Project description:Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and lymphoid-primed multi-potential progenitors (LMPPs) are able to initiate both lymphoid and myeloid differentiation. We show here that the transcriptional repressor Gfi1 (growth factor independence 1) implements a specific gene expression program in HSCs and LMPPs that is critical for their survival and lymphoid differentiation potential. We present evidence that Gfi1 is required to maintain expression of genes involved in lymphoid development such as Flt-3, IL7R, Ebf1, Rag1, CCR9 and Notch1 and controls myeloid lineage commitment by regulating expression of genes such as Hoxa9 or M-CSFR. Gfi1 also inhibits apoptosis in HSCs by repressing pro-apoptotic genes such as Bax or Bak. As a consequence, Gfi1-/- mice show defects in self renewal, survival and both myeloid and lymphoid development of HSCs and LMPPs. Co-expression of a Bcl-2 transgene can partially restore the function of HSCs in Gfi1-/- mice, but not the defects in early lymphoid development. Of interest, Gfi1-/- x Bcl-2 transgenic mice show an accelerated expansion of myeloid cells and succumb to a fatal myeloproliferative disease resembling chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Our data show that Gfi1 protects HSCs against apoptosis, ensures the proper development of LMPPs and plays a role in the development of myeloid leukemia. We used microarrays to detail the global gene expression changes following knockout of Gfi1 in mouse LSK cells We compared LSK cells isolated from Gfi1 knockout mice with wildtype cells to determine global gene expression changes by microarray analysis
Project description:Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and lymphoid-primed multi-potential progenitors (LMPPs) are able to initiate both lymphoid and myeloid differentiation. We show here that the transcriptional repressor Gfi1 (growth factor independence 1) implements a specific gene expression program in HSCs and LMPPs that is critical for their survival and lymphoid differentiation potential. We present evidence that Gfi1 is required to maintain expression of genes involved in lymphoid development such as Flt-3, IL7R, Ebf1, Rag1, CCR9 and Notch1 and controls myeloid lineage commitment by regulating expression of genes such as Hoxa9 or M-CSFR. Gfi1 also inhibits apoptosis in HSCs by repressing pro-apoptotic genes such as Bax or Bak. As a consequence, Gfi1-/- mice show defects in self renewal, survival and both myeloid and lymphoid development of HSCs and LMPPs. Co-expression of a Bcl-2 transgene can partially restore the function of HSCs in Gfi1-/- mice, but not the defects in early lymphoid development. Of interest, Gfi1-/- x Bcl-2 transgenic mice show an accelerated expansion of myeloid cells and succumb to a fatal myeloproliferative disease resembling chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Our data show that Gfi1 protects HSCs against apoptosis, ensures the proper development of LMPPs and plays a role in the development of myeloid leukemia. We used microarrays to detail the global gene expression changes following knockout of Gfi1 in mouse LSK cells
Project description:Growth factor independent 1 (Gfi1) is a transcriptional repressor originally identified as a common integration site in Moloney-murine-leukemia-virus-induced T-cell leukemia. Gfi1-/- mice display increased apoptosis of developing thymocytes and T lymphopenia; however, there are contradictory reports of the absolute number of Gfi1-/- early T lineage progenitors. We used floxed alleles of Gfi1 crossed to various T-cell-specific Cre transgenes to map the requirements for Gfi1 during lymphoid priming and development. We show that Gfi1 is necessary for the proper formation and function of both lymphoid-primed multipotent progenitors and early T lineage progenitors. These defects correlate with a global inability of Gfi1-/- progenitors to enforce the activation of lymphoid genes including IL7R, Rag1, Flt3 and Notch1. Forced expression of intracellular Notch1 fails to rescue the Gfi1-/- defective lymphoid gene signature or Gfi1-/- T cell development. Instead, activation of Notch1 in Gfi1-/- cells results in a potent synthetic lethal phenotype that is most dramatic in immature thymocytes, but absent in mature peripheral T cells where developmental transcriptional programs are silent. Moreover, we find that the requirement for Gfi1-transcriptional integration of Notch-driven lymphoid transcriptional programs is cell autonomous. Our data indicate that Gfi1 is required at multiple independent stages of lymphoid development. In hematopoietic progenitors Gfi1 is necessary to integrate Notch1 signaling, mediate lymphoid priming, the formation of early T lineage progenitors and subsequent T lineage commitment. Lineage negative cells were purified by magnetic beads from RosaCreERT2 Gfi1 ex4-5 floxed mice and an activated Notch1 signal was introduced using a GFP+ retroviral vector. GFP+ progenitors were FACS-sorted and cultured in semi-solid media for one week to allow sufficient time to to instruct lymphoid differentiation, then replated in 1uM 4-OHT or EtOH control. After an additional 7 days, CFU were disrupted and RNA was isolated for global gene expression using microarrays.
Project description:Growth factor independence genes (Gfi1 and Gfi1b) repress recombination activating genes (Rag) transcription in developing B lymphocytes. Because all blood lineages originate from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and different lineage progenitors have been shown to share transcription factor networks prior to cell fate commitment, we hypothesized that GFI family proteins may also play a role in repressing Rag transcription or a global lymphoid transcriptional program in other blood lineages. We tested the level of Rag transcription in various blood cells when Gfi1 and Gfi1b were deleted, and observed an upregulation of Rag expression in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). Using microarray analysis, we observed that Gfi1 and Gfi1b regulate a broad spectrum of cellular processes in pDCs, but not a lymphoid specific transcriptional program. This study establishes a role for Gfi1 and Gfi1b in Rag regulation in a non-B lineage cell type Gfi1f/f; Gfi1bf/f; ERCre bone marrow progenitors were untreated and treated with tamoxifen (4OHT) to delete floxed alleles during pDC differentiation in culture. Cells from three individual mouse constitute triplicates of untreated (-4OHT) and treated (+4OHT) conditions, corresponding to wildtype or knockout genotypes.
Project description:Growth factor independent 1 (Gfi1) is a transcriptional repressor originally identified as a common integration site in Moloney-murine-leukemia-virus-induced T-cell leukemia. Gfi1-/- mice display increased apoptosis of developing thymocytes and T lymphopenia; however, there are contradictory reports of the absolute number of Gfi1-/- early T lineage progenitors. We used floxed alleles of Gfi1 crossed to various T-cell-specific Cre transgenes to map the requirements for Gfi1 during lymphoid priming and development. We show that Gfi1 is necessary for the proper formation and function of both lymphoid-primed multipotent progenitors and early T lineage progenitors. These defects correlate with a global inability of Gfi1-/- progenitors to enforce the activation of lymphoid genes including IL7R, Rag1, Flt3 and Notch1. Forced expression of intracellular Notch1 fails to rescue the Gfi1-/- defective lymphoid gene signature or Gfi1-/- T cell development. Instead, activation of Notch1 in Gfi1-/- cells results in a potent synthetic lethal phenotype that is most dramatic in immature thymocytes, but absent in mature peripheral T cells where developmental transcriptional programs are silent. Moreover, we find that the requirement for Gfi1-transcriptional integration of Notch-driven lymphoid transcriptional programs is cell autonomous. Our data indicate that Gfi1 is required at multiple independent stages of lymphoid development. In hematopoietic progenitors Gfi1 is necessary to integrate Notch1 signaling, mediate lymphoid priming, the formation of early T lineage progenitors and subsequent T lineage commitment.
Project description:Growth factor independence genes (Gfi1 and Gfi1b) repress recombination activating genes (Rag) transcription in developing B lymphocytes. Because all blood lineages originate from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and different lineage progenitors have been shown to share transcription factor networks prior to cell fate commitment, we hypothesized that GFI family proteins may also play a role in repressing Rag transcription or a global lymphoid transcriptional program in other blood lineages. We tested the level of Rag transcription in various blood cells when Gfi1 and Gfi1b were deleted, and observed an upregulation of Rag expression in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). Using microarray analysis, we observed that Gfi1 and Gfi1b regulate a broad spectrum of cellular processes in pDCs, but not a lymphoid specific transcriptional program. This study establishes a role for Gfi1 and Gfi1b in Rag regulation in a non-B lineage cell type
Project description:Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of hematologic neoplasms in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough mature blood cells, leading to peripheral blood cytopenias and myeloproliferation1-3. The average survival time following diagnosis of MDS is 2.5 years4, owing to few treatment options5. Roughly 20-30% of MDS patients progress to acute myeloid leukemia6. Risks of allogeneic bone marrow transplants in elderly patients, together with a dearth of effective FDA-approved drugs, make it imperative to revisit the origins of hematopoietic differentiation defects underlying MDS to identify new druggable targets7-9. We recently reported that haploinsufficiency of the atypical kinase Riok2 (Right open reading frame kinase 2)10 in mice leads to anemia and MDS-associated phenotypes11. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Here we show that RIOK2 is a master transcription factor that not only drives erythroid lineage commitment, but simultaneously suppresses megakaryocytic and myeloid lineages in primary human stem and progenitor cells. Structural modeling, chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing, ATAC-sequencing and structure-function domain deletion mutants revealed that RIOK2 activates or represses specific genetic programs in hematopoiesis via its previously unappreciated winged helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domain and two transactivation domains. Mechanistically, RIOK2 functions as a master regulator of hematopoietic lineage commitment by controlling the expression of key lineage-specific transcription factors, such as GATA1, GATA2, SPI1, RUNX3 and KLF1. We also show that GATA1 and RIOK2 function in a positive feedback loop to drive erythroid differentiation. These discoveries present novel therapeutic opportunities to correct hematopoietic differentiation defects in MDS, in the anemia of chronic diseases such as renal failure and inflammation, and in other bone marrow failure disorders.
Project description:Adipocytes arise from commitment and differentiation of adipose precursors in white adipose tissue (WAT). In studying adipogenesis, precursor markers, including Pref-1 and PDGFRα, are used to isolate precursors from stromal vascular fraction of WAT, but the relationship among the markers is not known. Here, we used Pref-1 promoter-rtTA system in mice for labeling Pref-1+ cells and for inducible inactivation of Pref-1 target, Sox9. We show requirement of Sox9 for maintenance of Pref-1+ proliferative, early precursors. Upon Sox9 inactivation, these Pref-1+ cells become PDGFRa+ cells that express early adipogenic markers. Thus, we show for the first time that Pref-1+ cells precede PDGFRa+ cells in the adipogenic pathway and that Sox9 inactivation is required for WAT growth and expansion. Furthermore, we show that, in maintaining early adipose precursors, Sox9 activates Meis1 which prevents adipogenic differentiation. Our study also demonstrates the Pref-1 promoter-rtTA system for inducible gene inactivation in early adipose precursor population. Sox9 ablation increases PDGFRα+ cells, inhibiting cell cycle, muscle and osteoblast/osteoclast differentiation, while inducing genes of hematopoietic cell lineage and inflammatory response.
Project description:Transcriptional repressor Growth factor independence 1 (GFI1) is a key regulator of haematopoiesis. We previously established that the germline variant GFI1-36N promotes acute myeloid leukemia (AML) development, however the mechanism is not full elucidated. Here using multi-omics approach, we show GFI1-36N expression impedes DNA repair in leukemic cells. We demonstrate the presence of GFI1-36N is associated with increased frequency of chromosomal aberrations and mutational burden in murine and human AML cells. In particular, GFI1-36N modulates DNA repair pathways, O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) and homologous recombination repair (HR). Mechanistically, GFI1-36N exhibits impaired binding to Ndrg1 promoter element compared to GFI1-36S (wild type), causing decreased NDRG1 levels consequently leading to suppression of MGMT expression, imprinted at the transcriptome and proteome, thus leaving the AML cells vulnerable to DNA damaging agents. Targeting MGMT via temozolomide and HR via olaparib caused specifically extensive lethality in in vitro and ex vivo human and AML samples expressing GFI1-36N. Whereas the effects were insignificant on non-malignant GFI1-36S or GFI1-36N cells. Further, mice transplanted with GFI1-36N leukemic cells treated with combination of temozolomide and olaparib had a significantly longer AML-free survival than mice transplanted with GFI1-36S leukemic cells. In summary, we show that GFI1-36N disturbs DNA repair activity via NDRG1-MGMT axis and thus provides critical insights into novel therapeutic option for AML presented with GFI1-36N variant. Key Points Presence of GFI1-36N impedes Homologous DNA and MGMT DNA repair selectively in AML cells via the NDRG1-MGMT axis. Use of temozolomide and olaparib allows selectively targeting GFI1-36N leukemic cells. Introduction Gfi1 is a transcription factor which regulates the development of haematopoietic cells as well as neuronal and intestinal epithelial cells 1-5. We reported that a variant of GFI1, denominated GFI1-36N (characterized by an exchange of serine to asparagine at position 36), has a prevalence of 5-7% in a healthy control population but is found at an increased frequency of 10-15% among MDS and AML patients 6,7. The expression of germline variant GFI1-36N predisposes the carriers to develop de novo AML and MDS and correlates with a poor prognosis 6,7. Recently, we and other showed that malignant cells with GFI1-36N variant have increased H3K9-acetylation at target genes resulting in higher expression of genes required for cell survival and proliferation 8. GFI1 exerts its repressive role by recruiting histone-modifying enzymes (deacetylases HDAC1-3, demethylase LSD1, methyl transferase G9a) and regulates the accessibility of DNA to its target genes such as Hoxa9, Pbx1, Meis1, CSF1 and CSFR1 9-15. We also showed that GFI1 regulates apoptosis through its regulation of p53 in lymphoblastic leukemia 16 and we have demonstrated that GFI1 facilitates DNA repair 17. However, it is not known how these activities are affected in the GFI1-36N variant and whether the ability of GFI1 to regulate DNA repair pathways is maintained and how this might affect the development of myeloid malignancies. In this study, we leveraged multi-omics profiling to gain mechanistic insights into the molecular architecture that drives leukemia in the presence of GFI1-36N. We provide evidence that GFI1-36N interferes with DNA in leukemic myeloid cells, which leads to a higher frequency of genetic aberrations in MDS/AML cells. We also show that GFI1-36N myeloid leukemic cells are more sensitive to targeting MGMT and HR repair deficient cells, which opens a new selective therapeutic window to treat AML/MDS.
Project description:Khajuria RK, Munschauer M, Ulirsch JC, Fiorini C, Leif S. Ludwig LS, McFarland SK, Abdulhay NJ, Specht H, Keshishian H, Mani DR, Jovanovic M, Ellis SR, Fulco CP, Engreitz JM, Schütz S, Lian J, Gripp KW,Weinberg OK, Pinkus GS, Gehrke L, Regev A, Lander ES, Gazda HT, Lee WY, Panse VG, Carr SA, Sankaran VG. Cell 2018, 173, 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.02.036.
Blood cell formation is classically thought to occur through a hierarchical differentiation process, although recent studies have shown that lineage commitment may occur earlier in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). The relevance to human blood diseases and the underlying regulation of these refined models remain poorly understood. By studying a genetic blood disorder, Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA), where the majority of mutations affect ribosomal proteins and the erythroid lineage is selectively perturbed, we are able to gain mechanistic insight into how lineage commitment is programmed normally and disrupted in disease. We show that in DBA, the pool of available ribosomes is limited, while ribosome composition remains constant. Surprisingly, this global reduction in ribosome levels more profoundly alters translation of a select subset of transcripts. We show how the reduced translation of select transcripts in HSPCs can impair erythroid lineage commitment, illuminating a regulatory role for ribosome levels in cellular differentiation.