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Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

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Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Create 3D Map of Mouse Genome to Study How Genes Respond to Disease

The scientist also employed machine learning “to gauge how easily accessible genes are for transcription” in research that could lead to new clinical laboratory diagnostic tests

Anatomic pathologists and clinical laboratories are of course familiar with the biological science of genomics, which, among other things, has been used to map the human genome. But did you know that a three-dimensional (3D) map of a genome has been created and that it is helping scientists understand how DNA regulates its organization—and why?

The achievement took place at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (St. Jude) in Memphis, Tenn. Scientists there created “the first 3D map of a mouse genome” to study “the way cells organize their genomes during development,” a St. Jude news release noted.

Some experts predict that this new approach to understanding how changes happen in a genome could eventually provide new insights that anatomic pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists could find useful when working with physicians to diagnose patients and using the test results to identify the most appropriate therapy for those patients.

The St. Jude researchers published their findings in the journal Neuron in a paper titled “Nucleome Dynamics during Retinal Development.” 

Machine Learning Provides Useful Genomic Data

In addition to 3D modeling, the researchers applied machine learning to data from multiple sources to see how the organization of the genome changed at different times during development. “The changes are not random, but part of the developmental program of cells,” Dyer said in the news release.

The St. Jude study focused on the rod cells in a mouse retina. That may seem like a narrow scope, but there are more than 8,000 genes involved in retinal development in mice, during which those genes are either turned on or off.

To see what was happening among the cells, the researchers used HI-C analysis, an aspect of ultra-deep chromosome conformation capture, in situ. They found that the loops in the DNA bring together regions of the genome, allowing them to interact in specific ways.

Until this study, how those interactions took place was a mystery.

“Understanding the way cells organize their genomes during development will help us to understand their ability to respond to stress, injury and disease,” Michael Dyer, PhD (above), Chair of St. Jude’s Developmental Neurobiology Department, co-leader of the Developmental Biology and Solid Tumor Program, and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), said in the news release. (Photo copyright: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.)

The scientists also discovered there were DNA promoters, which encourage gene expression, and also DNA enhancers that increase the likelihood gene expression will occur.

“The research also included the first report of a powerful regulator of gene expression, a super enhancer, that worked in a specific cell at a specific stage of development,” the news release states. “The finding is important because the super enhancers can be hijacked in developmental cancers of the brain and other organs.”

St. Jude goes on to state, “In this study, the scientists determined that when a core regulatory circuit super-enhancer for the VSX2 gene was deleted, an entire class of neurons (bipolar neurons) was eliminated. No other defects were identified. Deletion of the VSX2 gene causes many more defects in retinal development, so the super-enhancer is highly specific to bipolar neurons.”

The St. Jude researchers developed a genetic mouse model of the defect that scientists are using to study neural circuits in the retina, the news release states.

Research Technologist Victoria Honnell (left); Developmental Neurobiologist Jackie Norrie, PhD (center); and Postdoctoral Researcher Marybeth Lupo, PhD (right), work in the St. Jude clinical laboratory of Michael Dyer, PhD, using 3D genomic mapping to study gene regulation during development and disease. (Photo copyright: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.)

DNA Loops May Matter to Pathology Sooner Rather than Later

Previous researcher studies primarily used genomic sequencing technology to locate and investigate alterations in genes that lead to disease. In the St. Jude study, the researchers examined how DNA is packaged. If the DNA of a single cell could be stretched out, it would be more than six feet long. To fit into the nucleus of a cell, DNA is looped and bundled into a microscopic package. The St. Jude scientists determined that how these loops are organized regulates how the cell functions and develops.

Scientists around the world will continue studying how the loops in DNA impact gene regulation and how that affects the gene’s response to disease. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dyer and his colleagues “used the same approach to create a 3D genomic map of the mouse cerebellum, a brain structure where medulloblastoma can develop. Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor,” noted the St. Jude’s news release.

In addition to providing an understanding of how genes function, these 3D studies are providing valuable insight into how some diseases develop and mature. While nascent research such as this may not impact pathologists and clinical laboratories at the moment, it’s not a stretch to think that this work may lead to greater understanding of the pathology of diseases in the near future.

—Dava Stewart

Related Information:

Researchers Move Beyond Sequencing and Create a 3D Genome

Nucleome Dynamics During Retinal Development

Whole Genome Sequencing

HiPiler: Visual Exploration of Large Genome Interaction Matrices with Interactive Small Multiples

Reorganization of 3D Genome Structure May Contribute to Gene Regulatory Evolution in Primates

An Overview of Methods for Reconstructing 3D Chromosome and Genome Structures from Hi-C Data

Pathologists Will Benefit from Cancer Research to Describe 50 Tumor Types

Goal is to map genetic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic changes in various cancer types

Surgical pathologists are likely to gain great benefit from a worldwide research collaboration that has $500 million in funding, and whose participants plan to identify and publish data about the genetic complexities involved in at least 50 different types of tumors. It is a research project that will directly contribute to the development of new and more precise clinical laboratory tests.

This research is being conducted by geneticists from around the globe. They are collaborating to describe the genomic, the transcriptomic, and the epigenomic changes in 50 tumor types. Expectations are that this research will produce an unprecedented leap in knowledge and launch a new age in cancer research.

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