Functional analysis of autism risk genes during neural development using single cell seq

大脑是一个复杂的器官， 细胞类型。自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）被认为是改变组合的 转录和转录后编码负责指定和 维持脊椎动物大脑中不同的细胞功能。拟议的研究 将测试中心假设，即染色质/转录调控鉴定 由于ASD风险基因在早期发育过程中起着发育开关的作用， 神经发育，改变基因表达网络和随后的细胞 功能 在这个提议中，我们将联合收割机单细胞测序与遗传、基因组 和计算方法在斑马鱼和胚状体i） 描述ASD风险基因在健康神经基因调控中的作用 网络（目标1）; 2）询问ASD功能丧失（LOF）的影响 不同神经谱系的突变（Aim 2）。细胞类型和发育 大脑中受每个候选人影响更大的谱系 ASD风险基因将使用斑马鱼和人类细胞衍生的 类器官 该提案中概述的实验的最终目标是 确定ADS风险基因如何影响神经基因表达和细胞功能 在脊椎动物的发育过程中。

The brain represents a complex organ with a myriad of functionally diverse cell types. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is thought to alter the combinatorial transcriptional and post-transcriptional code responsible for specifying and maintaining different cell functions in the vertebrate brain. The proposed studies will test the central hypothesis that chromatin/transcriptional regulators identified as ASD risk genes act as developmental switches during early neurodevelopment, altering the gene expression network and subsequent cell function. In this proposal we combine single cell sequencing, with genetic, genomic and computational approaches in zebrafish and embryoid bodies to i) characterize the role of ASD-risk genes in healthy neural gene regulatory networks (Aim 1); 2) Interrogate the effects of ASD loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in different neural lineages (Aim 2). Cell types and developmental lineages within the brain that are more significantly affected by each candidate ASD risk gene will be identified using zebrafish and human cell–derived organoids. The experiments outlined in this proposal have the ultimate goal of identifying how ADS risk genes affect neural gene expression and cell function during vertebrate development.