Hippo-YAP signaling controls lineage differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cell through super-enhancers [ChIP-seq 2]
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ABSTRACT: Hippo-YAP signaling pathway is a highly conserved pathway during evolution. It involves in a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological procedure. It also functions in early lineage differentiation of pluripotent stem cells, but the detailed mechanisms remain elusive. Our previous research revealed that knockout of Mst1 and Mst2, the key components of Hippo signaling in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), led ESCs preferentially differentiate into ectoderm lineage, and the differentiation to mesoderm and endoderm lineage was disturbed. To uncover the underlying regulatory mechanisms, we performed ChIP-seq experiments with antibodies against Yap, master transcription factors and some characterized histone modification markers. Combined with RNA-seq assays of wild type and Mst KO ESCs and day 4 embryoid bodies (EBs), we found that YAP is preferentially enriched at Nanog, Sox2, Oct4 and H3K27Ac co-marked super-enhancers (SEs) in ESCs. The upregulation of YAP in Mst KO ESCs resulted in the formation of new super-enhancers on lineage associated genes, leading to the upregulation of these genes and the distortion of ESC differentiation. Hence, our study revealed a super-enhancer related ESC lineage differentiation mechanism which can be shaped by Hippo-YAP signaling.
Project description:Hippo-YAP signaling pathway is a highly conserved pathway during evolution. It involves in a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological procedure. It also functions in early lineage differentiation of pluripotent stem cells, but the detailed mechanisms remain elusive. Our previous research revealed that knockout of Mst1 and Mst2, the key components of Hippo signaling in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), led ESCs preferentially differentiate into ectoderm lineage, and the differentiation to mesoderm and endoderm lineage was disturbed. To uncover the underlying regulatory mechanisms, we performed ChIP-seq experiments with antibodies against Yap, master transcription factors and some characterized histone modification markers. Combined with RNA-seq assays of wild type and Mst KO ESCs and day 4 embryoid bodies (EBs), we found that YAP is preferentially enriched at Nanog, Sox2, Oct4 and H3K27Ac co-marked super-enhancers (SEs) in ESCs. The upregulation of YAP in Mst KO ESCs resulted in the formation of new super-enhancers on lineage associated genes, leading to the upregulation of these genes and the distortion of ESC differentiation. Hence, our study revealed a super-enhancer related ESC lineage differentiation mechanism which can be shaped by Hippo-YAP signaling.
Project description:Hippo-YAP signaling pathway is a highly conserved pathway during evolution. It involves in a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological procedure. It also functions in early lineage differentiation of pluripotent stem cells, but the detailed mechanisms remain elusive. Our previous research revealed that knockout of Mst1 and Mst2, the key components of Hippo signaling in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), led ESCs preferentially differentiate into ectoderm lineage, and the differentiation to mesoderm and endoderm lineage was disturbed. To uncover the underlying regulatory mechanisms, we performed ChIP-seq experiments with antibodies against Yap, master transcription factors and some characterized histone modification markers. Combined with RNA-seq assays of wild type and Mst KO ESCs and day 4 embryoid bodies (EBs), we found that YAP is preferentially enriched at Nanog, Sox2, Oct4 and H3K27Ac co-marked super-enhancers (SEs) in ESCs. The upregulation of YAP in Mst KO ESCs resulted in the formation of new super-enhancers on lineage associated genes, leading to the upregulation of these genes and the distortion of ESC differentiation. Hence, our study revealed a super-enhancer related ESC lineage differentiation mechanism which can be shaped by Hippo-YAP signaling.
Project description:The Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase (NuRD) complex plays an important role in gene expression regulation, stem cell self-renewal, and lineage commitment. Yet little is known about the dynamics of NuRD during cellular differentiation. Here, we study these dynamics using genome-wide profiling and quantitative interaction proteomics in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs). The genomic targets of NuRD are highly dynamic during differentiation, with most binding occurring at cell-type specific promoters and enhancers. We identify ZFP296 as a novel, ESC-specific NuRD interactor that also interacts with the SIN3A complex. ChIP-sequencing in Zfp296 knockout (KO) ESCs reveals decreased NuRD binding both genome-wide and at ZFP296 binding sites, although this has little effect on the transcriptome. Nevertheless, Zfp296 KO ESCs exhibit delayed induction of lineage-specific markers upon differentiation to embryoid bodies. In summary, we identify an ESC-specific NuRD interacting protein which regulates genome-wide NuRD binding and cellular differentiation.
Project description:Pluripotent Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) can be captured in vitro in different states, ranging from unrestricted ‘naïve’ to more developmentally constrained ‘primed’ pluripotency. Complexes involved in epigenetic regulation and key transcription factors have been shown to be involved in specifying these distinct states. In this study, we use proteomic profiling of the chromatin landscape in naive pluripotent ESCs, Epistem cells (EpiSCs) and early differentiated ESCs to survey the chromatin in naïve and primed pluripotency and during differentiation. We provide a comprehensive overview of epigenetic complexes situated on the chromatin and identify proteins associated with the maintenance and loss of pluripotency. The findings presented here indicate major compositional alterations of epigenetic complexes starting from ESC priming onwards. Our results contribute to the understanding of ESC differentiation and provide a framework for future studies of lineage commitment of ESCs.
Project description:The Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase (NuRD) complex plays an important role in gene expression regulation, stem cell self-renewal, and lineage commitment. Yet little is known about the dynamics of NuRD during cellular differentiation. Here, we study these dynamics using genome-wide profiling and quantitative interaction proteomics in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs). The genomic targets of NuRD are highly dynamic during differentiation, with most binding occurring at cell-type specific promoters and enhancers. We identify ZFP296 as a novel, ESC-specific NuRD interactor that also interacts with the SIN3A complex. ChIP-sequencing in Zfp296 knockout (KO) ESCs reveals decreased NuRD binding both genome-wide and at ZFP296 binding sites, although this has little effect on the transcriptome. Nevertheless, Zfp296 KO ESCs exhibit delayed induction of lineage-specific markers upon differentiation to embryoid bodies. In summary, we identify an ESC-specific NuRD interacting protein which regulates genome-wide NuRD binding and cellular differentiation.
Project description:The Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase (NuRD) complex plays an important role in gene expression regulation, stem cell self-renewal, and lineage commitment. Yet little is known about the dynamics of NuRD during cellular differentiation. Here, we study these dynamics using genome-wide profiling and quantitative interaction proteomics in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs). The genomic targets of NuRD are highly dynamic during differentiation, with most binding occurring at cell-type specific promoters and enhancers. We identify ZFP296 as a novel, ESC-specific NuRD interactor that also interacts with the SIN3A complex. ChIP-sequencing in Zfp296 knockout (KO) ESCs reveals decreased NuRD binding both genome-wide and at ZFP296 binding sites, although this has little effect on the transcriptome. Nevertheless, Zfp296 KO ESCs exhibit delayed induction of lineage-specific markers upon differentiation to embryoid bodies. In summary, we identify an ESC-specific NuRD interacting protein which regulates genome-wide NuRD binding and cellular differentiation.
Project description:Purpose: Super-enhancers (SEs) have been reported to regulate the expression of core transcription factors in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), but they have not been well identified and evaluated in terms of their functional roles in ESC phenotype. Methods and results: Here we identified an ESC-specific Klf5-adjacent SE (K5aSE) by conducting comprehensive analysis of ESCs in different states. We found that K5aSE is required for ESC clonal growth, cell proliferation, embryoid body (EB) differentiation and Klf5 expression. However, restorative expression of Klf5 only partially rescued the phenotype of K5aSE knockout (K5aSE-KO) ESCs. Meanwhile, Klf5-KO ESCs exhibited similar phenotypes to K5aSE-KO cells, but shown different lineage differentiation in EBs, revealing that K5aSE and Klf5 regulate ESCs differently. Further 4C-seq combined with RNA-seq analysis showed that K5aSE significantly promoted the expression of other four target genes in the same chromosome, such as Clybl, Farp1, Nkx3-1 and Tbc1d4, and that CRISPRa-mediated restoration of these four genes also partially rescued the phenotype of K5aSE-KO cells. Finally, we also identified these four genes as novel ESC regulators required for self-renewal and EB differentiation. transcripts in the retinas of WT and Nrl−/− mice with BWA workflow and 34,115 transcripts with TopHat workflow. RNA-seq data confirmed stable expression of 25 known housekeeping genes, and 12 of these were validated with qRT–PCR. RNA-seq data had a linear relationship with qRT–PCR for more than four orders of magnitude and a goodness of fit (R2) of 0.8798. Approximately 10% of the transcripts showed differential expression between the WT and Nrl−/− retina, with a fold change ≥1.5 and p value <0.05. Altered expression of 25 genes was confirmed with qRT–PCR, demonstrating the high degree of sensitivity of the RNA-seq method. Hierarchical clustering of differentially expressed genes uncovered several as yet uncharacterized genes that may contribute to retinal function. Data analysis with BWA and TopHat workflows revealed a significant overlap yet provided complementary insights in transcriptome profiling. Conclusions: Together, this study provides new insights into understanding ESC properties and highlights the crucial role of SE as 3D chromatin structure-dependent transcriptional driver in ESCs.
Project description:Spt6 coordinates nucleosome dis- and re-assembly, transcriptional elongation and mRNA processing. Here, we report that depleting Spt6 in ESCs reduced expression of pluripotency factors, increased expression of cell lineage-affiliated developmental regulators, and induced cell morphological and biochemical changes indicative of ESC differentiation. Selective down-regulation of pluripotency factors upon Spt6 depletion may be mechanistically explained by its enrichment at ESC super-enhancers where Spt6 controlled H3K27 acetylation and methylation, and super-enhancer RNA transcription. In ESCs, Spt6 interacted with the PRC2 core subunit Suz12 and prevented H3K27me3 accumulation at ESC super-enhancers and associated promoters. Biochemical as well as functional experiments revealed that Spt6 could compete for binding of the PRC2 methyltransferase Ezh2 to Suz12 and reduce PRC2 chromatin engagement. Thus, in addition to serving as histone chaperone and transcription elongation factor, Spt6 counteracts repression by opposing H3K27me3 deposition at critical genomic regulatory regions.
Project description:Eed (embryonic ectoderm development) is a core component of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) which catalyzes the methylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27). Trimethylated H3K27 (H3K27me3) can act as a signal for PRC1 recruitment in the process of gene silencing and chromatin condensation. Previous studies with Eed KO ESCs revealed a failure to down-regulate a limited list of pluripotency factors in differentiating ESCs. Our aim was to analyze the consequences of Eed KO for ESC differentiation. To this end we first analyzed ESC differentiation in the absence of Eed and employed in silico data to assess pluripotency gene expression and H3K27me3 patterns. We linked these data to expression analyses of wildtype and Eed KO ESCs. We observed that in wildtype ESCs a subset of pluripotency genes including Oct4, Nanog, Sox2 and Oct4 target genes progressively gain H3K27me3 during differentiation. These genes remain expressed in differentiating Eed KO ESCs. This suggests that the deregulation of a limited set of pluripotency factors impedes ESC differentiation. Global analyses of H3K27me3 and Oct4 ChIP-seq data indicate that in ESCs the binding of Oct4 to promoter regions is not a general predictor for PRC2-mediated silencing during differentiation. However, motif analyses suggest a binding of Oct4 together with Sox2 and Nanog at promoters of genes that are PRC2-dependently silenced during differentiation. In summary, our data further characterize Eed function in ESCs by showing that Eed/PRC2 is essential for the onset of ESC differentiation. RNAs obtained from undifferentiated (d0) wild type and Eed KO ESCs and from day 3 (d3) and day 7 (d7) respective Ebs were subjected to Affymetrix Mouse Gene 1.0 ST Array. 24 samples in total.
Project description:Eed (embryonic ectoderm development) is a core component of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) which catalyzes the methylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27). Trimethylated H3K27 (H3K27me3) can act as a signal for PRC1 recruitment in the process of gene silencing and chromatin condensation. Previous studies with Eed KO ESCs revealed a failure to down-regulate a limited list of pluripotency factors in differentiating ESCs. Our aim was to analyze the consequences of Eed KO for ESC differentiation. To this end we first analyzed ESC differentiation in the absence of Eed and employed in silico data to assess pluripotency gene expression and H3K27me3 patterns. We linked these data to expression analyses of wildtype and Eed KO ESCs. We observed that in wildtype ESCs a subset of pluripotency genes including Oct4, Nanog, Sox2 and Oct4 target genes progressively gain H3K27me3 during differentiation. These genes remain expressed in differentiating Eed KO ESCs. This suggests that the deregulation of a limited set of pluripotency factors impedes ESC differentiation. Global analyses of H3K27me3 and Oct4 ChIP-seq data indicate that in ESCs the binding of Oct4 to promoter regions is not a general predictor for PRC2-mediated silencing during differentiation. However, motif analyses suggest a binding of Oct4 together with Sox2 and Nanog at promoters of genes that are PRC2-dependently silenced during differentiation. In summary, our data further characterize Eed function in ESCs by showing that Eed/PRC2 is essential for the onset of ESC differentiation.