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Endoderm development in Caenorhabditis elegans: the synergistic action of ELT-2 and -7 mediates the specification?differentiation transition.

ABSTRACT: The transition from specification of cell identity to the differentiation of cells into an appropriate and enduring state is critical to the development of embryos. Transcriptional profiling in Caenorhabditis elegans has revealed a large number of genes that are expressed in the fully differentiated intestine; however, no regulatory factor has been found to be essential to initiate their expression once the endoderm has been specified. These gut-expressed genes possess a preponderance of GATA factor binding sites and one GATA factor, ELT-2, fulfills the expected characteristics of a key regulator of these genes based on its persistent expression exclusively in the developing and differentiated intestine and its ability to bind these regulatory sites. However, a striking characteristic of elt-2(0) knockout mutants is that while they die shortly after hatching owing to an obstructed gut passage, they nevertheless contain a gut that has undergone complete morphological differentiation. We have discovered a second gut-specific GATA factor, ELT-7, that profoundly synergizes with ELT-2 to create a transcriptional switch essential for gut cell differentiation. ELT-7 is first expressed in the early endoderm lineage and, when expressed ectopically, is sufficient to activate gut differentiation in nonendodermal progenitors. elt-7 is transcriptionally activated by the redundant endoderm-specifying factors END-1 and -3, and its product in turn activates both its own expression and that of elt-2, constituting an apparent positive feedback system. While elt-7 loss-of-function mutants lack a discernible phenotype, simultaneous loss of both elt-7 and elt-2 results in a striking all-or-none block to morphological differentiation of groups of gut cells with a region-specific bias, as well as reduced or abolished gut-specific expression of a number of terminal differentiation genes. ELT-2 and -7 synergize not only in activation of gene expression but also in repression of a gene that is normally expressed in the valve cells, which immediately flank the termini of the gut tube. Our results point to a developmental strategy whereby positive feedback and cross-regulatory interactions between two synergistically acting regulatory factors promote a decisive and persistent transition of specified endoderm progenitors into the program of intestinal differentiation.

SUBMITTER: Sommermann EM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3142750 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Endoderm development in Caenorhabditis elegans: the synergistic action of ELT-2 and -7 mediates the specification→differentiation transition.

Sommermann Erica M EM Strohmaier Keith R KR Maduro Morris F MF Rothman Joel H JH

Developmental biology 20100831 1

The transition from specification of cell identity to the differentiation of cells into an appropriate and enduring state is critical to the development of embryos. Transcriptional profiling in Caenorhabditis elegans has revealed a large number of genes that are expressed in the fully differentiated intestine; however, no regulatory factor has been found to be essential to initiate their expression once the endoderm has been specified. These gut-expressed genes possess a preponderance of GATA fa ...[more]

PMID: 20807527

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Project description:The ELT-2 GATA factor normally functions in differentiation of the C. elegans endoderm, downstream of endoderm specification. We have previously shown that, if ELT-2 is expressed sufficiently early, it is also able to specify the endoderm and to replace all other members of the core GATA-factor transcriptional cascade (END-1, END-3, ELT-7). However, such rescue requires multiple copies (and presumably overexpression) of the end-1p::elt-2 cDNA transgene; a single copy of the transgene does not rescue. We have made this observation the basis of a genetic screen to search for genetic modifiers that allow a single copy of the end-1p::elt-2 cDNA transgene to rescue the lethality of the end-1 end-3 double mutant. We performed this screen on a strain that has a single copy insertion of the transgene in an end-1 end-3 background. These animals are kept alive by virtue of an extrachromosomal array containing multiple copies of the rescuing transgene; the extrachromosomal array also contains a toxin under heat shock control to counterselect for mutagenized survivors that have been able to lose the rescuing array. A screen of ?14,000 mutagenized haploid genomes produced 17 independent surviving strains. Whole genome sequencing was performed to identify genes that incurred independent mutations in more than one surviving strain. The C. elegans gene tasp-1 was mutated in four independent strains. tasp-1 encodes the C. elegans homolog of Taspase, a threonine-aspartic acid protease that has been found, in both mammals and insects, to cleave several proteins involved in transcription, in particular MLL1/trithorax and TFIIA. A second gene, pqn-82, was mutated in two independent strains and encodes a glutamine-asparagine rich protein. tasp-1 and pqn-82 were verified as loss-of-function modifiers of the end-1p::elt-2 transgene by RNAi and by CRISPR/Cas9-induced mutations. In both cases, gene loss leads to modest increases in the level of ELT-2 protein in the early endoderm although ELT-2 levels do not strictly correlate with rescue. We suggest that tasp-1 and pqn-82 represent a class of genes acting in the early embryo to modulate levels of critical transcription factors or to modulate the responsiveness of critical target genes. The screen's design, rescuing lethality with an extrachromosomal transgene followed by counterselection, has a background survival rate of <10-4 without mutagenesis and should be readily adapted to the general problem of identifying suppressors of C. elegans lethal mutations.

Project description:The two GATA transcription factors ELT-2 and ELT-7 function in the differentiation of the C. elegans intestine. ELT-2 loss causes lethality. ELT-7 loss causes no obvious phenotype but enhances the elt-2(-) intestinal phenotype. Thus, ELT-2 and ELT-7 appear partially redundant, with ELT-2 being more influential. To investigate the different regulatory roles of ELT-2 and ELT-7, we compared the transcriptional profiles of pure populations of wild-type, elt-2(-), elt-7(-), and elt-7(-); elt-2(-) double mutant L1-stage larvae. Consistent with the mutant phenotypes, loss of ELT-2 had a>25 fold greater influence on the number of significantly altered transcripts compared to the loss of ELT-7; nonetheless, the levels of numerous transcripts changed upon loss of ELT-7 in the elt-2(-) background. The quantitative responses of individual genes revealed a more complicated behaviour than simple redundancy/partial redundancy. In particular, genes expressed only in the intestine showed three distinguishable classes of response in the different mutant backgrounds. One class of genes responded as if ELT-2 is the major transcriptional activator and ELT-7 provides variable compensatory input. For a second class, transcript levels increased upon loss of ELT-2 but decreased upon further loss of ELT-7, suggesting that ELT-7 actually overcompensates for the loss of ELT-2. For a third class, transcript levels also increased upon loss of ELT-2 but remained elevated upon further loss of ELT-7, suggesting overcompensation by some other intestinal transcription factor(s). In spite of its minor loss-of-function phenotype and its limited sequence similarity to ELT-2, ELT-7 expressed under control of the elt-2 promoter is able to rescue elt-2(-) lethality. Indeed, appropriately expressed ELT-7, like appropriately expressed ELT-2, is able to replace all other core GATA factors in the C. elegans endodermal pathway. Overall, this study focuses attention on the quantitative intricacies behind apparent redundancy or partial redundancy of two related transcription factors.

Project description:In the past decade, the paradigm which claimed that invertebrate immune systems lack specificity has been reconsidered. Accumulating evidence supports that invertebrate immune systems are able to mount specific responses to the pathogen species-, and even to the pathogen strain-level. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms behind invertebrate immune specificity remain mostly unknown. Studying the molecular basis of invertebrate immune specificity in a genetically tractable model, such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, has the potential to reveal insights into the immune systems of other metazoans, including humans. We chose to study the mechanisms of specific immune responses of the worm to two different pathogenic strains of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (MYBY18247 and MYBT18679), because there is phenotypic evidence of specific genotype-genotype interactions between this host-pathogen pair. We did an initial RNA-Seq experiment upon pathogen exposure and found that 9% of the differentially expressed genes change their expression in different ways when comparing the two pathogen strains. Through promoter region motif enrichment analysis, we found the GATA transcription factor ELT-2 is responsible for the pathogen strain-specific transcriptomic response. Upon elt-2 knockdown worms exposed to MYBT18679 display lower survival rate coupled with higher intestinal damage than non-infected controls. Additionally, by performing further genetic analysis using gene knockdown and knockout, we found that the p38 MAPK pathway acts likely in parallel to elt-2 and the transcription factor skn-1 cooperates with elt-2 to promote resistance to MYBT18679. On the other hand, elt-2 knockdown leads to a substantially higher survival rate, together with lower intestinal tissue damage compared to control worms, upon exposure to MYBT18247, another pathogenic Bacillus thuringiensis strain. The MYBT18247 pathogen load of elt-2(RNAi) worms compared to control worms remained unchanged, suggesting the elt-2 negatively regulates tolerance towards MYBT18247. We found that tolerance to MYBT18247 was positively regulated by the transcription factors: FOXO daf-16, bZip zip-2, nhr-99 and nhr-193. To identify elt-2 negatively-regulated downstream targets that could promote tolerance to MYBT18247, we performed a second RNA-Seq experiment, this time including elt-2(RNAi) worms exposed to both pathogenic strains. We found four genes negatively regulated by elt-2: cdr-2, poml-3, dhs-30 and tre-3, with putative function in detoxification and lipid metabolism, which can mediate tolerance to MYBT18247. We conclude that ELT-2 coordinates strain-specific immune responses in this invertebrate host and promotes resistance upon exposure to MYBT18679, while it negatively regulates tolerance to MYBT18247. The response is likely to be specific to the crystal pore-forming toxins produced by this pathogen.

Dataset Information

Endoderm development in Caenorhabditis elegans: the synergistic action of ELT-2 and -7 mediates the specification?differentiation transition.

Publications

Endoderm development in Caenorhabditis elegans: the synergistic action of ELT-2 and -7 mediates the specification→differentiation transition.

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