published_or_final_version / abstract / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Genomic imprinting results in monoallelic parent-of-origin gene expression. Therian mammals show conclusive evidence for imprinting, while the evidence in Aves is conflicting. It’s unclear if Aves have the proteins necessary for establishment and maintenance of imprinting loci. Every examined avian orthologue to mammalian imprinted genes shows biallelic expression providing evidence for a lack of imprinting in Aves. While the known parent-of-origin quantitative trait loci in chicken do not overlap with differentiated methylated regions, further analysis with a larger sample size is required. No transcript in the chicken transcriptome at incubation day 4.5 shows parent-of-origin expression, providing strong evidence for a lack of imprinting at this stage of development. Investigating expression of the chicken transcriptome at additional developmental time points, and the transcriptome of other Aves would provide decisive evidence on the presence or lack of imprinting in Aves. Based on current knowledge, Aves lack imprinting as observed in mammals.

Genomic imprinting is the epigenetic modification of loci, primarily by DNA methylation, which results in parent-of-origin-specific monoallelic expression of a small subset of genes. In plants, imprinting occurs during endosperm development and a balance of maternally- and paternally-expressed imprinted genes is essential for normal seed development. Dependence on DNA methylation for imprinting highlights the potential to manipulate seed development, and consequently seed size, by altering DNA methyltransferase activity. DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE 1 (MET1) is the primary plant maintenance DNA methyltransferase and plays a significant role in imprinting. However, no evaluation of the potential role for other MET1 family members in genomic imprinting has been reported. The current model for the control of imprinting in plants suggests that maintenance DNA methyltransferases are required throughout development, yet the tissue-specific requirement of these enzymes is unconfirmed as analysis has relied solely on constitutive DNA methyltransferase mutants. To address these problems and to evaluate the potential to alter seed size, the work reported in this thesis investigated the potential involvement of putative maintenance DNA methyltransferases MET2a, MET2b and MET3 and the tissue-specific role of MET1 in imprinting. Imprinting was not significantly altered in met2a-1, met2b-1 and met3-1 mutants, indicating that MET1 is the sole DNA methyltransferase required for imprinting. Transcriptional analysis suggested MET1 is expressed throughout floral organ development and in the male and female gametophyte generation indicating that MET1 is potentially available to maintain imprinting-dependent methylation in these tissues. Tools to suppress MET1 tissuespecifically were developed to investigate the tissue-specific requirement of MET1 for imprinting. Analysis indicates that such tools could also be used to alter seed size by manipulating imprinting in commercially important species. Further work is needed to validate this approach.

O comportamento materno é essencial para a sobrevivência e desenvolvimento do filhote mamífero. Durante a prenhez, as fêmeas recebem estímulos sensoriais e hormonais capazes de modificar e preparar o cérebro da mãe para o início dos padrões de comportamento materno (por exemplo, aumentando o número neurônios produtores de oxitocina no hipotálamo). Estudos têm identificado o hipotálamo como o principal responsável por estas mudanças, porém outras áreas do cérebro também estão envolvidas no processo do comportamento materno. Peg3, um gene marcado paternalmente expresso, é conhecido por controlar o comportamento materno em camundongos. Fêmeas nocautes para o gene Peg3 falham em aumentar a ingestão de alimentos, na ejeção de leite e em algumas atividades maternais, como placentofagia e construção do ninho. Este estudo teve como objetivo determinar os padrões de metilação da região diferencialmente metilada de Peg3 (Peg3DMR) de animais da raça Nelore de bovinos em diversas áreas do cérebro. Amostras foram coletadas das seguintes áreas: córtex frontal, occipital, temporal e parietal, hipocampo e hipotálamo, num total de 8 animais (4 machos e 4 fêmeas). O padrão de metilação destas amostras foi analisado pelo protocolo COBRA (do inglês, Combined Bisulfite-Restriction Analysis), que combina a modificação do DNA por bissulfito de sódio, amplificação por PCR e digestão por enzima de restrição. Foram encontrados diferentes padrões de metilação entre as amostras, ocorrendo uma predominância de hipometilação entre as amostras do sexo masculino, e padrões mais variados nas amostras do sexo feminino. As variações nos padrões de metilação ocorreram de maneira mais marcante entre as amostras de uma mesma região cerebral de diferentes animais, do que entre as amostras de várias regiões de um mesmo animal. Os resultados indicam que pode haver uma variação no status de imprinting em nível populacional, porém estudos com um número maior de amostras são necessários para a verificação da significância estatística destas variações. / The maternal behavior is essential to survival and development of mammalian offspring. Throughout pregnancy, females receive sensory and hormonal stimuli which promote modifications and prepare the mothers brain to the onset of maternal behavior patterns (for example, by increasing numbers of neurons producing oxytocin in the hypothalamus). Studies have identified the hypothalamus as the main responsible for these changes, but other areas of the brain are also involved in the maternal behavior process. Peg3, an imprinted paternally expressed gene, is known to control maternal behavior in mice. Peg3 knockout females failed in increasing food intake, milk ejection and some maternal activities as placentofagia and nest building. This study aimed to determine the methylation patterns of the differently methylated region of Peg3 (DMR-Peg3) of animals from Nellore cattle breed in several areas of the brain. Samples were collected from the following areas of cattle brain: the frontal, occipital, temporal and parietal cortices, hippocampus and hypothalamus, in a total of 8 animals (4 males and 4 females). The methylation pattern of these samples was analyzed by the protocol COBRA (Combined Bisulfite-Restriction Analysis), which combines DNA modification by sodium bisulfite, PCR amplification and digestion by restriction enzymes. It was found different methylation patterns among the samples. There was a predominance of hypomethylation among male samples, while different patterns were found among the female samples. Variation in the methylation patterns was more markedly observed among samples of the same cerebral region among different animals, then among samples of several regions within an animal. The results suggest that there may be a variation in the imprinting status at a population level, but further assays, with an increased number of samples are needed to verify the statistical significance of this variation.

Epigenetic states constitute heritable features of the chromatin to regulate when, where and how genes are expressed in the developing conceptus. A special case of epigenetic regulation, genomic imprinting, is defined as parent of origin-dependent monoallelic expression. The Igf2-H19 locus is considered as paradigm of genomic imprinting with a growth-promoting gene, Igf2, expressed paternally and a growth antagonist, H19 encoding a non-coding transcript, expressed only from the maternal allele. The monoallelic expression patterns are regulated by the epigenetic status at an imprinting control region (ICR) in the 5´-flank of the H19 gene. The chromatin insulator protein CTCF interacts with only the maternal H19 ICR allele to prevent downstream enhancers to communicate with the Igf2 promoters. Mutations of these CTCF binding sites lead to biallelic Igf2 expression, increased size of the conceptus and predisposition for cancer. Reasoning that these effects cannot be explained by the regulation of Igf2 expression alone, a technique was invented to examine long-range chromatin interactions without prior knowledge of the interacting partners. Applying the circular chromosomal conformation capture (4C) technique to mouse neonatal liver cells, it was observed that 114 unique sequences interacted with the H19 ICR. A majority of these interactors was in complex with only the maternal H19 ICR allele and depended on the presence of functional CTCF binding sites. The functional consequence of chromosomal networks was demonstrated by the observation that the maternal H19 ICR allele regulated the transcription of two genes on another chromosome. As the chromosomal networks underwent reprogramming during the maturation of embryonic stem cells, attention was turned to human cancer cells, displaying features common with mouse embryonic stem cells. Subsequently, chromatin folding at the human H19 ICR suggested that stable chromatin loops were organized by synergistic interactions within and between baits and interactors. The presence of these interactions was linked to DNA methylation patterns involving repeat elements. A "flower" model of chromatin networks was formulated to explain these observations. This thesis has unravealed a novel feature of the epigenome and its functions to regulate gene expression in trans. The identified roles for CTCF as an architectural factor in the organization of higher order chromatin conformations may be of importance in understanding development and disease ontogeny from novel perspectives.

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

Genetic association study is a useful tool to identify the genetic component that is responsible for a disease. The phenomenon that a certain gene expresses in a parent-of-origin manner is referred to as genomic imprinting. When a gene is imprinted, the performance of the disease-association study will be affected. This thesis presents statistical testing methods developed specially for nuclear family data centering around the genetic association studies incorporating imprinting effects. For qualitative diseases with binary outcomes, a class of TDTI* type tests was proposed in a general two-stage framework, where the imprinting effects were examined prior to association testing. On quantitative trait loci, a class of Q-TDTI(c) type tests and another class of Q-MAX(c) type tests were proposed. The proposed testing methods flexibly accommodate families with missing parental genotype and with multiple siblings. The performance of all the methods was verified by simulation studies. It was found that the proposed methods improve the testing power for detecting association in the presence of imprinting. The class of TDTI* tests was applied to a rheumatoid arthritis study data. Also, the class of Q-TDTI(c) tests was applied to analyze the Framingham Heart Study data. The human microbiome is the collection of the microbiota, together with their genomes and their habitats throughout the human body. The human microbiome comprises an inalienable part of our genetic landscape and contributes to our metabolic features. Also, current studies have suggested the variety of human microbiome in human diseases. With the high-throughput DNA sequencing, the human microbiome composition can be characterized based on bacterial taxa relative abundance and the phylogenetic constraint. Such taxa data are often high-dimensional overdispersed and contain excessive number of zeros. Taking into account of these characteristics in taxa data, this thesis presents statistical methods to identify associations between covariate/outcome and the human microbiome composition. To assess environmental/biological covariate effect to microbiome composition, an additive logistic normal multinomial regression model was proposed and a group l1 penalized likelihood estimation method was further developed to facilitate selection of covariates and estimation of parameters. To identify microbiome components associated with biological/clinical outcomes, a Bayesian hierarchical regression model with spike and slab prior for variable selection was proposed and a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that combines stochastic variable selection procedure and random walk metropolis-hasting steps was developed for model estimation. Both of the methods were illustrated using simulations as well as a real human gut microbiome dataset from The Penn Gut Microbiome Project. / published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Genomic imprinting, the parent-of-origin specific silencing of alleles, plays an important role in phenotypic plasticity and consequently evolution. The leading explanation for genomic imprinting is Haig's conflict theory, which suggests that alleles from each parent have evolved under different selectional pressures, resulting in the differential expression of patrigenes and matrigenes. Previous studies have mainly used mammals and flowering plants to test Haig’s theory. However, there is a lack of independent evidence to support the theory. My PhD thesis attempts to conduct an independent test of Haig’s conflict theory using buff tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris. A methylation system to facilitate genomic imprinting has not been found in this species. Therefore the first aim of the study was to establish the presence of a functional methylation system in B. terrestris before testing Haig's conflict theory using worker reproduction in queen-less colonies. The initial finding is that a methylation system exists in B. terrestris. The next study, investigating the presence of methylated genes, revealed differential methylation patterns in caste and life stages. Finally, genes involved with worker reproduction in a range of social insects were identified, but distinguishing the matrigene and the patrigene for each gene was unsuccessful. Therefore the final study investigating the presence of imprinted genes in B. terrestris and whether they conform to the expression patterns hypothesised by Haig’s conflict theory could not be analysed. Although this study did not provide conclusive evidence to support Haig’s conflict theory, the presence of methylation in genes involved with worker reproduction in reproducing and non-reproducing B. terrestris workers suggests that further analysis is needed. With adequate evidence, proving Haig’s conflict theory will not only expand our knowledge of invertebrate methylation, but also our understanding of conflict within social insect societies and our knowledge of how genomic imprinting affects phenotypic plasticity.

Transgenic organisms are a valuable tool for studying epigenetics, as they provide significant insight into the evolutionary conservation of epigenetic control sequences, the interacting proteins, and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Paramutation is an epigenetic phenomenon in which the epigenetic status and expression level of one allele is heritably altered after pairing with another. At the b1 locus in maize, a control region consisting of seven 853 bp tandem repeats is required for paramutation. To study the conservation of the epigenetic mechanisms underlying maize b1 paramutation, I created transgenic Drosophila carrying the maize b1 control region flanked by FRT sites and adjacent to the Drosophila white reporter gene. The maize b1 tandem repeats caused epigenetic silencing in Drosophila, as white expression consistently increased following repeat removal. A single copy of the tandem repeat sequence was sufficient to cause silencing, and silencing strength increased as the number of repeats increased. Trans interactions, such as pairing-sensitive silencing, were also observed and appear to require a threshold number of b1 tandem repeats, similar to paramutation in maize. Analysis of transcription from the repeats showed that the b1 tandem repeats are transcribed from both strands in Drosophila, as they are in maize. Bidirectional transcription was found to extend to the regions flanking the repeats, and persisted in “repeats-out” transgenes following repeat removal. However, aberrant transcription was lost when a zero-repeat transgene was moved to a new genomic position, suggesting that it may be due to an epigenetic mark that is retained from the previous silenced state. A search for modifiers of b1 repeat-mediated silencing demonstrated that Polycomb group proteins are involved. Together, these results indicate considerable conservation of an epigenetic silencing process between the plant and animal kingdoms. Genomic imprinting is a related epigenetic process in which parent-specific epigenetic states are inherited and maintained in progeny. The conservation of epigenetic mechanisms was further explored via an in-depth review of the molecular mechanisms underlying genomic imprinting in plants, mammals and insects, and identification of potentially imprinted genes in Drosophila by microarray analysis.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Typescript. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 137 pages. Includes Vita. Includes bibliographical references.