Regulation of neurogenesis by interactions between HEN1 and neuronal LMO proteins

Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bao ◽  
D.A. Talmage ◽  
L.W. Role ◽  
J. Gautier

Basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factors regulate neurogenesis and neuronal differentiation by as yet unknown mechanisms. We show that an embryonic neuronal-specific basic-helix-loop-helix protein, HEN1 (also known as NSCL1 or NHLH), interacts with ‘LIM only’ proteins. Examination of the expression patterns of XHEN1 and XLMO-3, the Xenopus homologues of these human genes, reveals extensive overlap during early neurogenesis: at the onset of gastrulation on the dorsal side of the blastopore lip and, subsequently, in the prospective neural plate. Binding of XLMO-3 increases the transcriptional activity of XHEN1 in vivo. Co-expression of these two genes in Xenopus embryos induces a cascade of expression of neuronal-specific basic-helix-loop-helix proteins that leads to neuronal differentiation. We propose that XHEN1, in concert with XLMO-3, is a critical regulator of neurogenesis.

Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (13) ◽  
pp. 2945-2954 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.A. Gershon ◽  
J. Rudnick ◽  
L. Kalam ◽  
K. Zimmerman

The development of the vertebrate nervous system depends upon striking a balance between differentiating neurons and neural progenitors in the early embryo. Our findings suggest that the homeodomain-containing gene Xdbx regulates this balance by maintaining neural progenitor populations within specific regions of the neuroectoderm. In posterior regions of the Xenopus embryo, Xdbx is expressed in a bilaterally symmetric stripe that lies at the middle of the mediolateral axis of the neural plate. This stripe of Xdbx expression overlaps the expression domain of the proneural basic/helix-loop-helix-containing gene, Xash3, and is juxtaposed to the expression domains of Xenopus Neurogenin related 1 and N-tubulin, markers of early neurogenesis in the embryo. Xdbx overexpression inhibits neuronal differentiation in the embryo and when co-injected with Xash3, Xdbx inhibits the ability of Xash3 to induce ectopic neurogenesis. One role of Xdbx during normal development may therefore be to restrict spatially neuronal differentiation within the neural plate, possibly by altering the neuronal differentiation function of Xash3.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 723-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn A. Megeney ◽  
Michael A. Rudnicki

The myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) form a family of basic helix–loop–helix transcription factors consisting of Myf-5, MyoD, myogenin, and MRF4. The MRFs play key regulatory roles in the development of skeletal muscle during embryogenesis. Sequence homology, expression patterns, and genetargeting experiments have revealed a two-tiered subclassification within the MRF family. Myf-5 and MyoD are more homologous to one another than to the others, are expressed in myoblasts before differentiation, and are required for the determination or survival of muscle progenitor cells. By contrast, myogenin and MRF4 are more homologous to one another than to the others and are expressed upon differentiation, and myogenin is required in vivo as a differentiation factor while the role of MRF4 remains unclear. On this basis, MyoD and Myf-5 are classified as primary MRFs, as they are required for the determination of myoblasts, and myogenin and MRF4 are classified as secondary MRFs, as they likely function during terminal differentiation.Key words: MyoD, Myf-5, myogenin, MRF4, skeletal muscle.


2001 ◽  
Vol 277 (11) ◽  
pp. 9118-9126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Jögi ◽  
Paula Persson ◽  
Anna Grynfeld ◽  
Sven Påhlman ◽  
Håkan Axelson

Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 914
Author(s):  
Shan ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Yu ◽  
Wang ◽  
Li ◽  
...  

Basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factor (TF) family is commonly found in eukaryotes, which is one of the largest families of regulator proteins. It plays an important role in plant growth and development, as well as various biotic and abiotic stresses. However, a comprehensive analysis of the bHLH family has not been reported in Brassica oleracea. In this study, we systematically describe the BobHLHs in the phylogenetic relationships, expression patterns in different organs/tissues, and in response to chilling stress, and gene and protein characteristics. A total of 234 BobHLH genes were identified in the B. oleracea genome and were further clustered into twenty-three subfamilies based on the phylogenetic analyses. A large number of BobHLH genes were unevenly located on nine chromosomes of B. oleracea. Analysis of RNA-Seq expression profiles revealed that 21 BobHLH genes exhibited organ/tissue-specific expression. Additionally, the expression of six BobHLHs (BobHLH003, -048, -059, -093, -109, and -148) were significantly down-regulated in chilling-sensitive cabbage (CS-D9) and chilling-tolerant cabbage (CT-923). At 24h chilling stress, BobHLH054 was significantly down-regulated and up-regulated in chilling-treated CS-D9 and CT-923. Conserved motif characterization and exon/intron structural patterns showed that BobHLH genes had similar structures in the same subfamily. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of BobHLH genes and reveals several candidate genes involved in chilling tolerance of B. oleracea, which may be helpful to clarify the roles of bHLH family members and understand the regulatory mechanisms of BobHLH genes in response to the chilling stress of cabbage.


2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 3764-3772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Min-Jeong Yi ◽  
Xiaoping Chen ◽  
Francesca Cole ◽  
Robert S. Krauss ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT CDO is a cell surface immunoglobulin superfamily member that positively regulates myogenic differentiation in vitro and in vivo and signals to posttranslationally activate myogenic basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors. The Cdo gene is also expressed in the dorsal aspect and midline structures of the developing central nervous system, and mice lacking CDO on the C57BL/6 background display holoprosencephaly with ∼80% penetrance, resulting in perinatal lethality. We report here that a fraction of Cdo −/− mice from this background have additional defects in brain development, including hydrocephalus and cortical thinning. Primary neural progenitor cultures from E14.5 Cdo −/− mutants display reduced proliferation, which may underlie the thinning. The cortical preplate and cortices of mutant animals also show reduced staining for β-tubulin III, indicating defective neuronal differentiation. CDO levels are strongly increased in cultured C17.2 neuronal precursor cells stimulated to differentiate; modulation of CDO levels in these cells by overexpression or interfering RNA approaches enhances or diminishes differentiation, respectively. Cotransfection of CDO enhances the activity of the neurogenic bHLH factor, neurogenin1, in reporter assays and enhances heterodimerization of neurogenin1 and E47. These results indicate that CDO promotes neuronal differentiation and support the hypothesis that CDO coordinates differentiation of multiple cell lineages by regulating the activity of tissue-specific bHLH factors.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 5205-5213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Kong ◽  
S E Johnson ◽  
E J Taparowsky ◽  
S F Konieczny

MRF4, MyoD, myogenin, and Myf-5 are muscle-specific basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors that share the ability to activate the expression of skeletal muscle genes such as those encoding alpha-actin, myosin heavy chain, and the acetylcholine receptor subunits. The muscle regulatory factors (MRFs) also exhibit the unique capacity to initiate the myogenic program when ectopically expressed in a variety of nonmuscle cell types, most notably C3H10T1/2 fibroblasts (10T1/2 cells). The commitment of myoblasts to terminal differentiation, although positively regulated by the MRFs, also is controlled negatively by a variety of agents, including several growth factors and oncoproteins such as fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2), transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1), and Ras p21Val. The molecular mechanisms by which these varied agents alter myogenic terminal differentiation events remain unclear. In an effort to establish whether Ras p21Val represses MRF activity by directly targeting the MRF proteins, we examined the DNA binding and transcription activation potentials of MRF4 and MyoD when expressed in 10T1/2 cells or in 10T1/2 cells expressing Ras p21Val. Our results demonstrate that Ras p21Val inhibits terminal differentiation events by targeting the basic domain of the MRFs, and yet the mechanism underlying this inhibition does not involve altering the DNA binding or the inherent transcriptional activity of these regulatory factors. In contrast, FGF-2 and TGF-beta 1 block terminal differentiation by repressing the transcriptional activity of the MRFs. We conclude that the Ras p21Val block in differentiation operates via an intracellular signaling pathway that is distinct from the FGF-2 and TGF-beta 1 pathways.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 1795-1795
Author(s):  
Virginie Deleuze ◽  
Elias Chalhoub ◽  
Rawan El-Hajj ◽  
Christiane Dohet ◽  
Mikael Le Clech ◽  
...  

Abstract The basic helix-loop-helix protein TAL-1/SCL, essential for the formation of the hematopoietic system, is also required for vascular development and more particularly for embryonic angiogenesis. We previously reported that TAL-1 acts as a positive factor for post-natal angiogenesis by stimulating endothelial morphogenesis. To understand how TAL-1 modulates angiogenesis, we investigated the functional consequences of TAL-1 silencing, mediated by small-interfering RNAs, in human primary endothelial cells (ECs). We found that TAL-1 knockdown impaired in vitro EC tubulomorphogenesis (in 2-D on Matrigel or 3-D in collagen I gel), with the notable absence of cell-cell contacts, a prerequisite for morphogenesis initiation. This cellular deficiency was associated with a dramatic reduction in the vascular-endothelial (VE)-cadherin at intercellular junctions, the major component of endothelial adherens junctions. In contrast, PECAM (or CD31) was present at cell-cell junctions at the same levels as control cells. Importantly, silencing of two known TAL-1-partners in hematopoietic cells, E47 or LMO2, produce the same effects as TAL-1. Accordingly, silencing of TAL-1, as well as E47 and LMO2, provoked down-regulation of VE-cadherin at both the mRNA and protein levels. Transient transfection experiments in HUVECs showed that TAL-1 and E47 regulate the VE-cadherin promoter through a specialized E-box element. Finally, endogenous VE-cadherin transcription could be directly activated in non-endothelial HEK-293 cells that neither express TAL-1 or LMO2, by the sole concomitant ectopic expression of TAL-1, E47 and LMO2. Overall, our data demonstrate that a multiprotein complex containing at least TAL-1, LMO2 and E47 act upstream of the VE-cadherin gene. We are currently performing chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to investigate whether the TAL-1-containing complex binds in vivo the VE-cadherin promoter. This study identifies VE-cadherin as an upstream TAL-1-target gene in the endothelial lineage, and provides a first clue in TAL-1 function in the control of angiogenesis.


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