Similar Datasets
Project description:Pluripotent stem cells are a hallmark of animal multicellularity. Sox and POU family transcription factors are pivotal for stemness and were believed to be animal innovations as they were reported absent from the genomes of their unicellular relatives. Here we describe new unicellular holozoan orthologues to Sox and POU families, indicating that they emerged before the appearance of animals. We show that choanoflagellate and filasterean Sox genes have DNA binding specificity similar to Sox2. Choanoflagellate Sox can partner with the POU member Oct4 on DNA elements found in pluripotency enhancers. Consistently, choanoflagellate – but not filasterean – Sox genes can replace Sox2 to reprogram mouse somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). In contrast, choanoflagellate POU harbors a unique DNA-binding profile that differs from Oct4 and cannot generate iPSCs. Pluripotency reprogramming with reconstructed ancestral Sox genes shows that their molecular ability to induce stemness was already present in the last common ancestor of animals and their unicellular relatives. Our findings imply that the evolution of stem cells exploited a pre-existing set of transcription factors, where the critical innovation involved an initial change in DNA specificity of POU and the exaptation of the ancestral capacity to interact with Sox transcription factors.
2024-10-23 | GSE253887 | GEO
Project description:Pluripotent stem cells are a hallmark of animal multicellularity. Sox and POU family transcription factors are pivotal for stemness and were believed to be animal innovations as they were reported absent from the genomes of their unicellular relatives. Here we describe new unicellular holozoan orthologues to Sox and POU families, indicating that they emerged before the appearance of animals. We show that choanoflagellate and filasterean Sox genes have DNA binding specificity similar to Sox2. Choanoflagellate Sox can partner with the POU member Oct4 on DNA elements found in pluripotency enhancers. Consistently, choanoflagellate – but not filasterean – Sox genes can replace Sox2 to reprogram mouse somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). In contrast, choanoflagellate POU harbors a unique DNA-binding profile that differs from Oct4 and cannot generate iPSCs. Pluripotency reprogramming with reconstructed ancestral Sox genes shows that their molecular ability to induce stemness was already present in the last common ancestor of animals and their unicellular relatives. Our findings imply that the evolution of stem cells exploited a pre-existing set of transcription factors, where the critical innovation involved an initial change in DNA specificity of POU and the exaptation of the ancestral capacity to interact with Sox transcription factors.
2024-10-23 | GSE253886 | GEO
Project description:Intermediate-filament Nestin and group B1 SOX transcription factors (SOX1/2/3) are often employed as markers for neural primordium, suggesting their regulatory link. We have identified adjacent and essential SOX and POU factor binding sites in the Nestin neural enhancer. The 30-bp sequence of the enhancer including these sites (Nes30) showed a nervous system-specific and SOX-POU-dependent enhancer activity in multimeric forms in transfection assays and was utilized in assessing the specificity of the synergism; combinations of either group B1 or group C SOX (SOX11) with class III POU proved effective. In embryonic day 13.5 mouse spinal cord, Nestin was expressed in the cells with nuclei in the ventricular and subventricular zones. SOX1/2/3 expression was confined to the nuclei of the ventricular zone; SOX11 localized to the nuclei of both subventricular (high-level expression) and intermediate (low-level expression) zones. Class III POU (Brn2) was expressed at high levels, localizing to the nucleus in the ventricular and subventricular zones; moderate expression was observed in the intermediate zone, distributed in the cytoplasm. These data support the model that synergic interactions between group B1/C SOX and class III POU within the nucleus determine Nestin expression. Evidence also suggests that such interactions are involved in the regulation of neural primordial cells.
| S-EPMC517870 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells can generate all cell types, but how cell lineages are initially specified and maintained during development remains largely unknown. Different classes of Sox transcription factors are expressed during neurogenesis and have been assigned important roles from early lineage specification to neuronal differentiation. Here we characterize the genome-wide binding for Sox2, Sox3, and Sox11, which have vital functions in ES cells, neural precursor cells (NPCs), and maturing neurons, respectively. The data demonstrate that Sox factor binding depends on developmental stage-specific constraints and reveal a remarkable sequential binding of Sox proteins to a common set of neural genes. Interestingly, in ES cells, Sox2 preselects for neural lineage-specific genes destined to be bound and activated by Sox3 in NPCs. In NPCs, Sox3 binds genes that are later bound and activated by Sox11 in differentiating neurons. Genes prebound by Sox proteins are associated with a bivalent chromatin signature, which is resolved into a permissive monovalent state upon binding of activating Sox factors. These data indicate that a single key transcription factor family acts sequentially to coordinate neural gene expression from the early lineage specification in pluripotent cells to later stages of neuronal development.
| S-EPMC3243056 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:SOX transcription factors constitute an attractive target class for intervention with small molecules as they play a prominent role in the field of regenerative biomedicine and cancer biology. However, rationally engineering specific inhibitors that interfere with transcription factor DNA interfaces continues to be a monumental challenge in the field of transcription factor chemical biology. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are inorganic compounds that were previously shown to target the high-mobility group (HMG) of SOX proteins at nanomolar concentrations. In continuation of this work, we carried out an assessment of the selectivity of a panel of newly synthesized organo-polyoxometalate hybrids in targeting different transcription factor families to enable the usage of polyoxometalates as specific SOX transcription factor drugs. RESULTS:The residual DNA-binding activities of 15 different transcription factors were measured after treatment with a panel of diverse polyoxometalates. Polyoxometalates belonging to the Dawson structural class were found to be more potent inhibitors than the Keggin class. Further, organically modified Dawson polyoxometalates were found to be the most potent in inhibiting transcription factor DNA binding activity. The size of the polyoxometalates and its derivitization were found to be the key determinants of their potency. CONCLUSION:Polyoxometalates are highly potent, nanomolar range inhibitors of the DNA binding activity of the Sox-HMG family. However, binding assays involving a limited subset of structurally diverse polyoxometalates revealed a low selectivity profile against different transcription factor families. Further progress in achieving selectivity and deciphering structure-activity relationship of POMs require the identification of POM binding sites on transcription factors using elaborate approaches like X-ray crystallography and multidimensional NMR. In summary, our report reaffirms that transcription factors are challenging molecular architectures and that future polyoxometalate chemistry must consider further modification strategies, to address the substantial challenges involved in achieving target selectivity.
| S-EPMC4306199 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Complex biological traits often originate by integrating previously separate parts, but the organismal functions of these precursors are challenging to infer. If we can understand the ancestral functions of these precursors, it could help explain how they persisted and how they facilitated the origins of complex traits. Animal eyes are some of the best studied complex traits, and they include many parts, such as opsin-based photoreceptor cells, pigment cells, and lens cells. Eye evolution is understood through conceptual models that argue these parts gradually came together to support increasingly sophisticated visual functions. Despite the well-accepted logic of these conceptual models, explicit comparative studies to identify organismal functions of eye precursors are lacking. Here, we investigate how precursors functioned before they became part of eyes in Cnidaria, a group formed by sea anemones, corals, and jellyfish. Specifically, we test whether ancestral photoreceptor cells regulated the discharge of cnidocytes, the expensive single-use cells with various functions including prey capture, locomotion, and protection. Similar to a previous study of Hydra, we show an additional four distantly related cnidarian groups discharge significantly more cnidocytes when exposed to dim blue light compared with bright blue light. Our comparative analyses support the hypothesis that the cnidarian ancestor was capable of modulating cnidocyte discharge with light, which we speculate uses an opsin-based phototransduction pathway homologous to that previously described in Hydra. Although eye precursors might have had other functions like regulating timing of spawning, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that photoreceptor cells which mediate cnidocyte discharge predated eyes, perhaps facilitating the prolific origination of eyes in Cnidaria.
| S-EPMC8093662 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We report ChIP-Seq experiments to profile the genomic binding dynamics of ß-catenin, SOX17, SOX2 and TCF/LEF TFs in definitive endoderm and neuromesodermal progenitor cells and RNA-Seq/ATAC-Seq experiments for transcriptomic and chromatin profiling of these cell types.
2022-07-27 | GSE182842 | GEO
Project description:Cooperative binding of transcription factors is known to be important in the regulation of gene expression programs conferring cellular identities. However, current methods to measure cooperativity parameters have been laborious and therefore limited to studying only a few sequence variants at a time. We developed Coop-seq (cooperativity by sequencing) that is capable of efficiently and accurately determining the cooperativity parameters for hundreds of different DNA sequences in a single experiment. We apply Coop-seq to 12 dimer pairs from the Sox and POU families of transcription factors using 324 unique sequences with changed half-site orientation, altered spacing and discrete randomization within the binding elements. The study reveals specific dimerization profiles of different Sox factors with Oct4. By contrast, Oct4 and the three neural class III POU factors Brn2, Brn4 and Oct6 assemble with Sox2 in a surprisingly indistinguishable manner. Two novel half-site configurations can support functional Sox/Oct dimerization in addition to known composite motifs. Moreover, Coop-seq uncovers a nucleotide switch within the POU half-site when spacing is altered, which is mirrored in genomic loci bound by Sox2/Oct4 complexes.
| S-EPMC5314778 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Embryonic stem cell (ESC) identity is orchestrated by co-operativity between the transcription factors (TFs) Sox2 and the class V POU-TF Oct4 at composite Sox/Oct motifs. Neural stem cells (NSCs) lack Oct4 but express Sox2 and class III POU-TFs Oct6, Brn1 and Brn2. This raises the question of how Sox2 interacts with POU-TFs to transcriptionally specify ESCs versus NSCs. Here, we show that Oct4 alone binds the Sox/Oct motif and the octamer-containing palindromic MORE equally well. Sox2 binding selectively increases the affinity of Oct4 for the Sox/Oct motif. In contrast, Oct6 binds preferentially to MORE and is unaffected by Sox2. ChIP-Seq in NSCs shows the MORE to be the most enriched motif for class III POU-TFs, including MORE subtypes, and that the Sox/Oct motif is not enriched. These results suggest that in NSCs, co-operativity between Sox2 and class III POU-TFs may not occur and that POU-TF-driven transcription uses predominantly the MORE cis architecture. Thus, distinct interactions between Sox2 and POU-TF subclasses distinguish pluripotent ESCs from multipotent NSCs, providing molecular insight into how Oct4 alone can convert NSCs to pluripotency.
| S-EPMC4576985 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
2011-11-01 | GSE33024 | GEO