RESUMO
Notch signaling is a key regulator of cell-fate decisions and is essential for proper neuroectodermal development. There, it favors the formation of ectoderm, promotes maintenance of neural stem cells, inhibits differentiation into neurons, and commits neural progenitors to a glial fate. In this report, we explore downstream effects of Notch important for astroglial differentiation. Transient activation of Notch1 during early stages of neuroectodermal differentiation of embryonic stem cells resulted in an increase of neural stem cells, a reduction in neurons, an induction of astroglial cell differentiation, and an induction of neural crest (NC) development. Transient or continuous activation of Notch1 during neuroectodermal differentiation led to upregulation of Sox9 expression. Knockdown of the Notch1-induced Sox9 expression reversed Notch1-induced astroglial cell differentiation, increase in neural stem cells, and the decrease in neurons, whereas the Notch1 effects on NC development were hardly affected by knockdown of Sox9 expression. These findings reveal a critical role for Notch-mediated upregulation of Sox9 in a select set of neural lineage determination steps controlled by Notch.
Assuntos
Células-Tronco Embrionárias/citologia , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/metabolismo , Animais , Diferenciação Celular/genética , Diferenciação Celular/fisiologia , Linhagem Celular , Células-Tronco Embrionárias/metabolismo , Proteínas do Olho/genética , Proteínas do Olho/metabolismo , Citometria de Fluxo , Proteínas de Homeodomínio/genética , Proteínas de Homeodomínio/metabolismo , Camundongos , Células-Tronco Neurais/citologia , Células-Tronco Neurais/metabolismo , Fator de Transcrição PAX6 , Fatores de Transcrição Box Pareados/genética , Fatores de Transcrição Box Pareados/metabolismo , RNA Interferente Pequeno/genética , Receptor Notch1/genética , Receptor Notch1/metabolismo , Proteínas Repressoras/genética , Proteínas Repressoras/metabolismo , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase Via Transcriptase Reversa , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/genética , Transdução de Sinais/genética , Transdução de Sinais/fisiologiaRESUMO
Notch receptor signaling controls cell-fate specification, self-renewal, differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis throughout development and regeneration in all animal species studied to date. Its dysfunction causes several developmental defects and diseases in the adult. A key feature of Notch signaling is its remarkable cell-context dependency. In this review, we summarize the influences of the cellular context that regulate Notch activity and propose a model how the interplay between the cell-intrinsically established chromatin state and the cell-extrinsic signals that modify chromatin may select for Notch target accessibility and activation in different cellular contexts.
Assuntos
Receptores Notch/genética , Receptores Notch/metabolismo , Apoptose/fisiologia , Humanos , Transdução de SinaisRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Notch receptor signaling controls developmental cell fates in a cell-context dependent manner. Although Notch signaling directly regulates transcription via the RBP-J/CSL DNA binding protein, little is known about the target genes that are directly activated by Notch in the respective tissues. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To analyze how Notch signaling mediates its context dependent function(s), we utilized a Tamoxifen-inducible system to activate Notch1 in murine embryonic stem cells at different stages of mesodermal differentiation and performed global transcriptional analyses. We find that the majority of genes regulated by Notch1 are unique for the cell type and vary widely dependent on other signals. We further show that Notch1 signaling regulates expression of genes playing key roles in cell differentiation, cell cycle control and apoptosis in a context dependent manner. In addition to the known Notch1 targets of the Hes and Hey families of transcriptional repressors, Notch1 activates the expression of regulatory transcription factors such as Sox9, Pax6, Runx1, Myf5 and Id proteins that are critically involved in lineage decisions in the absence of protein synthesis. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We suggest that Notch signaling determines lineage decisions and expansion of stem cells by directly activating both key lineage specific transcription factors and their repressors (Id and Hes/Hey proteins) and propose a model by which Notch signaling regulates cell fate commitment and self renewal in dependence of the intrinsic and extrinsic cellular context.
