Attila P. Sachslehner spent a month researching in Porto, Portugal, this July. Being an ÖGMBT member one benefit is to be a member in the FEBS, FEM and EFB at the same time. This way this young life scientist was able to apply for a FEBS short term fellowship. And he got it. FEBS funds travel expenses and subsistence amounting to 100€/day.
Background of the FEBS Short term fellowship
The skin of terrestrial vertebrates forms a variety of cornified appendages such as feathers, hair, or nails [1]. The development and continuous regeneration of the epidermis and the skin appendages depend on enzymes belonging to the family of transglutaminases (TGM), which crosslink proteins to establish the epidermal barrier and the rigid structures of the appendages [2]. However, while the contribution of TGMs to epidermal cornification is well studied, the roles of TGMs in skin appendages remain poorly understood, particularly in non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds. Feathers are the most characteristic skin appendages of birds which serve several purposes such as support of flight, thermo-insulation, or communication [3]. In a previous study, I established a TGM activity assay which allowed me to demonstrate that TGM activity is involved in feather development [4]. I identified nine TGM members in the genome of the bird model system, the chicken [5]. Within this FEBS short-term fellowship, I aimed to characterize the gene expression pattern of TGM genes in situ to gain a better understanding of their contribution to feather development. I planned to use hybridisation chain reaction (HCR), a next generation mRISH method, which allows to detect more than one gene simultaneously. HCR enables efficient detection of mRNA transcripts up to the subcellular level, ensures high specificity, low background signals, and allows to accurately quantify the detected transcripts [6].
Why I chose this particular host laboratory
The experimental requirements, such as regular sample supply, materials, and expertise, were not available in my home laboratory but necessary for successful conduction of the proposed task. Therefore, I applied for a short-term fellowship funded by FEBS to visit the laboratory of Dr. Miguel Carneiro (Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – CIBIO, University of Porto, Portugal) for one month. Dr. Carneiro’s group is among research leaders in development and structural biology of feathers. His group is interested in mapping phenotypic variation to the gene level. Feathers are one of their main research topics. They recently determined molecular and physical properties behind the variety of feather coloration in different bird species [7-9]. Last year, our groups started to collaborate to better understand the impact of cornification associated genes on feather development. This fruitful collaboration led already to an exchange of expertise and interesting results which will be published later this year. Furthermore, Miguel Carneiro’s group has regular access to different bird models on site, which ensures regular sample supply, and established HCR recently in his group which allowed me to learn from experienced colleagues. As Dr. Carneiro is the head of the Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics (EVOLGEN) group, I had the chance to work with experts in the field of evolutionary biology, which further shaped my scientific expertise, and allowed me to make new profession contacts relevant for future projects. During this FEBS short-term fellowship, I was able to successfully learn and apply HCR on our samples of interest which yielded new results of which our ongoing collaboration, but also my scientific career will benefit from.
If this inspires you to follow in Attila's foot steps you can apply here.
References
[1] Eckhart L, Holthaus KB & Sachslehner AP (2024) Cell differentiation in the embryonic periderm and in scaffolding epithelia of skin appendages. Dev Biol. 515, 60-66, doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2024.07.002.
[2] Eckert RL, Kaartinen MT, Nurminskaya M, Belkin AM, Colak G, Johnson GV & Mehta K (2014) Transglutaminase regulation of cell function. Physiol Rev 94(2), 383-417, doi: 10.1152/physrev.00019.2013.
[3] Yu M, Yue Z, Wu P, Wu DY, Mayer JA, Medina M, Widelitz RB, Jiang TX & Chuong CM (2004) The biology of feather follicles. Int J Dev Biol. 48(2-3), 181-91, doi: 10.1387/ijdb.031776my.
[4] Sachslehner AP, Surbek M, Golabi B, Geiselhofer M, Jäger K, Hess C, Kuchler U, Gruber R & Eckhart L (2023) Transglutaminase Activity Is Conserved in Stratified Epithelia and Skin Appendages of Mammals and Birds. Int J Mol Sci. 24(3), 2193, doi: 10.3390/ijms24032193.
[5] Sachslehner AP, Surbek M, Holthaus KB, Steinbinder J, Golabi B, Hess C & Eckhart L (2024) The Evolution of Transglutaminases Underlies the Origin and Loss of Cornified Skin Appendages in Vertebrates. Mol Biol Evol. 41(6), msae100, doi: 10.1093/molbev/msae100.
[6] Choi HMT, Schwarzkopf M, Fornace ME, Acharya A, Artavanis G, Stegmaier J, Cunha A & Pierce NA (2018) Third-generation in situ hybridization chain reaction: multiplexed, quantitative, sensitive, versatile, robust. Development 145(12), dev165753, doi: 10.1242/dev.165753.
[7] Toomey MB, Lopes RJ, Araújo PM, Johnson JD, Gazda MA, Afonso S, Mota PG, Koch RE, Hill GE, Corbo JC & Carneiro M (2017) High-density lipoprotein receptor SCARB1 is required for carotenoid coloration in birds. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114(20), 5219-5224, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1700751114.
[8] Arbore R, Barbosa S, Brejcha J, Ogawa Y, Liu Y, Nicolaï MPJ, Pereira P, Sabatino SJ, Cloutier A, Poon ESK, Marques CI, Andrade P, Debruyn G, Afonso S, Afonso R, Roy SG, Abdu U, Lopes RJ, Mojzeš P, Maršík P, Sin SYW, White MA, Araújo PM, Corbo JC & Carneiro M (2024) A molecular mechanism for bright color variation in parrots. Science 386(6721), eadp7710, doi: 10.1126/science.adp7710.
[9] Guimarães-Moreira M, Marques CI, Afonso S, Lacerda B, Carneiro M & Araújo PM (2024) A missense mutation in the tyrosinase gene explains acromelanism in domesticated canaries. Anim Genet. 55(6), 838-842, doi: 10.1111/age.13481.
For more information contact 
