The liver is a key endoderm-derived multifunctional organ within the digestive system.Prospero homeobox 1(Prox1)is an essential transcription factor for liver development,but its specific function is not well understo...The liver is a key endoderm-derived multifunctional organ within the digestive system.Prospero homeobox 1(Prox1)is an essential transcription factor for liver development,but its specific function is not well understood.Here,we show that hepatic development,including the formation of intrahepatic biliary and vascular networks,is severely disrupted in prox1a mutant zebrafish.We find that Prox1a is essential for liver growth and proper differentiation but not required for early hepatic cell fate specification.Intriguingly,prox1a depletion leads to ectopic initiation of a Cdx1b-mediated intestinal program and the formation of intestinal lumen-like structures within the liver.Morpholino knockdown of cdx1b alleviates liver defects in the prox1a mutant zebrafish.Finally,chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis reveals that Prox1a binds directly to the promoter region of cdx1b,thereby repressing its expression.Overall,our findings indicate that Prox1a is required to promote and protect hepatic development by repression of Cdx1b-mediated intestinal cell fate in zebrafish.展开更多
In mammals,the expression of the homeobox family member Cdx2/CDX2 is restricted within the intestine.Conditional ablation of the mouse Cdx2 in the endodermal cells causes a homeotic transformation of the intestine tow...In mammals,the expression of the homeobox family member Cdx2/CDX2 is restricted within the intestine.Conditional ablation of the mouse Cdx2 in the endodermal cells causes a homeotic transformation of the intestine towards the esophagus or gastric fate.In this report,we show that null mutants of zebrafish cdx1b,encoding the counterpart of mammalian CDX2,could survive more than 10 days post fertilization,a stage when the zebrafish digestive system has been well developed.Through RNA sequencing(RNA-seq)and single-cell sequencing(sc RNA-seq)of the dissected intestine from the mutant embryos,we demonstrate that the loss-of-function of the zebrafish cdx1b yields hepatocyte-like intestinal cells,a phenotype never observed in the mouse model.Further RNA-seq data analysis,and genetic double mutants and signaling inhibitor studies reveal that Cdx1b functions to guard the intestinal fate by repressing,directly or indirectly,a range of transcriptional factors and signaling pathways for liver specification.Finally,we demonstrate that heat shock-induced overexpression of cdx1b in a transgenic fish abolishes the liver formation.Therefore,we demonstrate that Cdx1b is a key repressor of hepatic fate during the intestine specification in zebrafish.展开更多
基金partially supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China(2018YFA0801000,32270889,2019YFA0802800,32070824,2015CB942800,2016YFA0100500,31871458,31671500,and 81371264)supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation(5242009)a grant from the Fisheries Innovation Team of Beijing Agriculture Innovation Consortium(BAIC07-2023-02).
文摘The liver is a key endoderm-derived multifunctional organ within the digestive system.Prospero homeobox 1(Prox1)is an essential transcription factor for liver development,but its specific function is not well understood.Here,we show that hepatic development,including the formation of intrahepatic biliary and vascular networks,is severely disrupted in prox1a mutant zebrafish.We find that Prox1a is essential for liver growth and proper differentiation but not required for early hepatic cell fate specification.Intriguingly,prox1a depletion leads to ectopic initiation of a Cdx1b-mediated intestinal program and the formation of intestinal lumen-like structures within the liver.Morpholino knockdown of cdx1b alleviates liver defects in the prox1a mutant zebrafish.Finally,chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis reveals that Prox1a binds directly to the promoter region of cdx1b,thereby repressing its expression.Overall,our findings indicate that Prox1a is required to promote and protect hepatic development by repression of Cdx1b-mediated intestinal cell fate in zebrafish.
基金supported by Centre for Computational Science and Engineering(CCSE)at Southern University of Science and Technologysupported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2018YFA0800502)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31900579,31830113)。
文摘In mammals,the expression of the homeobox family member Cdx2/CDX2 is restricted within the intestine.Conditional ablation of the mouse Cdx2 in the endodermal cells causes a homeotic transformation of the intestine towards the esophagus or gastric fate.In this report,we show that null mutants of zebrafish cdx1b,encoding the counterpart of mammalian CDX2,could survive more than 10 days post fertilization,a stage when the zebrafish digestive system has been well developed.Through RNA sequencing(RNA-seq)and single-cell sequencing(sc RNA-seq)of the dissected intestine from the mutant embryos,we demonstrate that the loss-of-function of the zebrafish cdx1b yields hepatocyte-like intestinal cells,a phenotype never observed in the mouse model.Further RNA-seq data analysis,and genetic double mutants and signaling inhibitor studies reveal that Cdx1b functions to guard the intestinal fate by repressing,directly or indirectly,a range of transcriptional factors and signaling pathways for liver specification.Finally,we demonstrate that heat shock-induced overexpression of cdx1b in a transgenic fish abolishes the liver formation.Therefore,we demonstrate that Cdx1b is a key repressor of hepatic fate during the intestine specification in zebrafish.
