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Mingming Niu

Ningbo University

ORCID: 0000-0002-4930-3745

Publishes on Aquaculture Nutrition and Growth, Epigenetics and DNA Methylation, Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies. 51 papers and 1.6k citations.

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Comprehensive functional genomic resource and integrative model for the human brain
Cited by 1.1k

INTRODUCTION Strong genetic associations have been found for a number of psychiatric disorders. However, understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms remains challenging. RATIONALE To address this challenge, the PsychENCODE Consortium has developed a comprehensive online resource and integrative models for the functional genomics of the human brain. RESULTS The base of the pyramidal resource is the datasets generated by PsychENCODE, including bulk transcriptome, chromatin, genotype, and Hi-C datasets and single-cell transcriptomic data from ~32,000 cells for major brain regions. We have merged these with data from Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), ENCODE, Roadmap Epigenomics, and single-cell analyses. Via uniform processing, we created a harmonized resource, allowing us to survey functional genomics data on the brain over a sample size of 1866 individuals. From this uniformly processed dataset, we created derived data products. These include lists of brain-expressed genes, coexpression modules, and single-cell expression profiles for many brain cell types; ~79,000 brain-active enhancers with associated Hi-C loops and topologically associating domains; and ~2.5 million expression quantitative-trait loci (QTLs) comprising ~238,000 linkage-disequilibrium–independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms and of other types of QTLs associated with splice isoforms, cell fractions, and chromatin activity. By using these, we found that >88% of the cross-population variation in brain gene expression can be accounted for by cell fraction changes. Furthermore, a number of disorders and aging are associated with changes in cell-type proportions. The derived data also enable comparison between the brain and other tissues. In particular, by using spectral analyses, we found that the brain has distinct expression and epigenetic patterns, including a greater extent of noncoding transcription than other tissues. The top level of the resource consists of integrative networks for regulation and machine-learning models for disease prediction. The networks include a full gene regulatory network (GRN) for the brain, linking transcription factors, enhancers, and target genes from merging of the QTLs, generalized element-activity correlations, and Hi-C data. By using this network, we link disease genes to genome-wide association study (GWAS) variants for psychiatric disorders. For schizophrenia, we linked 321 genes to the 142 reported GWAS loci. We then embedded the regulatory network into a deep-learning model to predict psychiatric phenotypes from genotype and expression. Our model gives a ~6-fold improvement in prediction over additive polygenic risk scores. Moreover, it achieves a ~3-fold improvement over additive models, even when the gene expression data are imputed, highlighting the value of having just a small amount of transcriptome data for disease prediction. Lastly, it highlights key genes and pathways associated with disorder prediction, including immunological, synaptic, and metabolic pathways, recapitulating de novo results from more targeted analyses. CONCLUSION Our resource and integrative analyses have uncovered genomic elements and networks in the brain, which in turn have provided insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders. Our deep-learning model improves disease risk prediction over traditional approaches and can be extended with additional data types (e.g., microRNA and neuroimaging). A comprehensive functional genomic resource for the adult human brain. The resource forms a three-layer pyramid. The bottom layer includes sequencing datasets for traits, such as schizophrenia. The middle layer represents derived datasets, including functional genomic elements and QTLs. The top layer contains integrated models, which link genotypes to phenotypes. DSPN, Deep Structured Phenotype Network; PC1 and PC2, principal components 1 and 2; ref, reference; alt, alternate; H3K27ac, histone H3 acetylation at lysine 27.

Neuronal and glial 3D chromatin architecture informs the cellular etiology of brain disorders
Benxia Hu, Hyejung Won, Won Mah et al.|Nature Communications|2021
Cited by 107Open Access

Cellular heterogeneity in the human brain obscures the identification of robust cellular regulatory networks, which is necessary to understand the function of non-coding elements and the impact of non-coding genetic variation. Here we integrate genome-wide chromosome conformation data from purified neurons and glia with transcriptomic and enhancer profiles, to characterize the gene regulatory landscape of two major cell classes in the human brain. We then leverage cell-type-specific regulatory landscapes to gain insight into the cellular etiology of several brain disorders. We find that Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated epigenetic dysregulation is linked to neurons and oligodendrocytes, whereas genetic risk factors for AD highlighted microglia, suggesting that different cell types may contribute to disease risk, via different mechanisms. Moreover, integration of glutamatergic and GABAergic regulatory maps with genetic risk factors for schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) identifies shared (parvalbumin-expressing interneurons) and distinct cellular etiologies (upper layer neurons for BD, and deeper layer projection neurons for SCZ). Collectively, these findings shed new light on cell-type-specific gene regulatory networks in brain disorders.

Halomonas lactosivorans sp. nov., isolated from salt-lake sediment
Ming Hong, Wei-Li Ji, Meng Li et al.|INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY|2020
Cited by 34

A bacteria strain, designated CFH 90008 T , was isolated from a salt lake sediment sample collected from Yuncheng city, Shanxi Province, PR China. Strain CFH 90008 T was Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, motile with lateral flagella and rod-shaped. Colonies were yellow, circular and smooth. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain CFH 90008 T belonged to the genus Halomonas , showing highest sequence similarity to Halomonas daqingensis DQD2-30 T (98.6 %), Halomonas saliphila LCB169 T (98.5 %), Halomonas desiderata FB2 T (98.1 %) and Halomonas kenyensis AIR-2 T (98.0 %). Good growth was observed at 10–50 °C, pH 6.0–9.0 and with NaCl concentration from 1.0 to 12.0 % (w/v). The predominant quinone was Q9. The major fatty acid (>10 %) was C 18 : 1 ω7 c , C 16 : 0 and C 16 : 1 ω7 c . The genome of strain CFH 90008 T was 4.36 Mbp with a genomic DNA G+C content of 66.7 mol%. Based on low average nucleotide identity and DNA–DNAhybridization results, chemotaxonomic characteristics, and differential physiological properties, strain CFH 90008 T could not be classified into any recognized species of the genus Halomonas . Therefore, a new species, for which the name Halomonas lactosivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CFH 90008 T (=DSM 103220 T =KCTC 52281 T ).