BioGPS has become the valuable resource that it is because of the contributions from our wonderful user community. Thank you for contributing plugins, suggestions, and ideas–all of which have improved BioGPS for everyone. In order to celebrate the contributions of BioGPS users to the scientific research community, this series will feature publications and articles generated by BioGPS users. We sincerely hope you will join us in celebrating the fascinating work that YOU do.

This week, we will feature an article resulting from the collaboration between three different French research groups: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ regulates genes involved in insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling and lipid metabolism during adipogenesis through functionally distinct enhancer classes by Frédérik Oger, Julie Dubois-Chevalier, Céline Gheeraert, Stéphane Avner, Emmanuelle Durand, Philippe Froguel, Gilles Salbert, Bart Staels, Philippe Lefebvre, and Jérôme Eeckhoute.

Dr. Philippe Lefebvre and Dr. Jérôme Eeckhoute, two of the principal investigators, kindly answered our inquiries for this series.

  1. Who is the team behind the work that was published in Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ regulates genes involved in insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling and lipid metabolism during adipogenesis through functionally distinct enhancer classes?.
    Our team (F.O., J. D.-C., C.G., B.S., P.L. and J.E.) has a general and long-standing interest in deciphering molecular mechanisms pertaining to metabolic regulations by nuclear receptors. We are therefore focusing on identifying how these ligand-regulated transcription factors control transcriptional events in metabolically active tissues, mostly adipose tissue and also liver, and how these functions are dysregulated in cardiometabolic diseases. As a follow-up of a previous publication which appeared in Nucleic Acid Research (Sérandour et al., 2012), this work is the result of a collaborative work between our team, P. Froguel’s laboratory (UMR CNRS 8099, Lille, France) and G. Salbert’s laboratory (UMR CNRS 6290, Rennes, France)
  2.  

  3. What inspired the work published in Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ regulates genes involved in insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling and lipid metabolism during adipogenesis through functionally distinct enhancer classes?
    In this work, we combined cistromic, epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses in order to better understand how cell type-specific transcriptional programs are established during cell differentiation.
  4.  

  5. Please provide a brief summary of the findings reported in your article, Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ regulates genes involved in insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling and lipid metabolism during adipogenesis through functionally distinct enhancer classes.
    The nuclear receptor PPARgamma is known to be an essential factor for both adipocyte differentiation and maintenance of the mature adipocyte phenotype, thus playing an essential role in the control of adipose tissue expansion and of metabolic homeostasis. Our work provides a general view on how PPARgamma regulates these two processes through the activation of specific sets of enhancers.
  6.  

  7. How did the team learn about BioGPS?
    BioGPS is a well-known portal and used for several years now in the lab.
  8.  

  9. How did your team utilize BioGPS in this research?
    Our team used normalized gene expression signals across mouse tissues to correlate gene expression with transcriptional enhancer activities defined through epigenomic analyses.
  10.  

  11. What are some future directions for the team behind this research?
    We are planning to investigate how pathological conditions might alter the adipocyte epigenome and affect metabolic responses.
  12.  

Thanks again to Dr. Philippe Lefebvre and Dr. Jérôme Eeckhoute for taking the time to answer our questions and for being a long time supporter of BioGPS. Click here to read their fascinating article. Have a look because these awesome researchers have made their compelling research open access–so you can read the whole exciting article for free!

Used BioGPS and cited it in your publication? Let us know! We would love to feature YOUR work, no matter how long ago it was published. BioGPS Featured Article Series only started recently, but we know your contributions to science is ongoing.