Project description:To begin identifying potential downstream of BMP signaling involved in midline facial development, we conducted a transcriptome analysis comparing the expression profiles of control versus ca-Acvr1(A11);P0-Cre nasal process tissues.
Project description:The BMP signaling pathway regulates multiple steps of hematopoiesis, mediated through receptor-regulated Smads, including Smad1 and Smad5. Here we use loss-of-function approaches in zebrafish to compare the roles of Smad1 and Smad5 during embryonic hematopoiesis. Microarray experiments revealed that the two proteins regulate redundantly the key initiators of the hemato-vascular program, including scl, lmo2, and gfi1. However, each also regulates a remarkably distinct genetic program, with Smad5 uniquely regulating the BMP signaling pathway itself. Our results suggest that specificity of BMP signaling output, with respect to hematopoiesis, can be explained by differential functions of Smad1 and Smad5. Keywords: Gene expression transcript profiles The experiment was designed to identify the unique Smad1 and Smad5 dependent transcripts during the somitogenesis stage of development, during which mesoderm is specified to the hematopoietic lineage. Embryos were injected with translational blocking morpholinos for Smad1, Smad5 or both, and then collected at the 1-somite stage for RNA extraction. For every experiment control uninjected wildtype sibling embryo were also collected for comparison. Three biological replicates were done for each knockdown set. Total RNA was sent to Nimblegen for cDNA synthesis, dye labeling and hybridization. Single knockdown samples were hybridized to the Nimblegen 2006 Danio rerio Gene Expression Array chip and the double knockdown samples to the 2007 verison of the chip, which contains the same test genes, but with additional control oligos. Dye swaps were done for each set; for 2 of the 3 hybridization in each set Cy3 was the dye used for the experimental sample and in the 3rd Cy5 was used. The raw hybridization data was obtained from Nimblegen, normalized using NimbleScan and anaylzed using R software.
Project description:The BMP signaling pathway regulates multiple steps of hematopoiesis, mediated through receptor-regulated Smads, including Smad1 and Smad5. Here we use loss-of-function approaches in zebrafish to compare the roles of Smad1 and Smad5 during embryonic hematopoiesis. Microarray experiments revealed that the two proteins regulate redundantly the key initiators of the hemato-vascular program, including scl, lmo2, and gfi1. However, each also regulates a remarkably distinct genetic program, with Smad5 uniquely regulating the BMP signaling pathway itself. Our results suggest that specificity of BMP signaling output, with respect to hematopoiesis, can be explained by differential functions of Smad1 and Smad5. Keywords: Gene expression transcript profiles
Project description:SOX9 is well-known for its role in chondrogenesis and gonadogensis. Campomelic Dysplasia (CD) is an example of SOX9 haploinsufficiency-caused rare congenital disease, in which the patients are reported to have skeletal abnormalities. In this study, we created a hiPSC-modeling CD patient and investigated the effect of SOX9 on the regulation of chondrocyte differentiation in BMP-SMAD signaling in vitro. In the CD patient transcriptome, the BMP-SMAD signaling pathway and ribosome-related and chromosome segregation-related gene sets were altered. Upon further experimentation, noggin was found to be significantly upregulated in HT and HM mutants. The overexpression of SOX9 also showed upregulation in SOX9 and COL2A1. . We hope this finding can give a better picture of the dosage-dependent role of SOX9 in chondrogenesis and reveal the manifestation of skeletal dysplasia in CD patients, thereby helping to develop better drugs for these patients.
Project description:The specification of cartilage requires Sox9, a transcription factor with broad roles for organogenesis outside the skeletal system. How Sox9 gains selective access to cartilage-specific cis-regulatory regions during skeletal development had remained unclear. By analyzing chromatin accessibility during the differentiation of neural crest cells into chondrocytes of the zebrafish head, we find that cartilage-associated chromatin accessibility is dynamically established. Cartilage-associated regions that become accessible after neural crest migration are co-enriched for Sox9 and Fox transcription factor binding motifs. In zebrafish lacking Foxc1 paralogs, we find a global decrease in chromatin accessibility in chondrocytes, consistent with a later loss of dorsal facial cartilages. Zebrafish transgenesis assays confirm that many of these Foxc1-dependent elements function as enhancers with region- and stage-specific activity in facial cartilages. We propose that Foxc1-dependent chromatin accessibility helps directs the versatile Sox9 protein to a chondrogenic program in the face.