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Pappas MP, Kawakami H, Corcoran D, Chen KQ, Scott EP, Wong J, Gearhart MD, Nishinakamura R, Nakagawa Y, Kawakami Y. Sall4 regulates posterior trunk mesoderm development by promoting mesodermal gene expression and repressing neural genes in the mesoderm. Development 2024; 151:dev202649. [PMID: 38345319 PMCID: PMC10946440 DOI: 10.1242/dev.202649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
The trunk axial skeleton develops from paraxial mesoderm cells. Our recent study demonstrated that conditional knockout of the stem cell factor Sall4 in mice by TCre caused tail truncation and a disorganized axial skeleton posterior to the lumbar level. Based on this phenotype, we hypothesized that, in addition to the previously reported role of Sall4 in neuromesodermal progenitors, Sall4 is involved in the development of the paraxial mesoderm tissue. Analysis of gene expression and SALL4 binding suggests that Sall4 directly or indirectly regulates genes involved in presomitic mesoderm differentiation, somite formation and somite differentiation. Furthermore, ATAC-seq in TCre; Sall4 mutant posterior trunk mesoderm shows that Sall4 knockout reduces chromatin accessibility. We found that Sall4-dependent open chromatin status drives activation and repression of WNT signaling activators and repressors, respectively, to promote WNT signaling. Moreover, footprinting analysis of ATAC-seq data suggests that Sall4-dependent chromatin accessibility facilitates CTCF binding, which contributes to the repression of neural genes within the mesoderm. This study unveils multiple mechanisms by which Sall4 regulates paraxial mesoderm development by directing activation of mesodermal genes and repression of neural genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew P. Pappas
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Hiroko Kawakami
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Developmental Biology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Dylan Corcoran
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Katherine Q. Chen
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Earl Parker Scott
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Julia Wong
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Micah D. Gearhart
- Developmental Biology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Ryuichi Nishinakamura
- Department of Kidney Development, Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-0811, Japan
| | - Yasushi Nakagawa
- Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Developmental Biology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Yasuhiko Kawakami
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Developmental Biology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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Chen KQ, Kawakami H, Anderson A, Corcoran D, Soni A, Nishinakamura R, Kawakami Y. Sall genes regulate hindlimb initiation in mouse embryos. Genetics 2024:iyae029. [PMID: 38386912 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyae029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2024] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Vertebrate limbs start to develop as paired protrusions from the lateral plate mesoderm at specific locations of the body with forelimb buds developing anteriorly and hindlimb buds posteriorly. During the initiation process, limb progenitor cells maintain active proliferation to form protrusions and start to express Fgf10, which trigger molecular processes for outgrowth and patterning. Although both processes occur in both types of limbs, forelimbs (Tbx5) and hindlimbs (Isl1) utilize distinct transcriptional systems to trigger their development. Here, we report that Sall1 and Sall4, zinc finger transcription factor genes, regulate hindlimb initiation in mouse embryos. Compared to the 100% frequency loss of hindlimb buds in TCre; Isl1 conditional knockouts, Hoxb6Cre; Isl1 conditional knockout causes a hypomorphic phenotype with only approximately 5% of mutants lacking the hindlimb. Our previous study of SALL4 ChIP-seq showed SALL4 enrichment in an Isl1 enhancer, suggesting that SALL4 acts upstream of Isl1. Removing one allele Sall4 from the hypomorphic Hoxb6Cre; Isl1 mutant background caused loss of hindlimbs, but removing both alleles caused an even higher frequency of loss of hindlimbs, suggesting a genetic interaction between Sall4 and Isl1. Furthermore, TCre-mediated conditional double knockouts of Sall1 and Sall4 displayed a loss of expression of hindlimb progenitor markers (Isl1, Pitx1, Tbx4) and failed to develop hindlimbs, demonstrating functional redundancy between Sall1 and Sall4. Our data provides genetic evidence that Sall1 and Sall4 act as master regulators of hindlimb initiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine Q Chen
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Hiroko Kawakami
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Developmental Biology Center, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Aaron Anderson
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Dylan Corcoran
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Aditi Soni
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Ryuichi Nishinakamura
- Department of Kidney Development, Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, 860-0811, Japan
| | - Yasuhiko Kawakami
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
- Developmental Biology Center, University of Minnesota, 321 Church St. SE. Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
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