Project description:Genome-wide occupancy analysis of TBX5, NKX2-5 and GATA4 in differentiating WT, Nkx2-5KO (NKO), Tbx5KO (TKO) and Nkx2-5;Tbx5KO (DKO) cells at the cardiac precursor (CP) and cardiomyocyte (CM) differentiation stages. Analysis of TBX5, NKX2-5 and GATA4 occupancy a and gene expression in WT, Tbx5KO, Nkx2-5KO and DoubleKO precursor (CP) and mature (CM) in vitro differentiated cardiomyocytes.
Project description:Genome-wide occupancy analysis of TBX5, NKX2-5 and GATA4 in differentiating WT, Nkx2-5KO (NKO), Tbx5KO (TKO) and Nkx2-5;Tbx5KO (DKO) cells at the cardiac precursor (CP) and cardiomyocyte (CM) differentiation stages. Analysis of TBX5, NKX2-5 and GATA4 occupancy a and gene expression in WT, Tbx5KO, Nkx2-5KO and DoubleKO precursor (CP) and mature (CM) in vitro differentiated cardiomyocytes. We performed ChIP-exo experiments for NKX2-5, TBX5 and GATA4 in differentiating WT, Nkx2-5KO (NKO), Tbx5KO (TKO) and Nkx2-5;Tbx5KO (DKO) cells at the CP and CM stages. ChIP-exo was performed according to methods published previously (Boyer et al., 2005; Serandour et al., 2013; Wamstad et al., 2012) using specific antisera to TBX5 (sc-17866 XS, lot no. B1213), NKX2-5 (sc-8697 XS, lot no. B1213), and GATA4 (sc-1237 XS, lot no. B1213) on chromatin isolated from 10 mill. cells. Re-ChIP-exo was performed from 40 mill cells, combining methods published previously (Serandour et al., 2013; Shankaranarayanan et al., 2011). ChIP-exo Analysis: Barcoded libraries were single-end 50bp sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 instrument. Reads were trimmed using the fastq-mcf program (Aronesty, 2011), and then aligned to the mm9 mouse genome assembly using bowtie2 (ChIP-seq, ChIP-exo) (Langmead and Salzberg, 2012). Samtools was then used to retain reads that had a mapq score of 30 or greater (Li et al., 2009), thereby ensuring that each mapped uniquely to the genome assembly. The 5' -most position of reads that mapped to the reference strand and the 3â??-most position of reads that mapped to the non-reference strand were identified for each read as the actual edges of each exonuclease-treated fragment. The genome was divided into 20bp genomic bins and a normalized tag density was calculated for each genomic bin 'i' as follows: tag density(i)=([#tags within 75bp of i] X [total# genomic bins])/(total #of tags) To identify broad regions of binding, bins with tag densities of greater than 100 were merged to generate a peak list for each sample. Within 1kb of each region, strand-specific single-base-resolution tag densities were calculated for each dataset by dividing each region into 1bp bins, then counting the number of tags within 5bp of each bin. For each region of binding, the footprint for each bound region was defined as the span from the peak position of '+' strand binding to the peak position of '-' strand binding as seen from the high-resolution tag densities. For subsequent analyses, any overlapping footprint for replica/factor/stage/genotype was merged to generate an average footprint list. Only average footprints present in at least two replicas of the same factor, stage and genotype were considered (Final Average Footprints).
Project description:Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) accounts for 1% of birth defects, and while large-scale genetic studies have uncovered genes associated with CHDs, identifying causal mutations remains a challenge. We hypothesized that genetic determinants for CHDs could be found in the protein interactomes of GATA4 and TBX5, two cardiac transcription factors (TFs) associated with CHDs. Defining their interactomes in human cardiac progenitors via affinity purification-mass spectrometry and integrating the results with genetic data from the Pediatric Cardiac Genomic Consortium (PCGC) revealed an enrichment of de novo variants among proteins that interact with GATA4 or TBX5. A consolidative score designed to prioritize TF interactome members based on distinctive variant, gene and proband features identified numerous likely CHD-causing genes, including the epigenetic reader GLYR1. GLYR1 and GATA4 widely co-occupied cardiac developmental genes resulting in co-activation and the GLYR1 variant associated with CHD disrupted interaction with GATA4. This integrative proteomic and genetic approach provides a framework for prioritizing and interrogating the contribution of genetic variants in CHD and can be extended to other genetic diseases.
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:During reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiomyocyte-like cells by overexpression of transcription factors, GATA4, Hand2, Mef2C and Tbx5 (GHMT), H3K4Me2, an active histone code, shifts from fibroblast-exclusive peaks to cardiomyocyte-exclusive peaks. Important cardiac genes are gradually marked by this active histone marker. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and neonatal mouse ventricular cardiomyocytes (NMVMs) represent fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes, respectively. Chromatins harvested from MEFs infected with retroviruses carrying GHMT at day 3, day 5, day 7 post-viral infection were prepared for immunoprecipitation.
Project description:In this study, we determine whether direct activation of endogenous loci by targeting the genomic DNA (using a CRISPRa system) can fulfill reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiac progenitors. Core promoter regions of Gata4, Nkx2-5, and Tbx5 were targeted by the CRISPRa (Synergistic Activation Mediator) in mouse tail tip fibroblasts (TTFs). RNA sequencing was performed to characterize the transcriptome of the transfected fibroblasts and reprogrammed cells. These data indicate that our CRISPRa approaches can induce cardiac reprogramming and establish a gene network for heart development.
Project description:In the developing heart, heterotypic transcription factors (TFs) interactions, such as between the T-box TF TBX5 and the homeodomain TF NKX2-5 have been proposed as a mechanism for human congenital heart disease. In order to study the role of each TF during heart formation, embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived embryos were generated from KO ES cells for Tbx5, Nkx2-5 or both TFs. We used microarrays to identify changes in the gene expression due to the lack of Tbx5, Nkx2-5 or both TFs during early heart formation. WT, Nkx2-5KO (NKO), Tbx5KO (TKO) and Tbx5KO;Nkx2-5KO (DKO) E8.75 mouse hearts were microdissected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:Background: Cardiac transcription factors are master regulators during heart development. Recently, some were shown to transdifferentiate noncardiac mesoderm cells and cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes. However, the individual roles of each transcription factors in activating cardiac gene program have not been elucidated. We examined cardiac-specific and genome-wide gene expression in fibroblasts induced with cardiac transcription factors Nkx2.5 (N), Tbx5 (T), Gata4 (G), Myocardin (M) alone or different combinations. Methodology/Principal Findings: We applied different combinations of human Nkx2.5 (N), Tbx5 (T), Gata4 (G) and Myocardin (M) lentiviruses into 10T1/2 fibroblasts. Immunostaining and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) showed that N, T, G or M alone did not induce expression of cardiac marker genes M-NM-1-myosin heavy chain (M-NM-1MHC) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT). Only T+M and T+G+M combinations induced M-NM-1MHC and cTnT expression. Microarray-based gene ontology analysis revealed that T alone inhibited most genes involved in cardiac-related processes and activated genes involved in Wnt receptor signaling pathway and in aberrant processes. M alone inhibited genes involved in Wnt receptor signaling pathway and activated genes involved in cardiac-related processes and in aberrant processes. G alone inhibited genes involved in ectoderm development. T+G+M combination was the most effective activator of genes associated with cardiac-related processes including muscle cell differentiation, sarcomere, striated muscle contraction, regulation of heart contraction, and glucose metabolism and fatty acid oxidation (two significant forms of cardiomyocyte energy metabolism). And unlike T, M, G alone or T+M, T+G+M did not activate genes associated with aberrant processes. Conclusions: Tbx5, Gata4 and Myocardin play different roles in activating cardiac gene program and in avoiding aberrant gene program activation. The combination of T+G+M activated cardiac gene program and avoided aberrant gene program activation. Two weeks after doxycline induction, total RNA was isolated from 10T1/2-tTA cells infected with different combinations of Tbx5, Gata4, and Myocardin lentiviruses. Biological triplicated.