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15 Publications

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    07/31/18 | High-resolution transcriptional dissection of in vivo Atoh1-mediated hair cell conversion in mature cochleae identifies Isl1 as a co-reprogramming factor.
    Yamashita T, Zheng F, Finkelstein D, Kellard Z, Carter R, Rosencrance CD, Sugino K, Easton J, Gawad C, Zuo J
    PLoS Genetics. 2018 07;14(7):e1007552. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007552

    In vivo direct conversion of differentiated cells holds promise for regenerative medicine; however, improving the conversion efficiency and producing functional target cells remain challenging. Ectopic Atoh1 expression in non-sensory supporting cells (SCs) in mouse cochleae induces their partial conversion to hair cells (HCs) at low efficiency. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of whole mouse sensory epithelia harvested at multiple time points after conditional overexpression of Atoh1. Pseudotemporal ordering revealed that converted HCs (cHCs) are present along a conversion continuum that correlates with both endogenous and exogenous Atoh1 expression. Bulk sequencing of isolated cell populations and single-cell qPCR confirmed 51 transcription factors, including Isl1, are differentially expressed among cHCs, SCs and HCs. In transgenic mice, co-overexpression of Atoh1 and Isl1 enhanced the HC conversion efficiency. Together, our study shows how high-resolution transcriptional profiling of direct cell conversion can identify co-reprogramming factors required for efficient conversion.

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    07/30/18 | The actin cytoskeletal architecture of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells suppresses invasion.
    Padilla-Rodriguez M, Parker SS, Adams DG, Westerling T, Puleo JI, Watson AW, Hill SM, Noon M, Gaudin R, Aaron J, Tong D, Roe DJ, Knudsen B, Mouneimne G
    Nature Communications. 2018 Jul 30;9(1):2980. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05367-2

    Estrogen promotes growth of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast tumors. However, epidemiological studies examining the prognostic characteristics of breast cancer in postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy reveal a significant decrease in tumor dissemination, suggesting that estrogen has potential protective effects against cancer cell invasion. Here, we show that estrogen suppresses invasion of ER+ breast cancer cells by increasing transcription of the Ena/VASP protein, EVL, which promotes the generation of suppressive cortical actin bundles that inhibit motility dynamics, and is crucial for the ER-mediated suppression of invasion in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, despite its benefits in suppressing tumor growth, anti-estrogenic endocrine therapy decreases EVL expression and increases local invasion in patients. Our results highlight the dichotomous effects of estrogen on tumor progression and suggest that, in contrast to its established role in promoting growth of ER+ tumors, estrogen has a significant role in suppressing invasion through actin cytoskeletal remodeling.

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    07/25/18 | An unbiased template of the Drosophila brain and ventral nerve cord.
    Bogovic JA, Otsuna H, Heinrich L, Ito M, Jeter J, Meissner GW, Nern A, Colonell J, Malkesman O, Saalfeld S
    bioRxiv. 2018 Jul 25:. doi: 10.1101/376384

    The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an important model organism for neuroscience with a wide array of genetic tools that enable the mapping of individuals neurons and neural subtypes. Brain templates are essential for comparative biological studies because they enable analyzing many individuals in a common reference space. Several central brain templates exist for Drosophila, but every one is either biased, uses sub-optimal tissue preparation, is imaged at low resolution, or does not account for artifacts. No publicly available Drosophila ventral nerve cord template currently exists. In this work, we created high-resolution templates of the Drosophila brain and ventral nerve cord using the best-available technologies for imaging, artifact correction, stitching, and template construction using groupwise registration. We evaluated our central brain template against the four most competitive, publicly available brain templates and demonstrate that ours enables more accurate registration with fewer local deformations in shorter time.

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    07/24/18 | The ESCRT-III protein CHMP1A mediates secretion of sonic hedgehog on a distinctive subtype of extracellular vesicles.
    Coulter ME, Dorobantu CM, Lodewijk GA, Delalande F, Cianferani S, Ganesh VS, Smith RS, Lim ET, Xu CS, Pang S, Wong ET, Lidov HG, Calicchio ML, Yang E, Gonzalez DM, Schlaeger TM, Mochida GH, Hess H, Lee WA, Lehtinen MK, Kirchhausen T, Haussler D, Jacobs FM, Gaudin R, Walsh CA
    Cell Reports. 2018 Jul 24;24(4):973-986.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.06.100

    Endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) complex proteins regulate biogenesis and release of extracellular vesicles (EVs), which enable cell-to-cell communication in the nervous system essential for development and adult function. We recently showed human loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in ESCRT-III member CHMP1A cause autosomal recessive microcephaly with pontocerebellar hypoplasia, but its mechanism was unclear. Here, we show Chmp1a is required for progenitor proliferation in mouse cortex and cerebellum and progenitor maintenance in human cerebral organoids. In Chmp1a null mice, this defect is associated with impaired sonic hedgehog (Shh) secretion and intraluminal vesicle (ILV) formation in multivesicular bodies (MVBs). Furthermore, we show CHMP1A is important for release of an EV subtype that contains AXL, RAB18, and TMED10 (ART) and SHH. Our findings show CHMP1A loss impairs secretion of SHH on ART-EVs, providing molecular mechanistic insights into the role of ESCRT proteins and EVs in the brain.

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    07/23/18 | Insights from Biology: low power circuits in the fruit fly.
    Scheffer LK
    International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design. 2018 Jul 23-25:

    Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) are small insects, with correspondingly small power budgets. Despite this, they perform sophisticated neural computations in real time. Careful study of these insects is revealing how some of these circuits work. Insights from these systems might be helpful in designing other low power circuits.

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    07/13/18 | Cryo-EM structure of the polycystin 2-l1 ion channel.
    Hulse RE, Li Z, Huang RK, Zhang J, Clapham DE
    eLife. 2018 Jul 13;7:. doi: 10.7554/eLife.36931

    We report the near atomic resolution (3.3 Å) of the human polycystic kidney disease 2-like 1 (polycystin 2-l1) ion channel. Encoded by PKD2L1, polycystin 2-l1 is a calcium and monovalent cation-permeant ion channel in primary cilia and plasma membranes. The related primary cilium-specific polycystin-2 protein, encoded by PKD2, shares a high degree of sequence similarity, yet has distinct permeability characteristics. Here we show that these differences are reflected in the architecture of polycystin 2-l1.

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    07/13/18 | Fluorogenic structure activity library pinpoints molecular variations in substrate specificity of structurally homologous esterases.
    White A, Koelper A, Russell A, Larsen EM, Kim C, Lavis LD, Hoops GC, Johnson RJ
    The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2018 Jul 13;293(36):13851-62. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.003972

    Cellular esterases catalyze many essential biological functions by performing hydrolysis reactions on diverse substrates. The promiscuity of esterases complicates assignment of their substrate preferences and biological functions. To identify universal factors controlling esterase substrate recognition, we designed a 32-member structure-activity relationship (SAR) library of fluorogenic ester substrates and used this library to systematically interrogate esterase preference for chain length, branching patterns, and polarity to differentiate common classes of esterase substrates. Two structurally homologous bacterial esterases were screened against this library, refining their previously broad overlapping substrate specificity. esterase ybfF displayed a preference for γ-position thioethers and ethers, whereas Rv0045c from displayed a preference for branched substrates with and without thioethers. We determined that this substrate differentiation was partially controlled by individual substrate selectivity residues Tyr119 in ybfF and His187 in Rv0045c; reciprocal substitution of these residues shifted each esterase's substrate preference. This work demonstrates that the selectivity of esterases is tuned based on transition state stabilization, identifies thioethers as an underutilized functional group for esterase substrates, and provides a rapid method for differentiating structural isozymes. This SAR library could have multi-faceted future applications including in vivo imaging, biocatalyst screening, molecular fingerprinting, and inhibitor design.

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    07/12/18 | A complete electron microscopy volume of the brain of adult Drosophila melanogaster.
    Zheng Z, Lauritzen JS, Perlman E, Robinson CG, Nichols M, Milkie DE, Torrens O, Price J, Fisher CB, Sharifi N, Calle-Schuler SA, Kmecova L, Ali IJ, Karsh B, Trautman ET, Bogovic JA, Hanslovsky P, Jefferis GS, Kazhdan M, Khairy K
    Cell. 2018 Jul 12;174(3):730-43. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.06.019

    Drosophila melanogaster has a rich repertoire of innate and learned behaviors. Its 100,000-neuron brain is a large but tractable target for comprehensive neural circuit mapping. Only electron microscopy (EM) enables complete, unbiased mapping of synaptic connectivity; however, the fly brain is too large for conventional EM. We developed a custom high-throughput EM platform and imaged the entire brain of an adult female fly at synaptic resolution. To validate the dataset, we traced brain-spanning circuitry involving the mushroom body (MB), which has been extensively studied for its role in learning. All inputs to Kenyon cells (KCs), the intrinsic neurons of the MB, were mapped, revealing a previously unknown cell type, postsynaptic partners of KC dendrites, and unexpected clustering of olfactory projection neurons. These reconstructions show that this freely available EM volume supports mapping of brain-spanning circuits, which will significantly accelerate Drosophila neuroscience..

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    07/11/18 | Evolution of a central neural circuit underlies Drosophila mate preferences.
    Seeholzer LF, Seppo M, Stern DL, Ruta V
    Nature. 2018 Jul 11;559(7715):564-9. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0322-9

    Courtship rituals serve to reinforce reproductive barriers between closely related species. Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans exhibit reproductive isolation, owing in part to the fact that D. melanogaster females produce 7,11-heptacosadiene, a pheromone that promotes courtship in D. melanogaster males but suppresses courtship in D. simulans males. Here we compare pheromone-processing pathways in D. melanogaster and D. simulans males to define how these sister species endow 7,11-heptacosadiene with the opposite behavioural valence to underlie species discrimination. We show that males of both species detect 7,11-heptacosadiene using homologous peripheral sensory neurons, but this signal is differentially propagated to P1 neurons, which control courtship behaviour. A change in the balance of excitation and inhibition onto courtship-promoting neurons transforms an excitatory pheromonal cue in D. melanogaster into an inhibitory cue in D. simulans. Our results reveal how species-specific pheromone responses can emerge from conservation of peripheral detection mechanisms and diversification of central circuitry, and demonstrate how flexible nodes in neural circuits can contribute to behavioural evolution.

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    Looger Lab
    07/10/18 | Aberrant calcium signaling in astrocytes inhibits neuronal excitability in a human Down syndrome stem cell model.
    Tian L, Or G, Wang Y, Shi G, Wang Y, Sun J, Papadopoulos S, Broussard G, Unger E, Deng W, Weick J, Bhattacharyya A, Chen C, Yu G, Looger LL
    Cell Reports. 2018 Jul 10;24(2):355-65. doi: 10.1101/247585

    Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder that causes cognitive impairment. The staggering effects associated with an extra copy of human chromosome 21 (HSA21) complicates mechanistic understanding of DS pathophysiology. We examined the neuron-astrocyte interplay in a fully recapitulated HSA21 trisomy cellular model differentiated from DS-patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). By combining calcium imaging with genetic approaches, we discovered the functional defects of DS astroglia and their effects on neuronal excitability. Compared with control isogenic astroglia, DS astroglia exhibited more-frequent spontaneous calcium fluctuations, which reduced the excitability of co-cultured neurons. Furthermore, suppressed neuronal activity could be rescued by abolishing astrocytic spontaneous calcium activity either chemically by blocking adenosine-mediated signaling or genetically by knockdown of inositol triphosphate (IP3) receptors or S100B, a calcium binding protein coded on HSA21. Our results suggest a mechanism by which DS alters the function of astrocytes, which subsequently disturbs neuronal excitability.

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