GATA4/FOG2 transcriptional complex regulates Lhx9 gene expression in murine heart development.

ABSTRACT:

Background

GATA4 and FOG2 proteins are required for normal cardiac development in mice. It has been proposed that GATA4/FOG2 transcription complex exercises its function through gene activation as well as repression; however, targets of GATA4/FOG2 action in the heart remain elusive.

Results

Here we report identification of the Lhx9 gene as a direct target of the GATA4/FOG2 complex. We demonstrate that the developing mouse heart normally expresses truncated isoforms of Lhx9 - Lhx9alpha and Lhx9beta, and not the Lhx9-HD isoform that encodes a protein with an intact homeodomain. At E9.5 Lhx9alpha/beta expression is prominent in the epicardial primordium, septum transversum while Lhx9-HD is absent from this tissue; in the E11.5 heart LHX9alpha/beta-positive cells are restricted

SUBMITTER: Smagulova FO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2447832 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature