| 1. |
- Leblond, Claire S, et al.
(författare)
-
Genetic and functional analyses of SHANK2 mutations suggest a multiple hit model of autism spectrum disorders.
- 2012
-
Ingår i: PLoS Genetics. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7390 .- 1553-7404. ; 8:2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders with a complex inheritance pattern. While many rare variants in synaptic proteins have been identified in patients with ASD, little is known about their effects at the synapse and their interactions with other genetic variations. Here, following the discovery of two de novo SHANK2 deletions by the Autism Genome Project, we identified a novel 421 kb de novo SHANK2 deletion in a patient with autism. We then sequenced SHANK2 in 455 patients with ASD and 431 controls and integrated these results with those reported by Berkel et al. 2010 (n=396 patients and n=659 controls). We observed a significant enrichment of variants affecting conserved amino acids in 29 of 851 (3.4%) patients and in 16 of 1,090 (1.5%) controls (P=0.004, OR=2.37, 95% CI=1.23-4.70). In neuronal cell cultures, the variants identified in patients were associated with a reduced synaptic density at dendrites compared to the variants only detected in controls (P=0.0013). Interestingly, the three patients with de novo SHANK2 deletions also carried inherited CNVs at 15q11-q13 previously associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. In two cases, the nicotinic receptor CHRNA7 was duplicated and in one case the synaptic translation repressor CYFIP1 was deleted. These results strengthen the role of synaptic gene dysfunction in ASD but also highlight the presence of putative modifier genes, which is in keeping with the "multiple hit model" for ASD. A better knowledge of these genetic interactions will be necessary to understand the complex inheritance pattern of ASD.
|
|
| 2. |
- Leblond, Claire S, et al.
(författare)
-
Meta-analysis of SHANK Mutations in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Gradient of Severity in Cognitive Impairments.
- 2014
-
Ingår i: PLoS genetics. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7404. ; 10:9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- SHANK genes code for scaffold proteins located at the post-synaptic density of glutamatergic synapses. In neurons, SHANK2 and SHANK3 have a positive effect on the induction and maturation of dendritic spines, whereas SHANK1 induces the enlargement of spine heads. Mutations in SHANK genes have been associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but their prevalence and clinical relevance remain to be determined. Here, we performed a new screen and a meta-analysis of SHANK copy-number and coding-sequence variants in ASD. Copy-number variants were analyzed in 5,657 patients and 19,163 controls, coding-sequence variants were ascertained in 760 to 2,147 patients and 492 to 1,090 controls (depending on the gene), and, individuals carrying de novo or truncating SHANK mutations underwent an extensive clinical investigation. Copy-number variants and truncating mutations in SHANK genes were present in ∼1% of patients with ASD: mutations in SHANK1 were rare (0.04%) and present in males with normal IQ and autism; mutations in SHANK2 were present in 0.17% of patients with ASD and mild intellectual disability; mutations in SHANK3 were present in 0.69% of patients with ASD and up to 2.12% of the cases with moderate to profound intellectual disability. In summary, mutations of the SHANK genes were detected in the whole spectrum of autism with a gradient of severity in cognitive impairment. Given the rare frequency of SHANK1 and SHANK2 deleterious mutations, the clinical relevance of these genes remains to be ascertained. In contrast, the frequency and the penetrance of SHANK3 mutations in individuals with ASD and intellectual disability-more than 1 in 50-warrant its consideration for mutation screening in clinical practice.
|
|
| 3. |
- Hillerton, Thomas, 1992-
(författare)
-
In silico modelling for refining gene regulatory network inference
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Gene regulation is at the centre of all cellular functions, regulating the cell's healthy and pathological responses. The interconnected system of regulatory interactions is known as the gene regulatory network (GRN), where genes influence each other to maintain strict and robust control. Today a large number of methods exist for inferring GRNs, which necessitates benchmarking to determine which method is most suitable for a specific goal. Paper I presents such a benchmark focusing on the effect of using known perturbations to infer GRNs. A further challenge when studying GRNs is that experimental data contains high levels of noise and that artefacts may be introduced by the experiment itself. The LSCON method was developed in paper II to reduce the effect of one such artefact that can occur if the expression of a gene shows no or minimal change across most or all experiments. With few fully determined biological GRNs available, it is problematic to use these to evaluate an inference method's correctness. Instead, the GRN field relies on simulated data, using a known GRN and generating the corresponding data. When simulating GRNs, capturing the topological properties of the biological GRN is vital. The FFLatt algorithm was developed in paper III to create scale-free, feed-forward loop motif-enriched GRNs, capturing two of the most prominent topological features in biological GRNs. Once a high-quality GRN is obtained, the next step is to simulate gene expression data corresponding to the GRN. In paper IV, building on the FFLatt method, an open-source Python simulation tool called GeneSNAKE was developed to generate expression data for benchmarking purposes. GeneSNAKE allows the user to control a wide range of network and data properties and improves on previous tools by featuring a variety of perturbation schemes along with the ability to control noise and modify the perturbation strength.
|
|
| 4. |
- Maniatis, Silas, et al.
(författare)
-
Spatiotemporal dynamics of molecular pathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Science. - : AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE. - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6435, s. 89-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Paralysis occurring in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) results from denervation of skeletal muscle as a consequence of motor neuron degeneration. Interactions between motor neurons and glia contribute to motor neuron loss, but the spatiotemporal ordering of molecular events that drive these processes in intact spinal tissue remains poorly understood. Here, we use spatial transcriptomics to obtain gene expression measurements of mouse spinal cords over the course of disease, as well as of postmortem tissue from ALS patients, to characterize the underlying molecular mechanisms in ALS. We identify pathway dynamics, distinguish regional differences between microglia and astrocyte populations at early time points, and discern perturbations in several transcriptional pathways shared between murine models of ALS and human postmortem spinal cords.
|
|
| 5. |
- Tjärnberg, Andreas, 1981-
(författare)
-
Exploring the Boundaries of Gene Regulatory Network Inference
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- To understand how the components of a complex system like the biological cell interact and regulate each other, we need to collect data for how the components respond to system perturbations. Such data can then be used to solve the inverse problem of inferring a network that describes how the pieces influence each other. The work in this thesis deals with modelling the cell regulatory system, often represented as a network, with tools and concepts derived from systems biology. The first investigation focuses on network sparsity and algorithmic biases introduced by penalised network inference procedures. Many contemporary network inference methods rely on a sparsity parameter such as the L1 penalty term used in the LASSO. However, a poor choice of the sparsity parameter can give highly incorrect network estimates. In order to avoid such poor choices, we devised a method to optimise the sparsity parameter, which maximises the accuracy of the inferred network. We showed that it is effective on in silico data sets with a reasonable level of informativeness and demonstrated that accurate prediction of network sparsity is key to elucidate the correct network parameters. The second investigation focuses on how knowledge from association networks can be transferred to regulatory network inference procedures. It is common that the quality of expression data is inadequate for reliable gene regulatory network inference. Therefore, we constructed an algorithm to incorporate prior knowledge and demonstrated that it increases the accuracy of network inference when the quality of the data is low. The third investigation aimed to understand the influence of system and data properties on network inference accuracy. L1 regularisation methods commonly produce poor network estimates when the data used for inference is ill-conditioned, even when the signal to noise ratio is so high that all links in the network can be proven to exist for the given significance. In this study we elucidated some general principles for under what conditions we expect strongly degraded accuracy. Moreover, it allowed us to estimate expected accuracy from conditions of simulated data, which was used to predict the performance of inference algorithms on biological data. Finally, we built a software package GeneSPIDER for solving problems encountered during previous investigations. The software package supports highly controllable network and data generation as well as data analysis and exploration in the context of network inference.
|
|
| 6. |
- Vickovic, Sanja, et al.
(författare)
-
High-definition spatial transcriptomics for in situ tissue profiling
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Nature Methods. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 1548-7091 .- 1548-7105. ; 16:10, s. 987-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spatial and molecular characteristics determine tissue function, yet high-resolution methods to capture both concurrently are lacking. Here, we developed high-definition spatial transcriptomics, which captures RNA from histological tissue sections on a dense, spatially barcoded bead array. Each experiment recovers several hundred thousand transcriptcoupled spatial barcodes at 2-mu m resolution, as demonstrated in mouse brain and primary breast cancer. This opens the way to high-resolution spatial analysis of cells and tissues.
|
|
