Project description:Mammalian heart development is built on highly conserved molecular mechanisms with polygenetic perturbations resulting in a spectrum of congenital heart diseases (CHD). However, the transcriptional landscape of cardiogenic ontogeny that regulates proper cardiogenesis remains largely based on candidate-gene approaches. Herein, we designed a time-course transcriptome analysis to investigate the genome-wide expression profile of innate murine cardiogenesis ranging from embryonic stem cells to adult cardiac structures. This comprehensive analysis generated temporal and spatial expression profiles, prioritized stage-specific gene functions, and mapped the dynamic transcriptome of cardiogenesis to curated pathways. Reconciling the bioinformatics of the congenital heart disease interactome, we deconstructed disease-centric regulatory networks encoded within this cardiogenic atlas to reveal stage-specific developmental disturbances clustered on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), BMP regulation, NF-AT signaling, TGFb-dependent induction, and Notch signaling. Therefore, this cardiogenic transcriptional landscape defines the time-dependent expression of cardiac ontogeny and prioritizes regulatory networks at the interface between health and disease. To interrogate the temporal and spatial expression profiles across the entire genome during mammalian heart development, we designed a time-course microarray experiment using the mouse model at defined stages of cardiogenesis, starting with embryonic stem cells (ESC, R1 stem cell line), early embryonic developmental stages: E7.5 whole embryos, E8.5 heart tubes, left and right ventricle tissues at E9.5, E12.5, E14.5, E18.5 to 3 days after birth (D3) and adult heart (Figure 1A). At each time point, microarray experiments were performed on triplicate biological samples. Starting at E9.5, tissue samples from left ventricles (LV) and right ventricles (RV) were microdissected for RNA purification and microarray analysis to determine spatially differential gene expression between LV and RV during heart development.
Project description:Mammalian heart development is built on highly conserved molecular mechanisms with polygenetic perturbations resulting in a spectrum of congenital heart diseases (CHD). However, the transcriptional landscape of cardiogenic ontogeny that regulates proper cardiogenesis remains largely based on candidate-gene approaches. Herein, we designed a time-course transcriptome analysis to investigate the genome-wide expression profile of innate murine cardiogenesis ranging from embryonic stem cells to adult cardiac structures. This comprehensive analysis generated temporal and spatial expression profiles, prioritized stage-specific gene functions, and mapped the dynamic transcriptome of cardiogenesis to curated pathways. Reconciling the bioinformatics of the congenital heart disease interactome, we deconstructed disease-centric regulatory networks encoded within this cardiogenic atlas to reveal stage-specific developmental disturbances clustered on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), BMP regulation, NF-AT signaling, TGFb-dependent induction, and Notch signaling. Therefore, this cardiogenic transcriptional landscape defines the time-dependent expression of cardiac ontogeny and prioritizes regulatory networks at the interface between health and disease.
Project description:Dominant mutations in cardiac transcription factor genes cause human inherited congenital heart defects (CHDs), but their molecular basis is not understood. Transcription factors and Brg1/Brm-associated factor (BAF) chromatin remodeling complex interactions suggest potential mechanisms, but the role of BAF complexes in cardiogenesis is not known. Here we show that dosage of Brg1 is critical for mouse and zebrafish cardiogenesis. Disrupting the balance between Brg1 and disease-causing cardiac transcription factors, including Tbx5, Tbx20, and Nkx2-5, causes severe cardiac anomalies, revealing an essential allelic balance between Brg1 and these cardiac transcription factor genes. This suggests that relative levels of transcription factors and BAF complexes are important for heart development, which is supported by reduced occupancy of Brg1 at cardiac genes in Tbx5 haploinsufficient hearts. Our results reveal complex dosage-sensitive interdependence between transcription factors and BAF complexes, providing a potential mechanism underlying transcription factor haploinsufficiency, with implications for multigenic inheritance of CHDs. We performed transcriptional profiling of E11.5 hearts from mice heterozygous for deletions of Brg1, Tbx5, or Nkx2-5, and mice that were compound heterozygotes for Brg1 and each transcription factor gene (Tbx5 and Nkx2-5).
Project description:Congenital heart disease is among the most frequent major birth defects. Epigenetic marks are crucial for organogenesis, but their role in heart development is poorly understood. Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) trimethylates histone H3 at lysine 27, establishing H3K27me3 repressive epigenetic marks that promote tissue-specific differentiation by silencing ectopic gene programs. We studied the function of the catalytic subunit of PRC2, EZH2, in murine heart development. Early EZH2 inactivation by Nkx2-5Cre caused lethal congenital heart malformations, but slightly later EZH2 inactivation by cTNT-Cre did not. To study how the cardiomyocytes gene expression program is properly established in the early heart development, we combined the technologies of RNA sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing to identify the functional target genes directly repressed by EZH2. Intriguingly, these were enriched for transcriptional regulators of non-cardiac expression programs, such as transcription factors that regulate neuronal (Pax6) and cardiac progenitor genes (Isl1 and Six1). EZH2 was also required to maintain spatiotemporal regulation of cardiac gene expression, as Hcn4, Mlc2a, and Bmp10 were inappropriately upregulated in ventricular RNA. Furthermore, EZH2 was required for normal cardiomyocyte proliferation, establishing H3K27me3 epigenetic marks at cell cycle inhibitors Ink4a/b and repressing their expression. Our study reveals a previously undescribed role of EZH2 in regulating heart formation and shows that perturbation of the epigenetic landscape early cardiogenesis has sustained disruptive effects at later developmental stages. 8 E12.5 heart apex were used for RNA preparation each group.
Project description:Self-organisation and coordinated morphogenesis of multiple cardiac lineages is essential for the development and function of the heart1-3. However, the absence of a human in vitro model that mimics the basic lineage architecture of the heart hinders research into developmental mechanisms and congenital defects4. Here, we describe the establishment of a reliable, lineage-controlled and high-throughput cardiac organoid platform. We show that cardiac mesoderm derived from human pluripotent stem cells robustly self-organises and differentiates into cardiomyocytes forming a cavity. Co-differentiation of cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells from cardiac mesoderm within these structures is required to form a separate endothelial layer. As in vivo, the epicardium engulfs these cardiac organoids, migrates into the cardiomyocyte layer and differentiates. We use this model to demonstrate that cardiac cavity formation is controlled by a mesodermal WNT-BMP signalling axis. Disruption of one of the key BMP targets in cardiac mesoderm, the transcription factor HAND1, interferes with cavity formation, which is consistent with its role in early heart tube and left chamber development5. Thus, the cardiac organoid platform represents a powerful resource for the quantitative and mechanistic analysis of early human cardiogenesis and defects that are otherwise inaccessible. Beyond understanding congenital heart disease, cardiac organoids provide a foundation for future translational research into human cardiac disorders.