The transcriptome of a cell dictates its unique cell type biology. We used single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the transcriptomes for essentially every cell type of a complete animal: the regenerative planarian Planarians contain a diverse array of cell types, possess lineage progenitors for differentiated cells (including pluripotent stem cells), and constitutively express positional information, making them ideal for this undertaking. We generated data for 66,783 cells, defining transcriptomes for known and many previously unknown planarian cell types and for putative transition states between stem and differentiated cells. We also uncovered regionally expressed genes in muscle, which harbors positional information. Identifying the transcriptomes for potentially all cell types for many organisms should be readily attainable and represents a powerful approach to metazoan biology.

Organisms of the third domain of life, the Archaea, share molecular characteristics both with Bacteria and Eukarya. These organisms attract scientific attention as research models for regulation and evolution of processes such as transcription, translation, and RNA processing. We have reconstructed the primary transcriptome of Sulfolobus solfataricus P2, one of the most widely studied model archaeal organisms. Analysis of 625 million bases of sequenced cDNAs yielded a single-basepair resolution map of transcription start sites and operon structures for more than 1000 transcriptional units. The analysis led to the discovery of 310 expressed noncoding RNAs, with an extensive expression of overlapping cis-antisense transcripts to a level unprecedented in any bacteria or archaea but resembling that of eukaryotes. As opposed to bacterial transcripts, most Sulfolobus transcripts completely lack 59-UTR sequences, suggesting that mRNA/ncRNA interactions differ between Bacteria and Archaea. The data also reveal internal hotspots for transcript cleavage linked to RNA degradation and predict sequence motifs that promote RNA destabilization. This study highlights transcriptome sequencing as a key tool for understanding the mechanisms and extent of RNA-based regulation in Bacteria and Archaea.

Summary Regeneration starts with injury. Yet how injuries affect gene expression in different cell types, and how distinct injuries differ in gene expression remains unclear. We defined the transcriptomes of major cell types of planarians – flatworms that regenerate from nearly any injury – and identified 1,214 tissue-specific markers across 13 cell types. RNA sequencing on 619 single cells revealed that wound-induced genes were either expressed in nearly all cell types or specifically in one of three cell types (stem cells, muscle, or epidermis). Time-course experiments following different injuries indicated a generic wound response is activated with any injury regardless of the regenerative outcome. Only one gene, notum, was differentially expressed early between anterior- and posterior-facing wounds. Injury-specific transcriptional responses emerged 30 hours after injury, involving context-dependent patterning and stem-cell-specialization genes. The regenerative requirement of every injury is different; however, our work demonstrates that all injuries start with a common transcriptional response.

CRISPR/Cas is a recently discovered prokaryotic immune system, which is based on small RNAs ("spacers") that restrict phage and plasmid infection. It has been hypothesized that CRISPRs can also regulate self gene expression by utilizing spacers that target self genes. By analyzing CRISPRs from 330 organisms we found that one in every 250 spacers is self targeting, and that such self-targeting occurs in 18% of all CRISPR-bearing organisms. However, complete lack of conservation across species, combined with abundance of degraded repeats near self-targeting spacers, suggests that self-targeting is a consequence of autoimmunity rather than gene regulation. We propose that accidental incorporation of self nucleic-acids by CRISPR can incur an autoimmune fitness cost, which may explain the abundance of degraded CRISPR systems across prokaryotes. CRISPR/Cas, an acquired anti-viral system in prokaryotesClustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) loci are found in nearly all of archaeal and about 40% of sequenced bacterial genomes. CRISPR loci, together with their associated cas genes, have recently been shown to constitute a defense system that restricts propagation of incoming viruses and plasmids [1,2]. CRISPR arrays are composed of short repeat sequences separated by similarly sized hyper-variable "spacer" sequences, flanked on one side by an AT-rich sequence called the leader. The discovery that CRISPR spacers often match DNA from foreign elements led to the realization that they represent a "memory of past genetic aggressions" [3][4][5].Step by step, the mechanism underlying CRISPR defense has begun to unravel, yet our understanding of this system is far from complete. It has been revealed that the CRISPR locus is transcribed into a single RNA transcript, which is then further cleaved by the Cas proteins to generate smaller CRISPR RNA (crRNA) units, each including one targeting spacer [6]. These units then interfere with the incoming foreign genetic material by complementary base-pairing with the foreign nucleic acids [7][8][9][10]. CRISPR systems have been divided into different clusters based on their repeat sequences [11], which correlate with different subtypes of cas genes [12]. cas subtypes mtube, ecoli and nmeni were shown to likely target DNA [2,5,6,13], whereas the cas module ramp was shown to target RNA [14].© 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author: rotem.sorek@weizmann.ac.il. † These authors contributed equally Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Although CRISPR/Cas was initially prophesized to be ...

Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria are extremely abundant in the oceans, as are the viruses that infect them. How hosts and viruses coexist in nature remains unclear, although the presence of both susceptible and resistant cells may allow this coexistence. Combined whole-genome sequencing and PCR screening technology now enables us to investigate the effect of resistance on genome evolution and the genomic mechanisms behind the long-term coexistence of Prochlorococcus and their viruses. Here we present a genome analysis of 77 substrains selected for resistance to ten viruses, revealing mutations primarily in non-conserved, horizontally transferred genes that localize to a single hypervariable genomic island. Mutations affected viral attachment to the cell surface and imposed a fitness cost to the host, manifested by significantly lower growth rates or a previously unknown mechanism of more rapid infection by other viruses. The mutant genes are generally uncommon in nature yet some carry polymorphisms matching those found experimentally. These data are empirical evidence indicating that viral-attachment genes are preferentially located in genomic islands and that viruses are a selective pressure enhancing the diversity of both island genes and island gene content. This diversity emerges as a genomic mechanism that reduces the effective host population size for infection by a given virus, thus facilitating long-term coexistence between viruses and their hosts in nature.

Comparative RNA-seq analysis of two related pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacterial strains reveals a hidden layer of divergence in the non-coding genome as well as conserved, widespread regulatory structures called ‘Excludons', which mediate regulation through long non-coding antisense RNAs.

One of the hallmarks of opportunistic pathogens is their ability to adjust and respond to a wide range of environmental and host-associated conditions. The human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has an ability to thrive in a variety of hosts and cause a range of acute and chronic infections in individuals with impaired host defenses or cystic fibrosis. Here we report an in-depth transcriptional profiling of this organism when grown at host-related temperatures. Using RNA-seq of samples from P. aeruginosa grown at 28°C and 37°C we detected genes preferentially expressed at the body temperature of mammalian hosts, suggesting that they play a role during infection. These temperature-induced genes included the type III secretion system (T3SS) genes and effectors, as well as the genes responsible for phenazines biosynthesis. Using genome-wide transcription start site (TSS) mapping by RNA-seq we were able to accurately define the promoters and cis-acting RNA elements of many genes, and uncovered new genes and previously unrecognized non-coding RNAs directly controlled by the LasR quorum sensing regulator. Overall we identified 165 small RNAs and over 380 cis-antisense RNAs, some of which predicted to perform regulatory functions, and found that non-coding RNAs are preferentially localized in pathogenicity islands and horizontally transferred regions. Our work identifies regulatory features of P. aeruginosa genes whose products play a role in environmental adaption during infection and provides a reference transcriptional landscape for this pathogen.

The presence of 5-methylcytidine (m5C) in tRNA and rRNA molecules of a wide variety of organisms was first observed more than 40 years ago. However, detection of this modification was limited to specific, abundant, RNA species, due to the usage of low-throughput methods. To obtain a high resolution, systematic, and comprehensive transcriptome-wide overview of m5C across the three domains of life, we used bisulfite treatment on total RNA from both gram positive (B. subtilis) and gram negative (E. coli) bacteria, an archaeon (S. solfataricus) and a eukaryote (S. cerevisiae), followed by massively parallel sequencing. We were able to recover most previously documented m5C sites on rRNA in the four organisms, and identified several novel sites in yeast and archaeal rRNAs. Our analyses also allowed quantification of methylated m5C positions in 64 tRNAs in yeast and archaea, revealing stoichiometric differences between the methylation patterns of these organisms. Molecules of tRNAs in which m5C was absent were also discovered. Intriguingly, we detected m5C sites within archaeal mRNAs, and identified a consensus motif of AUCGANGU that directs methylation in S. solfataricus. Our results, which were validated using m5C-specific RNA immunoprecipitation, provide the first evidence for mRNA modifications in archaea, suggesting that this mode of post-transcriptional regulation extends beyond the eukaryotic domain.