Sex-biased microRNA expression in mammals and birds reveals underlying regulatory mechanisms and a role in dosage compensation

Sexual dimorphism depends on sex-biased gene expression, but the contributions of microRNAs (miRNAs) have not been globally assessed. We therefore produced an extensive small RNA sequencing data set to analyze male and female miRNA expression profiles in mouse, opossum, and chicken. Our analyses uncovered numerous cases of somatic sex-biased miRNA expression, with the largest proportion found in the mouse heart and liver. Sex-biased expression is explained by miRNA-specific regulation, including sex-biased chromatin accessibility at promoters, rather than piggybacking of intronic miRNAs on sex-biased protein-coding genes. In mouse, but not opossum and chicken, sex bias is coordinated across tissues such that autosomal testis-biased miRNAs tend to be somatically male-biased, whereas autosomal ovary-biased miRNAs are female-biased, possibly due to broad hormonal control. In chicken, which has a Z/W sex chromosome system, expression output of genes on the Z Chromosome is expected to be male-biased, since there is no global dosage compensation mechanism that restores expression in ZW females after almost all genes on the W Chromosome decayed. Nevertheless, we found that the dominant liver miRNA, miR-122-5p, is Z-linked but expressed in an unbiased manner, due to the unusual retention of a W-linked copy. Another Z-linked miRNA, the male-biased miR-2954-3p, shows conserved preference for dosage-sensitive genes on the Z Chromosome, based on computational and experimental data from chicken and zebra finch, and acts to equalize male-to-female expression ratios of its targets. Unexpectedly, our findings thus establish miRNA regulation as a novel gene-specific dosage compensation mechanism

Cardiovascular beta-adrenergic signaling : Maturation and programming effects of hypoxia in a chicken model

Despite the importance of β-adrenergic receptors (βARs) in cardiovascular disease, not much is known about how prenatal hypoxia effects βAR signaling in the postnatal animal. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to characterize the pre- and postnatal maturation of the cardiovascular βARs and the effects of chronic prenatal hypoxia on βAR signaling in the embryo and adult animal using the chicken as experimental model. βARs belong to the seven-transmembrane receptor family of G-protein coupled receptors and are crucial for cardiovascular development, growth and regulation. In the cardiovascular system there are two dominant  subtypes, β1AR and β2AR, whose main ligands are the biogenic catecholamines epinephrine and norepinephrine. When stimulated, βARs primarily couple to the stimulatory G-protein (Gas) that stimulates adenylyl cyclase to convert ATP to cAMP. cAMP increases ino- and chronotropy of the heart and causes relaxation of blood vessels. β2ARs also have the ability to switch to inhibitory G-protein (Gi) signaling that decreases the cAMP production. To protect the cardiovascular system from overstimulation, the βARs desensitize and downregulate in the case of prolonged elevation of catecholamines. This blunts the cardiovascular response and the mechanisms behind desensitization/downregulation, including the β2AR switch to Gi signaling, are closely linked to cardiovascular disease and are of immense importance in medical therapeutics. Hypoxic stress releases catecholamines and thereby triggers βAR responses and desensitization/downregulation mechanisms. Hypoxia quite commonly occurs in utero and it is well known that prenatal insults, like malnutrition or hypoxia, are coupled to an increased risk of developing adult cardiovascular disease. This is referred to as developmental programming and constitutes an important and modern field of research. In this thesis, I show that; 1) the developmental trajectory for organ growth, especially the heart, is affected by hypoxia, 2) chronic prenatal hypoxia causes cardiac embryonic βAR sensitization, but causes desensitization postnatally suggesting that there is a hypoxia-induced “programming” effect on adult β-adrenoceptor function, 3) the adult βAR desensitization following prenatal hypoxia is linked to a decrease in β1AR/β2AR ratio, a decrease in cAMP following βAR stimulation with isoproterenol and an increase in Gas, 4) the chorioallantoic (CA) membrane arteries display hypoxic vasoconstriction, but lack 8-adrenergic reactivity and 5) hypotension of the chronically hypoxic chicken embryo is linked to a potent βAR relaxation of the CA vasculature and an increased AR sensitivity of the systemic arteries with no changes in heart rate. In conclusion, chronic prenatal hypoxia causes growth restriction, re-allocation and has programming effects on the βAR system in the adult. The latter indicates that the βAR system is an important factor in studying hypoxic developmental programming of adult cardiovascular disease

Reactivity of chicken chorioallantoic arteries, avian homologue of human fetoplacental arteries

The reactivity of human fetoplacental arteries is regulated by humoral and local factors of maternal and fetal origin. The chorioallantoic (CA) arteries of bird embryos are homologous to fetoplacental arteries and fulfill the same gas-exchange purpose without maternal influences, but their reactivity has not been studied in detail. In the present study we hypothesized that CA arteries would respond to vasoactive factors similarly to fetoplacental arteries and the response would change during development between maximal vascular CA expansion (15 of the 21 days incubation period) and prior to hatching. Therefore, we analyzed the reactivity of third order arteries (≈200 μm) from the CA membrane of 15 and 19 day chicken embryos. CA arteries contracted in response to K(+), the thromboxane A(2) mimetic U46619, endothelin-1, acetylcholine and acute hypoxia, but showed no reaction to α-adrenergic stimulation (phenylephrine). The nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside, the adenylyl cyclase agonist forskolin, and the β-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol relaxed CA arteries pre-contracted with K(+) or U46619. The contraction evoked by acetylcholine and the relaxations evoked by sodium nitroprusside and isoproterenol decreased with incubation age. In conclusion, CA arteries share many characteristics with human fetoplacental arteries, such as pronounced relaxation to β-adrenergic stimuli and hypoxic vasoconstriction. Our study will be the foundation for future studies to explain disparate and common responses of the CA and fetoplacental vasculature

The Strong Selective Sweep Candidate Gene ADRA2C Does Not Explain Domestication Related Changes In The Stress Response Of Chickens

Analysis of selective sweeps to pinpoint causative genomic regions involved in chicken domestication has revealed a strongselective sweep on chromosome 4 in layer chickens. The autoregulatory a-adrenergic receptor 2C (ADRA2C) gene is theclosest to the selective sweep and was proposed as an important gene in the domestication of layer chickens. The ADRA2Cpromoter region was also hypermethylated in comparison to the non-selected ancestor of all domesticated chicken breeds,the Red Junglefowl, further supporting its relevance. In mice the receptor is involved in the fight-or-flight response as itmodulates epinephrine release from the adrenals. To investigate the involvement of ADRA2C in chicken domestication, wemeasured gene expression in the adrenals and radiolabeled receptor ligand in three brain regions comparing the domesticWhite Leghorn strain with the wild ancestor Red Junglefowl. In adrenals ADRA2C was twofold greater expressed than therelated receptor gene ADRA2A, indicating that ADRA2C is the predominant modulator of epinephrine release but no straindifferences were measured. In hypothalamus and amygdala, regions associated with the stress response, and in striatum,receptor binding pIC50 values ranged between 8.1–8.4, and the level was not influenced by the genotyped allele. Becausechicken strains differ in morphology, physiology and behavior, differences attributed to a single gene may be lost in thenoise caused by the heterogeneous genetic background. Therefore an F10 advanced intercross strain between WhiteLeghorn and Red Junglefowl was used to investigate effects of ADRA2C alleles on fear related behaviors and fecundity. Wedid not find compelling genotype effects in open field, tonic immobility, aerial predator, associative learning or fecundity.Therefore we conclude that ADRA2C is probably not involved in the domestication of the stress response in chicken, and thestrong selective sweep is probably caused by selection of some unknown genetic element in the vicinity of the gene

Aerobic performance in tinamous is limited by their small heart. A novel hypothesis in the evolution of avian flight

Some biomechanical studies from fossil specimens suggest that sustained flapping flight of birds could have appeared in their Mesozoic ancestors. We challenge this idea because a suitable musculoskeletal anatomy is not the only requirement for sustained flapping flight. We propose the "heart to fly" hypothesis that states that sustained flapping flight in modern birds required an enlargement of the heart for the aerobic performance of the flight muscles and test it experimentally by studying tinamous, the living birds with the smallest hearts. The small ventricular size of tinamous reduces cardiac output without limiting perfusion pressures, but when challenged to fly, the heart is unable to support aerobic metabolism (quick exhaustion, larger lactates and post-exercise oxygen consumption and compromised thermoregulation). At the same time, cardiac growth shows a crocodilian-like pattern and is correlated with differential gene expression in MAPK kinases. We integrate this physiological evidence in a new evolutionary scenario in which the ground-up, short and not sustained flapping flight displayed by tinamous represents an intermediate step in the evolution of the aerobic sustained flapping flight of modern birds

Fecundity results from the different genotypes of the F₁₀ intercross strain.

<p>A) total egg count during the 2 week collecting period and B) total egg mass as a percent of body mass. A⁺/A⁺ is wild type, A⁺/A^D is heterozygote and A^D/A^D is domestic genotype. The horizontal line shows the mean value and the dots are the individual data points.</p