genesis最新文献

The placenta plays an essential role during pregnancy in mammals, with the placental endocrine trophoblast subtypes secreting many growth factors and cytokines to promote fetal growth and maternal adaptation. These endocrine cells, including trophoblast giant cells (TGCs), glycogen trophoblast cells (GlyTs) and spongiotrophoblast cells (SpTs), are mainly derived from Tpbpα-positive (Tpbpα⁺) trophoblast cells primarily located in the ectoplacental cone (EPC) and later junctional zone (JZ) of the mouse placenta. However, the mechanism driving Tpbpα⁺ trophoblast cell differentiation and the functions of the factors secreted by these endocrine cells remain largely unknown. In the present study, we generated the Tpbpα-iCre-EGFP knock-in mice with codon-improved Cre recombinase (iCre) inserted into the endogenous locus of the Tpbpα gene. To examine the specificity and efficiency of iCre recombinase, we crossed the Tpbpα-iCre-EGFP mice with ROSA26Sor^{tm9(CAG-tdTomato)Hze} reporter mice. The co-expression of EGFP and Td-tomato was detected obviously in the EPC at E8.5 and E9.5, and in the JZ at E13.5. Meanwhile, employing lineage tracing and in situ hybridization, we demonstrated that Tpbpα⁺ trophoblast cells could differentiate into SpTs, GlyTs, maternal blood canal (C)-TGCs, parietal (P)-TGCs, and spiral artery-associated (Spa)-TGCs. In addition, no Tpbpα expression or iCre recombinase activity was detected in other organs examined, indicating the specificity of the iCre activity in placental trophoblast cells. In summary, we successfully generated the Tpbpα-iCre-EGFP knock-in mice with enhanced Cre recombinase for modulating specific genes and investigating their functions during pregnancy.

Skeletal muscle is the most widespread tissue in mammals and mediates several functions, and whose development is controlled by a coordinated transcriptional hierarchy that regulates the activities of a range of muscle genes. Skeletal muscle comprises various cells that create communication strategies for exchanging biological information. Nevertheless, the features and developmental programs of several of these cell lines remain unknown. We constructed a complete single-cell landscape of prenatal to postnatal developing bovine skeletal muscle and compared its single-cell transcriptomic characteristics with those of humans and mice. This landscape involved cellular heterogeneity, dynamic gene expression profiles, critical regulons during cell fate decisions, extensive networks of intercellular communication, and a gene regulation network. Overall, our results identify a developmental coordinate of the pluripotency spectrum among bovines, humans, and mice. This finding suggests evolutionary conservation and species-specific differences in the skeletal muscle systems, extending to cell types, gene expression, and regulatory elements. These results offer insights into evolutionary conserved and divergent processes during mammalian skeletal muscle development.

Genetic variants of CHD7, encoding a chromatin remodeler, lead to CHARGE syndrome with congenital deficits in multiple organs. One crucial unsolved question is the causal mechanisms of most protein-altering variants of CHD7. One hypothesis is that these variants impair the enzymatic activity of CHD7, that is ATPase and nucleosome remodeling activities. Herein, we compared the phenotype of two new mouse models for CHARGE syndrome in parallel, with the Dppa3-cre/Chd7^f/+ line carrying a Chd7 truncation variant and the Chd7^S824F/+ line carrying an enzymatic-deficient missense variant. While the Dppa3-cre/Chd7^f/+ line displayed typical disease-relevant phenotypes of CHARGE syndrome as other reported lines, some of these phenotypes, such as body growth and circling behavior, were surprisingly mild in the ATPase-deficient Chd7^S824F/+ mouse line. Thus, our results demonstrated the different contribution of the enzymatic activity of CHD7 in growth and organogenesis.

Vascular endothelial cell senescence is closely associated with cardiovascular disease. The deficiency of natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPRA), encoded by the natriuretic peptide receptor 1 (NPR1) gene, contributes to vascular endothelial aging, but the cause of its reduced expression is unclear. In this study, we performed reverse chromatin immunoprecipitation (R-ChIP) to analyze the binding proteins of the NPR1 promoter and found that nucleolar and coiled body phosphoprotein 1 (NOLC1) functions as a key regulator of NPRA transcription in endothelial cells. Similar to NPRA, NOLC1 is also expressed at reduced levels in senescent endothelial cells. Knockdown of NOLC1 decreased both NPRA mRNA and protein expression levels. Furthermore, inhibition of NOLC1 expression triggered cellular senescence hallmarks, including elevated p53/p21 levels, enhanced SA-β-gal activity, ROS accumulation, G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, and impaired migration. NPRA overexpression rescued senescence and dysfunction in NOLC1-deficient cells, restoring proliferative and migratory capacity. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that nucleolar phosphoprotein NOLC1 is a key regulator of NPRA transcription in endothelial senescence.

Astrocytes are a major glial cell type, playing multiple roles in the development, function, and pathogenesis of the brain. Accordingly, neuronal–astrocyte communication is an important research area. However, because these cell types share the same developmental origin, selective manipulation of each cell type is needed for precise mechanistic understanding. Here, we generated two new Cre driver lines for selective gene manipulation in astrocytes: Slc7a10-IRES-Cre and Aldh1l1-IRES-Cre. An internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-Cre cassette was knocked-in to the 3′-untranslated region of the solute carrier family 7 member 10 (Slc7a10) or aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member L1 (Aldh1l1) locus without disrupting gene function. The Slc7a10-IRES-Cre line underwent highly selective recombination in astrocytes of the brain, apart from choroid plexus epithelial cells. The onset of recombination began after completion of differentiation in the astrocyte lineage. By contrast, the Aldh1l1-IRES-Cre line began recombination during astrocyte differentiation at early postnatal stages. Some leaky expression was observed in the oligodendrocyte lineage, probably due to early onset of Cre expression in an uncommitted glial progenitor state. Together, the combination of the two deleter lines with distinct temporal Cre expression patterns serves as valuable tools to understand the development and function of astrocytes.

The mammalian uterus contains glands in the endometrium that develop only or primarily after birth. In the mouse, endometrial glands govern post implantation pregnancy establishment via regulation of blastocyst implantation, stromal cell decidualization, and placental development. Here, we describe a new uterine glandular epithelium (GE) specific Cre recombinase mouse line that is useful to study endometrial gland development and function. Utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, improved Cre recombinase (iCre) was inserted into the endogenous C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 15 (Cxcl15) gene. Cxcl15 mRNA, Cxcl15 protein, and Cxcl15-iCre recombinase activity were specific to the developing GE of the uterus. Cxcl15-iCre mice were crossed with floxed Foxa2 mice to conditionally delete Foxa2 specifically in the glands of the neonatal mouse uterus. This conditional deletion of Foxa2 in the developing neonatal uterus resulted in adult mice that lacked Foxa2 in the GE of the uterus, and the adult mice were infertile. The studies described here establish that Cxcl15-iCre mice are a valuable resource to elucidate and explore mechanisms regulating the development and function of glands in the uterus.