Project description:T cell precursors develop into cytotoxic CD8 and helper CD4+ T cells in thymus. Thpok, a BTB/POZ family transcription factor, enforces commitment to the CD4 lineage and suppresses cytotoxic gene expression. However, it is still not fully understood how Thpok directs CD4 T cell development. Here, using mass-spectrometry, we identify nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex as a novel Thpok cofactor. We demonstrate that the Thpok BTB domain is essential for NuRD recruitment. Reconstituting NuRD binding to a BTB-less version of Thpok (which cannot bind NuRD) restored CD4 T cell in vivo. RNA sequencing showed that CD4 T cells expressing the reconstituted protein express a transcriptome similar to that of CD4 T cells expressing Thpok. Thus, our results demonstrate that NuRD recruitment is both necessary and sufficient for the function of the Thpok BTB domain in CD4 T cell development.
Project description:ZBTB4 is a mammalian transcription factor with Zinc fingers and a BTB/POZ domain, which can bind methylated CpGs, as well as certain unmethylated consensus sequences. ZBTB4 is frequently downregulated in human cancers, but it is unclear whether this is a cause or consequence of transformation. To investigate the role of ZBTB4 in normal and pathological conditions, we generated Zbtb4-/- mice
Project description:Mice: knock-out of the Miz1 POZ-domain in brain (Miz1DPOZNes) and control mice. The RNA expression in cerebella of of old Miz1 delta POZ mice (1.5 years), old control mice (1.5 years), young Miz1 delta POZ mice (5.5 weeks) and young control mice (5.5 weeks) was compared
Project description:The transcription factor Bcl6 orchestrates the germinal center reaction through its actions in B and T cells, and regulates inflammatory signaling in macrophages. We report that genetic replacement by mutant Bcl6, which cannot bind corepressors to its BTB domain, disrupted  germinal center formation and immunoglobulin affinity maturation, due to a defect in B cell  proliferation and survival. In contrast, BTB loss of function had no effect on T follicular helper cell differentiation and function, nor other T helper subsets. Bcl6 null mice displayed a lethal inflammatory phenotype, whereas BTB mutant mice experienced normal healthy lives with no inflammation. Bcl6 repression of inflammatory responses in macrophages was accordingly independent of the BTB domain repressor function. Bcl6 thus mediates its actions through lineage-specific biochemical functions. ChIP-seq for Bcl6, SMRT and BCOR in germinal center B cells
Project description:Although BTB-zinc finger (BTB-ZF) transcription factors control the differentiation of multiple hematopoietic and immune lineages, how they function is poorly understood. The BTB-ZF factor Thpok controls intrathymic CD4+ T cell development and expression of most CD4+- and CD8+-lineage genes. Here, we identify the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex as a novel Thpok cofactor. We locate three amino-acid residues within the Thpok BTB domain that are required for both NuRD binding and Thpok functions, and show that NuRD recruitment recapitulates the functions of the Thpok BTB domain. NuRD mediates Thpok repression of CD8+-lineage genes, including the transcription factor Runx3, but is dispensable for Cd4 expression. We show that these functions cannot be performed by the BTB domain of the Thpok-related factor Bcl6, which fails to bind NuRD. Thus, cofactor binding critically contributes to the functional specificity of BTB-zinc finger factors, which control the differentiation of most hematopoietic subsets.
Project description:ZBTB17 belongs to the ZBTB (zinc finger and BTB domain protein family) family, which contains a BTB domain at the N-terminus and multiple zinc fingers at the C-terminus. In this dataset, ChIP-seq experiment was performed with anti-ZBTB17 antibody.
Project description:Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is an aggressive blood cancer mainly affecting children. Relapse rates are high and toxic chemotherapies that block DNA replication and induce DNA damage cause health problems later in life, underlining the need for improved therapies. c-Myc is a transcription factor that is hyperactive in a large proportion of cancers including leukemia but is difficult to target in therapy. We show that ablation of the function of the BTB/POZ domain factor Miz-1, an important co-factor of c-Myc, significantly delays T- and B-ALL/lymphoma in mice and interferes with c-Myc oncogenic transcriptional activity. Leukemic cells that still emerge in this system activate DNA replication pathways, which are those targeted by current chemotherapeutic drugs such as cytarabine. We found that the combination of acute ablation of the Miz-1 POZ domain enhances the effect of cytarabine treatment. This combination was effective in both Eµ-Myc and Notch ICN driven leukemia models and prolonged survival of tumor bearing animals by accelerating apoptosis of leukemic cells. These observations suggest that targeting Miz-1 could render current ALL chemotherapies more effective with a better outcome for patients.
Project description:The architectural protein Pita is critical for Drosophila embryogenesis and predominantly binds to gene promoters and insulators. In particular, Pita is involved in the organization of boundaries between regulatory domains, controlled by the expression of three hox genes in the Bithorax complex (BX-C). The best-characterized partner for Pita is the BTB/POZ-domain containing protein CP190. Here, we precisely mapped two unstructured regions of Pita that interact with the BTB domain of CP190. The deletion of the CP190-interacting regions did not significantly affect the binding of the mutant Pita protein to most chromatin sites. The expression of the mutant protein completely complemented the null pita mutation. However, the mutant Pita protein does not support the ability of multimerized Pita sites to prevent cross-talk between the iab-6 and iab-7 regulatory domains that activate the expression of Abdominal-B (Abd-B), one of the genes in the BX-C. The recruitment of the Pita region and the interaction with CP190 and the polytene chromosomes of larvae induces the formation of a new interband, which is a consequence of the formation of open chromatin in this region. These results suggested that the interaction with CP190 is required for the primary Pita activities, but other architectural proteins may also recruit CP190 in flies expressing only the mutant Pita protein.
Project description:T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive disease mainly affecting children. Relapse rates are high and toxic chemotherapies that block DNA replication and induce DNA damage cause health problems later in life, underlining the need for improved therapies. We show that ablation of the BTB/POZ domain factor Miz-1 significantly delays Notch1-induced T-ALL in mice through induction of p53-dependent cell death. Leukemic cells that still emerge in this system activate DNA replication and strand elongation pathways, which are those targeted by current chemotherapeutic drugs such as cytarabine. Acute Miz-1 ablation enhances the effect of cytarabine treatment and eliminates leukemic cells completely in some cases, suggesting that targeting Miz-1 could render current T-ALL chemotherapies more effective.
Project description:Androgen receptor (AR) is an important driver in the disease progression of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Speckle-type BTB/POZ protein (SPOP) mutations stabilize AR and frequently co-occur with the loss of chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 1 (CHD1). We generated a new genetically engineered mouse model and prostate cancer cells model containing CHD1 deletion and SPOP mutation to study the underlying mechanism. We found CHD1 loss–induced cholesterol production supplies intratumoral androgen biosynthesis and retains AR transcriptional activity in SPOP-mutated prostate tumors, leading to castration resistance.