scholarly journals Genetic control of pluripotency epigenome determines differentiation bias in mouse embryonic stem cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Byers ◽  
Catrina Spruce ◽  
Haley J. Fortin ◽  
Anne Czechanski ◽  
Steven C. Munger ◽  
...  

AbstractGenetically diverse pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) display varied, heritable responses to differentiation cues in the culture environment. By harnessing these disparities through derivation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from the BXD mouse genetic reference panel, along with C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) parental strains, we demonstrate genetically determined biases in lineage commitment and identify major regulators of the pluripotency epigenome. Upon transition to formative pluripotency using epiblast-like cells (EpiLCs), B6 quickly dissolves naïve networks adopting gene expression modules indicative of neuroectoderm lineages; whereas D2 retains aspects of naïve pluripotency with little bias in differentiation. Genetic mapping identifies 6 major trans-acting loci co-regulating chromatin accessibility and gene expression in ESCs and EpiLCs, indicating a common regulatory system impacting cell state transition. These loci distally modulate occupancy of pluripotency factors, including TRIM28, P300, and POU5F1, at hundreds of regulatory elements. One trans-acting locus on Chr 12 primarily impacts chromatin accessibility in ESCs; while in EpiLCs the same locus subsequently influences gene expression, suggesting early chromatin priming. Consequently, the distal gene targets of this locus are enriched for neurogenesis genes and were more highly expressed when cells carried B6 haplotypes at this Chr 12 locus, supporting genetic regulation of biases in cell fate. Spontaneous formation of embryoid bodies validated this with B6 showing a propensity towards neuroectoderm differentiation and D2 towards definitive endoderm, confirming the fundamental importance of genetic variation influencing cell fate decisions.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
AS Knaupp ◽  
M Mohenska ◽  
MR Larcombe ◽  
E Ford ◽  
SM Lim ◽  
...  

AbstractCellular identity is ultimately controlled by transcription factors (TFs), which bind to specific regulatory elements (REs) within the genome to regulate gene expression and cell fate changes. While recent advances in genome-wide epigenetic profiling techniques have significantly increased our understanding of which REs are utilized in which cell type, it remains largely unknown which TFs and cofactors interact with these REs to modulate gene expression. A major hurdle in dissecting the whole composition of a multi-protein complex formed at a specific RE is the shortage of appropriate techniques. We have developed a novel method termed TALE-mediated Isolation of Nuclear Chromatin (TINC). TINC utilizes epitope-tagged TALEs to isolate a specific genomic region from the mammalian genome and includes a nuclei isolation and chromatin enrichment step for increased specificity. Upon cross-linking of the cells and isolation of the chromatin, the target region is purified based on affinity purification of the TALE and associated nucleic acid and protein molecules can be subjected to further analyses. A key TF in the pluripotency network and therefore in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is NANOG. It is currently not fully understood how Nanog expression is regulated and consequently it remains unclear how the ESC state is maintained. Using TINC we dissected the protein complex formed at the Nanog promoter in mouse ESCs and identified many known and numerous novel factors.


PLoS Biology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. e1000149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tibor Kalmar ◽  
Chea Lim ◽  
Penelope Hayward ◽  
Silvia Muñoz-Descalzo ◽  
Jennifer Nichols ◽  
...  

Circulation ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 132 (suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Li ◽  
Bo Lin ◽  
Lei Yang

Introduction: Dissecting the gene expression programs which control the early stage cardiovascular development is essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms of human heart development and heart disease. Many lineage-specific genes are involved in the differentiation into specific cell fate. Hypothesis: The lineage-specificity of the genes may predict regulatory potential during human cardiovascular differentiation. Methods: Here, we performed transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) of highly purified human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs), hESC-derived Multipotential Cardiovascular Progenitors (MCPs) and MCP-specified three cardiovascular lineages. A novel algorithm, named as Gene Expression Pattern Analyzer (GEPA), was developed to obtain a refined lineage-specificity map of all sequenced genes, which reveals dynamic changes of transcriptional factor networks underlying early human cardiovascular development. Results: The GEPA predictions captured ∼90% of top-ranked regulatory cardiac genes that were previously predicted based on chromatin signature changes in hESCs, and further defined their cardiovascular lineage-specificities, indicating that our multi-fate comparison analysis could predict novel regulatory genes. Furthermore, GEPA analysis revealed the MCP-specific expressions of genes in ephrin signaling pathway, positive role of which in cardiomyocyte differentiation was further validated experimentally. By using RNA-seq plus GEPA workflow, we also identified stage-specific RNA splicing switch and lineage-enriched long noncoding RNAs during human cardiovascular differentiation. Conclusions: Overall, our study utilized multi-cell-fate transcriptomic comparison analysis to establish a lineage-specific gene expression map for predicting and validating novel regulatory mechanisms underlying early human cardiovascular development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhong-Yan Chen ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Nan Cao ◽  
Zhi-Wen Zhou ◽  
Huang-Tian Yang

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in cell fate decisions. However, the miRNAs and their targets involved in the regulation of cardiac lineage specification are largely unexplored. Here, we report novel functions of miR-142-3p in the regulation of cardiomyocyte differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). With a miRNA array screen, we identified a number of miRNAs significantly changed during mESC differentiation into the mesodermal and cardiac progenitor cells, and miR-142-3p was one among the markedly downregulated miRNAs. Ectopic expression and inhibition of miR-142-3p did not alter the characteristics of undifferentiated ESCs, whereas ectopic expression of miR-142-3p impaired cardiomyocyte formation. In addition, ectopic expression of miR-142-3p inhibited the expression of a cardiac mesodermal marker gene Mesp1 and downstream cardiac transcription factors Nkx2.5, Tbx5, and Mef2c but not the expression of three germ layer-specific genes. We further demonstrated that miR-142-3p targeted the 3′-untranslated region of Mef2c. These results reveal miR-142-3p as an important regulator of early cardiomyocyte differentiation. Our findings provide new knowledge for further understanding of roles and mechanisms of miRNAs as critical regulators of cardiomyocyte differentiation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megumi YAMAMOTO ◽  
Naomi TASE ◽  
Tsuyoshi OKUNO ◽  
Yasushi KONDO ◽  
Suminori AKIBA ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Yuting Fu ◽  
Fangyuan Liu ◽  
Shuo Cao ◽  
Jia Zhang ◽  
Huizhi Wang ◽  
...  

3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase-2 (Bdh2), a short-chain dehydrogenase, catalyzes a rate-limiting step in the biogenesis of the mammalian siderophore, playing a key role in iron homeostasis, energy metabolism and apoptosis. However, the function of Bdh2 in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) remains unknown. To gain insights into the role of Bdh2 on pluripotency and cell fate decisions of mouse ESCs, we generated Bdh2 homozygous knockout lines for both mouse advanced embryonic stem cell (ASC) and ESC using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. Bdh2 deficiency in both ASCs and ESCs had no effect on expression of core pluripotent transcription factors and alkaline phosphatase activity, suggesting dispensability of Bdh2 for self-renewal and pluripotency of ESCs. Interestingly, cells with Bdh2 deficiency exhibited potency of endoderm differentiation in vitro; with upregulated endoderm associated genes revealed by RNA-seq and RT-qPCR. We further demonstrate that Bdh2 loss inhibited expression of multiple methyltransferases (DNMTs) at both RNA and protein level, suggesting that Bdh2 may be essentially required to maintain DNA methylation in ASCs and ESCs. Overall, this study provides valuable data and resources for understanding how Bdh2 regulate earliest cell fate decision and DNA methylation in ASCs/ESCs.


Author(s):  
Dong Keon Kim ◽  
Jang-Seok Lee ◽  
Eun Young Lee ◽  
Hansol Jang ◽  
Suji Han ◽  
...  

AbstractSox2 is a core transcription factor in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), and O-GlcNAcylation is a type of post-translational modification of nuclear-cytoplasmic proteins. Although both factors play important roles in the maintenance and differentiation of ESCs and the serine 248 (S248) and threonine 258 (T258) residues of Sox2 are modified by O-GlcNAcylation, the function of Sox2 O-GlcNAcylation is unclear. Here, we show that O-GlcNAcylation of Sox2 at T258 regulates mouse ESC self-renewal and early cell fate. ESCs in which wild-type Sox2 was replaced with the Sox2 T258A mutant exhibited reduced self-renewal, whereas ESCs with the Sox2 S248A point mutation did not. ESCs with the Sox2 T258A mutation heterologously introduced using the CRISPR/Cas9 system, designated E14-Sox2TA/WT, also exhibited reduced self-renewal. RNA sequencing analysis under self-renewal conditions showed that upregulated expression of early differentiation genes, rather than a downregulated expression of self-renewal genes, was responsible for the reduced self-renewal of E14-Sox2TA/WT cells. There was a significant decrease in ectodermal tissue and a marked increase in cartilage tissue in E14-Sox2TA/WT-derived teratomas compared with normal E14 ESC-derived teratomas. RNA sequencing of teratomas revealed that genes related to brain development had generally downregulated expression in the E14-Sox2TA/WT-derived teratomas. Our findings using the Sox2 T258A mutant suggest that Sox2 T258 O-GlcNAc has a positive effect on ESC self-renewal and plays an important role in the proper development of ectodermal lineage cells. Overall, our study directly links O-GlcNAcylation and early cell fate decisions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2875-2883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Dvash ◽  
Yoav Mayshar ◽  
Henia Darr ◽  
Michael McElhaney ◽  
Douglas Barker ◽  
...  

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