred P and Eddy, Sean R.} } @article {6283, title = {Cell type-specific genomics of Drosophila neurons.}, journal = {Nucleic Acids Research}, volume = {40}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct}, pages = {9691-704}, abstract = {

Many tools are available to analyse genomes but are often challenging to use in a cell type-specific context. We have developed a method similar to the isolation of nuclei tagged in a specific cell type (INTACT) technique [Deal,R.B. and Henikoff,S. (2010) A simple method for gene expression and chromatin profiling of individual cell types within a tissue. Dev. Cell, 18, 1030-1040; Steiner,F.A., Talbert,P.B., Kasinathan,S., Deal,R.B. and Henikoff,S. (2012) Cell-type-specific nuclei purification from whole animals for genome-wide expression and chromatin profiling. Genome Res., doi:10.1101/gr.131748.111], first developed in plants, for use in Drosophila neurons. We profile gene expression and histone modifications in Kenyon cells and octopaminergic neurons in the adult brain. In addition to recovering known gene expression differences, we also observe significant cell type-specific chromatin modifications. In particular, a small subset of differentially expressed genes exhibits a striking anti-correlation between repressive and activating histone modifications. These genes are enriched for transcription factors, recovering those known to regulate mushroom body identity and predicting analogous regulators of octopaminergic neurons. Our results suggest that applying INTACT to specific neuronal populations can illuminate the transcriptional regulatory networks that underlie neuronal cell identity.

}, keywords = {Animals, Cell Fractionation, Cell Nucleus, Chromatin, Drosophila, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Silencing, Genomics, Histones, Luminescent Proteins, Neurons, Transcription Factors}, issn = {1362-4962}, doi = {10.1093/nar/gks671}, author = {Henry, Gilbert L and Davis, Fred P and Picard, Serge and Eddy, Sean R.} } @article {6495, title = {Phosphorylation at the interface.}, journal = {Structure }, volume = {19}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Dec 7}, pages = {1726-7}, abstract = {

Proteomic studies have identified thousands of eukaryotic phosphorylation sites (phosphosites), but few are functionally characterized. Nishi et\ al., in this issue of Structure, characterize phosphosites at protein-protein interfaces and estimate the effect of their phosphorylation on interaction affinity, by combining proteomics data with protein structures.

}, issn = {1878-4186}, doi = {10.1016/j.str.2011.11.006}, author = {Davis, Fred P} } @article {5299, title = {Proteome-wide prediction of overlapping small molecule and protein binding sites using structure.}, journal = {Molecular BioSystems}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Feb}, pages = {545-57}, abstract = {

Small molecules that modulate protein-protein interactions are of great interest for chemical biology and therapeutics. Here I present a structure-based approach to predict {\textquoteright}bi-functional{\textquoteright} sites able to bind both small molecule ligands and proteins, in proteins of unknown structure. First, I develop a homology-based annotation method that transfers binding sites of known three-dimensional structure onto protein sequences, predicting residues in ligand and protein binding sites with estimated true positive rates of 98\% and 88\%, respectively, at 1\% false positive rates. Applying this method to the human proteome predicts 8463 proteins with bi-functional residues and correctly recovers the targets of known interaction modulators. Proteins with significantly (p \< 0.01) more bi-functional residues than expected were found to be enriched in regulatory and depleted in metabolism functions. Finally, I demonstrate the utility of the method by describing examples of predicted overlap and evidence of their biological and therapeutic relevance. The results suggest that combining the structures of known binding sites with established fold detection algorithms can predict regions of protein-protein interfaces that are amenable to small molecule modulation. Open-source software and the results for several complete proteomes are available at http://pibase.janelia.org/homolobind.

}, keywords = {Algorithms, Binding Sites, Humans, Ligands, Protein Binding, Protein Conformation, Proteome}, issn = {1742-2051}, doi = {10.1039/c0mb00200c}, author = {Davis, Fred P} } @article {6496, title = {The overlap of small molecule and protein binding sites within families of protein structures.}, journal = {PLoS Computational Biology}, volume = {6}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb}, pages = {e1000668}, abstract = {

Protein-protein interactions are challenging targets for modulation by small molecules. Here, we propose an approach that harnesses the increasing structural coverage of protein complexes to identify small molecules that may target protein interactions. Specifically, we identify ligand and protein binding sites that overlap upon alignment of homologous proteins. Of the 2,619 protein structure families observed to bind proteins, 1,028 also bind small molecules (250-1000 Da), and 197 exhibit a statistically significant (p\<0.01) overlap between ligand and protein binding positions. These "bi-functional positions", which bind both ligands and proteins, are particularly enriched in tyrosine and tryptophan residues, similar to "energetic hotspots" described previously, and are significantly less conserved than mono-functional and solvent exposed positions. Homology transfer identifies ligands whose binding sites overlap at least 20\% of the protein interface for 35\% of domain-domain and 45\% of domain-peptide mediated interactions. The analysis recovered known small-molecule modulators of protein interactions as well as predicted new interaction targets based on the sequence similarity of ligand binding sites. We illustrate the predictive utility of the method by suggesting structural mechanisms for the effects of sanglifehrin A on HIV virion production, bepridil on the cellular entry of anthrax edema factor, and fusicoccin on vertebrate developmental pathways. The results, available at http://pibase.janelia.org, represent a comprehensive collection of structurally characterized modulators of protein interactions, and suggest that homologous structures are a useful resource for the rational design of interaction modulators.

}, keywords = {Binding Sites, Computational Biology, Ligands, Models, Molecular, Nonparametric, Protein Binding, Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs, Proteins, Statistics}, issn = {1553-7358}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000668}, author = {Davis, Fred P and Sali, Andrej} } @article {4264, title = {A tool for identification of genes expressed in patterns of interest using the Allen Brain Atlas.}, journal = {Bioinformatics}, volume = {25}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jul 1}, pages = {1647-54}, abstract = {

Gene expression patterns can be useful in understanding the structural organization of the brain and the regulatory logic that governs its myriad cell types. A particularly rich source of spatial expression data is the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA), a comprehensive genome-wide in situ hybridization study of the adult mouse brain. Here, we present an open-source program, ALLENMINER, that searches the ABA for genes that are expressed, enriched, patterned or graded in a user-specified region of interest.

}, keywords = {Animals, Brain, Computer Graphics, Gene Expression, Gene Expression Profiling, Genome, Mice, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis}, issn = {1367-4811}, doi = {10.1093/bioinformatics/btp288}, author = {Davis, Fred P and Eddy, Sean R.} }