Identifying enhancers with human-specific developmental functions

识别具有人类特异性发育功能的增强子

• 批准号: 8304962
• 负责人: James P Noonan
• 金额: $ 62.53万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8304962
• 关键词: Acceleration; Affinity Chromatography; Alzheimer' s Disease; Anterior; Behavioral; Binding; Binding Sites; Biochemical; Biological Assay; Brain; ChIP-seq; Clinic; Complement; Complementary DNA; Conserved Sequence; Coupled; Data; Data Set; Deposition; Development; Developmental Gene; Disease; E1A-associated p300 protein; EP300 gene; Elements; Embryo; Enhancers; Event; Evolution; Gel; Gene Expression Profile; Gene Expression Regulation; Gene Targeting; Genes; Genetic; Genome; Genomics; Goals; Health; Heart Diseases; Human; Human Biology; Human Development; Human Genome; In Situ Hybridization; In Vitro; Indium; Infection; LacZ Genes; Language; Light; Limb Development; Limb structure; Macaca mulatta; Malaria; Maps; Mass Spectrum Analysis; Measures; Metabolic; Methods; Mission; Modeling; Modification; Molecular; Molecular Profiling; Morphology; Multiple Sclerosis; Mus; Mutation; Orthologous Gene; Pan Genus; Pattern; Phenotype; Phylogenetic Analysis; Policies; Primates; Psychotic Disorders; Public Health; Publishing; Recording of previous events; Recruitment Activity; Regulatory Element; Relative (related person); Reporter; Reporter Genes; Research; Research Personnel; Research Proposals; Role; Skin Cancer; Source; Statistical Methods; Talents; Technology; Testing; Thumb structure; Time; Transgenic Mice; Transgenic Organisms; United States National Institutes of Health; Vocabulary; Walking; Wrist; base; brain size; embryo tissue; experimental analysis; gain of function; genetic analysis; genome database; genome sequencing; genome-wide; homologous recombination; human disease; improved; in vivo; insertion/deletion mutation; insight; mouse development; mouse genome; novel; positional cloning; postnatal; public health relevance; research study; spatiotemporal; stem; tool; trait; transcription factor; web site

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As a species, we are distinguished from other primates by our capacity for language, our ability to walk upright, and our talent for inventing and using sophisticated tools. These traits originated in physical adaptations, such as increased brain size and changes in the morphology of the limbs, which required changes in development. Although it has long been thought that changes in gene regulation drove the evolution of uniquely human traits, in vivo evidence for human-specific developmental regulatory functions remains elusive. Moreover, despite intensive efforts to annotate functional elements in the genome, such as the ENCODE project, there is no parallel effort to annotate uniquely human cis-regulatory functions. The goal of this study is to identify and characterize developmental enhancers with human-specific functions in vivo and examine their role in human evolution. The aims of our proposal are based on extensive preliminary data. We have developed a novel computational approach to identify noncoding, potentially regulatory sequences that are highly conserved across vertebrate species, but that changed substantially during human evolution. Using a mouse transgenic enhancer assay, we have identified eight of these "human-accelerated" conserved noncoding sequences (HACNSs) that function as enhancers during development. Of particular relevance for the aims of this proposal, we have also shown that the most rapidly evolving element in our dataset, HACNS1, is a developmental enhancer that has gained a robust limb expression domain relative to the orthologous elements from chimpanzee and rhesus macaque. This domain includes the presumptive anterior wrist and proximal thumb. Here we will build on these previous studies to generate more sophisticated maps of human-specific sequence acceleration in noncoding elements, including transcription factor binding site data and ChIP-seq data generated by genome-wide efforts to annotate regulatory function. We will use these data in conjunction with computational and experimental filters, such as extreme evolutionary constraint and recruitment of p300, to predict enhancers and mouse transgenic technologies to identify and characterize enhancers with human-specific activities. We will use synthetic enhancers and biochemical approaches to determine how human-specific sequence change alters enhancer function. Finally, we will use a reverse genetic strategy to study the evolutionary relevance of the human-specific functional change in HACNS1, by using gene targeting to replace the mouse ortholog of HACNS1 with the human enhancer and evaluating the effect of this genetic change on mouse development. The results from these studies will complement and extend current efforts to functionally annotate the human genome and will begin to reveal the precise molecular evolutionary events that produced modern humans. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Understanding the genetic basis of human morphology and development is central to the public health mission of the NIH. Beyond the fundamental question of human origins, studying human evolutionary history is directly relevant to human health, as many common human diseases may in part be due to the effects of sequence changes that were advantageous early in our evolution but are now harmful. Evidence for this hypothesis stems from human and chimpanzee comparisons: many prevalent human diseases with a genetic component, including skin cancers, heart disease, malaria infection, Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis and major psychoses, appear to be uncommon, different or absent in chimpanzees. Our research may thus shed light on the genetic and evolutionary basis of diseases that are unique to our species.

描述（由申请人提供）：作为一个物种，我们与其他灵长类动物的区别在于我们的语言能力，我们直立行走的能力，以及我们发明和使用复杂工具的天赋。这些特征起源于身体适应，例如大脑尺寸的增加和四肢形态的变化，这需要发育的变化。虽然长期以来人们一直认为基因调控的变化推动了人类独特性状的进化，但人类特异性发育调控功能的体内证据仍然难以捉摸。此外，尽管在注释基因组中的功能元件方面进行了大量的努力，例如ENCODE项目，但还没有类似的努力来注释独特的人类顺式调节功能。本研究的目的是鉴定和表征具有人类特异性功能的发育增强子，并研究它们在人类进化中的作用。我们建议的目的是基于广泛的初步数据。我们已经开发了一种新的计算方法来识别非编码的，潜在的调节序列，这些序列在脊椎动物物种中高度保守，但在人类进化过程中发生了重大变化。使用小鼠转基因增强子测定，我们已经确定了8个这些“人类加速”保守的非编码序列（HACNS），在开发过程中作为增强子的功能。与本提案的目标特别相关的是，我们还表明，我们的数据集中进化最快的元素，HACNS 1，是一个发育增强子，相对于黑猩猩和恒河猴的orthopathic元素，它获得了一个强大的肢体表达结构域。该区域包括假定的前腕和近端拇指。在这里，我们将建立在这些以前的研究，以产生更复杂的地图，人类特异性序列加速在非编码元件，包括转录因子结合位点数据和ChIP-seq数据产生的全基因组的努力，注释调控功能。我们将使用这些数据结合计算和实验过滤器，如极端进化约束和招聘的p300，预测增强子和小鼠转基因技术，以确定和表征增强子与人类特异性活动。我们将使用合成增强子和生物化学方法来确定人类特异性序列变化如何改变增强子功能。最后，我们将使用反向遗传策略来研究人类特异性功能变化在HACNS 1中的进化相关性，通过使用基因靶向来用人类增强子替换小鼠HACNS 1的直系同源物，并评估这种遗传变化对小鼠发育的影响。这些研究的结果将补充和扩展目前对人类基因组进行功能注释的努力，并将开始揭示产生现代人类的精确分子进化事件。 公共卫生相关性：了解人类形态和发育的遗传基础是NIH公共卫生使命的核心。除了人类起源的基本问题之外，研究人类进化史与人类健康直接相关，因为许多常见的人类疾病可能部分是由于序列变化的影响，这些变化在我们进化的早期是有利的，但现在是有害的。这一假说的证据来自人类和黑猩猩的比较：许多流行的人类疾病，包括皮肤癌，心脏病，疟疾感染，阿尔茨海默病，多发性硬化症和严重的精神病，似乎是不常见的，不同的或没有黑猩猩。因此，我们的研究可能会揭示我们物种特有的疾病的遗传和进化基础。