Transcriptome analysis illuminates the nature of the intracellular interaction in a vertebrate-algal symbiosis

  1. John A Burns  Is a corresponding author
  2. Huanjia Zhang
  3. Elizabeth Hill
  4. Eunsoo Kim
  5. Ryan Kerney  Is a corresponding author
  1. American Museum of Natural History, United States
  2. Gettysburg College, United States
7 figures, 3 tables and 18 additional files

Figures

Figure 1 with 5 supplements
Three populations of cells from A. maculatum egg capsules containing stage 39 embryos were collected and prepared for mRNA extraction, cDNA sequencing, and differential expression analysis revealing several hundred significantly differentially expressed genes detected for the salamander and alga.

(a) Intracapsular algae (Population 1) were removed from intact eggs using a syringe and hypodermic needle (photo credit: Roger Hangarter). Embryos were decapsulated and washed, and the liver diverticulum region (dashed line), containing high concentrations of algae (red dots), was isolated and dissociated into a single cell suspension (illustration adapted from Harrison, 1969). The dissociated cells were screened for A. maculatum endoderm cells without alga (black arrowheads) and endoderm cells with intracellular alga (green arrowhead). Scale bars on microscope images are 20 µm. (b) Isolated endoderm cell, and isolated endoderm cell with intracellular alga. Scale bars on microscope images are 20 µm. (c) Representative cDNA distribution (bioanalyzer trace) from a population of 50 manually isolated A. maculatum endoderm cells. Peaks at 35 bp and 10380 bp are markers. Due to evidence of lysed A. maculatum cells observed in the cell suspension fluid after dissociation of A. maculatum embryos (debris seen in dissociated A. maculatum microscope images in (a) and (b)), that fluid was tested for the presence of contaminating mRNA. mRNA was not detected in the surrounding fluid, Figure 1—figure supplement 1. Lower limit abundance thresholds (Figure 1—figure supplement 2), and correction for low sequencing depth in intracelluar algal samples (Figure 1—figure supplement 3) were implemented to obtain the final gene sets used for differential expression analysis. Depth of sequencing was not biased for A. maculatum cell with and without alga samples (Figure 1—figure supplement 4). Library preparation GC bias affected the completeness of the algal transcriptome obtained from intracapsular and intracellular O. amblystomatis (Figure 1—figure supplement 5). (d and e) Dotplots of log2 fold change vs. expression level. The blue horizontal lines are plus and minus 4-fold change in expression between samples. The red dots are genes with FDR adjusted p-values<0.05, indicating a significant difference in expression level between conditions. (d) Differentially expressed algal transcripts. (e) Differentially expressed salamander transcripts.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.003
Figure 1—source data 1

Raw counts matrix with counts for all reads mapped to the total evidence assembly (the assembly of all salamander and algal reads from wild-collected samples).

The data in this file (after filtering and normalization) was used to generate the dotplots in Figure 1D and E, Figure 1—figure supplements 24, and Figure 3. This is the raw data that was used for differential expression analysis. Rows are genes. Column names are as follows: S2a-S5a are counts for salamander cells without algae. S2b-S5b are counts for salamander cells with intracellular algae (samples are paired from the same individuals, such that S2a and S2b came from the same salamander). A1-A3 are intracapsular algae samples. RK_* are cultured algal samples.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.004
Figure 1—source data 2

List of 6,726 algal gene IDs used in differential expression analysis.

Use to filter raw counts matrix to get final algal gene list.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.005
Figure 1—source data 3

List of 46,549 salamander gene IDs used in differential expression analysis.

Use to filter raw counts matrix to get final salamander gene list.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.006
Figure 1—figure supplement 1
A. maculatum cell lysis during embryo dissociation did not contaminate the cell suspension fluid with significant quantities of mRNA.

(a) Representative cDNA distribution (bioanalyzer trace) from a population of 50 manually isolated A. maculatum endoderm cells. (b) No cDNA was produced when the fluid the cells were suspended in was tested indicating that the cDNA populations from manually isolated A. maculatum endoderm cells was specific and not contaminated with cDNAs derived from randomly lysed cells. In both (a) and (b), the peaks at 35 bp and 10380 bp are markers.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.007
Figure 1—figure supplement 2
Determining lower limit FPKM thresholds for inclusion in differential expression analysis.

For pairs of experimental conditions (i.e. n = 4 A. maculatum samples without intracellular algae, and n = 4 A. maculatum samples with intracellular algae), gene expression levels were sorted by the mean FPKM value (expression level) in one set of samples (i.e. in (a) expression levels of A. maculatum genes from samples with and without intracellular algae were sorted by mean expression per gene for n = 4 A. maculatum samples without intracellular algae). Using a sliding window of 100 genes, starting with the 100 most lowly expressed genes of the sorted set, median expression levels of the 100 gene bins were calculated for both experimental conditions. Those binned values were plotted with the expectation that on average, gene expression from one experimental condition should be positively correlated with gene expression from the other experimental condition. Vertical red dashed lines indicate the level of expression along the x-axis (in the sorted sample, determined by visual inspection of the plots) where positively correlated expression between the experimental conditions begins. Those values were used as lower limit thresholds in data pre-filtering steps. (a) Salamander cells with endosymbionts vs. salamander cells without endosymbionts; sorted by salamander cells without endosymbionts expression levels. (b) Salamander cells without endosymbionts vs. salamander cells with endosymbionts; sorted by salamander cells with endosymbionts expression levels. (c) Intracellular algae vs. intracapsular algae; sorted by intracapsular algae expression levels. (d) Intracapsular algae vs. intracellular algae; sorted by intracellular algae expression levels.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.008
Figure 1—figure supplement 3
Determining a threshold for absence calls in intracellular algal data.

Intracapsular algae samples had a higher sequencing depth than the intracellular algae. This filtering determined the lower FPKM limit of expression in intracapsular algae for inclusion in differential expression analysis. (a) Algal gene expression levels in intracapsular (red) and intracellular (blue) algae. The vertical dashed lines represent the median expression level of the respective populations. The large blue bar at −5 ln(FPKM) is the overrepresented proportion of genes with no expression in intracellular algal samples due to the low depth of sequencing. (b) Genes with low levels of intracapsular algal expression are detected in 100% of the intracellular algal samples due to pre-filtering inclusion of genes that were detected in all four intracellular algal samples. However, as the expression level of genes in intracapsular algal samples increases, the proportion of genes detected in intracellular algae decreases sharply with a minimum of 40%. Following this minimum, the proportion of genes detected in intracellular samples increase proportionally with the intracapsular expression. The red dashed vertical line is the FPKM value in intracapsular algae where 95% or more of the intracellular genes are detected. Below this threshold, a gene’s absence in intracellular genes is possibly due to the low sequencing depth, above this threshold, a gene’s absence in intracellular algae is interpreted as potential under-expression. (c) The same plot as in (a), after filtering to remove genes absent in intracellular algae with expression levels in intracapsular algae below threshold. (d) The same plot as in (b), after the dependence of detection on expression level was removed.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.009
Figure 1—figure supplement 4
Determining threshold for absence calls in salamander data.

The algal filtering described in Figure 1—figure supplement 3 was not required for salamander transcripts. (a) Salamander gene expression levels in salamander cells without algae (red) and salamander cells with algal endosymbionts (blue). Data is plotted on a natural log scale. The vertical dashed lines represent the median expression level of the respective populations (overlapping in this case). (b) The proportion of salamander mRNA’s detected in alga-containing cells does not depend on the mRNA expression level in salamander cells without algae. Greater than 95% of all genes are detected in salamander cells plus algal samples for all values of expression in salamander cells without alga samples.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.010
Figure 1—figure supplement 5
High GC content algal genes were not detected by the combination of SMARTer cDNA synthesis and Nextera-XT library preparation.

(a) The GC content distribution of algal transcripts generated using TrueSeq library preparation of total RNA, sequenced on the MySeq platform with approximately 30 million 75 bp paired end reads. 79% of eukaryote BUSCOs were detected in this assembly. The median GC content (green dashed line) is 62%. (b) The GC content distribution from (a), split by library preparation method. Red bars represent algal transcripts found in transcriptomes generated by both library preparation methods (SMARTer-Netxtera-XT and TruSeq). Blue bars represent transcripts found only in the transcriptome assembly from the TrueSeq library preparation method, that are absent from the transcriptome generated using the SMARTer cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT library preparation method. There is an apparent bias against high GC content algal transcripts in library prepared using the SMARTer cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT protocol (Kolgomorov-Smirnov test, p<2.2 × 10−16). Both libraries were sequenced to a similar depth of approximately 30 million reads for the alga-only samples in the total-evidence assembly from the SMARTer-cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT library and 30 million reads for the TrueSeq library from unialgal cultures. Since sequencing depth was equivalent and GC bias is apparent, the data suggests that GC bias in the SMARTer-cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT library is what accounts for the low number of detected BUSCOs (49%) in the algal transcriptome generated from wild-collected algal samples associated with salamander eggs and cells. (C.) The distribution of GC content in A. maculatum transcripts (gray bars) is centered around much lower GC content transcripts (median GC content of 43%) compared to that of O. amblystomatis (green bars, median GC content of 62%). The A. maculatum assembly contained 88% of eukaryote BUSCOs. Our evidence points to bias against high GC content transcripts in the SMARTer cDNA synthesis and Nextera-XT library prep method, that becomes significant above 60% GC content. Transcripts with GC content of 60% or greater are in the tail of the salamander GC content distribution, but near the median of the algal GC content distribution. This offers an explanation for the BUSCO results, where the salamander transcriptome from the wild-collected samples is comprehensive, while the algal transcriptome from the same samples and library prep methods is missing around 40% of the algal transcriptome.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.011
An algal phosphate transporter is modulated by inorganic phosphate levels, while nitrogen source transporters are modulated by an organic nitrogen source, glutamine.

Normalized measurements from RNAseq data are provided for direct visual comparison of effect sizes in intracellular algae compared to in vitro experiments. Intracapsular alga measurements are ‘caps’ (filled red circles); intracellular alga measurements are ‘cell’ (empty red circles). (a) Expression of high affinity phosphate transporter PhT1-2 mRNA across a range of phosphate concentrations. (b) Expression of chloroplast sodium dependent phosphate transporter ANTR1 mRNA across a range of phosphate concentrations. In (a) and (b) The red dashed line indicates the average expression of the phosphate transporter in the low phosphate range (100 pM to 1 µM); the blue dashed line indicates the average expression in the high phosphate range (10 µM to 10 mM). (c) Expression of three algal nitrogen transporters in the absence (-) and presence (+) of 2 mM L-glutamine. Data is plotted on a log2 scale on the y axis, where more negative values indicate lower expression levels. Circles are individual replicates; bars are the average for each experiment. *p<0.05; n.s. indicates no significant difference; the statistical test performed was an ANOVA with contrasts.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.016
Figure 2—source data 1

Normalized expression levels of algal phosphate transporters.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.017
Figure 2—source data 2

Normalized expression levels of algal nitrogen transporters.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.018
Figure 3 with 2 supplements
Differentially expressed genes between intracellular algae and cultured algae.

Red dots indicate significantly differentially expressed genes (FDR < 0.05). Blue dashed lines represent a plus and minus 2-fold difference in expression. There are 1,805 over-expressed genes in intracellular algae and 802 under-expressed genes in intracellular algae in this comparison.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.019
Figure 3—source data 1

GC content and length of algal genes.

Use as input for normalizing algal count data based on GC content and gene length for algal libraries prepared by different methods.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.020
Figure 3—figure supplement 1
REViGO anlysis of GO terms associated with 1805 over-expressed genes in intracellular algae compared to cultured algae.

This analysis shows enrichment in fermentation processes such as glycerol-3 phosphate metabolism, 2-oxoglutarate metabolism, the glyoxylate cycle, photosystem II stability, photosystem I, and sulfur assimilation, all of which are consistent with the hypothesis that the intracellular algae are fermenting. Processes such as protein folding, apoptotic cell clearance, and sodium ion homeostasis support the hypothesis that the intracellular algae are stressed.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.021
Figure 3—figure supplement 2
REViGO anlysis of 882 under-expressed genes in intracellular algae compared to cultured algae.

Under-expressed processes involved in oxidative pathways, photoprotection, and protein refolding are further evidence of an intracellular algal stress response.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.022
Differential expression of fermentation genes in intracellular algae compared to cultured algae.

Blue dots are genes that were over-expressed in intracellular algae compared to intracapsular algae. Orange dots are genes that were under-expressed in intracellular algae compared to intracapsular algae. Vertical blue lines represent plus and minus two-fold fold change. The horizontal blue line represents FDR adjusted p-value equal to 0.05. Genes above the horizontal blue line are significantly differentially expressed; genes below the blue line are not. Key fermentation genes, PFOR, HYDA1, ADHE, and PAT are significantly over-expressed in intracellular algae compared to cultured algae, in the same manner as they are over-expressed in intracellular algae compared to intracapsular algae. Several components of complex I of the electron transport chain in the mitochondrion are also significantly under-expressed (CYB, ND2, ND4), though ND1 is over-expressed in intracellular algae compared to cultured algae.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.023
A. maculatum BCL2L14 protein has both a BH3 and BH2 domain.

A multiple alignment of the A. maculatum BCL2L14 protein sequence with other organisms reveals a conserved BH3 and BH2 domains (boxed).

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.024
Summary of the major changes in both salamander and algal cells and how they may relate to one another.

The inferred salamander responses are broken into four functional categories while algal changes fall within three primary functional categories based on gene annotations. Text indicates hypothetical changes within each category based on the implied roles of under-expressed or over-expressed genes. Major sections are color-coded. Over-expressed genes represented by solid black symbols. Under-expressed gene symbols are white with black outlines. Cellular compartments are in italics. M=mitochondrion, YP=yolk platelet, V=vacuole, N=nucleus, ECM=extracellular matrix, ER=endoplasmic reticulum, Chl=chloroplast.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.025
GC and transcript length bias in SMARTer-cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT libraries compared to TrueSeq libraries.

Red lines indicate the GC content or transcript length biases in reads obtained from SMARTer-cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT libraries. Blue lines indicate the GC content or transcript length biases in reads obtained from TrueSeq libraries. (a) GC content and length are plotted against ‘QRfit’ which is a measure of fit by quantile regression to the models in Hansen et al. (2012). This metric approximates bias in the sequence dataset by comparing read counts to expected models based on quantiles in the distribution of the GC content of the transcripts. The opposing trends in the two sets of lines shows that GC content bias between the two different libraries is vastly different. The reads obtained from SMARTer-cDNA synthesis-Nextera-XT libraries will tend to have more counts for low GC content transcripts, while the reads obtained from TrueSeq libraries will tend to have more counts for high GC content transcripts, systemically. (b) There is also some moderate transcript length bias differences between the two library prep methods visualized as the separation between the groups of red and blue lines. The methods implemented by the conditional quantile normalization (cqn) package in R handles both types of bias to make the gene count data from both library preparation methods comparable.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.026

Tables

Table 1

Functional classification of the green alga O. amblystomatis genes that are differentially expressed during intracellular association with the salamander host.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.012
Functional Category# genes#up#down
No Homology904347
Conserved Gene with Unknown Function371126
Stress Response321418
Fermentation17134
Electron Transport-Mitochondrial606
Photosynthesis1376
Ribosomal Proteins11110
Nitrogen Transport505
Phosphate Transport202
Other Transport1266
Sulfur Metabolism550
Lipid Metabolism752
Other Metabolism909
Flagellar Apparatus413
Signaling514
Transposable Element413
Glycosylation202
Other13211
Totals277111166
Table 1—source data 1

Differentially expressed algal transcripts, annotations, functional groupings, and expression statistics.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.013
Table 2

Functional classification of the salamander, A. maculatum, genes that are differentially expressed when associated with intracellular alga.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.014
Functional Category# genes#up#down
No Homology1556095
Transposable Element692445
Immune Response12111
Nutrient Sensing1477
Metabolism862
Adhesion/ECM743
Proliferation/Survival/
Apoptosis
770
Motility532
Transcriptional Regulation624
Cell-Type Specific330
DNA Repair330
Others1147
Totals300134166
Table 2—source data 1

Differentially expressed salamander transcripts, annotations, functional groupings, and expression statistics.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.015
Table 3

O. amblystomatis qPCR primer sequences.

Primer pairs for four reference genes (RACK1, YPTC1, RPL32, H2B1), and five response genes (PhT1.2, NaPhT1 [ANTR1], AMT1.2, NRT2.4, DUR3) used in this study. Efficiency values were measured per amplicon using a standard curve with five two-fold dilutions of cDNA.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.027
PrimerSequence (5ʹ−3ʹ)Efficiency
Ooph_RACK1_L_3CGCACAGCCAGTAGCGGT0.94
Ooph_RACK1_R_3GGACCTGGCTGAGGGCAA
Ooph_YPTC1_L_4TTGCGGATGACACCTACACG1.09
Ooph_YPTC1_R_4TGGTCCTGAATCGTTCCTGC
Ooph_RPL32_L_2ATAACAGGGTCCGCAGAAAG1.03
Ooph_RPL32_R_2GTTGGAGACGAGGAACTTGAG
Ooph_H2B1_L_4CAAGAAGCCCACCATGACCT1.04
Ooph_H2B1_R_4GGTGAACTTGGTGACTGCCT
Ooph_PhT1.2_L_4TGCCAATGACTTCGCCTTCT1.02
Ooph_PhT1.2_R_4ACGTTCCACTGCTGCTTCTT
Ooph_NaPhT1_L_4TCCATCATCGGTCTGTCGCT0.99
Ooph_NaPhT1_R_4GAACCACACGATGCCCAGAG
Ooph_AMT1.2_L_4CGGTCTCCTTCCAATCGCCA0.96
Ooph_AMT1.2_R_4CCAATGGGTGCTGACTGGGA
Ooph_NRT2.4_L_3CGACTACCGCGACCTGAAGA1.03
Ooph_NRT2.4_R_3GAACAAGACCCAGGCCCTGT
Ooph_DUR3_L_3GCGAATGCCGAGCACTTC1.02
Ooph_DUR3_R_3CTGTCCCTGGGCTGGGT

Additional files

Supplementary file 1

Differentially expressed stress related genes in O. amblystomatis

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.028
Supplementary file 2

Differentially expressed sulfur metabolism genes in O. amblystomatis

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.029
Supplementary file 3

Differentially expressed genes with roles in fermentation in O. amblystomatis

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.030
Supplementary file 4

Differentially expressed genes in photosynthesis in O. amblystomatis

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.031
Supplementary file 5

Differentially expressed genes in mitochondrial electron transport in O. amblystomatis

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.032
Supplementary file 6

Differentially expressed nitrogen and phosphorous transport genes in O. amblystomatis

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.033
Supplementary file 7

Differentially expressed transposable element genes in A. maculatum

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.034
Supplementary file 8

Differentially expressed proliferation genes in A. maculatum

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.035
Supplementary file 9

Differentially expressed genes with immune functions in A. maculatum.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.036
Supplementary file 10

NF-κB and TLR response gene expression levels in salamander cells with algal endosymbionts.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.037
Supplementary file 11

Differentially expressed genes in metabolism and nutrient sensing in A. maculatum.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.038
Supplementary file 12

Differentially expressed genes in motility in A. maculatum

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.039
Supplementary file 13

Top 25 biological process GO annotations for differentially Expressed O. amblystomatis genes.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.040
Supplementary file 14

Top 25 biological process GO annotations for differentially expressed A. maculatum genes.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.041
Supplementary file 15

Top 25 biological process GO annotations from REViGO for differentially expressed O. amblystomatis genes.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.042
Supplementary file 16

Functional grouping of O. amblystomatis genes by REViGO.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.043
Supplementary file 17

Top 25 biological process GO annotations from REViGO for differentially expressed A. maculatum genes.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.044
Supplementary file 18

Functional grouping of A. maculatum genes by REViGO.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054.045

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  1. John A Burns
  2. Huanjia Zhang
  3. Elizabeth Hill
  4. Eunsoo Kim
  5. Ryan Kerney
(2017)
Transcriptome analysis illuminates the nature of the intracellular interaction in a vertebrate-algal symbiosis
eLife 6:e22054.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22054