PUBLICATION

SOX19b regulates the premature neuronal differentiation of neural stem cells through EZH2-mediated histone methylation in neural tube development of zebrafish

Authors
Li, X., Zhou, W., Li, X., Gao, M., Ji, S., Tian, W., Ji, G., Du, J., Hao, A.
ID
ZDB-PUB-191218-2
Date
2019
Source
Stem Cell Research & Therapy   10: 389 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
Neural stem cells, Neural tube defects, Sox19b, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Cell Differentiation/physiology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Protein/metabolism*
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Histones/metabolism*
  • Methylation
  • Neural Stem Cells/cytology
  • Neural Stem Cells/metabolism*
  • Neural Tube/cytology
  • Neural Tube/growth & development*
  • Neural Tube/metabolism
  • Prosencephalon/embryology
  • Prosencephalon/metabolism
  • SOX Transcription Factors/biosynthesis
  • SOX Transcription Factors/genetics
  • SOX Transcription Factors/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish
  • Zebrafish Proteins/biosynthesis
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
PubMed
31842983 Full text @ Stem Cell Res. Ther.
Abstract
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the most serious and common birth defects in the clinic. The SRY-related HMG box B1 (SoxB1) gene family has been implicated in different processes of early embryogenesis. Sox19b is a maternally expressed gene in the SoxB1 family that is found in the region of the presumptive central nervous system (CNS), but its role and mechanism in embryonic neural stem cells (NSCs) during neural tube development have not yet been explored. Considering that Sox19b is specific to bony fish, we intended to investigate the role and mechanism of Sox19b in neural tube development in zebrafish embryos.
Morpholino (MO) antisense oligonucleotides were used to construct a Sox19b loss-of-function zebrafish model. The phenotype and the expression of related genes were analysed by in situ hybridization and immunolabelling. Epigenetic modifications were detected by western blot and chromatin immunoprecipitation.
In this study, we found that zebrafish embryos exhibited a reduced or even deleted forebrain phenotype after the expression of the Sox19b gene was inhibited. Moreover, we found for the first time that knockdown of Sox19b reduced the proliferation of NSCs; increased the transcription levels of Ngn1, Ascl1, HuC, Islet1, and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors; and led to premature differentiation of NSCs. Finally, we found that knockdown of Sox19b decreased the levels of EZH2/H3K27me3 and decreased the level of H3K27me3 at the promoters of Ngn1 and ascl1a.
Together, our data demonstrate that Sox19b plays an essential role in early NSC proliferation and differentiation through EZH2-mediated histone methylation in neural tube development. This study established the role of transcription factor Sox19b and epigenetic factor EZH2 regulatory network on NSC development, which provides new clues and theoretical guidance for the clinical treatment of neural tube defects.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping