Project description:Despite recent advances in the identification of lymphoid-restricted progenitors, the transcription factors essential for their generation remain to be identified. Here we describe an unexpected role for the myeloid oncogene Mef2c in multipotent progenitors (MPPs), where it is required for pan-lymphoid differentiation. Mef2c deficiency was associated with profound defects in B, T, NK cell and common lymphoid progenitor production and an enhanced myeloid output. Mef2c deficiency in MPPs leads to downregulation of several key lymphoid regulators and the upregulation of the myeloid factor C/EBPa. Our studies also show that Mef2c is a critical transcriptional target of PU.1 during lymphopoiesis. Thus, Mef2c is a crucial component of the transcriptional network that regulates lymphoid specification and cell fate choice in MPPs.
Project description:Cellular binary fate decisions require the progeny to silence genes associated with the alternative fate. The major subsets of alpha:beta T cells have been extensively studied as a model system for fate decisions. While the transcription factor RUNX3 is required for the initiation of Cd4 silencing in CD8 T cell progenitors, it is not required to maintain the silencing of Cd4 and other helper T lineage genes. The other runt domain containing protein, RUNX1, silences Cd4 in an earlier T cell progenitor, but this silencing is reversed whereas the gene silencing after RUNX3 expression is not reverse. Therefore, we hypothesized that RUNX3 and not RUNX1 recruits other factors that maintains the silencing of helper T lineage genes in CD8 T cells. To this end, we performed a proteomics screen of RUNX1 and RUNX3 to determine candidate silencing factors.
Project description:Collombet2016 - Lymphoid and myeloid cell
specification and transdifferentiation
This model is described in the article:
Logical modeling of lymphoid
and myeloid cell specification and transdifferentiation
Samuel Collombet, Chris van Oevelen,
Jose Luis Sardina Ortega, Wassim Abou-Jaoudé, Bruno Di
Stefano, Morgane Thomas-Chollier, Thomas Graf, and Denis
Thieffry
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America
Abstract:
Blood cells are derived from a common set of hematopoietic
stem cells, which differentiate into more specific progenitors
of the myeloid and lymphoid lineages, ultimately leading to
differentiated cells. This developmental process is controlled
by a complex regulatory network involving cytokines and their
receptors, transcription factors, and chromatin remodelers.
Using public data and data from our own molecular genetic
experiments (quantitative PCR, Western blot, EMSA) or
genome-wide assays (RNA-sequencing, ChIP-sequencing), we have
assembled a comprehensive regulatory network encompassing the
main transcription factors and signaling components involved in
myeloid and lymphoid development. Focusing on B-cell and
macrophage development, we defined a qualitative dynamical
model recapitulating cytokine-induced differentiation of common
progenitors, the effect of various reported gene knockdowns,
and the reprogramming of pre-B cells into macrophages induced
by the ectopic expression of specific transcription factors.
The resulting network model can be used as a template for the
integration of new hematopoietic differentiation and
transdifferentiation data to foster our understanding of
lymphoid/myeloid cell-fate decisions.
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