Project description:During development cell fates are specified by tightly controlled gene expression programs. PBX TALE transcription factors control gene regulatory networks (GRN) that direct vertebrate tissue patterning and organ morphogenesis. How PBX1/2 proteins achieve context-specific functions, despite widespread embryonic Pbx expression, remains elusive. In mouse limbs, mesenchymal-specific loss of PBX1/2 or of the limb regulator HAND2 results in strikingly similar phenotypes, suggesting that PBX1/2- and HAND2-dependent programs converge to control limb development. To investigate this scenario using the murine hindlimb model, we combined tissue-specific and temporally controlled mutagenesis to multi-omics approaches on dissected hindlimb buds. This resulted in the reconstruction of a GRN that is collaboratively directed by PBX1/2-HAND2, demonstrating that Pbx1-Hand2 genetically interact in vivo during pentadactylous hindlimb patterning, with PBX1 concomitantly acting as an upstream regulator of Hand2. At organismal-level resolution the GRN is active within restricted subsets of posterior-proximal hindlimb mesenchymal cells, wherein Pbx1/2 and Hand2 are co-expressed with their target genes. Profiling the binding of Pbx1 and Hand2 genome-wide across multiple tissues revealed that HAND2 can act selectively on a subset of PBX-bound regions to impart limb patterning functionality. Our research elucidates mechanisms on the limb-specific activities of PBX1/2, while informing general principles by which promiscuous transcription factors cooperate with select cofactors to instruct distinct developmental programs.
Project description:During development cell fates are specified by tightly controlled gene expression programs. PBX TALE transcription factors control gene regulatory networks (GRN) that direct vertebrate tissue patterning and organ morphogenesis. How PBX1/2 proteins achieve context-specific functions, despite widespread embryonic Pbx expression, remains elusive. In mouse limbs, mesenchymal-specific loss of PBX1/2 or of the limb regulator HAND2 results in strikingly similar phenotypes, suggesting that PBX1/2- and HAND2-dependent programs converge to control limb development. To investigate this scenario using the murine hindlimb model, we combined tissue-specific and temporally controlled mutagenesis to multi-omics approaches on dissected hindlimb buds. This resulted in the reconstruction of a GRN that is collaboratively directed by PBX1/2-HAND2, demonstrating that Pbx1-Hand2 genetically interact in vivo during pentadactylous hindlimb patterning, with PBX1 concomitantly acting as an upstream regulator of Hand2. At organismal-level resolution the GRN is active within restricted subsets of posterior-proximal hindlimb mesenchymal cells, wherein Pbx1/2 and Hand2 are co-expressed with their target genes. Profiling the binding of Pbx1 and Hand2 genome-wide across multiple tissues revealed that HAND2 can act selectively on a subset of PBX-bound regions to impart limb patterning functionality. Our research elucidates mechanisms on the limb-specific activities of PBX1/2, while informing general principles by which promiscuous transcription factors cooperate with select cofactors to instruct distinct developmental programs.
Project description:During development cell fates are specified by tightly controlled gene expression programs. PBX TALE transcription factors control gene regulatory networks (GRN) that direct vertebrate tissue patterning and organ morphogenesis. How PBX1/2 proteins achieve context-specific functions, despite widespread embryonic Pbx expression, remains elusive. In mouse limbs, mesenchymal-specific loss of PBX1/2 or of the limb regulator HAND2 results in strikingly similar phenotypes, suggesting that PBX1/2- and HAND2-dependent programs converge to control limb development. To investigate this scenario using the murine hindlimb model, we combined tissue-specific and temporally controlled mutagenesis to multi-omics approaches on dissected hindlimb buds. This resulted in the reconstruction of a GRN that is collaboratively directed by PBX1/2-HAND2, demonstrating that Pbx1-Hand2 genetically interact in vivo during pentadactylous hindlimb patterning, with PBX1 concomitantly acting as an upstream regulator of Hand2. At organismal-level resolution the GRN is active within restricted subsets of posterior-proximal hindlimb mesenchymal cells, wherein Pbx1/2 and Hand2 are co-expressed with their target genes. Profiling the binding of Pbx1 and Hand2 genome-wide across multiple tissues revealed that HAND2 can act selectively on a subset of PBX-bound regions to impart limb patterning functionality. Our research elucidates mechanisms on the limb-specific activities of PBX1/2, while informing general principles by which promiscuous transcription factors cooperate with select cofactors to instruct distinct developmental programs.
Project description:During development cell fates are specified by tightly controlled gene expression programs. PBX TALE transcription factors control gene regulatory networks (GRN) that direct vertebrate tissue patterning and organ morphogenesis. How PBX1/2 proteins achieve context-specific functions, despite widespread embryonic Pbx expression, remains elusive. In mouse limbs, mesenchymal-specific loss of PBX1/2 or of the limb regulator HAND2 results in strikingly similar phenotypes, suggesting that PBX1/2- and HAND2-dependent programs converge to control limb development. To investigate this scenario using the murine hindlimb model, we combined tissue-specific and temporally controlled mutagenesis to multi-omics approaches on dissected hindlimb buds. This resulted in the reconstruction of a GRN that is collaboratively directed by PBX1/2-HAND2, demonstrating that Pbx1-Hand2 genetically interact in vivo during pentadactylous hindlimb patterning, with PBX1 concomitantly acting as an upstream regulator of Hand2. At organismal-level resolution the GRN is active within restricted subsets of posterior-proximal hindlimb mesenchymal cells, wherein Pbx1/2 and Hand2 are co-expressed with their target genes. Profiling the binding of Pbx1 and Hand2 genome-wide across multiple tissues revealed that HAND2 can act selectively on a subset of PBX-bound regions to impart limb patterning functionality. Our research elucidates mechanisms on the limb-specific activities of PBX1/2, while informing general principles by which promiscuous transcription factors cooperate with select cofactors to instruct distinct developmental programs.