Project description:Much remains unknown about the signals that induce early mesoderm to initiate hematopoietic differentiation. Here we show that endoglin (Eng), a receptor for the TGFβ superfamily, identifies all cells with hematopoietic fate in the early embryo. These arise in an Eng+Flk1+ mesodermal precursor population at E7.5, a cell fraction also endowed with endothelial potential. In Eng knockout embryos, hematopoietic colony activity and numbers of CD71+Ter119+ erythroid progenitors were severely reduced. This coincided with severely reduced expression of embryonic globin and key BMP target genes including the hematopoietic regulators Scl, Gata1, Gata2 and Msx-1. To interrogate molecular pathways active in the earliest hematopoietic progenitors, we applied transcriptional profiling to sorted cells from E7.5 embryos. Eng+Flk-1+ progenitors co-expressed TGFβ and BMP receptors and target genes. Furthermore, Eng+Flk-1+ cells presented high levels of phospho-SMAD1/5, indicating active TGFβ and/or BMP signaling. Remarkably, under hematopoietic serum-free culture conditions, hematopoietic outgrowth of endoglin-expressing cells was dependent on TGFβ superfamily ligands: BMP4, BMP2, or TGF-β1. These data demonstrate that the E+F+ fraction at E7.5 represents mesodermal cells competent to respond to TGFb1, BMP4, or BMP2, shaping their hematopoietic development, and that endoglin is a critical regulator in this process by modulating TGF/BMP signaling. E7.5 pooled embryos (25 litters; 300 embryos approximately) were dissected and 3,000 cells were sorted in triplicate for Eng-Flk1-, Eng-Flk1+, Eng+Flk1+, and Eng+Flk1- fractions. Microarray results were analyzed with GeneSpring GX software.
Project description:Much remains unknown about the signals that induce early mesoderm to initiate hematopoietic differentiation. Here we show that endoglin (Eng), a receptor for the TGFβ superfamily, identifies all cells with hematopoietic fate in the early embryo. These arise in an Eng+Flk1+ mesodermal precursor population at E7.5, a cell fraction also endowed with endothelial potential. In Eng knockout embryos, hematopoietic colony activity and numbers of CD71+Ter119+ erythroid progenitors were severely reduced. This coincided with severely reduced expression of embryonic globin and key BMP target genes including the hematopoietic regulators Scl, Gata1, Gata2 and Msx-1. To interrogate molecular pathways active in the earliest hematopoietic progenitors, we applied transcriptional profiling to sorted cells from E7.5 embryos. Eng+Flk-1+ progenitors co-expressed TGFβ and BMP receptors and target genes. Furthermore, Eng+Flk-1+ cells presented high levels of phospho-SMAD1/5, indicating active TGFβ and/or BMP signaling. Remarkably, under hematopoietic serum-free culture conditions, hematopoietic outgrowth of endoglin-expressing cells was dependent on TGFβ superfamily ligands: BMP4, BMP2, or TGF-β1. These data demonstrate that the E+F+ fraction at E7.5 represents mesodermal cells competent to respond to TGFb1, BMP4, or BMP2, shaping their hematopoietic development, and that endoglin is a critical regulator in this process by modulating TGF/BMP signaling.
Project description:Haematopoietic and endothelial cells derive from a subset of Flk-1 expressing cells. In vitro differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to embryoid bodies (EBs) recapitulate several aspects of early embryonic development, including the formation of a subset of Flk-1 expressing cells. By day 4 of EB differentiation, mesodermal lineages with distinct lineage potentials can be identified based on the expression of the two surface markers Flk-1 and Pdgfra. Cells expressing Flk-1 alone (Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁻) are enriched for haematoendothelial precursors, whereas double-positive cells (Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁺) are enriched for primitive/cardiac mesodermal lineages. Here we performed RNA sequencing at multiple stages of EB differentiation to identify genes potentially important for mesoderm specification towards the haematoendothelial lineages. Mouse ESCs were differentiated to embryoid bodies for 4 days, dissociated, stained for the Flk-1 and Pdgfra markers and Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁻ and Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁺ populations were sorted by FACS. RNA sequencing was performed at multiple stages of EB differentiation: day 0 (D0), day 2 (D2), day 4 (D4) and the two sorted populations (D4 Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁻ and D4 Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁺).
Project description:To identify Brachyury target genes in vivo and elucidate how Brachyury-mediated regulation contributes to early mouse developmental homeostasis and coordination, we performed mRNA-seq to compare gene expression profiles of WT and Tc/Tc embryos at both E7.5 ~ 8.0 and E10.0 ~ 10.5 WT and Tc/Tc embryos were isolated at both E7.5 ~ 8.0 and E10.0 ~ 10.5. Subsequently, directional mRNA-seq expriments were performed with wild-type and Tc/Tc whole embryos
Project description:Haematopoietic and endothelial cells derive from a subset of Flk-1 expressing cells. In vitro differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to embryoid bodies (EBs) recapitulate several aspects of early embryonic development, including the formation of a subset of Flk-1 expressing cells. By day 4 of EB differentiation, mesodermal lineages with distinct lineage potentials can be identified based on the expression of the two surface markers Flk-1 and Pdgfra. Cells expressing Flk-1 alone (Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁻) are enriched for haematoendothelial precursors, whereas double-positive cells (Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁺) are enriched for primitive/cardiac mesodermal lineages. We previously identified six uncharacterized genes (Riken) as potential regulators of haematoendothelial or cardiac lineages commitment, namely I830077J02Rik,C130074G19Rik,1500009L16Rik,D630003M21Rik,D430041D05Rik and A530016L24Rik. We generated homozygous knockouts (KOs) of each of these 6 genes and performed bulk RNA sequencing of WT cells and gene KOs is the two sorted populations (Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα⁻ and Flk-1⁺/Pdgfrα+) at day 4 of embryoid body differentiation.
Project description:We report the use of H3K27ac to pooled active enhancer elements during E7.5 mouse embryos. Our study is the first generated database derived from mouse E7.5 embryos, during late gastrula stages
Project description:Embryonic day (E)12.5 whole murine embryos, E11.5 - E14.5 whole murine embryos, E11.5 - E14.5, post-natal day (P)3 and P35 murine forelimbs, E14.5 brains, and COL1A2-mutant and COL1A2-WT forelimbs were fractionated and specific fractions were analyzed via LC-MS/MS. Aha-enrichment experiments consisted of in vivo protein labeling with azidohomoalanine (Aha) followed by tissue fractionation of the forelimbs and enrichment of labeled ECM proteins from the final IN pellet ('enriched'). 'Unenriched samples', or the background from which newly synthesized proteins were enriched from, were also analyzed via LC-MS/MS.
Project description:We identified distict mesodermal sub-populations based on Endoglin (Eng) and Flk1 expression in Brachyury (Bry) positive cells. By using whole-transcriptome analysis, we further characterized these populations and how they changed when Wnt pathway is inhibited