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369 results on '"PFENNING, ANDREAS"'

1. Wavevector-resolved polarization entanglement from radiative cascades

Author

Laneve, Alessandro, Rota, Michele B., Basset, Francesco Basso, Beccaceci, Mattia, Villari, Valerio, Oberleitner, Thomas, Reum, Yorick, Krieger, Tobias M., Buchinger, Quirin, da Silva, Saimon F. Covre, Pfenning, Andreas, Stroj, Sandra, Höfling, Sven, Rastelli, Armando, Huber-Loyola, Tobias, and Trotta, Rinaldo

Subjects
Quantum Physics, Condensed Matter - Materials Science
Abstract

The generation of entangled photons from radiative cascades has enabled milestone experiments in quantum information science with several applications in photonic quantum technologies. Significant efforts are being devoted to pushing the performances of near-deterministic entangled-photon sources based on single quantum emitters often embedded in photonic cavities, so to boost the flux of photon pairs. The general postulate is that the emitter generates photons in a nearly maximally entangled state of polarization, ready for application purposes. Here, we demonstrate that this assumption is unjustified. We show that in radiative cascades there exists an interplay between photon polarization and emission wavevector, strongly affecting quantum correlations when emitters are embedded in micro-cavities. We discuss how the polarization entanglement of photon pairs from a biexciton-exciton cascade in quantum dots strongly depends on their propagation wavevector, and it can even vanish for large emission angles. Our experimental results, backed by theoretical modelling, yield a brand-new understanding of cascaded emission for various quantum emitters. In addition, our model provides quantitative guidelines for designing optical microcavities that retain both a high degree of entanglement and collection efficiency, moving the community one step further towards an ideal source of entangled photons for quantum technologies.

Published
2024

2. Vocal learning-associated convergent evolution in mammalian proteins and regulatory elements.

Author

Wirthlin, Morgan, Schmid, Tobias, Elie, Julie, Zhang, Xiaomeng, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Redlich, Ruby, Shvareva, Varvara, Rakuljic, Ashley, Ji, Maria, Bhat, Ninad, Kaplow, Irene, Schäffer, Daniel, Lawler, Alyssa, Wang, Andrew, Phan, BaDoi, Annaldasula, Siddharth, Brown, Ashley, Lu, Tianyu, Lim, Byung, Azim, Eiman, Clark, Nathan, Meyer, Wynn, Pond, Sergei, Chikina, Maria, Yartsev, Michael, Pfenning, Andreas, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce, Bredemeyer, Kevin, Breit, Ana, Christmas, Matthew, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Genereux, Diane, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela, Harris, Andrew, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson, Hubley, Robert, Hughes, Graham, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Karlsson, Elinor, Keough, Kathleen, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer, Kozyrev, Sergey, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle, Lewin, Harris, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor, Meadows, Jennifer, Moore, Jill, Moreira, Lucas, Moreno-Santillan, Diana, Morrill, Kathleen, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole, Pollard, Katherine, Pratt, Henry, Ray, David, Reilly, Steven, Rosen, Jeb, and Ruf, Irina

Subjects
Animals, Chiroptera, Vocalization, Animal, Motor Cortex, Chromatin, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Motor Neurons, Larynx, Epigenesis, Genetic, Genome, Gene Expression Regulation, Evolution, Molecular, Proteins, Amino Acid Sequence, Eutheria, Machine Learning
Abstract

Vocal production learning (vocal learning) is a convergently evolved trait in vertebrates. To identify brain genomic elements associated with mammalian vocal learning, we integrated genomic, anatomical, and neurophysiological data from the Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) with analyses of the genomes of 215 placental mammals. First, we identified a set of proteins evolving more slowly in vocal learners. Then, we discovered a vocal motor cortical region in the Egyptian fruit bat, an emergent vocal learner, and leveraged that knowledge to identify active cis-regulatory elements in the motor cortex of vocal learners. Machine learning methods applied to motor cortex open chromatin revealed 50 enhancers robustly associated with vocal learning whose activity tended to be lower in vocal learners. Our research implicates convergent losses of motor cortex regulatory elements in mammalian vocal learning evolution.

Published
2024

3. Purcell-Enhanced Single-Photon Emission in the Telecom C-Band

Author

Kaupp, Jochen, Reum, Yorick, Kohr, Felix, Michl, Johannes, Buchinger, Quirin, Wolf, Adriana, Peniakov, Giora, Huber-Loyola, Tobias, Pfenning, Andreas, and Höfling, Sven

Subjects
Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, Physics - Optics
Abstract

Purcell-enhanced quantum dot single-photon emission in the telecom C-band from InAs quantum dots inside circular Bragg grating cavities is shown. The InAs quantum dots are grown by means of molecular beam epitaxy on an InP substrate and are embedded into a quaternary $\mathrm{In}_{0.53}\mathrm{Al}_{0.23}\mathrm{Ga}_{0.24}\mathrm{As}$ membrane structure. In a post-growth flip-chip process with subsequent substrate removal and electron beam-lithography, circular Bragg grating ("bullseye") resonators are defined. Micro-photoluminescence studies of the devices at cryogenic temperatures of T = 5 K reveal individual quantum dot emission lines into a pronounced cavity mode. Time-correlated single-photon counting measurements under above-band gap excitation yield Purcell-enhanced excitonic decay times of $\tau = (180 \pm 3)$ ps corresponding to a Purcell factor of $F_P = (6.7 \pm 0.6)$. Pronounced photon antibunching with a background limited $g^{(2)}(0) = (0.057 \pm 0.004)$ is observed, which demonstrates that the light originated mostly from one single quantum dot., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Published
2023
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4. Polarized and Un-Polarized Emission from a Single Emitter in a Bullseye Resonator

Author

Peniakov, Giora, Buchinger, Quirin, Helal, Mohamed, Betzold, Simon, Reum, Yorick, Rota, Michele B., Ronco, Giuseppe, Beccaceci, Mattia, Krieger, Tobias M., Da Silva, Saimon F. Covre, Rastelli, Armando, Trotta, Rinaldo, Pfenning, Andreas, Hoefling, Sven, and Huber-Loyola, Tobias

Subjects
Physics - Optics, Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, Quantum Physics
Abstract

We present polarized |S|=0.99$\pm$0.01, and unpolarized |S|=0.03$\pm$0.01 emission from a single emitter embedded in a single, cylindrically symmetric device design. We show that the polarization stems from a position offset of the single emitter with respect to the cavity center, which breaks the cylindrical symmetry, and a position-dependent coupling to the frequency degenerate eigenmodes of the resonator structure. The experimental results are interpreted by using numerical simulations and by experimental mapping of the polarization-resolved far-field emission patterns. Our findings can be generalized to any nanophotonic structure where two orthogonal eigenmodes are not fully spatially overlapping., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures

Published
2023
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5. Lingering Times at Resonance: The Case of Sb-based Tunneling Devices

Author

Castro, Edgar David Guarin, Pfenning, Andreas, Hartmann, Fabian, Naranjo, Andrea, Knebl, Georg, Teodoro, Marcio Daldin, Marques, Gilmar Eugenio, Höfling, Sven, Bastard, Gerald, and Lopez-Richard, Victor

Subjects
Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, Condensed Matter - Materials Science, Quantum Physics, 81
Abstract

Concurrent natural time scales related to relaxation, recombination, trapping, and drifting processes rule the semiconductor heterostructures' response to external drives when charge carrier fluxes are induced. This paper highlights the role of stoichiometry not only for the quantitative tuning of the electron-hole dynamics but also for significant qualitative contrasts of time-resolved optical responses during the operation of resonant tunneling devices. Therefore, similar device architectures and different compositions have been compared to elucidate the correlation among structural parameters, radiative recombination processes, and electron-hole pair and minority carrier relaxation mechanisms. When these ingredients intermix with the electronic structure in Sb-based tunneling devices, it is proven possible to assess various time scales according to the intensity of the current flux, contrary to what has been observed in As-based tunneling devices with similar design and transport characteristics. These time scales are strongly affected not only by the filling process in the $\Gamma$ and L states in Sb-based double-barrier quantum wells but also by the small separation between these states, compared to similar heterostructures based on As., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, submitted to the Physical Review Applied journal

Published
2023

6. Strain-free GaSb quantum dots as single-photon sources in the telecom S-band

Author

Michl, Johannes, Peniakov, Giora, Pfenning, Andreas, Hilska, Joonas, Chellu, Abhiroop, Bader, Andreas, Guina, Mircea, Höfling, Sven, Hakkarainen, Teemu, and Huber-Loyola, Tobias

Subjects
Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, Physics - Optics
Abstract

Creating single photons in the telecommunication wavelength range from semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and interfacing them with spins of electrons or holes has been of high interest in recent years, with research mainly focusing on indium based QDs. However, there is not much data on the optical and spin properties of galliumantimonide (GaSb) QDs, despite it being a physically rich system with an indirect to direct bandgap crossover in the telecom wavelength range. Here, we investigate the (quantum-) optical properties of GaSb quantum dots, which are fabricated by filling droplet-etched nanoholes in an aluminum-galliumantimonide (AlGaSb) matrix. We observe photoluminescence (PL) features from isolated and highly symmetric QDs that exhibit narrow linewidth in the telecom S-band and show an excitonic fine structure splitting of $\Delta E=(12.0\pm0.5)\mu eV$. Moreover, we perform time-resolved measurements of the decay characteristics of an exciton and measure the second-order photon autocorrelation function of the charge complex to $g^{(2)}(0)=0.16\pm0.02$, revealing clear antibunching and thus proving the capability of this material platform to generate non-classical light.

Published
2023
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7. Single nuclei transcriptomics in human and non-human primate striatum in opioid use disorder

Author

Phan, BaDoi N., Ray, Madelyn H., Xue, Xiangning, Fu, Chen, Fenster, Robert J., Kohut, Stephen J., Bergman, Jack, Haber, Suzanne N., McCullough, Kenneth M., Fish, Madeline K., Glausier, Jill R., Su, Qiao, Tipton, Allison E., Lewis, David A., Freyberg, Zachary, Tseng, George C., Russek, Shelley J., Alekseyev, Yuriy, Ressler, Kerry J., Seney, Marianne L., Pfenning, Andreas R., and Logan, Ryan W.

Published
2024
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8. A genomic timescale for placental mammal evolution

Author

Foley, Nicole M, Mason, Victor C, Harris, Andrew J, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Damas, Joana, Lewin, Harris A, Eizirik, Eduardo, Gatesy, John, Karlsson, Elinor K, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Springer, Mark S, Murphy, William J, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gazal, Steven, Genereux, Diane P, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Ryder, Oliver A, Sabeti, Pardis C, Schäffer, Daniel E, Serres, Aitor, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Steiner, Cynthia, Storer, Jessica M, Sullivan, Kevin AM, Sullivan, Patrick F, and Sundström, Elisabeth

Subjects
Genetics, Human Genome, Biotechnology, Animals, Female, Biological Evolution, Eutheria, Evolution, Molecular, Fossils, Genomics, Phylogeny, Genetic Variation, Time Factors, Zoonomia Consortium‡, General Science & Technology
Abstract

The precise pattern and timing of speciation events that gave rise to all living placental mammals remain controversial. We provide a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of genetic variation across an alignment of 241 placental mammal genome assemblies, addressing prior concerns regarding limited genomic sampling across species. We compared neutral genome-wide phylogenomic signals using concatenation and coalescent-based approaches, interrogated phylogenetic variation across chromosomes, and analyzed extensive catalogs of structural variants. Interordinal relationships exhibit relatively low rates of phylogenomic conflict across diverse datasets and analytical methods. Conversely, X-chromosome versus autosome conflicts characterize multiple independent clades that radiated during the Cenozoic. Genomic time trees reveal an accumulation of cladogenic events before and immediately after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, implying important roles for Cretaceous continental vicariance and the K-Pg extinction in the placental radiation.

Published
2023

9. Comparative genomics of Balto, a famous historic dog, captures lost diversity of 1920s sled dogs

Author

Moon, Katherine L, Huson, Heather J, Morrill, Kathleen, Wang, Ming-Shan, Li, Xue, Srikanth, Krishnamoorthy, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Svenson, Gavin J, Karlsson, Elinor K, Shapiro, Beth, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Genereux, Diane P, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Ryder, Oliver A, Sabeti, Pardis C, Schäffer, Daniel E, Serres, Aitor, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Steiner, Cynthia, Storer, Jessica M, Sullivan, Kevin AM, Sullivan, Patrick F, Sundström, Elisabeth, Supple, Megan A, and Swofford, Ross

Subjects
Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences, Biological Sciences, Genetics, Animals, Dogs, Male, Genome, Genomics, Genotype, Phenotype, Wolves, Biodiversity, Genetic Variation, Zoonomia Consortium, General Science & Technology
Abstract

We reconstruct the phenotype of Balto, the heroic sled dog renowned for transporting diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska, in 1925, using evolutionary constraint estimates from the Zoonomia alignment of 240 mammals and 682 genomes from dogs and wolves of the 21st century. Balto shares just part of his diverse ancestry with the eponymous Siberian husky breed. Balto's genotype predicts a combination of coat features atypical for modern sled dog breeds, and a slightly smaller stature. He had enhanced starch digestion compared with Greenland sled dogs and a compendium of derived homozygous coding variants at constrained positions in genes connected to bone and skin development. We propose that Balto's population of origin, which was less inbred and genetically healthier than that of modern breeds, was adapted to the extreme environment of 1920s Alaska.

Published
2023

10. The contribution of historical processes to contemporary extinction risk in placental mammals

Author

Wilder, Aryn P, Supple, Megan A, Subramanian, Ayshwarya, Mudide, Anish, Swofford, Ross, Serres-Armero, Aitor, Steiner, Cynthia, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Genereux, Diane P, Karlsson, Elinor K, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Munoz Fuentes, Violeta, Foley, Kathleen, Meyer, Wynn K, Ryder, Oliver A, Shapiro, Beth, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Sabeti, Pardis C, Schäffer, Daniel E, Serres, Aitor, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, and Srinivasan, Chaitanya

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Behavioral and Social Science, Human Genome, Basic Behavioral and Social Science, Life on Land, Animals, Female, Pregnancy, Eutheria, Extinction, Biological, Genetic Variation, Genome, Population Density, Risk, Zoonomia Consortium‡, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Species persistence can be influenced by the amount, type, and distribution of diversity across the genome, suggesting a potential relationship between historical demography and resilience. In this study, we surveyed genetic variation across single genomes of 240 mammals that compose the Zoonomia alignment to evaluate how historical effective population size (Ne) affects heterozygosity and deleterious genetic load and how these factors may contribute to extinction risk. We find that species with smaller historical Ne carry a proportionally larger burden of deleterious alleles owing to long-term accumulation and fixation of genetic load and have a higher risk of extinction. This suggests that historical demography can inform contemporary resilience. Models that included genomic data were predictive of species' conservation status, suggesting that, in the absence of adequate census or ecological data, genomic information may provide an initial risk assessment.

Published
2023

11. The functional and evolutionary impacts of human-specific deletions in conserved elements

Author

Xue, James R, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Mouri, Kousuke, Garcia, Meilin Fernandez, Dong, Michael X, Akers, Jared F, Noble, Mark, Li, Xue, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor K, Noonan, James P, Capellini, Terence D, Brennand, Kristen J, Tewhey, Ryan, Sabeti, Pardis C, Reilly, Steven K, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Genereux, Diane P, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Lind, Abigail, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Ryder, Oliver A, Schäffer, Daniel E, Serres, Aitor, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, and Steiner, Cynthia

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Genetics, Biotechnology, Neurosciences, Human Genome, 1.1 Normal biological development and functioning, Underpinning research, Generic health relevance, Neurological, Humans, Conserved Sequence, Evolution, Molecular, Genome, Genomics, RNA-Binding Proteins, Sequence Deletion, Brain, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Zoonomia Consortium†, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Conserved genomic sequences disrupted in humans may underlie uniquely human phenotypic traits. We identified and characterized 10,032 human-specific conserved deletions (hCONDELs). These short (average 2.56 base pairs) deletions are enriched for human brain functions across genetic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic datasets. Using massively parallel reporter assays in six cell types, we discovered 800 hCONDELs conferring significant differences in regulatory activity, half of which enhance rather than disrupt regulatory function. We highlight several hCONDELs with putative human-specific effects on brain development, including HDAC5, CPEB4, and PPP2CA. Reverting an hCONDEL to the ancestral sequence alters the expression of LOXL2 and developmental genes involved in myelination and synaptic function. Our data provide a rich resource to investigate the evolutionary mechanisms driving new traits in humans and other species.

Published
2023

12. Integrating gene annotation with orthology inference at scale

Author

Kirilenko, Bogdan M, Munegowda, Chetan, Osipova, Ekaterina, Jebb, David, Sharma, Virag, Blumer, Moritz, Morales, Ariadna E, Ahmed, Alexis-Walid, Kontopoulos, Dimitrios-Georgios, Hilgers, Leon, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor K, Hiller, Michael, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Genereux, Diane P, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Ryder, Oliver A, Sabeti, Pardis C, Schäffer, Daniel E, Serres, Aitor, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Steiner, Cynthia, Storer, Jessica M, Sullivan, Kevin AM, and Sullivan, Patrick F

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Genetics, Biotechnology, Human Genome, Generic health relevance, Animals, Female, Mice, Eutheria, Genome, Genomics, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Birds, Zoonomia Consortium‡, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Annotating coding genes and inferring orthologs are two classical challenges in genomics and evolutionary biology that have traditionally been approached separately, limiting scalability. We present TOGA (Tool to infer Orthologs from Genome Alignments), a method that integrates structural gene annotation and orthology inference. TOGA implements a different paradigm to infer orthologous loci, improves ortholog detection and annotation of conserved genes compared with state-of-the-art methods, and handles even highly fragmented assemblies. TOGA scales to hundreds of genomes, which we demonstrate by applying it to 488 placental mammal and 501 bird assemblies, creating the largest comparative gene resources so far. Additionally, TOGA detects gene losses, enables selection screens, and automatically provides a superior measure of mammalian genome quality. TOGA is a powerful and scalable method to annotate and compare genes in the genomic era.

Published
2023

13. Relating enhancer genetic variation across mammals to complex phenotypes using machine learning

Author

Kaplow, Irene M, Lawler, Alyssa J, Schäffer, Daniel E, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Sestili, Heather H, Wirthlin, Morgan E, Phan, BaDoi N, Prasad, Kavya, Brown, Ashley R, Zhang, Xiaomeng, Foley, Kathleen, Genereux, Diane P, Karlsson, Elinor K, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Meyer, Wynn K, Pfenning, Andreas R, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Ryder, Oliver A, Sabeti, Pardis C, Serres, Aitor, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, and Steiner, Cynthia

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Genetics, Pediatric, Human Genome, Rare Diseases, Congenital Structural Anomalies, Underpinning research, 1.1 Normal biological development and functioning, Neurological, Mental health, Animals, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Genetic Variation, Machine Learning, Mammals, Phenotype, Zoonomia Consortium**, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Protein-coding differences between species often fail to explain phenotypic diversity, suggesting the involvement of genomic elements that regulate gene expression such as enhancers. Identifying associations between enhancers and phenotypes is challenging because enhancer activity can be tissue-dependent and functionally conserved despite low sequence conservation. We developed the Tissue-Aware Conservation Inference Toolkit (TACIT) to associate candidate enhancers with species' phenotypes using predictions from machine learning models trained on specific tissues. Applying TACIT to associate motor cortex and parvalbumin-positive interneuron enhancers with neurological phenotypes revealed dozens of enhancer-phenotype associations, including brain size-associated enhancers that interact with genes implicated in microcephaly or macrocephaly. TACIT provides a foundation for identifying enhancers associated with the evolution of any convergently evolved phenotype in any large group of species with aligned genomes.

Published
2023

14. Three-dimensional genome rewiring in loci with human accelerated regions

Author

Keough, Kathleen C, Whalen, Sean, Inoue, Fumitaka, Przytycki, Pawel F, Fair, Tyler, Deng, Chengyu, Steyert, Marilyn, Ryu, Hane, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor, Nowakowski, Tomasz, Ahituv, Nadav, Pollen, Alex, Pollard, Katherine S, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Genereux, Diane P, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Karlsson, Elinor K, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, Ryan, Louise, Ryder, Oliver A, Sabeti, Pardis C, Schäffer, Daniel E, Serres, Aitor, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Steiner, Cynthia, Storer, Jessica M, and Sullivan, Kevin AM

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Genetics, Stem Cell Research, Human Genome, Biotechnology, Underpinning research, 1.1 Normal biological development and functioning, Animals, Humans, Chromatin, Genome, Human, Genomics, Pan troglodytes, Genetic Loci, Neurogenesis, Deep Learning, Zoonomia Consortium§, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Human accelerated regions (HARs) are conserved genomic loci that evolved at an accelerated rate in the human lineage and may underlie human-specific traits. We generated HARs and chimpanzee accelerated regions with an automated pipeline and an alignment of 241 mammalian genomes. Combining deep learning with chromatin capture experiments in human and chimpanzee neural progenitor cells, we discovered a significant enrichment of HARs in topologically associating domains containing human-specific genomic variants that change three-dimensional (3D) genome organization. Differential gene expression between humans and chimpanzees at these loci suggests rewiring of regulatory interactions between HARs and neurodevelopmental genes. Thus, comparative genomics together with models of 3D genome folding revealed enhancer hijacking as an explanation for the rapid evolution of HARs.

Published
2023

15. Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals

Author

Christmas, Matthew J, Kaplow, Irene M, Genereux, Diane P, Dong, Michael X, Hughes, Graham M, Li, Xue, Sullivan, Patrick F, Hindle, Allyson G, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Breit, Ana M, Diekhans, Mark, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Goodman, Daniel B, Goodman, Linda, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Lawless, Colleen, Lind, Abigail L, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Moreira, Lucas R, Redlich, Ruby W, Ryan, Louise, Swofford, Ross, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Wagner, Franziska, Wallerman, Ola, Brown, Ashley R, Damas, Joana, Fan, Kaili, Gatesy, John, Grimshaw, Jenna, Johnson, Jeremy, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Marinescu, Voichita D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Osmanski, Austin, Paulat, Nicole S, Phan, BaDoi N, Reilly, Steven K, Schäffer, Daniel E, Steiner, Cynthia, Supple, Megan A, Wilder, Aryn P, Wirthlin, Morgan E, Xue, James R, Birren, Bruce W, Gazal, Steven, Hubley, Robert M, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Meyer, Wynn K, Nweeia, Martin, Sabeti, Pardis C, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark S, Teeling, Emma C, Weng, Zhiping, Hiller, Michael, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Paten, Benedict, Pollard, Katherine S, Ray, David A, Ruf, Irina, Ryder, Oliver A, Pfenning, Andreas R, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor K, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Clawson, Hiram, Di Palma, Federica, Eizirik, Eduardo, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, and Halsey, Michaela K

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Genetics, Biotechnology, Human Genome, Animals, Female, Humans, Conserved Sequence, Eutheria, Evolution, Molecular, Genome, Human, Zoonomia Consortium§, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Zoonomia is the largest comparative genomics resource for mammals produced to date. By aligning genomes for 240 species, we identify bases that, when mutated, are likely to affect fitness and alter disease risk. At least 332 million bases (~10.7%) in the human genome are unusually conserved across species (evolutionarily constrained) relative to neutrally evolving repeats, and 4552 ultraconserved elements are nearly perfectly conserved. Of 101 million significantly constrained single bases, 80% are outside protein-coding exons and half have no functional annotations in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) resource. Changes in genes and regulatory elements are associated with exceptional mammalian traits, such as hibernation, that could inform therapeutic development. Earth's vast and imperiled biodiversity offers distinctive power for identifying genetic variants that affect genome function and organismal phenotypes.

Published
2023

16. Leveraging base-pair mammalian constraint to understand genetic variation and human disease

Author

Sullivan, Patrick F, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Gazal, Steven, Phan, BaDoi N, Li, Xue, Genereux, Diane P, Dong, Michael X, Bianchi, Matteo, Andrews, Gregory, Sakthikumar, Sharadha, Nordin, Jessika, Roy, Ananya, Christmas, Matthew J, Marinescu, Voichita D, Wang, Chao, Wallerman, Ola, Xue, James, Yao, Shuyang, Sun, Quan, Szatkiewicz, Jin, Wen, Jia, Huckins, Laura M, Lawler, Alyssa, Keough, Kathleen C, Zheng, Zhili, Zeng, Jian, Wray, Naomi R, Li, Yun, Johnson, Jessica, Chen, Jiawen, Paten, Benedict, Reilly, Steven K, Hughes, Graham M, Weng, Zhiping, Pollard, Katherine S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Karlsson, Elinor K, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Armstrong, Joel C, Birren, Bruce W, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Clawson, Hiram, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Johnson, Jeremy, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Lewin, Harris A, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, and Navarro, Arcadi

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Genetics, Biotechnology, Clinical Research, Human Genome, Brain Disorders, Generic health relevance, Animals, Humans, Biological Evolution, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Disease, Zoonomia Consortium§, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Thousands of genomic regions have been associated with heritable human diseases, but attempts to elucidate biological mechanisms are impeded by an inability to discern which genomic positions are functionally important. Evolutionary constraint is a powerful predictor of function, agnostic to cell type or disease mechanism. Single-base phyloP scores from 240 mammals identified 3.3% of the human genome as significantly constrained and likely functional. We compared phyloP scores to genome annotation, association studies, copy-number variation, clinical genetics findings, and cancer data. Constrained positions are enriched for variants that explain common disease heritability more than other functional annotations. Our results improve variant annotation but also highlight that the regulatory landscape of the human genome still needs to be further explored and linked to disease.

Published
2023

18. Evolution of the ancestral mammalian karyotype and syntenic regions

Author

Damas, Joana, Corbo, Marco, Kim, Jaebum, Turner-Maier, Jason, Farré, Marta, Larkin, Denis M, Ryder, Oliver A, Steiner, Cynthia, Houck, Marlys L, Hall, Shaune, Shiue, Lily, Thomas, Stephen, Swale, Thomas, Daly, Mark, Korlach, Jonas, Uliano-Silva, Marcela, Mazzoni, Camila J, Birren, Bruce W, Genereux, Diane P, Johnson, Jeremy, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor K, Nweeia, Martin T, Johnson, Rebecca N, Lewin, Harris A, Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C, Bianchi, Matteo, Bredemeyer, Kevin R, Breit, Ana M, Christmas, Matthew J, Clawson, Hiram, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Dong, Michael X, Eizirik, Eduardo, Fan, Kaili, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M, Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Garcia, Carlos J, Gatesy, John, Gazal, Steven, Goodman, Linda, Grimshaw, Jenna, Halsey, Michaela K, Harris, Andrew J, Hickey, Glenn, Hiller, Michael, Hindle, Allyson G, Hubley, Robert M, Hughes, Graham M, Juan, David, Kaplow, Irene M, Keough, Kathleen C, Kirilenko, Bogdan, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Korstian, Jennifer M, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Kozyrev, Sergey V, Lawler, Alyssa J, Lawless, Colleen, Lehmann, Thomas, Levesque, Danielle L, Li, Xue, Lind, Abigail, Mackay-Smith, Ava, Marinescu, Voichita D, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Mason, Victor C, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Meyer, Wynn K, Moore, Jill E, Moreira, Lucas R, Moreno-Santillan, Diana D, Morrill, Kathleen M, Muntané, Gerard, Murphy, William J, Navarro, Arcadi, Nweeia, Martin, Ortmann, Sylvia, Osmanski, Austin, Paten, Benedict, Paulat, Nicole S, Pfenning, Andreas R, Phan, BaDoi N, Pollard, Katherine S, Pratt, Henry E, Ray, David A, Reilly, Steven K, Rosen, Jeb R, Ruf, Irina, and Ryan, Louise

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Human Genome, Generic health relevance, Animals, Cattle, Chromosomes, Mammalian, Eutheria, Evolution, Molecular, Humans, Karyotype, Mammals, Phylogeny, Sloths, Synteny, chromosome evolution, mammals, synteny conservation, ancestral genome reconstruction, topologically associating domains, Zoonomia Consortium
Abstract

Decrypting the rearrangements that drive mammalian chromosome evolution is critical to understanding the molecular bases of speciation, adaptation, and disease susceptibility. Using 8 scaffolded and 26 chromosome-scale genome assemblies representing 23/26 mammal orders, we computationally reconstructed ancestral karyotypes and syntenic relationships at 16 nodes along the mammalian phylogeny. Three different reference genomes (human, sloth, and cattle) representing phylogenetically distinct mammalian superorders were used to assess reference bias in the reconstructed ancestral karyotypes and to expand the number of clades with reconstructed genomes. The mammalian ancestor likely had 19 pairs of autosomes, with nine of the smallest chromosomes shared with the common ancestor of all amniotes (three still conserved in extant mammals), demonstrating a striking conservation of synteny for ∼320 My of vertebrate evolution. The numbers and types of chromosome rearrangements were classified for transitions between the ancestral mammalian karyotype, descendent ancestors, and extant species. For example, 94 inversions, 16 fissions, and 14 fusions that occurred over 53 My differentiated the therian from the descendent eutherian ancestor. The highest breakpoint rate was observed between the mammalian and therian ancestors (3.9 breakpoints/My). Reconstructed mammalian ancestor chromosomes were found to have distinct evolutionary histories reflected in their rates and types of rearrangements. The distributions of genes, repetitive elements, topologically associating domains, and actively transcribed regions in multispecies homologous synteny blocks and evolutionary breakpoint regions indicate that purifying selection acted over millions of years of vertebrate evolution to maintain syntenic relationships of developmentally important genes and regulatory landscapes of gene-dense chromosomes.

Published
2022

19. scAAVengr, a transcriptome-based pipeline for quantitative ranking of engineered AAVs with single-cell resolution

Author

Öztürk, Bilge E, Johnson, Molly E, Kleyman, Michael, Turunç, Serhan, He, Jing, Jabalameli, Sara, Xi, Zhouhuan, Visel, Meike, Dufour, Valérie L, Iwabe, Simone, Marinho, Felipe Pompeo, Aguirre, Gustavo D, Sahel, José-Alain, Schaffer, David V, Pfenning, Andreas R, Flannery, John G, Beltran, William A, Stauffer, William R, and Byrne, Leah C

Subjects
Medical Biotechnology, Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Genetics, Biotechnology, Neurosciences, Eye Disease and Disorders of Vision, Gene Therapy, Development of treatments and therapeutic interventions, 5.2 Cellular and gene therapies, Inflammatory and immune system, Animals, Dependovirus, Gene Expression Profiling, Genetic Vectors, Macaca fascicularis, Retina, Transcriptome, Transduction, Genetic, macaca fascicularis, callithrix jacchus, scRNA-Seq, retinal degeneration, adeno-associated virus, Rhesus macaque, Other, medicine, neuroscience, rhesus macaque, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Biological sciences, Biomedical and clinical sciences, Health sciences
Abstract

BackgroundAdeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene therapies are rapidly advancing to the clinic, and AAV engineering has resulted in vectors with increased ability to deliver therapeutic genes. Although the choice of vector is critical, quantitative comparison of AAVs, especially in large animals, remains challenging.MethodsHere, we developed an efficient single-cell AAV engineering pipeline (scAAVengr) to simultaneously quantify and rank efficiency of competing AAV vectors across all cell types in the same animal.ResultsTo demonstrate proof-of-concept for the scAAVengr workflow, we quantified - with cell-type resolution - the abilities of naturally occurring and newly engineered AAVs to mediate gene expression in primate retina following intravitreal injection. A top performing variant identified using this pipeline, K912, was used to deliver SaCas9 and edit the rhodopsin gene in macaque retina, resulting in editing efficiency similar to infection rates detected by the scAAVengr workflow. scAAVengr was then used to identify top-performing AAV variants in mouse brain, heart, and liver following systemic injection.ConclusionsThese results validate scAAVengr as a powerful method for development of AAV vectors.FundingThis work was supported by funding from the Ford Foundation, NEI/NIH, Research to Prevent Blindness, Foundation Fighting Blindness, UPMC Immune Transplant and Therapy Center, and the Van Sloun fund for canine genetic research.

Published
2021

20. A comparative genomics multitool for scientific discovery and conservation

Author

Genereux, Diane P, Serres, Aitor, Armstrong, Joel, Johnson, Jeremy, Marinescu, Voichita D, Muren, Eva, Juan, David, Bejerano, Gill, Casewell, Nicholas R, Chemnick, Leona G, Damas, Joana, Di Palma, Federica, Diekhans, Mark, Fiddes, Ian T, Garber, Manuel, Gladyshev, Vadim N, Goodman, Linda, Haerty, Wilfried, Houck, Marlys L, Hubley, Robert, Kivioja, Teemu, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Kuderna, Lukas FK, Lander, Eric S, Meadows, Jennifer RS, Murphy, William J, Nash, Will, Noh, Hyun Ji, Nweeia, Martin, Pfenning, Andreas R, Pollard, Katherine S, Ray, David A, Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian FA, Springer, Mark S, Steiner, Cynthia C, Swofford, Ross, Taipale, Jussi, Teeling, Emma C, Turner-Maier, Jason, Alfoldi, Jessica, Birren, Bruce, Ryder, Oliver A, Lewin, Harris A, Paten, Benedict, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, and Karlsson, Elinor K

Subjects
Human Genome, Genetics, Biotechnology, Life on Land, Animals, Biodiversity, Biomedical Research, Conservation of Natural Resources, Eutheria, Evolution, Molecular, Extinction, Biological, Genetic Speciation, Genetic Variation, Genomics, Humans, Infections, Knowledge Discovery, Loss of Heterozygosity, Neoplasms, Phylogeny, Risk Assessment, Selection, Genetic, Sequence Alignment, Species Specificity, Venoms, Zoonomia Consortium, General Science & Technology
Abstract

The Zoonomia Project is investigating the genomics of shared and specialized traits in eutherian mammals. Here we provide genome assemblies for 131 species, of which all but 9 are previously uncharacterized, and describe a whole-genome alignment of 240 species of considerable phylogenetic diversity, comprising representatives from more than 80% of mammalian families. We find that regions of reduced genetic diversity are more abundant in species at a high risk of extinction, discern signals of evolutionary selection at high resolution and provide insights from individual reference genomes. By prioritizing phylogenetic diversity and making data available quickly and without restriction, the Zoonomia Project aims to support biological discovery, medical research and the conservation of biodiversity.

Published
2020

21. Broad host range of SARS-CoV-2 predicted by comparative and structural analysis of ACE2 in vertebrates

Author

Damas, Joana, Hughes, Graham M, Keough, Kathleen C, Painter, Corrie A, Persky, Nicole S, Corbo, Marco, Hiller, Michael, Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Pfenning, Andreas R, Zhao, Huabin, Genereux, Diane P, Swofford, Ross, Pollard, Katherine S, Ryder, Oliver A, Nweeia, Martin T, Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Teeling, Emma C, Karlsson, Elinor K, and Lewin, Harris A

Subjects
Emerging Infectious Diseases, Lung, Prevention, Vaccine Related, Biodefense, Infectious Diseases, Pneumonia, Amino Acids, Animals, Betacoronavirus, Binding Sites, COVID-19, Coronavirus Infections, Evolution, Molecular, Genetic Variation, Host Specificity, Humans, Pandemics, Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A, Pneumonia, Viral, Protein Binding, Receptors, Virus, SARS-CoV-2, Selection, Genetic, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus, Vertebrates, ACE2, comparative genomics, species conservation
Abstract

The novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of COVID-19. The main receptor of SARS-CoV-2, angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is now undergoing extensive scrutiny to understand the routes of transmission and sensitivity in different species. Here, we utilized a unique dataset of ACE2 sequences from 410 vertebrate species, including 252 mammals, to study the conservation of ACE2 and its potential to be used as a receptor by SARS-CoV-2. We designed a five-category binding score based on the conservation properties of 25 amino acids important for the binding between ACE2 and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Only mammals fell into the medium to very high categories and only catarrhine primates into the very high category, suggesting that they are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We employed a protein structural analysis to qualitatively assess whether amino acid changes at variable residues would be likely to disrupt ACE2/SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binding and found the number of predicted unfavorable changes significantly correlated with the binding score. Extending this analysis to human population data, we found only rare (frequency

Published
2020

22. Loss of epigenetic information as a cause of mammalian aging

Author

Yang, Jae-Hyun, Hayano, Motoshi, Griffin, Patrick T., Amorim, João A., Bonkowski, Michael S., Apostolides, John K., Salfati, Elias L., Blanchette, Marco, Munding, Elizabeth M., Bhakta, Mital, Chew, Yap Ching, Guo, Wei, Yang, Xiaojing, Maybury-Lewis, Sun, Tian, Xiao, Ross, Jaime M., Coppotelli, Giuseppe, Meer, Margarita V., Rogers-Hammond, Ryan, Vera, Daniel L., Lu, Yuancheng Ryan, Pippin, Jeffrey W., Creswell, Michael L., Dou, Zhixun, Xu, Caiyue, Mitchell, Sarah J., Das, Abhirup, O’Connell, Brendan L., Thakur, Sachin, Kane, Alice E., Su, Qiao, Mohri, Yasuaki, Nishimura, Emi K., Schaevitz, Laura, Garg, Neha, Balta, Ana-Maria, Rego, Meghan A., Gregory-Ksander, Meredith, Jakobs, Tatjana C., Zhong, Lei, Wakimoto, Hiroko, El Andari, Jihad, Grimm, Dirk, Mostoslavsky, Raul, Wagers, Amy J., Tsubota, Kazuo, Bonasera, Stephen J., Palmeira, Carlos M., Seidman, Jonathan G., Seidman, Christine E., Wolf, Norman S., Kreiling, Jill A., Sedivy, John M., Murphy, George F., Green, Richard E., Garcia, Benjamin A., Berger, Shelley L., Oberdoerffer, Philipp, Shankland, Stuart J., Gladyshev, Vadim N., Ksander, Bruce R., Pfenning, Andreas R., Rajman, Luis A., and Sinclair, David A.

Published
2023
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23. A Modular Approach to Vocal Learning: Disentangling the Diversity of a Complex Behavioral Trait

Author

Wirthlin, Morgan, Chang, Edward F, Knörnschild, Mirjam, Krubitzer, Leah A, Mello, Claudio V, Miller, Cory T, Pfenning, Andreas R, Vernes, Sonja C, Tchernichovski, Ofer, and Yartsev, Michael M

Subjects
Biological Psychology, Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Neurosciences, Psychology, Genetics, Basic Behavioral and Social Science, Behavioral and Social Science, Alligators and Crocodiles, Animals, Auditory Perception, Behavior, Animal, Birds, Comprehension, Fishes, Formative Feedback, Imitative Behavior, Learning, Macaca, Phenotype, Phoca, Vocalization, Animal, Cognitive Sciences, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Biological psychology
Abstract

Vocal learning is a behavioral trait in which the social and acoustic environment shapes the vocal repertoire of individuals. Over the past century, the study of vocal learning has progressed at the intersection of ecology, physiology, neuroscience, molecular biology, genomics, and evolution. Yet, despite the complexity of this trait, vocal learning is frequently described as a binary trait, with species being classified as either vocal learners or vocal non-learners. As a result, studies have largely focused on a handful of species for which strong evidence for vocal learning exists. Recent studies, however, suggest a continuum in vocal learning capacity across taxa. Here, we further suggest that vocal learning is a multi-component behavioral phenotype comprised of distinct yet interconnected modules. Discretizing the vocal learning phenotype into its constituent modules would facilitate integration of findings across a wider diversity of species, taking advantage of the ways in which each excels in a particular module, or in a specific combination of features. Such comparative studies can improve understanding of the mechanisms and evolutionary origins of vocal learning. We propose an initial set of vocal learning modules supported by behavioral and neurobiological data and highlight the need for diversifying the field in order to disentangle the complexity of the vocal learning phenotype.

Published
2019

26. Regression convolutional neural network models implicate peripheral immune regulatory variants in the predisposition to Alzheimer's disease.

Author

Ramamurthy, Easwaran, Agarwal, Snigdha, Toong, Noelle, Sestili, Heather, Kaplow, Irene M., Chen, Ziheng, Phan, BaDoi, and Pfenning, Andreas R.

Subjects
CONVOLUTIONAL neural networks, ARTIFICIAL neural networks, ALZHEIMER'S disease, REGULATOR genes, GENETIC variation
Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) involves aggregation of amyloid β and tau, neuron loss, cognitive decline, and neuroinflammatory responses. Both resident microglia and peripheral immune cells have been associated with the immune component of AD. However, the relative contribution of resident and peripheral immune cell types to AD predisposition has not been thoroughly explored due to their similarity in gene expression and function. To study the effects of AD associated variants on cis-regulatory elements, we train convolutional neural network (CNN) regression models that link genome sequence to cell type-specific levels of open chromatin, a proxy for regulatory element activity. We then use in silico mutagenesis of regulatory sequences to predict the relative impact of candidate variants across these cell types. We develop and apply criteria for evaluating our models and refine our models using massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) data. Our models identify multiple AD-associated variants with a greater predicted impact in peripheral cells relative to microglia or neurons. Our results support their use as models to study the effects of AD-associated variants and even suggest that peripheral immune cells themselves may mediate a component of AD predisposition. We make our library of CNN models and predictions available as a resource for the community to study immune and neurological disorders. Author summary: Human genetic association studies continue to identify a large number of genetic variants associated with common diseases. However, genetic linkage renders it difficult to identify truly causal variants from these associations. The problem is further complicated by the fact that most disease-associated variants lie in non-coding regions of the genome which are involved in regulating gene expression. Gene regulatory elements are highly tissue- and cell-type-specific which makes it important to study disease variant effects in the right tissue or cell type. In this study, we propose a computational framework to identify functional variants that influence disease predisposition by disruption of gene regulatory element activity. We first identify potential cell types that may influence disease predisposition through cell-type-specific gene regulatory element activity. Then, we use machine learning (ML) models that relate human genetic sequence to cell-type-specific gene regulatory activity to characterize potential effects of genetic variants. Finally, using in silico mutagenesis, we identify putative functional variants and predict their ability to disrupt regulatory activity in various cell types. Further, we define best practices to train, benchmark, improve and apply these models to interpret the cell-type-specific determinants of disease. In a specific use case, we apply this framework to interpret the cell type-specific contributions of regulatory genetic variants in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). For AD, we show that we can separate out peripheral immune and brain resident immune microglial signals to understand their specific contributions to AD predisposition. We find that gene regulatory elements active in peripheral immune cells strongly colocalize with AD genetic variants compared to regulatory elements active in neural cell types. In addition, our models predict that many functional AD variants have variant effects that are specific to peripheral immune cells and not brain resident immune cells (microglia). Our study opens up opportunities to experimentally study Alzheimer's Disease variants in peripheral immune cell models that are often easier to manipulate than many neural cell types and yet not usually considered in functional studies on AD variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2024
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27. Fiber-coupled quantum dot single-photon source via photonic wire bonding

Author

De Gregorio, Marco, primary, Yu, Shangxuan, additional, Kohr, Felix, additional, Witt, Donald, additional, Lin, Becky, additional, Mitchell, Matthew, additional, Schlör, Steffen, additional, Dusanowski, Lukasz, additional, Schneider, Christian, additional, Chrostowski, Lukas, additional, Huber-Loyola, Tobias, additional, Höfling, Sven, additional, Young, Jeff F., additional, and Pfenning, Andreas, additional

Published
2024
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29. Loss of epigenetic information as a cause of mammalian aging

Author

Yang, Jae-Hyun, primary, Hayano, Motoshi, additional, Griffin, Patrick T., additional, Amorim, João A., additional, Bonkowski, Michael S., additional, Apostolides, John K., additional, Salfati, Elias L., additional, Blanchette, Marco, additional, Munding, Elizabeth M., additional, Bhakta, Mital, additional, Chew, Yap Ching, additional, Guo, Wei, additional, Yang, Xiaojing, additional, Maybury-Lewis, Sun, additional, Tian, Xiao, additional, Ross, Jaime M., additional, Coppotelli, Giuseppe, additional, Meer, Margarita V., additional, Rogers-Hammond, Ryan, additional, Vera, Daniel L., additional, Lu, Yuancheng Ryan, additional, Pippin, Jeffrey W., additional, Creswell, Michael L., additional, Dou, Zhixun, additional, Xu, Caiyue, additional, Mitchell, Sarah J., additional, Das, Abhirup, additional, O’Connell, Brendan L., additional, Thakur, Sachin, additional, Kane, Alice E., additional, Su, Qiao, additional, Mohri, Yasuaki, additional, Nishimura, Emi K., additional, Schaevitz, Laura, additional, Garg, Neha, additional, Balta, Ana-Maria, additional, Rego, Meghan A., additional, Gregory-Ksander, Meredith, additional, Jakobs, Tatjana C., additional, Zhong, Lei, additional, Wakimoto, Hiroko, additional, El Andari, Jihad, additional, Grimm, Dirk, additional, Mostoslavsky, Raul, additional, Wagers, Amy J., additional, Tsubota, Kazuo, additional, Bonasera, Stephen J., additional, Palmeira, Carlos M., additional, Seidman, Jonathan G., additional, Seidman, Christine E., additional, Wolf, Norman S., additional, Kreiling, Jill A., additional, Sedivy, John M., additional, Murphy, George F., additional, Green, Richard E., additional, Garcia, Benjamin A., additional, Berger, Shelley L., additional, Oberdoerffer, Philipp, additional, Shankland, Stuart J., additional, Gladyshev, Vadim N., additional, Ksander, Bruce R., additional, Pfenning, Andreas R., additional, Rajman, Luis A., additional, and Sinclair, David A., additional

Published
2024
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33. Conserved epigenomic signals in mice and humans reveal immune basis of Alzheimer’s disease

Author

Gjoneska, Elizabeta, Pfenning, Andreas R, Mathys, Hansruedi, Quon, Gerald, Kundaje, Anshul, Tsai, Li-Huei, and Kellis, Manolis

Subjects
Biological Sciences, Genetics, Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease including Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD), Human Genome, Brain Disorders, Dementia, Acquired Cognitive Impairment, Aging, Neurodegenerative, Neurosciences, Underpinning research, Aetiology, 2.1 Biological and endogenous factors, 1.1 Normal biological development and functioning, Neurological, Inflammatory and immune system, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Chromatin, Conserved Sequence, Disease Models, Animal, Down-Regulation, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Epigenesis, Genetic, Epigenomics, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hippocampus, Humans, Immunity, Memory, Mice, Models, Biological, Neuronal Plasticity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Trans-Activators, Transcription, Genetic, Up-Regulation, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a severe age-related neurodegenerative disorder characterized by accumulation of amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, synaptic and neuronal loss, and cognitive decline. Several genes have been implicated in AD, but chromatin state alterations during neurodegeneration remain uncharacterized. Here we profile transcriptional and chromatin state dynamics across early and late pathology in the hippocampus of an inducible mouse model of AD-like neurodegeneration. We find a coordinated downregulation of synaptic plasticity genes and regulatory regions, and upregulation of immune response genes and regulatory regions, which are targeted by factors that belong to the ETS family of transcriptional regulators, including PU.1. Human regions orthologous to increasing-level enhancers show immune-cell-specific enhancer signatures as well as immune cell expression quantitative trait loci, while decreasing-level enhancer orthologues show fetal-brain-specific enhancer activity. Notably, AD-associated genetic variants are specifically enriched in increasing-level enhancer orthologues, implicating immune processes in AD predisposition. Indeed, increasing enhancers overlap known AD loci lacking protein-altering variants, and implicate additional loci that do not reach genome-wide significance. Our results reveal new insights into the mechanisms of neurodegeneration and establish the mouse as a useful model for functional studies of AD regulatory regions.

Published
2015

34. Comparative genomics reveals insights into avian genome evolution and adaptation

Author

Zhang, Guojie, Li, Cai, Li, Qiye, Li, Bo, Larkin, Denis M, Lee, Chul, Storz, Jay F, Antunes, Agostinho, Greenwold, Matthew J, Meredith, Robert W, Ödeen, Anders, Cui, Jie, Zhou, Qi, Xu, Luohao, Pan, Hailin, Wang, Zongji, Jin, Lijun, Zhang, Pei, Hu, Haofu, Yang, Wei, Hu, Jiang, Xiao, Jin, Yang, Zhikai, Liu, Yang, Xie, Qiaolin, Yu, Hao, Lian, Jinmin, Wen, Ping, Zhang, Fang, Li, Hui, Zeng, Yongli, Xiong, Zijun, Liu, Shiping, Zhou, Long, Huang, Zhiyong, An, Na, Wang, Jie, Zheng, Qiumei, Xiong, Yingqi, Wang, Guangbiao, Wang, Bo, Wang, Jingjing, Fan, Yu, da Fonseca, Rute R, Alfaro-Núñez, Alonzo, Schubert, Mikkel, Orlando, Ludovic, Mourier, Tobias, Howard, Jason T, Ganapathy, Ganeshkumar, Pfenning, Andreas, Whitney, Osceola, Rivas, Miriam V, Hara, Erina, Smith, Julia, Farré, Marta, Narayan, Jitendra, Slavov, Gancho, Romanov, Michael N, Borges, Rui, Machado, João Paulo, Khan, Imran, Springer, Mark S, Gatesy, John, Hoffmann, Federico G, Opazo, Juan C, Håstad, Olle, Sawyer, Roger H, Kim, Heebal, Kim, Kyu-Won, Kim, Hyeon Jeong, Cho, Seoae, Li, Ning, Huang, Yinhua, Bruford, Michael W, Zhan, Xiangjiang, Dixon, Andrew, Bertelsen, Mads F, Derryberry, Elizabeth, Warren, Wesley, Wilson, Richard K, Li, Shengbin, Ray, David A, Green, Richard E, O’Brien, Stephen J, Griffin, Darren, Johnson, Warren E, Haussler, David, Ryder, Oliver A, Willerslev, Eske, Graves, Gary R, Alström, Per, Fjeldså, Jon, Mindell, David P, Edwards, Scott V, Braun, Edward L, Rahbek, Carsten, Burt, David W, Houde, Peter, and Zhang, Yong

Subjects
Human Genome, Biotechnology, Genetics, Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Biodiversity, Biological Evolution, Birds, Conserved Sequence, Diet, Evolution, Molecular, Female, Flight, Animal, Genes, Genetic Variation, Genome, Genomics, Male, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Phylogeny, Reproduction, Selection, Genetic, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Synteny, Vision, Ocular, Vocalization, Animal, Avian Genome Consortium, General Science & Technology
Abstract

Birds are the most species-rich class of tetrapod vertebrates and have wide relevance across many research fields. We explored bird macroevolution using full genomes from 48 avian species representing all major extant clades. The avian genome is principally characterized by its constrained size, which predominantly arose because of lineage-specific erosion of repetitive elements, large segmental deletions, and gene loss. Avian genomes furthermore show a remarkably high degree of evolutionary stasis at the levels of nucleotide sequence, gene synteny, and chromosomal structure. Despite this pattern of conservation, we detected many non-neutral evolutionary changes in protein-coding genes and noncoding regions. These analyses reveal that pan-avian genomic diversity covaries with adaptations to different lifestyles and convergent evolution of traits.

Published
2014

35. Polarized and Unpolarized Emission from a Single Emitter in a Bullseye Resonator.

Author

Peniakov, Giora, Buchinger, Quirin, Helal, Mohamed, Betzold, Simon, Reum, Yorick, Rota, Michele B., Ronco, Giuseppe, Beccaceci, Mattia, Krieger, Tobias M., da Silva, Saimon F. Covre, Rastelli, Armando, Trotta, Rinaldo, Pfenning, Andreas, Höfling, Sven, and Huber‐Loyola, Tobias

Subjects
RESONATORS, SEMICONDUCTOR quantum dots, BRAGG gratings
Abstract

Polarized |S|=0.99±0.01$| S | = 0.99 \pm 0.01$, and unpolarized |S|=0.03±0.01$| S | = 0.03 \pm 0.01$ emission from a single emitter embedded in a single, cylindrically symmetric device design is presented. The polarization stems from a position offset of the single emitter with respect to the cavity center, which breaks the cylindrical symmetry, and a position‐dependent coupling to the frequency degenerate eigenmodes of the resonator structure is shown. The experimental results are interpreted by using numerical simulations and by experimental mapping of the polarization‐resolved far‐field emission patterns. The findings can be generalized to any nanophotonic structure where two orthogonal eigenmodes are not fully spatially overlapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2024
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38. Epigenome-wide study uncovers large-scale changes in histone acetylation driven by tau pathology in aging and Alzheimer’s human brains

Author

Klein, Hans-Ulrich, McCabe, Cristin, Gjoneska, Elizabeta, Sullivan, Sarah E., Kaskow, Belinda J., Tang, Anna, Smith, Robert V., Xu, Jishu, Pfenning, Andreas R., Bernstein, Bradley E., Meissner, Alexander, Schneider, Julie A., Mostafavi, Sara, Tsai, Li-Huei, Young-Pearse, Tracy L., Bennett, David A., and De Jager, Philip L.

Published
2019
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39. Single nuclei transcriptomics in human and non-human primate striatum implicates neuronal DNA damage and proinflammatory signaling in opioid use disorder

Author

Phan, BaDoi N., primary, Ray, Madelyn H., additional, Xue, Xiangning, additional, Fu, Chen, additional, Fenster, Robert J., additional, Kohut, Stephen J., additional, Bergman, Jack, additional, Haber, Suzanne N., additional, McCullough, Kenneth M., additional, Fish, Madeline K., additional, Glausier, Jill R., additional, Su, Qiao, additional, Tipton, Allison E., additional, Lewis, David A., additional, Freyberg, Zachary, additional, Tseng, George C., additional, Russek, Shelley J., additional, Alekseyev, Yuriy, additional, Ressler, Kerry J., additional, Seney, Marianne L., additional, Pfenning, Andreas R., additional, and Logan, Ryan W., additional

Published
2023
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40. Integrative multi-dimensional characterization of striatal projection neuron heterogeneity in adult brain

Author

Gayden, Jenesis, primary, Puig, Stephanie, additional, Srinivasan, Chaitanya, additional, Phan, BaDoi N., additional, Abdelhady, Ghada, additional, Buck, Silas A., additional, Gamble, Mackenzie C., additional, Tejeda, Hugo A., additional, Dong, Yan, additional, Pfenning, Andreas R., additional, Logan, Ryan W., additional, and Freyberg, Zachary, additional

Published
2023
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42. Plug‐and‐Play Fiber‐Coupled Quantum Dot Single‐Photon Source via Photonic Wire Bonding.

Author

De Gregorio, Marco, Yu, Shangxuan, Witt, Donald, Lin, Becky, Mitchell, Matthew, Dusanowski, Łukasz, Schneider, Christian, Chrostowski, Lukas, Huber‐Loyola, Tobias, Höfling, Sven, Young, Jeff F., and Pfenning, Andreas

Subjects
QUANTUM dots, OPTICAL fibers, PHOTONS, WIRE, PHOTONIC crystal fibers, WAVEGUIDES, RESONANT tunneling
Abstract

The collection of single‐photon emission from a quantum dot (QD) in a Bragg waveguide through a photonic wire bond (PWB) via free‐space resonant frequency pumping at 1.6 K is demonstrated. The in‐fiber single photons show a small multiphoton contribution, quantified by a low second order photon autocorrelation value of gcorr(2)(0)=(5.9±0.8)×10−3$g_{{\mathrm{corr}}}^{(2)}\;(0) = ({5.9 \pm 0.8})\; \times {10^{ - 3}}$ (background‐corrected) or graw(2)(0)=(9.5±1.4)×10−2$g_{{\mathrm{raw}}}^{(2)}(0)\; = ({9.5 \pm 1.4})\; \times {10^{ - 2}}{\mathrm{\;}}$(raw data). The decay time of the QD is measured to be τ=440${\mathrm{\tau \;}} = {\mathrm{\;}}440$ ps. The PWB obviates the need for in‐cryostat alignment of the single‐photon source with an optical fiber and thus offers a route to scalable integration of quantum photonic devices in a cryogenic environment. Uniquely, the approach combines the QD‐waveguide technique, enabling resonant driving of individual QDs without the need for cross‐polarization filtering, and the PWB for deterministic, alignment‐free coupling of single‐photon sources to optical fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2024
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44. Leveraging base-pair mammalian constraint to understand genetic variation and human disease

Author

Sullivan, Patrick F., Meadows, Jennifer, Gazal, Steven, Phan, BaDoi N., Li, Xue, Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Bianchi, Matteo, Andrews, Gregory, Sakthikumar, Sharadha, Nordin, Jessika, Roy, Ananya, Christmas, Matthew, Marinescu, Voichita, Wang, Chao, Wallerman, Ola, Xue, James, Yao, Shuyang, Sun, Quan, Szatkiewicz, Jin, Wen, Jia, Huckins, Laura M., Lawler, Alyssa, Keough, Kathleen C., Zheng, Zhili, Zeng, Jian, Wray, Naomi R., Li, Yun, Johnson, Jessica, Chen, Jiawen, Paten, Benedict, Reilly, Steven K., Hughes, Graham M., Weng, Zhiping, Pollard, Katherine S., Pfenning, Andreas R., Forsberg Nilsson, Karin, Karlsson, Elinor K., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Sullivan, Patrick F., Meadows, Jennifer, Gazal, Steven, Phan, BaDoi N., Li, Xue, Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Bianchi, Matteo, Andrews, Gregory, Sakthikumar, Sharadha, Nordin, Jessika, Roy, Ananya, Christmas, Matthew, Marinescu, Voichita, Wang, Chao, Wallerman, Ola, Xue, James, Yao, Shuyang, Sun, Quan, Szatkiewicz, Jin, Wen, Jia, Huckins, Laura M., Lawler, Alyssa, Keough, Kathleen C., Zheng, Zhili, Zeng, Jian, Wray, Naomi R., Li, Yun, Johnson, Jessica, Chen, Jiawen, Paten, Benedict, Reilly, Steven K., Hughes, Graham M., Weng, Zhiping, Pollard, Katherine S., Pfenning, Andreas R., Forsberg Nilsson, Karin, Karlsson, Elinor K., and Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin

Abstract

Thousands of genomic regions have been associated with heritable human diseases, but attempts to elucidate biological mechanisms are impeded by an inability to discern which genomic positions are functionally important. Evolutionary constraint is a powerful predictor of function, agnostic to cell type or disease mechanism. Single-base phyloP scores from 240 mammals identified 3.3% of the human genome as significantly constrained and likely functional. We compared phyloP scores to genome annotation, association studies, copy-number variation, clinical genetics findings, and cancer data. Constrained positions are enriched for variants that explain common disease heritability more than other functional annotations. Our results improve variant annotation but also highlight that the regulatory landscape of the human genome still needs to be further explored and linked to disease.

Published
2023
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45. Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals

Author

Christmas, Matthew, Kaplow, Irene M., Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Hughes, Graham M., Li, Xue, Sullivan, Patrick F., Hindle, Allyson G., Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C., Bianchi, Matteo, Breit, Ana M., Diekhans, Mark, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M., Goodman, Daniel B., Goodman, Linda, Keough, Kathleen C., Kirilenko, Bogdan, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Lawless, Colleen, Lind, Abigail L., Meadows, Jennifer R.S., Moreira, Lucas R., Redlich, Ruby W., Ryan, Louise, Swofford, Ross, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Wagner, Franziska, Wallerman, Ola, Brown, Ashley R., Damas, Joana, Fan, Kaili, Gatesy, John, Grimshaw, Jenna, Johnson, Jeremy, Kozyrev, Sergey V., Lawler, Alyssa J., Marinescu, Voichita, Morrill, Kathleen M., Osmanski, Austin, Paulat, Nicole S., Phan, BaDoi N., Reilly, Steven K., Schäffer, Daniel E., Steiner, Cynthia, Supple, Megan A., Wilder, Aryn P., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Xue, James R., Birren, Bruce W., Gazal, Steven, Hubley, Robert M., Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Meyer, Wynn K., Nweela, Martin, Sabeti, Pardis C., Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian F. A., Springer, Mark S., Teeling, Emma C., Weng, Zhiping, Hiller, Michael, Levesque, Danielle L., Lewin, Harris A., Murphy, William J., Navarro, Arcadi, Paten, Benedict, Pollard, Katherine S., Ray, David A., Ruf, Irina, Ryder, Oliver A., Pfenning, Andreas R., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor K., Christmas, Matthew, Kaplow, Irene M., Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Hughes, Graham M., Li, Xue, Sullivan, Patrick F., Hindle, Allyson G., Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C., Bianchi, Matteo, Breit, Ana M., Diekhans, Mark, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M., Goodman, Daniel B., Goodman, Linda, Keough, Kathleen C., Kirilenko, Bogdan, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Lawless, Colleen, Lind, Abigail L., Meadows, Jennifer R.S., Moreira, Lucas R., Redlich, Ruby W., Ryan, Louise, Swofford, Ross, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Wagner, Franziska, Wallerman, Ola, Brown, Ashley R., Damas, Joana, Fan, Kaili, Gatesy, John, Grimshaw, Jenna, Johnson, Jeremy, Kozyrev, Sergey V., Lawler, Alyssa J., Marinescu, Voichita, Morrill, Kathleen M., Osmanski, Austin, Paulat, Nicole S., Phan, BaDoi N., Reilly, Steven K., Schäffer, Daniel E., Steiner, Cynthia, Supple, Megan A., Wilder, Aryn P., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Xue, James R., Birren, Bruce W., Gazal, Steven, Hubley, Robert M., Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Meyer, Wynn K., Nweela, Martin, Sabeti, Pardis C., Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian F. A., Springer, Mark S., Teeling, Emma C., Weng, Zhiping, Hiller, Michael, Levesque, Danielle L., Lewin, Harris A., Murphy, William J., Navarro, Arcadi, Paten, Benedict, Pollard, Katherine S., Ray, David A., Ruf, Irina, Ryder, Oliver A., Pfenning, Andreas R., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, and Karlsson, Elinor K.

Abstract

Zoonomia is the largest comparative genomics resource for mammals produced to date. By aligning genomes for 240 species, we identify bases that, when mutated, are likely to affect fitness and alter disease risk. At least 332 million bases (similar to 10.7%) in the human genome are unusually conserved across species (evolutionarily constrained) relative to neutrally evolving repeats, and 4552 ultraconserved elements are nearly perfectly conserved. Of 101 million significantly constrained single bases, 80% are outside protein-coding exons and half have no functional annotations in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) resource. Changes in genes and regulatory elements are associated with exceptional mammalian traits, such as hibernation, that could inform therapeutic development. Earth's vast and imperiled biodiversity offers distinctive power for identifying genetic variants that affect genome function and organismal phenotypes.

Published
2023
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46. Relating enhancer genetic variation across mammals to complex phenotypes using machine learning

Author

National Science Foundation (US), Carnegie Mellon University, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Swedish Research Council, Juan, David [0000-0003-1912-9667], Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs [0000-0002-5597-3075], Muntané, Gerard [0000-0003-1541-8365], Navarro, Arcadi [0000-0003-2162-8246], Valenzuela, Alejandro [0000-0001-6120-6246], Kaplow, Irene M., Lawler, Alyssa J., Schäffer, Daniel E., Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Sestili, Heather H., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Phan, BaDoi N., Prasad, Kavya, Brown, Ashley R., Zhang, Xiaomeng, Foley, Kathleen, Genereux, Diane P., Zoonomia Consortium, Juan, David, Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs, Muntané, Gerard, Navarro, Arcadi, Serres-Armero, Aitor, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Karlsson, Elinor K., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Meyer, Wynn K., Pfenning, Andreas R., National Science Foundation (US), Carnegie Mellon University, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Swedish Research Council, Juan, David [0000-0003-1912-9667], Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs [0000-0002-5597-3075], Muntané, Gerard [0000-0003-1541-8365], Navarro, Arcadi [0000-0003-2162-8246], Valenzuela, Alejandro [0000-0001-6120-6246], Kaplow, Irene M., Lawler, Alyssa J., Schäffer, Daniel E., Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Sestili, Heather H., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Phan, BaDoi N., Prasad, Kavya, Brown, Ashley R., Zhang, Xiaomeng, Foley, Kathleen, Genereux, Diane P., Zoonomia Consortium, Juan, David, Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs, Muntané, Gerard, Navarro, Arcadi, Serres-Armero, Aitor, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Karlsson, Elinor K., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Meyer, Wynn K., and Pfenning, Andreas R.

Abstract

[INTRODUCTION] Diverse phenotypes, including large brains relative to body size, group living, and vocal learning ability, have evolved multiple times throughout mammalian history. These shared phenotypes may have arisen repeatedly by means of common mechanisms discernible through genome comparisons., [RATIONALE] Protein-coding sequence differences have failed to fully explain the evolution of multiple mammalian phenotypes. This suggests that these phenotypes have evolved at least in part through changes in gene expression, meaning that their differences across species may be caused by differences in genome sequence at enhancer regions that control gene expression in specific tissues and cell types. Yet the enhancers involved in phenotype evolution are largely unknown. Sequence conservation–based approaches for identifying such enhancers are limited because enhancer activity can be conserved even when the individual nucleotides within the sequence are poorly conserved. This is due to an overwhelming number of cases where nucleotides turn over at a high rate, but a similar combination of transcription factor binding sites and other sequence features can be maintained across millions of years of evolution, allowing the function of the enhancer to be conserved in a particular cell type or tissue. Experimentally measuring the function of orthologous enhancers across dozens of species is currently infeasible, but new machine learning methods make it possible to make reliable sequence-based predictions of enhancer function across species in specific tissues and cell types., [RESULTS] To overcome the limits of studying individual nucleotides, we developed the Tissue-Aware Conservation Inference Toolkit (TACIT). Rather than measuring the extent to which individual nucleotides are conserved across a region, TACIT uses machine learning to test whether the function of a given part of the genome is likely to be conserved. More specifically, convolutional neural networks learn the tissue- or cell type–specific regulatory code connecting genome sequence to enhancer activity using candidate enhancers identified from only a few species. This approach allows us to accurately associate differences between species in tissue or cell type–specific enhancer activity with genome sequence differences at enhancer orthologs. We then connect these predictions of enhancer function to phenotypes across hundreds of mammals in a way that accounts for species’ phylogenetic relatedness. We applied TACIT to identify candidate enhancers from motor cortex and parvalbumin neuron open chromatin data that are associated with brain size relative to body size, solitary living, and vocal learning across 222 mammals. Our results include the identification of multiple candidate enhancers associated with brain size relative to body size, several of which are located in linear or three-dimensional proximity to genes whose protein-coding mutations have been implicated in microcephaly or macrocephaly in humans. We also identified candidate enhancers associated with the evolution of solitary living near a gene implicated in separation anxiety and other enhancers associated with the evolution of vocal learning ability. We obtained distinct results for bulk motor cortex and parvalbumin neurons, demonstrating the value in applying TACIT to both bulk tissue and specific minority cell type populations. To facilitate future analyses of our results and applications of TACIT, we released predicted enhancer activity of >400,000 candidate enhancers in each of 222 mammals and their associ, [CONCLUSION] TACIT leverages predicted enhancer activity conservation rather than nucleotide-level conservation to connect genetic sequence differences between species to phenotypes across large numbers of mammals. TACIT can be applied to any phenotype with enhancer activity data available from at least a few species in a relevant tissue or cell type and a whole-genome alignment available across dozens of species with substantial phenotypic variation. Although we developed TACIT for transcriptional enhancers, it could also be applied to genomic regions involved in other components of gene regulation, such as promoters and splicing enhancers and silencers. As the number of sequenced genomes grows, machine learning approaches such as TACIT have the potential to help make sense of how conservation of, or changes in, subtle genome patterns can help explain phenotype evolution.

Published
2023

47. Leveraging base-pair mammalian constraint to understand genetic variation and human disease

Author

Swedish Research Council, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health (US), Gladstone Institutes, National Institute on Drug Abuse (US), University College Dublin, National Human Genome Research Institute (US), National Institutes of Health (US), National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), Juan, David [0000-0003-1912-9667], Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs [0000-0002-5597-3075], Muntané, Gerard [0000-0003-1541-8365], Navarro, Arcadi [0000-0003-2162-8246], Valenzuela, Alejandro [0000-0001-6120-6246], Sullivan, Patrick F., Meadows, Jennifer R. S., Gazal, Steven, Phan, BaDoi N., Li, Xue, Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Bianchi, Matteo, Andrews, Gregory, Sakthikumar, Sharadha, Nordin, Jessika, Roy, Ananya, Christmas, Matthew J., Marinescu, Voichita D., Wang, Chao, Wallerman, Ola, Xue, James, Yao, Shuyang, Sun, Quan, Szatkiewicz, Jin, Wen, Jia, Huckins, Laura M., Lawler, Alyssa, Keough, Kathleen C., Zheng, Zhili, Zeng, Jian, Wray, Naomi R., Li, Yun, Johnson, Jessica, Chen, Jiawen, Zoonomia Consortium, Juan, David, Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs, Muntané, Gerard, Navarro, Arcadi, Serres-Armero, Aitor, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Paten, Benedict, Reilly, Steven K., Hughes, Graham M., Weng, Zhiping, Pollard, Katherine S., Pfenning, Andreas R., Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Karlsson, Elinor K., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Swedish Research Council, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health (US), Gladstone Institutes, National Institute on Drug Abuse (US), University College Dublin, National Human Genome Research Institute (US), National Institutes of Health (US), National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), Juan, David [0000-0003-1912-9667], Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs [0000-0002-5597-3075], Muntané, Gerard [0000-0003-1541-8365], Navarro, Arcadi [0000-0003-2162-8246], Valenzuela, Alejandro [0000-0001-6120-6246], Sullivan, Patrick F., Meadows, Jennifer R. S., Gazal, Steven, Phan, BaDoi N., Li, Xue, Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Bianchi, Matteo, Andrews, Gregory, Sakthikumar, Sharadha, Nordin, Jessika, Roy, Ananya, Christmas, Matthew J., Marinescu, Voichita D., Wang, Chao, Wallerman, Ola, Xue, James, Yao, Shuyang, Sun, Quan, Szatkiewicz, Jin, Wen, Jia, Huckins, Laura M., Lawler, Alyssa, Keough, Kathleen C., Zheng, Zhili, Zeng, Jian, Wray, Naomi R., Li, Yun, Johnson, Jessica, Chen, Jiawen, Zoonomia Consortium, Juan, David, Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs, Muntané, Gerard, Navarro, Arcadi, Serres-Armero, Aitor, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Paten, Benedict, Reilly, Steven K., Hughes, Graham M., Weng, Zhiping, Pollard, Katherine S., Pfenning, Andreas R., Forsberg-Nilsson, Karin, Karlsson, Elinor K., and Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin

Abstract

[INTRODUCTION] Thousands of genetic variants have been associated with human diseases and traits through genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Translating these discoveries into improved therapeutics requires discerning which variants among hundreds of candidates are causally related to disease risk. To date, only a handful of causal variants have been confirmed. Here, we leverage 100 million years of mammalian evolution to address this major challenge., [RATIONALE] We compared genomes from hundreds of mammals and identified bases with unusually few variants (evolutionarily constrained). Constraint is a measure of functional importance that is agnostic to cell type or developmental stage. It can be applied to investigate any heritable disease or trait and is complementary to resources using cell type– and time point–specific functional assays like Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx)., [RESULTS] Using constraint calculated across placental mammals, 3.3% of bases in the human genome are significantly constrained, including 57.6% of coding bases. Most constrained bases (80.7%) are noncoding. Common variants (allele frequency ≥ 5%) and low-frequency variants (0.5% ≤ allele frequency < 5%) are depleted for constrained bases (1.85 versus 3.26% expected by chance, P < 2.2 × 10−308). Pathogenic ClinVar variants are more constrained than benign variants (P < 2.2 × 10−16). The most constrained common variants are more enriched for disease single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)–heritability in 63 independent GWASs. The enrichment of SNP-heritability in constrained regions is greater (7.8-fold) than previously reported in mammals and is even higher in primates (11.1-fold). It exceeds the enrichment of SNP-heritability in nonsynonymous coding variants (7.2-fold) and fine-mapped expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL)–SNPs (4.8-fold). The enrichment peaks near constrained bases, with a log-linear decrease of SNP-heritability enrichment as a function of the distance to a constrained base. Zoonomia constraint scores improve functionally informed fine-mapping. Variants at sites constrained in mammals and primates have greater posterior inclusion probabilities and higher per-SNP contributions. In addition, using both constraint and functional annotations improves polygenic risk score accuracy across a range of traits. Finally, incorporating constraint information into the analysis of noncoding somatic variants in medulloblastomas identifies new candidate driver genes., [CONCLUSION] Genome-wide measures of evolutionary constraint can help discern which variants are functionally important. This information may accelerate the translation of genomic discoveries into the biological, clinical, and therapeutic knowledge that is required to understand and treat human disease.

Published
2023

48. Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals

Author

National Institutes of Health (US), National Science Foundation (US), European Research Council, European Commission, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, Swedish Research Council, Carnegie Mellon University, Roddenberry Foundation, Gladstone Institutes, LOEWE Center for Insect Biotechnology & Bioresources, Robert and Rosabel Osborne Endowment, SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (Ireland), Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, UMaine Institute of Medicine, University College Dublin, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Lehigh University, Valenzuela, Alejandro [0000-0001-6120-6246], Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs [0000-0002-5597-3075], Navarro, Arcadi [0000-0003-2162-8246], Christmas, Matthew J., Kaplow, Irene M., Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Hughes, Graham M., Li, Xue, Sullivan, Patrick F., Hindle, Allyson G., Andrews,Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C., Bianchi, Matteo, Breit, Ana M., Diekhans, Mark, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M., Goodman, Daniel B., Goodman, Linda, Keough, Kathleen C., Kirilenko, Bogdan, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Lawless, Colleen, Lind, Abigail L., Meadows, Jennifer R. S., Moreira, Lucas R., Redlich, Ruby W., Ryan, Louise, Swofford, Ross, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Wagner, Franziska, Wallerman, Ola, Brown, Ashley R., Damas, Joana, Fan, Kaili, Gatesy, John, Grimshaw, Jenna, Johnson, Jeremy, Kozyrev, Sergey V., Lawler, Alyssa J., Marinescu, Voichita D., Morrill, Kathleen M., Osmanski, Austin, Paulat, Nicole S., Phan, BaDoi N., Reilly, Steven K., Schäffer, Daniel E., Steiner, Cynthia, Supple, Megan A., Wilder, Aryn P., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Xue, James R., Zoonomia Consortium, Birren, Bruce W., Gazal, Steven, Hubley, Robert M., Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs, Meyer, Wynn K., Nweeia, Martin, Sabeti, Pardis C., Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian F. A., Springer, Mark S., Teeling, Emma C., Weng, Zhiping, Hiller, Michael, Levesque, Danielle L., Lewin, Harris A., Murphy, William J., Navarro, Arcadi, Paten, Benedict, Pollard, Katherine S., Ray, David A., Ruf, Irina, Ryder, Oliver A., Pfenning , Andreas R., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Karlsson, Elinor K., National Institutes of Health (US), National Science Foundation (US), European Research Council, European Commission, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, Swedish Research Council, Carnegie Mellon University, Roddenberry Foundation, Gladstone Institutes, LOEWE Center for Insect Biotechnology & Bioresources, Robert and Rosabel Osborne Endowment, SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (Ireland), Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, UMaine Institute of Medicine, University College Dublin, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Lehigh University, Valenzuela, Alejandro [0000-0001-6120-6246], Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs [0000-0002-5597-3075], Navarro, Arcadi [0000-0003-2162-8246], Christmas, Matthew J., Kaplow, Irene M., Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Hughes, Graham M., Li, Xue, Sullivan, Patrick F., Hindle, Allyson G., Andrews,Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C., Bianchi, Matteo, Breit, Ana M., Diekhans, Mark, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M., Goodman, Daniel B., Goodman, Linda, Keough, Kathleen C., Kirilenko, Bogdan, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Lawless, Colleen, Lind, Abigail L., Meadows, Jennifer R. S., Moreira, Lucas R., Redlich, Ruby W., Ryan, Louise, Swofford, Ross, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Wagner, Franziska, Wallerman, Ola, Brown, Ashley R., Damas, Joana, Fan, Kaili, Gatesy, John, Grimshaw, Jenna, Johnson, Jeremy, Kozyrev, Sergey V., Lawler, Alyssa J., Marinescu, Voichita D., Morrill, Kathleen M., Osmanski, Austin, Paulat, Nicole S., Phan, BaDoi N., Reilly, Steven K., Schäffer, Daniel E., Steiner, Cynthia, Supple, Megan A., Wilder, Aryn P., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Xue, James R., Zoonomia Consortium, Birren, Bruce W., Gazal, Steven, Hubley, Robert M., Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs, Meyer, Wynn K., Nweeia, Martin, Sabeti, Pardis C., Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian F. A., Springer, Mark S., Teeling, Emma C., Weng, Zhiping, Hiller, Michael, Levesque, Danielle L., Lewin, Harris A., Murphy, William J., Navarro, Arcadi, Paten, Benedict, Pollard, Katherine S., Ray, David A., Ruf, Irina, Ryder, Oliver A., Pfenning , Andreas R., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, and Karlsson, Elinor K.

Abstract

[INTRODUCTION] A major challenge in genomics is discerning which bases among billions alter organismal phenotypes and affect health and disease risk. Evidence of past selective pressure on a base, whether highly conserved or fast evolving, is a marker of functional importance. Bases that are unchanged in all mammals may shape phenotypes that are essential for organismal health. Bases that are evolving quickly in some species, or changed only in species that share an adaptive trait, may shape phenotypes that support survival in specific niches. Identifying bases associated with exceptional capacity for cellular recovery, such as in species that hibernate, could inform therapeutic discovery., [RATIONALE] The power and resolution of evolutionary analyses scale with the number and diversity of species compared. By analyzing genomes for hundreds of placental mammals, we can detect which individual bases in the genome are exceptionally conserved (constrained) and likely to be functionally important in both coding and noncoding regions. By including species that represent all orders of placental mammals and aligning genomes using a method that does not require designating humans as the reference species, we explore unusual traits in other species., [RESULTS] Zoonomia’s mammalian comparative genomics resources are the most comprehensive and statistically well-powered produced to date, with a protein-coding alignment of 427 mammals and a whole-genome alignment of 240 placental mammals representing all orders. We estimate that at least 10.7% of the human genome is evolutionarily conserved relative to neutrally evolving repeats and identify about 101 million significantly constrained single bases (false discovery rate < 0.05). We cataloged 4552 ultraconserved elements at least 20 bases long that are identical in more than 98% of the 240 placental mammals. Many constrained bases have no known function, illustrating the potential for discovery using evolutionary measures. Eighty percent are outside protein-coding exons, and half have no functional annotations in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) resource. Constrained bases tend to vary less within human populations, which is consistent with purifying selection. Species threatened with extinction have few substitutions at constrained sites, possibly because severely deleterious alleles have been purged from their small populations. By pairing Zoonomia’s genomic resources with phenotype annotations, we find genomic elements associated with phenotypes that differ between species, including olfaction, hibernation, brain size, and vocal learning. We associate genomic traits, such as the number of olfactory receptor genes, with physical phenotypes, such as the number of olfactory turbinals. By comparing hibernators and nonhibernators, we implicate genes involved in mitochondrial disorders, protection against heat stress, and longevity in this physiologically intriguing phenotype. Using a machine learning–based approach that predicts tissue-specific cis-regulatory activity in hundreds of species using data from just a few, we associate changes in noncoding sequence with traits for which humans are exceptional: brain size and vocal learning., [CONCLUSION] Large-scale comparative genomics opens new opportunities to explore how genomes evolved as mammals adapted to a wide range of ecological niches and to discover what is shared across species and what is distinctively human. High-quality data for consistently defined phenotypes are necessary to realize this potential. Through partnerships with researchers in other fields, comparative genomics can address questions in human health and basic biology while guiding efforts to protect the biodiversity that is essential to these discoveries.

Published
2023

49. Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals

Author

Christmas, Matthew J., Kaplow, Irene M., Genereux, Diane P., Dong, Michael X., Hughes, Graham M., Li, Xue, Sullivan, Patrick F., Hindle, Allyson G., Andrews, Gregory, Armstrong, Joel C., Bianchi, Matteo, Breit, Ana M., Diekhans, Mark, Fanter, Cornelia, Foley, Nicole M., Goodman, Daniel B., Goodman, Linda, Keough, Kathleen C., Kirilenko, Bogdan, Kowalczyk, Amanda, Lawless, Colleen, Lind, Abigail L., Meadows, Jennifer R. S., Moreira, Lucas R., Redlich, Ruby W., Ryan, Louise, Swofford, Ross, Valenzuela, Alejandro, Wagner, Franziska, Wallerman, Ola, Brown, Ashley R., Damas, Joana, Fan, Kaili, Gatesy, John, Grimshaw, Jenna, Johnson, Jeremy, Kozyrev, Sergey V., Lawler, Alyssa J., Marinescu, Voichita D., Morrill, Kathleen M., Osmanski, Austin, Paulat, Nicole S., Phan, BaDoi N., Reilly, Steven K., Schäffer, Daniel E., Steiner, Cynthia, Supple, Megan A., Wilder, Aryn P., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Xue, James R., Birren, Bruce W., Gazal, Steven, Hubley, Robert M., Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Meyer, Wynn K., Nweeia, Martin, Sabeti, Pardis C., Shapiro, Beth, Smit, Arian F. A., Springer, Mark S., Teeling, Emma C., Weng, Zhiping, Hiller, Michael, Levesque, Danielle L., Lewin, Harris A., Murphy, William J., Navarro, Arcadi, Paten, Benedict, Pollard, Katherine S., Ray, David A., Ruf, Irina, Ryder, Oliver A., Pfenning, Andreas R., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, and Karlsson, Elinor K.

Subjects
Article
Abstract

Zoonomia is the largest comparative genomics resource for mammals produced to date. By aligning genomes for 240 species, we identify bases that, when mutated, are likely to affect fitness and alter disease risk. At least 332 million bases (~10.7%) in the human genome are unusually conserved across species (evolutionarily constrained) relative to neutrally evolving repeats, and 4552 ultraconserved elements are nearly perfectly conserved. Of 101 million significantly constrained single bases, 80% are outside protein-coding exons and half have no functional annotations in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) resource. Changes in genes and regulatory elements are associated with exceptional mammalian traits, such as hibernation, that could inform therapeutic development. Earth’s vast and imperiled biodiversity offers distinctive power for identifying genetic variants that affect genome function and organismal phenotypes.

Published
2023

50. Relating enhancer genetic variation across mammals to complex phenotypes using machine learning

Author

Kaplow, Irene M., Lawler, Alyssa J., Schäffer, Daniel E., Srinivasan, Chaitanya, Sestili, Heather H., Wirthlin, Morgan E., Phan, BaDoi N., Prasad, Kavya, Brown, Ashley R., Zhang, Xiaomeng, Foley, Kathleen, Genereux, Diane P., Karlsson, Elinor K., Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin, Meyer, Wynn K., and Pfenning, Andreas R.

Subjects
Article
Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Diverse phenotypes, including large brains relative to body size, group living, and vocal learning ability, have evolved multiple times throughout mammalian history. These shared phenotypes may have arisen repeatedly by means of common mechanisms discernible through genome comparisons. RATIONALE: Protein-coding sequence differences have failed to fully explain the evolution of multiple mammalian phenotypes. This suggests that these phenotypes have evolved at least in part through changes in gene expression, meaning that their differences across species may be caused by differences in genome sequence at enhancer regions that control gene expression in specific tissues and cell types. Yet the enhancers involved in phenotype evolution are largely unknown. Sequence conservation–based approaches for identifying such enhancers are limited because enhancer activity can be conserved even when the individual nucleotides within the sequence are poorly conserved. This is due to an overwhelming number of cases where nucleotides turn over at a high rate, but a similar combination of transcription factor binding sites and other sequence features can be maintained across millions of years of evolution, allowing the function of the enhancer to be conserved in a particular cell type or tissue. Experimentally measuring the function of orthologous enhancers across dozens of species is currently infeasible, but new machine learning methods make it possible to make reliable sequence-based predictions of enhancer function across species in specific tissues and cell types. RESULTS: To overcome the limits of studying individual nucleotides, we developed the Tissue-Aware Conservation Inference Toolkit (TACIT). Rather than measuring the extent to which individual nucleotides are conserved across a region, TACIT uses machine learning to test whether the function of a given part of the genome is likely to be conserved. More specifically, convolutional neural networks learn the tissue- or cell type–specific regulatory code connecting genome sequence to enhancer activity using candidate enhancers identified from only a few species. This approach allows us to accurately associate differences between species in tissue or cell type–specific enhancer activity with genome sequence differences at enhancer orthologs. We then connect these predictions of enhancer function to phenotypes across hundreds of mammals in a way that accounts for species’ phylogenetic relatedness. We applied TACIT to identify candidate enhancers from motor cortex and parvalbumin neuron open chromatin data that are associated with brain size relative to body size, solitary living, and vocal learning across 222 mammals. Our results include the identification of multiple candidate enhancers associated with brain size relative to body size, several of which are located in linear or three-dimensional proximity to genes whose protein-coding mutations have been implicated in microcephaly or macrocephaly in humans. We also identified candidate enhancers associated with the evolution of solitary living near a gene implicated in separation anxiety and other enhancers associated with the evolution of vocal learning ability. We obtained distinct results for bulk motor cortex and parvalbumin neurons, demonstrating the value in applying TACIT to both bulk tissue and specific minority cell type populations. To facilitate future analyses of our results and applications of TACIT, we released predicted enhancer activity of >400,000 candidate enhancers in each of 222 mammals and their associations with the phenotypes we investigated. CONCLUSION: TACIT leverages predicted enhancer activity conservation rather than nucleotide-level conservation to connect genetic sequence differences between species to phenotypes across large numbers of mammals. TACIT can be applied to any phenotype with enhancer activity data available from at least a few species in a relevant tissue or cell type and a whole-genome alignment available across dozens of species with substantial phenotypic variation. Although we developed TACIT for transcriptional enhancers, it could also be applied to genomic regions involved in other components of gene regulation, such as promoters and splicing enhancers and silencers. As the number of sequenced genomes grows, machine learning approaches such as TACIT have the potential to help make sense of how conservation of, or changes in, subtle genome patterns can help explain phenotype evolution. [Image: see text] Tissue-Aware Conservation Inference Toolkit (TACIT) associates genetic differences between species with phenotypes. TACIT works by generating open chromatin data from a few species in a tissue related to a phenotype, using the sequences underlying open and closed chromatin regions to train a machine learning model for predicting tissue-specific open chromatin and associating open chromatin predictions across dozens of mammals with the phenotype. [Species silhouettes are from PhyloPic]

Published
2023

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