Notch/Her12 signalling modulates motile/immotile cilia ratio downstream of Foxj1a in zebrafish left-right organizer

  1. Barbara Tavares
  2. Raquel Jacinto
  3. Pedro Sampaio
  4. Sara Pestana
  5. Andreia Pinto
  6. Andreia Vaz
  7. Mónica Roxo-Rosa
  8. Rui Gardner
  9. Telma Lopes
  10. Britta Schilling
  11. Ian Henry
  12. Leonor Saúde
  13. Susana Santos Lopes  Is a corresponding author
  1. CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
  2. Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Centro Académico de Medicina de Lisboa, Portugal
  3. Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, Portugal
  4. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
  5. Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal

Abstract

Foxj1a is necessary and sufficient to specify motile cilia. Using transcriptional studies and slow-scan two-photon live imaging capable of identifying the number of motile and immotile cilia, we now established that the final number of motile cilia depends on Notch signalling (NS). We found that despite all left-right organizer (LRO) cells express foxj1a and the ciliary axonemes of these cells have dynein arms some cilia remain immotile. We identified that this decision is taken early in development in the Kupffer’s Vesicle (KV) precursors the readout being her12 transcription. We demonstrate that overexpression of either her12 or Notch intracellular domain (NICD) increases the number of immotile cilia at the expense of motile cilia, and leads to an accumulation of immotile cilia at the anterior half of the KV. This disrupts the normal fluid flow intensity and pattern, with consequent impact on dand5 expression pattern and left-right (L-R) axis establishment.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Barbara Tavares

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Raquel Jacinto

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4029-0204
  3. Pedro Sampaio

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Sara Pestana

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Andreia Pinto

    Laboratório de Histologia e Patologia Comparada, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Centro Académico de Medicina de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Andreia Vaz

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Mónica Roxo-Rosa

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Rui Gardner

    Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, Oeiras, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Telma Lopes

    Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, Oeiras, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Britta Schilling

    Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Ian Henry

    Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Leonor Saúde

    Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Susana Santos Lopes

    Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, CEDOC, Chronic Diseases Research Centre, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
    For correspondence
    susana.lopes@fcm.unl.pt
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6733-6356

Funding

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/BEX-BID/1411/2014)

  • Susana Santos Lopes

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT-ANR/BEX-BID/0153/2012)

  • Sara Pestana

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/SAU-OBD/103981/2008)

  • Andreia Vaz

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PD/BD/52420/2013)

  • Raquel Jacinto

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/77258/2011)

  • Barbara Tavares

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/111611/2015)

  • Pedro Sampaio

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (IF/00951/2012)

  • Susana Santos Lopes

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the on the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2017, Tavares et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 2,376
    views
  • 430
    downloads
  • 27
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Barbara Tavares
  2. Raquel Jacinto
  3. Pedro Sampaio
  4. Sara Pestana
  5. Andreia Pinto
  6. Andreia Vaz
  7. Mónica Roxo-Rosa
  8. Rui Gardner
  9. Telma Lopes
  10. Britta Schilling
  11. Ian Henry
  12. Leonor Saúde
  13. Susana Santos Lopes
(2017)
Notch/Her12 signalling modulates motile/immotile cilia ratio downstream of Foxj1a in zebrafish left-right organizer
eLife 6:e25165.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25165

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25165

Further reading

    1. Developmental Biology
    Saira Amir, Olatunbosun Arowolo ... Alexander Suvorov
    Research Article

    Over the past several decades, a trend toward delayed childbirth has led to increases in parental age at the time of conception. Sperm epigenome undergoes age-dependent changes increasing risks of adverse conditions in offspring conceived by fathers of advanced age. The mechanism(s) linking paternal age with epigenetic changes in sperm remain unknown. The sperm epigenome is shaped in a compartment protected by the blood-testes barrier (BTB) known to deteriorate with age. Permeability of the BTB is regulated by the balance of two mTOR complexes in Sertoli cells where mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) promotes the opening of the BTB and mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2) promotes its integrity. We hypothesized that this balance is also responsible for age-dependent changes in the sperm epigenome. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed reproductive outcomes, including sperm DNA methylation in transgenic mice with Sertoli cell-specific suppression of mTORC1 (Rptor KO) or mTORC2 (Rictor KO). mTORC2 suppression accelerated aging of the sperm DNA methylome and resulted in a reproductive phenotype concordant with older age, including decreased testes weight and sperm counts, and increased percent of morphologically abnormal spermatozoa and mitochondrial DNA copy number. Suppression of mTORC1 resulted in the shift of DNA methylome in sperm opposite to the shift associated with physiological aging – sperm DNA methylome rejuvenation and mild changes in sperm parameters. These results demonstrate for the first time that the balance of mTOR complexes in Sertoli cells regulates the rate of sperm epigenetic aging. Thus, mTOR pathway in Sertoli cells may be used as a novel target of therapeutic interventions to rejuvenate the sperm epigenome in advanced-age fathers.

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Sarah Rubin, Ankit Agrawal ... Elazar Zelzer
    Research Article

    Chondrocyte columns, which are a hallmark of growth plate architecture, play a central role in bone elongation. Columns are formed by clonal expansion following rotation of the division plane, resulting in a stack of cells oriented parallel to the growth direction. In this work, we analyzed hundreds of Confetti multicolor clones in growth plates of mouse embryos using a pipeline comprising 3D imaging and algorithms for morphometric analysis. Surprisingly, analysis of the elevation angles between neighboring pairs of cells revealed that most cells did not display the typical stacking pattern associated with column formation, implying incomplete rotation of the division plane. Morphological analysis revealed that although embryonic clones were elongated, they formed clusters oriented perpendicular to the growth direction. Analysis of growth plates of postnatal mice revealed both complex columns, composed of ordered and disordered cell stacks, and small, disorganized clusters located in the outer edges. Finally, correlation between the temporal dynamics of the ratios between clusters and columns and between bone elongation and expansion suggests that clusters may promote expansion, whereas columns support elongation. Overall, our findings support the idea that modulations of division plane rotation of proliferating chondrocytes determines the formation of either clusters or columns, a multifunctional design that regulates morphogenesis throughout pre- and postnatal bone growth. Broadly, this work provides a new understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying growth plate activity and bone elongation during development.