Transcriptional control of cone photoreceptor diversity by a thyroid hormone receptor
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Mus
PROVIDER: GSE203481 | GEO | 2022/12/05
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:Thyroid hormone (TH) signaling plays an important role in the regulation of long-wavelength vision in vertebrates. In the retina, thyroid hormone receptor β (thrb) is required for expression of long-wavelength-sensitive opsin (lws) in red cone photoreceptors; whereas in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), TH regulates expression of a cytochrome P450 enzyme, Cyp27c1, that converts vitamin A1 into vitamin A2 to produce a red-shifted chromophore. To better understand how TH controls these processes, we analyzed the phenotype of zebrafish with mutations in the three known TH nuclear receptor transcription factors (thraa, thrab, and thrb). We found that no single TH nuclear receptor is required for TH-mediated induction of cyp27c1 but that deletion of all three (thraa-/-;thrab-/-;thrb-/-) completely abrogates its induction and the resulting conversion of A1- to A2-based retinaldehydes. In the retina, loss of thrb resulted in an absence of red cones at both larval and adult stages without disruption of the underlying cone mosaic. RNA-seq analysis revealed significant downregulation of only five genes in adult thrb-/- retina, of which three (lws1, lws2, and miR-726) occur in a single syntenic cluster. In the larval thrb-/- retina, retinal progenitors destined to become red cones were transfated to ultraviolet (UV) cone opsin (sws1)-expressing cells and cells resembling horizontal cells. Taken together, our findings demonstrate cooperative regulation of cyp27c1 by TH receptors and a requirement for thrb in red cone fate determination. Thus, TH signaling coordinately regulates both spectral sensitivity and sensory plasticity.
2020-05-06 | GSE143312 | GEO
Project description:The development of the retina into a highly organized structure occurs via the production of over 100 cell types from a pool of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs). While some RPCs are capable of making many types of retinal cell types, some terminally dividing RPCs are restricted to the production of specific types of daughter cells. Notably, although such restrictions can be limited to the production of a very specific single cell type, in other cases, production of two very different cell types, such as a photoreceptor and an interneuron, occurs. How specific types of RPCs make specific types of neuron is not fully understood. Combining RNA-seq and ATAC-seq, we compared the transcriptome and chromatin profiles between one type of biased RPC and other types of RPCs. The biased RPC that was studied is one that we previously defined by its expression of a cis-regulatory module (CRM) for the thyroid hormone receptor beta gene (Thrb), the earliest known marker of cone photoreceptors. In this earlier study, we found that Otx2 and Onecut1 drove expression of this Thrb CRM, as well as regulated expression of the Thrb gene. Here we explored the roles of these Otx2 and Oc1 further. We discovered that their roles extend well beyond regulating Thrb. They collaborate to regulate multiple genes important in cone development and/or function, including Rxrg, a known partner of Thrb. We also identified several new enhancers of genes active in developing cones. These data expand our understanding of the gene regulatory network (GRN) for cone development and contribute new CRMs for vectors that are expressed only in cones, as well as enable the genesis of cones from stem cells, for their use in retinal disease cell and gene therapies.
2021-07-01 | GSE151947 | GEO
Project description:Cone photoreceptors are the primary initiator of visual transduction in the human retina. Dysfunction or death of rod photoreceptors precedes cone loss in many retinal and macular degenerative diseases, suggesting a rod-dependent trophic support for cone survival. Rod differentiation and homeostasis are dependent on the basic motif leucine zipper transcription factor NRL. The loss of Nrl in mice (Nrl-/-) results in a retina with predominantly S-opsin containing cones that exhibit molecular and functional characteristics of WT cones. Here we report that Nrl-/- retina undergoes a rapid but transient period of degeneration in early adulthood, with cone apoptosis, retinal detachment, alterations in retinal vessel structure, and activation and translocation of retinal microglia. However, cone degeneration stabilizes by four months of age, resulting in a thinned but intact outer nuclear layer with residual cones expressing S- and M-opsins and a preserved photopic ERG. At this stage, microglia translocate back to the inner retina and reacquire a quiescent morphology. Gene profiling analysis during the period of transient degeneration reveals misregulation of stress response and inflammation genes, implying their involvement in cone death. The Nrl-/- retina illustrates the long-term viability of cones in the absence of rods and may serve as a model for elucidating mechanisms of cone homeostasis and degeneration that would be relevant to understanding diseases of the cone-dominant human macula. Targets were generated from a pair of retinas (one Nrl-/- mouse) per biological replicate. Four biological replicates were generated for each of the five aging timepoints (1, 2, 4, 6, and 10 months post natal).
2011-11-15 | E-GEOD-33674 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Purpose: Using customized RNA-sequencing analyses to reveal notably different expression profiles of TRb1 and TRb2 in mouse retina. Method and Results: TRb2 peaks early whereas TRb1 peaks later during retinal maturation or during later differentiation. TRb1-knockout mice displayed only minor changes in opsin photopigment expression and normal electroretinogram responses, indicating that TRb2 and TRb1 are not functionally equivalent in cone differentiation. The biphasic expression patterns of TRb1 and TRb2 suggest versatile functions for thyroid hormone in retinal and non-neural ocular development.
2023-04-18 | GSE224863 | GEO
Project description:Cone photoreceptors are the primary initiator of visual transduction in the human retina. Dysfunction or death of rod photoreceptors precedes cone loss in many retinal and macular degenerative diseases, suggesting a rod-dependent trophic support for cone survival. Rod differentiation and homeostasis are dependent on the basic motif leucine zipper transcription factor NRL. The loss of Nrl in mice (Nrl-/-) results in a retina with predominantly S-opsin containing cones that exhibit molecular and functional characteristics of WT cones. Here we report that Nrl-/- retina undergoes a rapid but transient period of degeneration in early adulthood, with cone apoptosis, retinal detachment, alterations in retinal vessel structure, and activation and translocation of retinal microglia. However, cone degeneration stabilizes by four months of age, resulting in a thinned but intact outer nuclear layer with residual cones expressing S- and M-opsins and a preserved photopic ERG. At this stage, microglia translocate back to the inner retina and reacquire a quiescent morphology. Gene profiling analysis during the period of transient degeneration reveals misregulation of stress response and inflammation genes, implying their involvement in cone death. The Nrl-/- retina illustrates the long-term viability of cones in the absence of rods and may serve as a model for elucidating mechanisms of cone homeostasis and degeneration that would be relevant to understanding diseases of the cone-dominant human macula.
2011-11-15 | GSE33674 | GEO
Project description:Human cone photoreceptors represent a rare cell population of the human retina and are largely outnumbered by other retinal cell types. Despite their rarity, cone photoreceptors are critical for optimal daylight vision and their loss has the greatest impact on sight during the progression of retinal dystrophies. This is most applicable to the L/M-opsin cone populations which form the largest proportion of cones in the human retina and are the only cone types present within the fovea, which is responsible for fine detailed vision. Better understanding of the early genesis of these cells within the human developing retina, particularly in relation to the expression of genes that could be involved in regulating early events such as cell fate decision, is required. These molecular determinants could be exploited in vitro to generate more cone photoreceptors within human stem cell-derived retinal differentiation culture systems, suitable for use in cell transpantation therapies or disease modelling purposes. Additionally, the nature of this cell population in terms of their gene expression heterogeneity remains to be defined. State of the art technology has now advanced so that mRNA sequencing can be performed on individual cells, which means the transcriptome of rare cell populations such as cone photoreceptor cells can be interrogated without the need for ample material. Using the AAV2/9 pR2.1:GFP reporter, containing a synthetic promoter region previously characterised to drive expression in cone photoreceptors, we label and isolate human foetal L/M-opsin cone photoreceptors within the 15pcw human retinal retina. Isolated GFP+ cells were separated into individual cells using the Fluidigm C1 microfludics system, before RNA extraction and cDNA library preparation was performed. In total, 74 single cells were captured and processed for RNA sequencing; quality control of the data led to the inclusion of 65 individual cells for the downstream analysis. Principal component analysis revealed a very subtle heterogeneity across the cells, with the highest variability observed according to the first principal component (PC1). Differential gene expression analysis correlated to PC1 led to the identification of 503 significantly differentially expressed genes. Notably, some genes increase in expression across the cells when ordered according to PC1 which have previous associations with photoreceptor maturation, whereas other genes associated with developmental processes became downregulated across the cells. This led to the hypothesis that at this single timepoint in the human foetal retina, developing L/M-opsin cone photoreceptors exist at different stages of maturation. Overlapping genes were identified from comparing RNA seq data from 15pcw single cells and population samples at early and late timepoints of pR2.1:GFP+ cells, which showed the same gene expression trend between experiments. This suggests differences in cell maturation at a single timepoint of development could be representative of their true developmental trajectory. This overlapping gene dataset is also highly useful to define new gene that could be involved in cone photoreceptor development.
2018-04-20 | E-MTAB-6058 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The cone photoreceptor cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channel is essential for central and color vision and visual acuity. Mutations in the channel subunits CNGA3 and CNGB3 are associated with achromatopsia and cone dystrophy. We investigated the gene expression profiles in mouse retina with CNG channel deficiency on a cone-dominant background, i.e., CNGA3-/-/Nrl-/- and CNGB3-/-/Nrl-/- mice, relative to Nrl-/- mice. Total RNA was isolated from 2 retinas per animal (CNGA3-/-/Nrl-/-, CNGB3-/-/Nrl-/-, and Nrl-/- mice). The background strain for these mutations was C57bl/6.
2013-07-03 | E-GEOD-40982 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The cone photoreceptor cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channel is essential for central and color vision and visual acuity. Mutations in the channel subunits CNGA3 and CNGB3 are associated with achromatopsia and cone dystrophy. We investigated the gene expression profiles in mouse retina with CNG channel deficiency on a cone-dominant background, i.e., CNGA3-/-/Nrl-/- and CNGB3-/-/Nrl-/- mice, relative to Nrl-/- mice.
2013-07-03 | GSE40982 | GEO
Project description:Transcription factors have been implicated in the specification and differentiation of all cells in the mammalian retina with several transcription factors controlling the development of multiple neuronal subclasses. Horizontal cells and cone photoreceptors share a particularly intimate functional relationship but have been previously thought to develop through separate and distinct intrinsic molecular processes. We demonstrate that the zinc finger transcription factor Sall3 regulates development of both S-cone photoreceptors and horizontal cells. Our data shows that loss of function of Sall3 down-regulates the horizontal cell specific transcription factor Lhx1 and subsequently causes ectopic formation of horizontal-like wide-field amacrine cells partially phenocopying Lhx1-/- mice. Additionally, horizontal cells which laminate appropriately in Sall3 knockout mice show abnormal horizontal cell gene expression and failures in dendritic arborization. Over-expression of Sall3 also partially re-specifies cells to a horizontal-like wide-field amacrine fate. Intriguingly, Sall3 loss of function experiments also generated a massive reduction in the number of S-cone photoreceptors with remaining S-cones showing deficiencies in S-cone gene expression and morphology. Conversely, over-expression of Sall3 resulted in the ectopic expression of the S-cone specific genes S-opsin (Sop) and cone arrestin (Arr3) in electroporated cells. Our studies reveal that Sall3 regulates aspects of horizontal cell development in two ways: first, by maintaining Lhx1 expression, and second, by directly regulating expression of horizontal cell specific genes. We also show that Sall3 is an essential regulator of S-cone development in the mammalian retina and a potent activator of Sop and Arr3. Sall3 wild-type and knockout retinas used for explant cultures were extracted by microdissection at P0 in sterile PBS. Four cuts were made using micro-dissection scissors and the retinas were transferred to Nucleopore Track-Etch membrane filters (Whatman) and the tissue flattened out evenly. Filters were then floated on DMEM/F12, 10% FBS, 1X penicillin/streptomycin in 12 well plates and incubated at 37oC, 5% CO2 for 7 days. Three retinas (Sall3 knockout or wild-type) were pooled and RNA extracted using the Qiagen RNeasy kit. This was performed in triplicate for both wild-type and Sall3 knockouts retinas. A total of three replicates of Sall3 knockout and Sall3 wild-type RNA were analysed (six total samples).
2011-09-09 | E-GEOD-24083 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The mechanisms that specify cone photoreceptor cell-fate to short-wave-sensitive (S) versus medium-wave-sensitive (M) cones and maintain their nature are not fully understood. Here we report the importance of the GTF2IRD1 transcription factor in maintaining M cone cell identity and function. In the mouse, GTF2IRD1 is expressed in cell-fate determined photoreceptors at postnatal day 10. GTF2IRD1 binds to the enhancer and promoter regions of mouse M and S opsin genes, but regulates their expression differentially, suppressing S opsin expression and, through interaction with the transcription factors CRX and TR2, enhancing M opsin expression. Null mutation of Gtf2ird1 leads to altered topology of cone opsin expression in the retina, with aberrant S opsin over-expression and M opsin under-expression in M cones. Gtf2ird1 null mice also demonstrate abnormal M cone electrophysiological responses. These findings indicate a dual and specific regulatory role of GTF2IRD1 in maintaining normal M cone-specific gene expression and function.
2014-12-31 | GSE54164 | GEO