The BAF chromatin remodeling complex regulates gene expression programs essential for mammalian neural crest development
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ABSTRACT: Neural crest cells (NCCs) are a multipotent cell population that contributes to the development of many tissues including craniofacial, pharyngeal arch arteries, and cardiac outflow tract (OFT). The BAF complex plays an important role in the development of a wide range of tissues by modulating gene expression programs at the chromatin level. However, its role in neural crest development has remained unclear. To determine the role BAF complex, we deleted BAF155 and BAF170, the core subunits required for the assembly, stability, and functions of the BAF complex in NCCs. Mouse embryos lacking BAF155/170 in NCCs displayed early lethality due to a wide range of developmental defects including craniofacial defects, pharyngeal arch artery defects, and OFT defects. We observed reduced proliferation, increased cell death, and impaired migration of cardiac NCCs to the OFT in BAF155/170 mutants. RNAseq analysis on sorted NCCs revealed that the BAF complex regulates the expression of numerous genes essential for neural crest development. We observed downregulation of Hippo and Notch signaling pathways, both essential for the migration, proliferation, and differentiation of the NCCs. The BAF complex interacts with transcription factors to modulate the transcriptional program. Therefore, we performed transcription factor enrichment analysis on the RNAseq data set and identified several transcription factors including Hey1, Hey2, and Hes5 that may directly or indirectly interact with the BAF complex in NCCs. We also found that Brg1 interact with Tead transcription factors and the interaction was impaired in BAF155/170 knockdown cells. Together, our results demonstrate an important role of the BAF complex in modulating the gene regulatory network essential for neural crest development.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE153121 | GEO | 2021/03/05
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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