Project description:Connective tissues support organs and play crucial roles in development, homeostasis and fibrosis, yet our understanding of their formation is still limited. To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms of connective tissue specification, we selected five zinc finger transcription factors - OSR1, OSR2, EGR1, KLF2 and KLF4 - based on their expression patterns and/or known involvement in connective tissue subtype differentiation. RNA-seq and ChIP-seq profiling revealed a set of common genes regulated by all five transcription factors, which we propose as connective tissue core expression set. This common core was enriched in genes associated with axon guidance and myofibroblast signature, including fibrosis-related genes. In addition, each transcription factor regulated a specific set of signalling molecules and extracellular matrix components. This suggests a concept whereby local molecular niches can be created via the expression of specific transcription factors impinging on the specification of local microenvironments. The regulatory network established here identifies common and distinct molecular signatures of limb connective tissue subtypes, provides novel insight into the signalling pathways governing connective tissue specification, and serves as a resource for connective tissue development.
Project description:Connective tissues support organs and play crucial roles in development, homeostasis and fibrosis, yet our understanding of their formation is still limited. To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms of connective tissue specification, we selected five zinc finger transcription factors - OSR1, OSR2, EGR1, KLF2 and KLF4 - based on their expression patterns and/or known involvement in connective tissue subtype differentiation. RNA-seq and ChIP-seq profiling revealed a set of common genes regulated by all five transcription factors, which we propose as connective tissue core expression set. This common core was enriched in genes associated with axon guidance and myofibroblast signature, including fibrosis-related genes. In addition, each transcription factor regulated a specific set of signalling molecules and extracellular matrix components. This suggests a concept whereby local molecular niches can be created via the expression of specific transcription factors impinging on the specification of local microenvironments. The regulatory network established here identifies common and distinct molecular signatures of limb connective tissue subtypes, provides novel insight into the signalling pathways governing connective tissue specification, and serves as a resource for connective tissue development.
Project description:Connective tissues support organs and play crucial roles in development, homeostasis and fibrosis, yet our understanding of their formation is still limited. To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms of connective tissue specification, we selected five zinc finger transcription factors - OSR1, OSR2, EGR1, KLF2 and KLF4 - based on their expression patterns and/or known involvement in connective tissue subtype differentiation. RNA-seq and ChIP-seq profiling revealed a set of common genes regulated by all five transcription factors, which we propose as connective tissue core expression set. This common core was enriched in genes associated with axon guidance and myofibroblast signature, including fibrosis-related genes. In addition, each transcription factor regulated a specific set of signalling molecules and extracellular matrix components. This suggests a concept whereby local molecular niches can be created via the expression of specific transcription factors impinging on the specification of local microenvironments. The regulatory network established here identifies common and distinct molecular signatures of limb connective tissue subtypes, provides novel insight into the signalling pathways governing connective tissue specification, and serves as a resource for connective tissue development.
Project description:Transcription factors (TFs) engage in protein-protein interactions throughout the process of transcriptional control. In this study, we have successfully identified the protein-protein interactions for more than 100 distinct human transcription factors (TFs) using the techniques of proximity-dependent biotinylation (BioID) and affinity purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS).
Project description:Broadly expressed transcriptions factors (TFs) control tissue-specific programs of gene expression through interactions with local TF networks. Prime examples are the circadian clock TFs CLOCK (CLK) and CYCLE (CYC or BMAL1): while they control a core transcriptional circuit throughout animal bodies, downstream clock target genes and circadian physiology are tissue-specific. Here, we use ChIP-seq to determine the regulatory targets of Drosophila CLK and CYC, which we epitope-tagged by homologous recombination. Both TFs have distinct binding sites in heads versus bodies, suggesting that they directly control tissue-specific downstream target genes. Analysis of these context-specific binding sites revealed distinct sequence motifs for putative clock partner factors, including a motif for the GATA factor SERPENT (SRP). SRP indeed synergistically enhances CLK/CYC-mediated activity of a cis-regulatory region bound by CLK/CYC specifically in bodies. These results reveal how universal clock circuits can generate tissue-specific outputs and demonstrate an approach to dissect regulatory interactions more generally. We sequenced ChIP and input samples, as well as M-bM-^@M-^\mockM-bM-^@M-^] samples for which we performed ChIP with the V5 antibody from wildtype w- flies (not carrying the V5 tag) for two independent biological replicates each, summing to 24 libraries in total.
Project description:To find specific transcription factors (TFs) interact with Altre to regulate target gene expression by Cis- or Trans- action on chromatin.
Project description:Precise dissection of DNA-protein interactions is essential for elucidating recognition basis, dynamics, and gene regulation mechanism. However, global profiling of weak and dynamic DNA-protein interactions remains a long-standing challenge. Here, we establish light-induced lysine (K) enabled crosslinking (LIKE-XL) strategy for spatiotemporal and global profiling of DNA-protein interactions. Harnessing the unique abilities to capture weak and transient DNA-protein interactions, we demonstrate that LIKE-XL enables discovery of low-affinity transcription factors (TFs)-DNA interactions via sequence-specific DNA baits, determining the binding sites for TFs previously unachieved. More importantly, we successfully decipher the dynamics of TF subproteome in response to drug treatment in time-resolved manner, and find new downstream target TFs from drug perturbations, providing insights into their dynamic transcriptional networks. The LIKE-XL offers a novel and complementary method to expand the DNA-protein profiling toolbox and map accurate DNA-protein interactomes previously inaccessible via noncovalent strategies, for better understanding of protein functions in health and disease.