Project description:We have developed a protocol to generate hematopoietic and cardiac derivatives in vitro by Mesp1 induction in ES cells. The goal of this study is to analyze the heterogeneity of Mesp1+ mesoderm by single-cell RNA-seq
Project description:We have developed a protocol to generate cardiopharyngeal mesoderm (CPM) in vitro by Mesp1 induction in ES cells. The goal of this study is to compare the transcriptome of CPM-derived cardiac and skeletal myogenic progenitors to identify novel lineage-specific markers.
Project description:We have developed a protocol to generate cardiopharyngeal mesoderm (CPM) in vitro by Mesp1 induction in ES cells. The goal of this study is to compare the transcriptome of CPM-derived cardiac and skeletal myogenic progenitors to identify novel lineage-specific markers. mRNA profiles of CPM-derived D6 (early) and D12 (late), cardiac (BMP) and skeletal myogenic (control) progenitors were generated
Project description:Cardiac development requires precise gene expression programs at each developmental stage guided by multiple signaling pathways and transcription factors (TFs). MESP1 is transiently expressed in mesoderm, and is essential for subsequent cardiac development, while the precise mechanism regulating its own transcription and mesoderm cell fate is not fully understood. Therefore, we developed a high content screen assay to identify regulators of MESP1 expression in mesodermal cells differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). The screen identified CYT387, a JAK1/JAK2 kinase inhibitor, as a potent molecule that can significantly increase MESP1 expression. CYT387 was also found to enhance cardiomyocyte differentiation from hPSCs in vitro. Mechanistical studies found that JAK inhibition promotes MESP1 expression by reducing cytoplasmic calcium concentration and subsequently activating canonical WNT signaling. Our study identified a role of JAK signaling in early mesoderm cells, and sheds light on the connection between the JAK-STAT pathway and transcriptional regulation of MESP1, which expands our understanding of mesoderm and cardiac development.
Project description:Transcriptional networks governing cardiac precursor cell (CPC) specification are incompletely understood due in part to limitations in distinguishing CPCs from non-cardiac mesoderm in early gastrulation. We leveraged detection of early cardiac lineage transgenes within a granular single cell transcriptomic time course of mouse embryos to identify emerging CPCs and describe their transcriptional profiles. Mesp1, a transiently-expressed mesodermal transcription factor (TF), is canonically described as an early regulator of cardiac specification. However, we observed perdurance of CPC transgene-expressing cells in Mesp1 mutants, albeit mis-localized, prompting us to investigate the scope of Mesp1’s role in CPC emergence and differentiation. Mesp1 mutant CPCs failed to robustly activate markers of cardiomyocyte maturity and critical cardiac TFs, yet they exhibited transcriptional profiles resembling cardiac mesoderm progressing towards cardiomyocyte fates. Single cell chromatin accessibility analysis defined a Mesp1-dependent developmental breakpoint in cardiac lineage progression at a shift from mesendoderm transcriptional networks to those necessary for cardiac patterning and morphogenesis. These results reveal Mesp1-independent aspects of early CPC specification and underscore a Mesp1-dependent regulatory landscape required for progression through cardiogenesis.
Project description:Transcriptional networks governing cardiac precursor cell (CPC) specification are incompletely understood due in part to limitations in distinguishing CPCs from non-cardiac mesoderm in early gastrulation. We leveraged detection of early cardiac lineage transgenes within a granular single cell transcriptomic time course of mouse embryos to identify emerging CPCs and describe their transcriptional profiles. Mesp1, a transiently-expressed mesodermal transcription factor (TF), is canonically described as an early regulator of cardiac specification. However, we observed perdurance of CPC transgene-expressing cells in Mesp1 mutants, albeit mis-localized, prompting us to investigate the scope of Mesp1’s role in CPC emergence and differentiation. Mesp1 mutant CPCs failed to robustly activate markers of cardiomyocyte maturity and critical cardiac TFs, yet they exhibited transcriptional profiles resembling cardiac mesoderm progressing towards cardiomyocyte fates. Single cell chromatin accessibility analysis defined a Mesp1-dependent developmental breakpoint in cardiac lineage progression at a shift from mesendoderm transcriptional networks to those necessary for cardiac patterning and morphogenesis. These results reveal Mesp1-independent aspects of early CPC specification and underscore a Mesp1-dependent regulatory landscape required for progression through cardiogenesis.
Project description:During gastrulation, cells of the prospective mesoderm ingress through the primitive streak and acquire fates based on complex spatial and temporal cues. Progenitors of the cardiogenic mesoderm are first found at E6.5 in the posterior lateral epiblast and subsequently migrate laterally and anteriorly to form the cardiac crescent at E7.5, when regionalized cell fates are first delineated . Lineage tracing and heterotopic transplantation studies suggest that precursors in the earliest heart field possess potential to generate myocardium, endocardium, and pericardium. The mechanisms by which inductive signals in the primitive streak effect the development of this pancardiac progenitor field, however, remain poorly understood; In mice, the earliest restricted progenitors of the cardiovascular system are marked by expression of the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, Mesp1. We therefore use microarray analysis to determine the early and intermediate effects of transiently forced Mesp1 expression during ES cell differentiation. Experiment Overall Design: ES cells bearing a targeted, doxycycline inducible Mesp1 transgene were differentiated in the absence or presence of DKK1 from day 0-4, either with or without transient doxycycline treatment from day 2-4.
Project description:The origin of human extraembryonic mesoderm (ExM) has been heavily debated. In order to address if ExM can be derived from primitive endoderm (PrE), we treated the human PrE cell line (also called na�ve extraembryonic endoderm (nEnd)) with a mesoderm induction protocol and sequenced the entire day 15 cell population.
Project description:Blood and endothelial cells arise from hemangiogenic progenitors that are specified from FLK1-expressing mesoderm by the transcription factor ETV2. FLK1 mesoderm also contributes to other tissues, including vascular smooth muscle (VSM) and cardiomyocytes. However, the developmental process of FLK1 mesoderm generation and its derivatives and the lineage relationship among FLK1 mesoderm derivatives these tissues remain obscure. Recent single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) studies of early stages of embryogenesis embryos, or in vitro differentiated human embryonic stem (ES) cells have differentiation provided unprecedented information on the spatiotemporal resolution of cells in embryogenesis. Nonetheless, these snapshots still nonetheless offer insufficient information on dynamic developmental processes due to inadvertently missing intermediate states and unavoidable batch effects. Here we performed scRNA-seq of mouse ES cells in asynchronous embryoid bodies (EBs), in vitro differentiated embryonic stem (ES) cells containing undifferentiated ES cells and its differentiated hemangiogenic progeny, as well as yolk sacs, the first hematopoietic extraembryonic tissue in developing embryo that contains hemangiogenic and VSM lineages. We captured a continuous developmental process from undifferentiated pluripotent cells to FLK1 mesoderm-derived tissues involved in hemangiogenesis. This continuous transcriptome map will benefit both basic and applied studies of mesoderm and its derivatives.