Transcription factor induced reprogramming of one specialized cell type into another is a promising approach for regenerative medicine. However, the process still remains poorly understood, in large part because of the lack of adequate experimental models. Here we describe a robust cell reprogramming system consisting of a B cell line with an inducible form of C/EBPa that can be converted into macrophages with essentially 100% efficiency in only 2 to 3 days. The conversion involves reciprocal changes in cell surface antigen expression, increase in cell granularity and size, alterations in cellular structures, formation of membrane extensions, acquisition of phagocytic capacity and an increased inflammatory responsiveness as well as migratory activity. Analysis of the transcriptome shows complex reciprocal regulation of B cell and macrophage genes, including transcription factors required for the formation of the two lineages. The fact that the cells become irreversibly committed to a macrophage fate within 1 to 2 days after activation of C/EBPa show that they are truly reprogrammed. The system should be useful to study epigenetic and cell biological mechanisms of transcription factor induced cell reprogramming.
A robust and highly efficient immune cell reprogramming system.
Cell line
View SamplesWe report a time course of RNA-seq data from wild-type embryonic stem cells and embryonic stem cells in which the cardiogenic transcription factors ZNF503, ZEB2 and NKX2-5 are depleted with shRNAs differentiating along the cardiac lineage. Overall design: Biological replicates of RNA-seq data from embryonic stem cells differentiating along the cardiac lineage.
An Orthologous Epigenetic Gene Expression Signature Derived from Differentiating Embryonic Stem Cells Identifies Regulators of Cardiogenesis.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesTo gain a deep understanding of mRNA turnover dynamics in mammalian cells, we pulse labeled newly synthesized RNA in 3t3 cells for 2 h with 4sU. RNA samples were fractionated into the newly synthesized and pre-existing fractions. Both fractions and the total RNA sample were analyzed by mRNA sequencing. We estimated mRNA half-lives based on the ratios of newly synthesized RNA/total RNA ratio and the preexisting RNA/total RNA.
Global quantification of mammalian gene expression control.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
PTTG1 overexpression in adrenocortical cancer is associated with poor survival and represents a potential therapeutic target.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Disease stage
View SamplesBackground: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is associated with poor survival rates. The objective of the study was to analyze ACC gene expression profiling data prognostic biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets.
PTTG1 overexpression in adrenocortical cancer is associated with poor survival and represents a potential therapeutic target.
Sex, Disease stage
View SamplesCardiogenesis involves multiple biological processes acting in concert during development, a coordination achieved by the regulation of diverse cardiac genes by a finite set of transcription factors (TFs). Previous work from our laboratory identified the roles of two Forkhead TFs, Checkpoint suppressor homologue (CHES-1-like) and Jumeau (Jumu) in governing cardiac progenitor cell divisions by regulating Polo kinase activity. These TFs were also implicated in the regulation of numerous other cardiac genes. Here we show that these two Forkhead TFs play an additional and mutually redundant role in specifying the cardiac mesoderm (CM): eliminating the functions of both CHES-1-like and jumu in the same embryo results in defective hearts with missing hemisegments. Our observations indicate that this process is mediated by the Forkhead TFs regulating the fibroblast growth factor receptor Heartless (Htl) and the Wnt receptor Frizzled (Fz), both previously known to function in cardiac progenitor specification: CHES-1-like and jumu exhibit synergistic genetic interactions with htl and fz in CM specification, thereby implying function through the same genetic pathways, and transcriptionally activate the expression of both receptor-encoding genes. Furthermore, ectopic overexpression of either htl or fz in the mesoderm partially rescues the defective CM specification phenotype seen in embryos doubly homozygous for mutations in jumu and CHES-1-like. Together, these data emphasize the functional redundancy that leads to robustness in the cardiac progenitor specification process mediated by Forkhead TFs regulating the expression of signaling pathway receptors, and illustrate the pleiotropic functions of this class of TFs in different aspects of cardiogenesis.
Two forkhead transcription factors regulate the division of cardiac progenitor cells by a Polo-dependent pathway.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe development of a complex organ requires the specification of appropriate numbers of each of its constituent cell types, as well as their proper differentiation and correct positioning relative to each other. During Drosophila cardiogenesis, all three of these processes are controlled by jumeau (jumu) and Checkpoint suppressor homologue (CHES-1-like), two genes encoding forkhead transcription factors that we discovered utilizing an integrated genetic, genomic and computational strategy for identifying novel genes expressed in the developing Drosophila heart. Both jumu and CHES-1-like are required during asymmetric cell division for the derivation of two distinct cardiac cell types from their mutual precursor, and in symmetric cell divisions that produce yet a third type of heart cell. jumu and CHES-1-like control the division of cardiac progenitors by regulating the activity of Polo, a kinase involved in multiple steps of mitosis. This pathway demonstrates how transcription factors integrate diverse developmental processes during organogenesis.
Two forkhead transcription factors regulate the division of cardiac progenitor cells by a Polo-dependent pathway.
Specimen part
View SamplesThe development of a complex organ requires the specification of appropriate numbers of each of its constituent cell types, as well as their proper differentiation and correct positioning relative to each other. During Drosophila cardiogenesis, all three of these processes are controlled by jumeau (jumu) and Checkpoint suppressor homologue (CHES-1-like), two genes encoding forkhead transcription factors that we discovered utilizing an integrated genetic, genomic and computational strategy for identifying novel genes expressed in the developing Drosophila heart. Both jumu and CHES-1-like are required during asymmetric cell division for the derivation of two distinct cardiac cell types from their mutual precursor, and in symmetric cell divisions that produce yet a third type of heart cell. jumu and CHES-1-like control the division of cardiac progenitors by regulating the activity of Polo, a kinase involved in multiple steps of mitosis. This pathway demonstrates how transcription factors integrate diverse developmental processes during organogenesis.
Two forkhead transcription factors regulate the division of cardiac progenitor cells by a Polo-dependent pathway.
Specimen part
View SamplesAn important but largely unmet challenge in understanding the mechanisms that govern formation of specific organs is to decipher the complex and dynamic genetic programs exhibited by the diversity of cell types within the tissue of interest. Here, we use an integrated genetic, genomic and computational strategy to comprehensively determine the molecular identities of distinct myoblast subpopulations within the Drosophila embryonic mesoderm at the time that cell fates are initially specified. A compendium of gene expression profiles was generated for primary mesodermal cells purified by flow cytometry from appropriately staged wild-type embryos and from twelve genotypes in which myogenesis was selectively and predictably perturbed. A statistical meta-analysis of these pooled datasetsbased on expected trends in gene expression and on the relative contribution of each genotype to the detection of known muscle genesprovisionally assigned hundreds of differentially expressed genes to particular myoblast subtypes. Whole embryo in situ hybridizations were then used to validate the majority of these predictions, thereby enabling true positive detection rates to be estimated for the microarray data. This combined analysis reveals that myoblasts exhibit much greater gene expression heterogeneity and overall complexity than was previously appreciated. Moreover, it implicates the involvement of large numbers of uncharacterized, differentially expressed genes in myogenic specification and subsequent morphogenesis. These findings also underscore a requirement for considerable regulatory specificity for generating diverse myoblast identities. Finally, to illustrate how the developmental functions of newly identified myoblast genes can be efficiently surveyed, a rapid RNA interference assay that can be scored in living embryos was developed and applied to selected genes. This integrated strategy for examining embryonic gene expression and function provides a substantially expanded framework for further studies of this model developmental system.
An integrated strategy for analyzing the unique developmental programs of different myoblast subtypes.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesHomeodomain (HD) proteins comprise a large family of evolutionarily conserved transcription factors (TFs) having diverse developmental functions, yet they paradoxically recognize very similar DNA sequences. To investigate how HDs control cell-specific gene expression patterns, we determined the DNA binding specificities of a broad range of HDs critical for Drosophila embryonic mesoderm development. These studies revealed particular sequences that are bound by one HD and not by others. Such HD-preferred binding sites are overrepresented in the noncoding regions of genes that are regulated by the corresponding HD. Moreover, we show at single-cell resolution in intact embryos that the HD Slouch (Slou) controls myoblast gene expression through unique DNA sequences that are preferentially bound by Slou. These findings demonstrate that the sequence of a HD-binding site dictates which HD family member binds to and regulates a particular enhancer. This represents a novel mechanism for how cell type-specific TFs induce the distinct genetic programs of individual embryonic cells.
Molecular mechanism underlying the regulatory specificity of a Drosophila homeodomain protein that specifies myoblast identity.
Specimen part
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