Parallel functional testing identifies enhancers active in early postnatal mouse brain
Abstract
Enhancers are cis-regulatory elements that play critical regulatory roles in modulating developmental transcription programs and driving cell-type specific and context-dependent gene expression in the brain. The development of massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) has enabled high-throughput functional screening of candidate DNA sequences for enhancer activity. Tissue-specific screening of in vivo enhancer function at scale has the potential to greatly expand our understanding of the role of non-coding sequences in development, evolution, and disease. Here, we adapted a self-transcribing regulatory element MPRA strategy for delivery to early postnatal mouse brain via recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV). We identified and validated putative enhancers capable of driving reporter gene expression in mouse forebrain, including regulatory elements within an intronic CACNA1C linkage disequilibrium block associated with risk in neuropsychiatric disorder genetic studies. Paired screening and single enhancer in vivo functional testing, as we show here, represents a powerful approach towards characterizing regulatory activity of enhancers and understanding how enhancer sequences organize gene expression in the brain.
Data availability
All supplementary information, including links to raw and processed data, can be found at the Nord Lab Resources page (https://nordlab.faculty.ucdavis.edu/resources/). Software can be found at the Nord Lab Git Repository (https://github.com/NordNeurogenomicsLab/) and https://github.com/NordNeurogenomicsLab/Publications/tree/master/Lambert_eLIFE_2021. Sequencing data have been deposited in GEO under accession code GSE172058.
-
Parallel functional testing identifies enhancers active in early postnatal mouse brainNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE19373 GSE172058.
-
Roadmap Consolidated Peak DatasetGEO GSM530651, GSM595913, GSM595920, GSM595922, GSM595923, GSM595926, GSM595928, GSM806934, GSM806939, GSM621457, GSM706999, GSM806935, GSM621427, GSM707000, GSM806936, GSM621393, GSM707001, GSM806937, GSM621410, GSM707002, GSM806938.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R35GM119831)
- Jason T Lambert
National Institutes of Health (T32-GM008799)
- Linda Su-Feher
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All procedures were performed in accordance with the ARVO statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and were approved by the University of California Animal Care and Use Committee (AUP #R200-0913BC). Surgery was performed under anesthesia, and all efforts were made to minimize suffering.
Copyright
© 2021, Lambert et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 3,937
- views
-
- 389
- downloads
-
- 26
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Genetics and Genomics
Recent studies have revealed a role for zinc in insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis. Randomized placebo-controlled zinc supplementation trials have demonstrated improved glycemic traits in patients with type II diabetes (T2D). Moreover, rare loss-of-function variants in the zinc efflux transporter SLC30A8 reduce T2D risk. Despite this accumulated evidence, a mechanistic understanding of how zinc influences systemic glucose homeostasis and consequently T2D risk remains unclear. To further explore the relationship between zinc and metabolic traits, we searched the exome database of the Regeneron Genetics Center-Geisinger Health System DiscovEHR cohort for genes that regulate zinc levels and associate with changes in metabolic traits. We then explored our main finding using in vitro and in vivo models. We identified rare loss-of-function (LOF) variants (MAF <1%) in Solute Carrier Family 39, Member 5 (SLC39A5) associated with increased circulating zinc (p=4.9 × 10-4). Trans-ancestry meta-analysis across four studies exhibited a nominal association of SLC39A5 LOF variants with decreased T2D risk. To explore the mechanisms underlying these associations, we generated mice lacking Slc39a5. Slc39a5-/- mice display improved liver function and reduced hyperglycemia when challenged with congenital or diet-induced obesity. These improvements result from elevated hepatic zinc levels and concomitant activation of hepatic AMPK and AKT signaling, in part due to zinc-mediated inhibition of hepatic protein phosphatase activity. Furthermore, under conditions of diet-induced non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), Slc39a5-/- mice display significantly attenuated fibrosis and inflammation. Taken together, these results suggest SLC39A5 as a potential therapeutic target for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) due to metabolic derangements including T2D.
-
- Genetics and Genomics
- Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
Retinal degeneration in mammals causes permanent loss of vision, due to an inability to regenerate naturally. Some non-mammalian vertebrates show robust regeneration, via Muller glia (MG). We have recently made significant progress in stimulating adult mouse MG to regenerate functional neurons by transgenic expression of the proneural transcription factor Ascl1. While these results showed that MG can serve as an endogenous source of neuronal replacement, the efficacy of this process is limited. With the goal of improving this in mammals, we designed a small molecule screen using sci-Plex, a method to multiplex up to thousands of single-nucleus RNA-seq conditions into a single experiment. We used this technology to screen a library of 92 compounds, identified, and validated two that promote neurogenesis in vivo. Our results demonstrate that high-throughput single-cell molecular profiling can substantially improve the discovery process for molecules and pathways that can stimulate neural regeneration and further demonstrate the potential for this approach to restore vision in patients with retinal disease.