Project description:To define target genes of the intestine-restricted transcription factor (TF) CDX2 in intestinal stem cells, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-Seq). We used RNA-sequencing to profile gene expression changes during cell differentiation from mouse intestinal stem cells to mature villus cells, as well as genes perturbed in intestinal stem cells upon loss of Cdx2. We find thousands of genes that change in expression during cell differentiation, including known stem cell and mature markers. Upon loss of Cdx2, hundreds of genes are up and down-regulated in intestinal stem cells, some of which are also bound by CDX2 nearby and constitute candidate direct target genes. CDX2 ChIP-Seq analysis of isolated mouse intestinal stem cells. RNA seq analysis of control mouse villus cells, control intestinal stem cells and Cdx2-deleted intestinal stem cells.
Project description:Cell differentiation requires epigenetic modulation of tissue-specific genes and activities of master transcriptional regulators, which are recognized for their dominant control over cellular programs. Using novel epigenomic methods, we characterized enhancer elements specifically modified in differentiating intestinal epithelial cells and found enrichment of transcription factor-binding motifs corresponding to CDX2, a master regulator of the intestine. Directed investigation revealed surprising lability in CDX2 occupancy of the genome, with redistribution from hundreds of sites occupied only in progenitors to thousands of new sites in mature cells. Knockout mice confirmed distinct Cdx2 requirements in dividing and differentiated adult intestinal cells, including responsibility for the active enhancer configuration associated with maturity. Dynamic CDX2 occupancy corresponds with condition-specific gene expression and, importantly, to differential co-occupancy with other tissue-restricted transcription factors: HNF4A in mature cells and GATA6 in progenitors. These results reveal dynamic, context-specific functions and mechanisms of a master transcription factor within a cell lineage. H3K4me2, CDX2, GATA6, and HNF4A ChIP-seq patterns were mapped in proliferating and 26 day post-confluent (differentatied) Caco-2 intestinal cell lines and compared to published expression data or newly generated Cdx2 knockout mouse intestine expression data
Project description:To define target genes of the intestine-restricted transcription factor (TF) CDX2 in intestinal stem cells, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-Seq). We used RNA-sequencing to profile gene expression changes during cell differentiation from mouse intestinal stem cells to mature villus cells, as well as genes perturbed in intestinal stem cells upon loss of Cdx2. We find thousands of genes that change in expression during cell differentiation, including known stem cell and mature markers. Upon loss of Cdx2, hundreds of genes are up and down-regulated in intestinal stem cells, some of which are also bound by CDX2 nearby and constitute candidate direct target genes.
Project description:Cell differentiation requires epigenetic modulation of tissue-specific genes and activities of master transcriptional regulators, which are recognized for their dominant control over cellular programs. Using novel epigenomic methods, we characterized enhancer elements specifically modified in differentiating intestinal epithelial cells and found enrichment of transcription factor-binding motifs corresponding to CDX2, a master regulator of the intestine. Directed investigation revealed surprising lability in CDX2 occupancy of the genome, with redistribution from hundreds of sites occupied only in progenitors to thousands of new sites in mature cells. Knockout mice confirmed distinct Cdx2 requirements in dividing and differentiated adult intestinal cells, including responsibility for the active enhancer configuration associated with maturity. Dynamic CDX2 occupancy corresponds with condition-specific gene expression and, importantly, to differential co-occupancy with other tissue-restricted transcription factors: HNF4A in mature cells and GATA6 in progenitors. These results reveal dynamic, context-specific functions and mechanisms of a master transcription factor within a cell lineage.
Project description:We conditionally inactivated mouse Cdx2, a dominant regulator of intestinal development, and mapped its genome occupancy in adult intestinal villi. Although homeotic transformation, observed in Cdx2-null embryos, was absent in mutant adults, gene expression and cell morphology were vitally compromised. Lethality was accelerated in mice lacking both Cdx2 and its homolog Cdx1, with exaggeration of defects in crypt cell replication and enterocyte differentiation. Cdx2 occupancy correlated with hundreds of transcripts that fell but not with equal numbers that rose with Cdx loss, indicating a predominantly activating role at intestinal cis-regulatory regions. Integrated consideration of a mutant phenotype and cistrome hence reveals the continued and distinct requirement in adults of a master developmental regulator that activates tissue-specific genes. Cdx2 ChIP-seq in mouse villus, and gene expression data from Cdx1, Cdx2 and compound knockout mouse intestine
Project description:Surprisingly few pathways signal between cells, raising questions about mechanisms for tissue-specific responses. In particular, Wnt ligands signal in many mammalian tissues, including the intestinal epithelium, where constitutive signaling causes cancer. Genome-wide analysis of DNA cis-regulatory regions bound by the intestine-restricted transcription factor CDX2 in colonic cells uncovered highly significant over-representation of sequences that bind TCF4, a transcriptional effector of intestinal Wnt signaling. Chromatin immunoprecipitation confirmed TCF4 occupancy at most such sites and co-occupancy of CDX2 and TCF4 across short distances. A region spanning the single nucleotide polymorphism rs6983267, which lies within a MYC enhancer and confers colorectal cancer risk in humans, represented one of many co-occupied sites. Co-occupancy correlated with intestine-specific gene expression and CDX2 loss reduced TCF4 binding.These results implicate CDX2 in directing TCF4 binding in intestinal cells. Co-occupancy of regulatory regions by signal-effector and tissue-restricted transcription factors may represent a general mechanism for ubiquitous signaling pathways to achieve tissue-specific outcomes. A series of ChIP-chip experiments identified the CDX2 cistrome and discovered and validated extensive co-binding with TCF4 in colon cancer cell lines Transcriptional profiling following shRNA-mediated CDX2 knockdown was employed to identify CDX2-dependent gene expression in the human colon cancer cell line Caco2
Project description:Epigenetic analysis on mouse gastric organoids overexpressing either CDX2, HNF4A or control GFP. Epigenetic analyses include ATAC-seq, Cut&Run. Mouse gastric and intestinal stem cell ATAC-seq and mouse gastric antrum and intestinal villus ChIP-seq.