Project description:Sox17-Erg direct reprogramming converts adult murine cardiac fibroblasts into induced endothelial cells. This data evaluates the conversion of the Sox17-Erg iECs compared to single gene constructs.
Project description:The SOX17 triple-mutant SOX17FNV is a more potent inducer of pluripotency than wild-type SOX2 for unknown features outside its DNA binding high mobility group box domain. Using an inducible reprogramming system, we verified that wild-type SOX17 is not capable to induce pluripotency but SOX17FNV outperforms SOX2 in mouse and human. In mature pluripotent stem cells, SOX17FNV can fully replace SOX2 without compromising self-renewal and pluripotency despite considerable sequence variation. Binding assays using full length proteins expressed in mammalian cells show that SOX17FNV and SOX17 co-bind OCT4 more tightly than SOX2 albeit with switched preferences for composite DNA motifs. Through the systematic analyses of domain deletions, we found that the N-terminus is dispensable for the reprogramming activity of SOX17FNV whilst the C-terminus encodes for essential as well as superfluous domains. Domains have non-additive and partially compensatory effects suggesting that versatile multivalent interaction drive transactivation and reprogramming. We define a minimal SOX17FNV (miniSOX) that can support reprogramming without loss in activity enabling payload reduction within reprogramming cassettes. The definition, functional evaluation and utilisation of potent effector domains that are optimised to pioneer cell fate transition will open up new avenues to enhance cellular reprogramming and stem cell engineering with synthetic transcription factors.
Project description:The SOX17 triple-mutant SOX17FNV is a more potent inducer of pluripotency than wild-type SOX2 for unknown features outside its DNA binding high mobility group box domain. Using an inducible reprogramming system, we verified that wild-type SOX17 is not capable to induce pluripotency but SOX17FNV outperforms SOX2 in mouse and human. In mature pluripotent stem cells, SOX17FNV can fully replace SOX2 without compromising self-renewal and pluripotency despite considerable sequence variation. Binding assays using full length proteins expressed in mammalian cells show that SOX17FNV and SOX17 co-bind OCT4 more tightly than SOX2 albeit with switched preferences for composite DNA motifs. Through the systematic analyses of domain deletions, we found that the N-terminus is dispensable for the reprogramming activity of SOX17FNV whilst the C-terminus encodes for essential as well as superfluous domains. Domains have non-additive and partially compensatory effects suggesting that versatile multivalent interaction drive transactivation and reprogramming. We define a minimal SOX17FNV (miniSOX) that can support reprogramming without loss in activity enabling payload reduction within reprogramming cassettes. The definition, functional evaluation and utilisation of potent effector domains that are optimised to pioneer cell fate transition will open up new avenues to enhance cellular reprogramming and stem cell engineering with synthetic transcription factors.
Project description:Sox17-Erg direct reprogramming converts neonatal murine cardiac fibroblasts into induced endothelial cells. This data evaluates the conversion over time of the Sox17-Erg iECs compared to control condition.
Project description:The functional consequences of cancer-associated missense mutations are unclear for majority of proteins, here we interrogated cancer mutation databases and identified recurrently mutated positions at structural contact interface of DNA-binding domains of SOX and POU family transcription factors. We used conversion of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a functional read out. In this study we identified several gain-of-function mutations that enhance cellular pluripotency reprogramming by SOX2 and OCT4. Wild type SOX17 does not support pluripotency reprogramming while recurrent missense mutation SOX17-V118M converts SOX17 into a pluripotency inducer, viability of cancer cells and provides protein stability. Here, we conclude that mutational profile of SOX and OCT family factors in cancer association can give direction to design high-performance reprogramming factors.
Project description:Sox17-Erg direct reprogramming is a potent tool for the in vitro and in vivo generation of arterial-like induced-endothelial cells from fibroblasts. In this study, we illustrate the pioneering roles of both Sox17 and Erg in the endothelial cell reprogramming process and demonstrate that emergent gene expression only occurs when both factors are co-expressed. Bioinformatic analyses and molecular validation reveal both Bach2 and Etv4 as integral mediators of Sox17-Erg reprogramming with different roles in lung and heart fibroblast reprogramming. The generated organ-specific induced endothelial cells express molecular signatures similar to vasculature found in the starting cell's organ of origin and the starting chromatin architecture plays a role in the acquisition of this organ-specific identity. Overall, the Sox17-Erg reprogramming mechanism provides foundational knowledge for the future recapitulation of vascular heterogeneity through direct reprogramming.
Project description:Sox17-Erg direct reprogramming converts adult murine cardiac and lung fibroblasts into induced endothelial cells. This data evaluates the conversion of organ-specific Sox17-Erg iECs compared native fibroblast and endothelial cells.