Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is a severe and frequent complication of sepsis causing delirium, coma, and long-term cognitive dysfunction. We identified microglia and C1q complement activation in hippocampal autopsy tissue of patients with sepsis and increased C1q-mediated synaptic pruning in a murine polymicrobial sepsis model. Unbiased transcriptomics of hippocampal tissue and isolated microglia derived from septic mice revealed an involvement of the innate immune system, complement activation, and up-regulation of lysosomal pathways during SAE in parallel to neuronal and synaptic damage. Microglial engulfment of C1q-tagged synapses could be prevented by stereotactic intrahippocampal injection of a specific C1q-blocking antibody. Pharmacologically targeting microglia by PLX5622, a CSF1-R inhibitor, reduced C1q levels and the number of C1q-tagged synapses, protected from neuronal damage and synapse loss, and improved neurocognitive outcome. Thus, we identified complement-dependent synaptic pruning by microglia as a crucial pathomechanism for the development of neuronal defects during SAE.

Mutations and genetic variability affect gene expression and lifespan, but the impact of variations in gene expression within individuals on their aging-related mortality is poorly understood. We performed a longitudinal study in the short-lived killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri, and correlated quantitative variations in gene expression during early adult life with lifespan. Shorter- and longer-lived individuals differ in their gene expression before the onset of aging-related mortality; differences in gene expression are more pronounced early in life. We identified mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I as a hub in a module of genes whose expression is negatively correlated with lifespan. Accordingly, partial pharmacological inhibition of complex I by the small molecule rotenone reversed aging-related regulation of gene expression and extended lifespan in N. furzeri by 15%. These results support the use of N. furzeri as a vertebrate model for identifying the protein targets, pharmacological modulators, and individual-to-individual variability associated with aging.

Generation of repeat libraries is a critical step for analysis of complex genomes. In the era of next-generation sequencing (NGS), such libraries are usually produced using a whole-genome shotgun (WGS) derived reference sequence whose completeness greatly influences the quality of derived repeat libraries. We describe here a de novo repeat assembly method—RepARK (Repetitive motif detection by Assembly of Repetitive K-mers)—which avoids potential biases by using abundant k-mers of NGS WGS reads without requiring a reference genome. For validation, repeat consensuses derived from simulated and real Drosophila melanogaster NGS WGS reads were compared to repeat libraries generated by four established methods. RepARK is orders of magnitude faster than the other methods and generates libraries that are: (i) composed almost entirely of repetitive motifs, (ii) more comprehensive and (iii) almost completely annotated by TEclass. Additionally, we show that the RepARK method is applicable to complex genomes like human and can even serve as a diagnostic tool to identify repetitive sequences contaminating NGS datasets.

In adult epithelial stem cell lineages, the precise differentiation of daughter cells is critical to maintain tissue homeostasis. Notch signaling controls the choice between absorptive and entero-endocrine cell differentiation in both the mammalian small intestine and the Drosophila midgut, yet how Notch promotes lineage restriction remains unclear. Here, we describe a role for the transcription factor Klumpfuss (Klu) in restricting the fate of enteroblasts (EBs) in the Drosophila intestine. Klu is induced in Notch-positive EBs and its activity restricts cell fate towards the enterocyte (EC) lineage. Transcriptomics and DamID profiling show that Klu suppresses enteroendocrine (EE) fate by repressing the action of the proneural gene Scute, which is essential for EE differentiation. Loss of Klu results in differentiation of EBs into EE cells. Our findings provide mechanistic insight into how lineage commitment in progenitor cell differentiation can be ensured downstream of initial specification cues.

Transposable elements (TEs) have been associated with many, frequently detrimental, biological roles. Consequently, the regulations of TEs, e.g. via DNA-methylation and histone modifications, are considered critical for maintaining genomic integrity and other functions. Still, the high-throughput study of TEs is usually limited to the family or consensus-sequence level because of alignment problems prompted by high-sequence similarities and short read lengths. To entirely comprehend the effects and reasons of TE expression, however, it is necessary to assess the TE expression at the level of individual instances. Our simulation study demonstrates that sequence similarities and short read lengths do not rule out the accurate assessment of (differential) expression of TEs at the instance-level. With only slight modifications to existing methods, TE expression analysis works surprisingly well for conventional paired-end sequencing data. We find that SalmonTE and Telescope can accurately tally a considerable amount of TE instances, allowing for differential expression recovery in model and non-model organisms.