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PLoS One
2014 Jan 01;911:e109274. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109274.
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Cis-regulatory control of the nuclear receptor Coup-TF gene in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus embryo.
Kalampoki LG
,
Flytzanis CN
.
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Coup-TF, an orphan member of the nuclear receptor super family, has a fundamental role in the development of metazoan embryos. The study of the gene''s regulatory circuit in the sea urchin embryo will facilitate the placement of this transcription factor in the well-studied embryonic Gene Regulatory Network (GRN). The Paracentrotus lividus Coup-TF gene (PlCoup-TF) is expressed throughout embryonic development preferentially in the oral ectoderm of the gastrula and the ciliary band of the pluteus stage. Two overlapping λ genomic clones, containing three exons and upstream sequences of PlCoup-TF, were isolated from a genomic library. The transcription initiation site was determined and 5'' deletions and individual segments of a 1930 bp upstream region were placed ahead of a GFP reporter cassette and injected into fertilized P.lividus eggs. Module a (-532 to -232), was necessary and sufficient to confer ciliary band expression to the reporter. Comparison of P.lividus and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus upstream Coup-TF sequences, revealed considerable conservation, but none within module a. 5'' and internal deletions into module a, defined a smaller region that confers ciliary band specific expression. Putative regulatory cis-acting elements (RE1, RE2 and RE3) within module a, were specifically bound by proteins in sea urchin embryonic nuclear extracts. Site-specific mutagenesis of these elements resulted in loss of reporter activity (RE1) or ectopic expression (RE2, RE3). It is proposed that sea urchin transcription factors, which bind these three regulatory sites, are necessary for spatial and quantitative regulation of the PlCoup-TF gene at pluteus stage sea urchin embryos. These findings lead to the future identification of these factors and to the hierarchical positioning of PlCoup-TF within the embryonic GRN.
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Figure 1. Spatial expression pattern of the PlCoup-TF gene.In situ hybridization of P.lividus embryos with antisense and sense digoxygenin labeled PlCoup-TF probes. aâf: antisense; gâl: sense probe hybridization. The maternal PlCoup-TF mRNA seems evenly distributed in the egg and at the 16-cell stage embryo. Zygotic transcripts are expressed in the presumptive oral ectoderm at blastula and gastrula stages and in the ciliary band at prism and pluteus stages. E: Unfertilized egg; 16c: 16-cell stage embryo; B: Hatching blastula; G: Gastrula; P: Prism and Pl: Pluteus.
Figure 2. Restriction digest map of the overlapping inserts of genomic clones âAâ and âΦâ.The arrow marked by +1 symbolizes the initiation site and the direction of transcription. âatgâ, marks the site of translation initiation. The scale (1 kb) is shown by a small bar. The enzymes used for mapping are: B: BamHI; E: EcoRI; H: HindIII; K: KpnI; S: SalI; Sc: SacI.
Figure 3. Identification of PlCoup-TF transcription initiation sites.
A: Electrophoretic analysis of the 5'-RACE products. The two arrows point to the major DNA bands produced by the nested PCR (lane 1). The 100 bp ladder (NEB) was used as DNA length reference (lane M). B: Sequence of the proximal PlCoup-TF promoter and the positions of the multiple transcription initiation sites (capital and lower case bold characters). The most upstream site was designated as +1. A putative CCAAT box is underlined at position â65. The translation initiation site is located at +544.
Figure 4. Spatial expression patterns generated by the upstream deletions of the GFP cassette.
A: Map of PlCoup-TF's upstream sequence (1930 bp) fused to the EpGFPII reference gene. The bended arrow marks the transcription initiation site. EpAc refers to Endo16â²s basal promoter and CyIIa's kozak sequence and ATG. The numbers above the map indicate the starting point of each upstream deletion. B: Composite pictures (GFP epi-fluorescence over bright field image) of embryos resulting from injection of the corresponding deletions â1639 to â232. Constructs â1639, â1398 and â781 show GFP expression in ciliary band and a few mesenchyme cells. Construct â532 shows GFP expression only in ciliary band and construct â232, in the aboral ectoderm. All embryos were photographed at pluteus stage. A picture of an embryo injected with the construct â19 is not shown, since these embryos never exhibited any GFP expression.
Figure 5. Spatial expression patterns generated by the individual segments aâf fused to the GFP cassette.
A: Graphical positioning of the upstream PlCoup-TF segments (aâf) within the 1932 bp upstream sequence, which were individually fused to the EpGFPII reference gene. The numbers surrounding each black bar correspond to the nucleotide borders of each segment. Other designations are as in Figure 4A. B: Composite pictures of embryos resulting from injection of segments aâc. Segment a results in GFP expression specifically in the ciliary band, while segments b and c show GFP expression in the ciliary band, endoderm and mesenchyme cells. All embryos were photographed at pluteus stage. Embryos injected with segments d, e and f did not exhibit GFP expression.
Figure 6. Comparison of Coup-TF's upstream and 5â²UTR regions between P.lividus and S.purpuratus.
A: The 5â²UTR and the upstream sequence of the PlCoup-TF gene, numbered from the â1930 position. The data were obtained by subcloning and sequencing a 2.5 kb fragment of the λ clone âΦâ insert (Fig. 2). The shaded areas correspond to various degrees of homology with the corresponding sequence of SpCoup-TF as revealed by comparisons using the program BLAST. The lighter the shade, the lesser the homology is between the ortholog genes of the two species. Thus, the darkest shade corresponds to the 5â²UTR sequence that exhibits the highest homology. The small black arrow denotes the transcription initiation site. Underlined is the upstream sequence of module a, which is not homologous between the two species. B: Graphic comparison of the 5â²UTR and 5â² upstream sequences of the two orthologous genes, PlCoup-TF (top) and SpCoup-TF (bottom) using the Family Relations program (32). Crossbars joining the two sequences indicate homology, the thickest of which corresponds to the 5â²UTR region.
Figure 7. Spatial expression patterns generated by upstream deletions D-a1 to D-a5 of module a.
A: Graphic presentation of the upstream deletions into module a (â532 to â212). Horizontal bars underneath module a, represent the size of each deletion (D-a1 to D-a5) and the numbers above them the corresponding upstream border. The numbers at the right of each bar correspond to the size of each fragment tested. EpAc refers to Endo16â²s promoter and CyIIa's kozak sequences as in figure 4A. The two parallel bars within the black box at the right end of the graph denote that the GFP gene is not depicted on scale. B: Composite pictures of embryos resulting from injection of upstream deletions into module a. The entire module a shows GFP expression specifically in the ciliary band, while deletions D-a1, D-a2 and D-a3 show expression both in ciliary band and endoderm. Deletions D-a4 and D-a5 show expression in endoderm and mesenchyme cells. D-a5 shows GFP expression in skeletogenic mesenchyme cells (see text for non-specific expression caused by random integration of the GFP cassette). All embryos were photographed at pluteus stage.
Figure 8. Spatial expression patterns generated internal deletions D1âD4 into module a.
A: Map of the internal deletions. Black boxes correspond to the deleted regions D1âD4. The numbers surrounding each box mark the borders of each deletion. EpAc refers to Endo16â²s promoter and CyIIa's kozak sequences as in figure 4A. The two parallel bars within the black box at the right end of the graph denote that the GFP gene is not depicted on scale. B: Composite pictures of embryos resulting from injection of the internal deletions D1âD4. The entire module a shows GFP expression specifically in the ciliary band, deletion D1 in ciliary band, endoderm and aboral ectoderm and D2 in aboral ectoderm. D3 shows expression in ciliary band and endoderm while D4 shows expression in mesenchyme cells. All embryos were photographed at pluteus stage.
Figure 9. Specific binding of embryonic nuclear proteins to elements RE1, RE2 and RE3.The DNA binding specificity of transcription factors to the elements RE1, RE2 and RE3 was determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assays. NE: Nuclear Extract; SC: Specific Competitor. (â) and (+) denote omission and addition of nuclear extract or specific competitor to each reaction respectively. The arrows point to protein: DNA complexes, which are not formed in the presence of specific competitor.
Figure 10. Spatial expression patterns of site-specific mutations into module a.
A: Graphic presentation of the wt and mutant sequences of the three elements within module a. The top line depicts the 320 bp region of the wt module a, and the sequences that correspond to the sites RE1 (â453), RE2 (â432) and RE3 (â377) and their respective position. Each additional line shows the nucleotides that substitute for the wt sequence at each site. The bottom line depicts the double mutation, which deletes also the intervening sequences between RE1 and RE2. B: Composite pictures of embryos expressing GFP resulting from injection of wt and mutant module a. The wt module a and mutation â453 show GFP expression specifically in the ciliary band, while mutation â432 shows expression in ciliary band, endoderm and aboral ectoderm. Mutation â377 shows GFP expression in aboral ectoderm and the double mutation â453/â432 in aboral ectoderm, endoderm and ciliary band. All embryos were photographed at pluteus stage.
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