Sophie Search Gateway

This project will add a search gateway allowing search and use of multimedia within the Internet Archive within Sophie, an open source application being developed for K-12 and higher education

Multiple conserved regulatory domains promote Fezf2 expression in the developing cerebral cortex.

BackgroundThe genetic programs required for development of the cerebral cortex are under intense investigation. However, non-coding DNA elements that control the expression of developmentally important genes remain poorly defined. Here we investigate the regulation of Fezf2, a transcription factor that is necessary for the generation of deep-layer cortical projection neurons.ResultsUsing a combination of chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) we mapped the binding of four deep-layer-enriched transcription factors previously shown to be important for cortical development. Building upon this we characterized the activity of three regulatory regions around the Fezf2 locus at multiple stages throughout corticogenesis. We identified a promoter that was sufficient for expression in the cerebral cortex, and enhancers that drove reporter gene expression in distinct forebrain domains, including progenitor cells and cortical projection neurons.ConclusionsThese results provide insight into the regulatory logic controlling Fezf2 expression and further the understanding of how multiple non-coding regulatory domains can collaborate to control gene expression in vivo

VISTA Enhancer Browser—a database of tissue-specific human enhancers

Despite the known existence of distant-acting cis-regulatory elements in the human genome, only a small fraction of these elements has been identified and experimentally characterized in vivo. This paucity of enhancer collections with defined activities has thus hindered computational approaches for the genome-wide prediction of enhancers and their functions. To fill this void, we utilize comparative genome analysis to identify candidate enhancer elements in the human genome coupled with the experimental determination of their in vivo enhancer activity in transgenic mice [L. A. Pennacchio et al. (2006) Nature, in press]. These data are available through the VISTA Enhancer Browser (). This growing database currently contains over 250 experimentally tested DNA fragments, of which more than 100 have been validated as tissue-specific enhancers. For each positive enhancer, we provide digital images of whole-mount embryo staining at embryonic day 11.5 and an anatomical description of the reporter gene expression pattern. Users can retrieve elements near single genes of interest, search for enhancers that target reporter gene expression to a particular tissue, or download entire collections of enhancers with a defined tissue specificity or conservation depth. These experimentally validated training sets are expected to provide a basis for a wide range of downstream computational and functional studies of enhancer function

Sammelrezension: Aktuelle Forschungen zu Mutterschaft und Elternschaft

Sammelrezension: 1) Marie Reusch, 2018: Emanzipation undenkbar? Mutterschaft und Feminismus. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot. ISBN 978-3-89691-291-6. 2) Lisa Yashodhara Haller, 2018: Elternschaft im Kapitalismus: Staatliche Einflussfaktoren auf die Arbeitsteilung junger Eltern. Frankfurt/M., New York: Campus Verlag. ISBN 978-359350-777-4. 3) Melanee Thomas, Amanda Bittner (Hg.), 2017: Mothers and Others: The Role of Parenthood in Politics. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-3458-2

Dynamic GATA4 enhancers shape the chromatin landscape central to heart development and disease.

How stage-specific enhancer dynamics modulate gene expression patterns essential for organ development, homeostasis and disease is not well understood. Here, we addressed this question by mapping chromatin occupancy of GATA4--a master cardiac transcription factor--in heart development and disease. We find that GATA4 binds and participates in establishing active chromatin regions by stimulating H3K27ac deposition, which facilitates GATA4-driven gene expression. GATA4 chromatin occupancy changes markedly between fetal and adult heart, with a limited binding sites overlap. Cardiac stress restored GATA4 occupancy to a subset of fetal sites, but many stress-associated GATA4 binding sites localized to loci not occupied by GATA4 during normal heart development. Collectively, our data show that dynamic, context-specific transcription factors occupancy underlies stage-specific events in development, homeostasis and disease