Piezo1/2 mediate mechanotransduction essential for bone formation through concerted activation of NFAT-YAP1-β-catenin
Abstract
Mechanical forces are fundamental regulators of cell behaviors. However, molecular regulation of mechanotransduction remain poorly understood. Here we identified the mechanosensitive channels Piezo1 and Piezo2 as key force sensors required for bone development and osteoblast differentiation. Loss of Piezo1, or more severely Piezo1/2, in mesenchymal or osteoblast progenitor cells, led to multiple spontaneous bone fractures in newborn mice due to inhibition of osteoblast differentiation and increased bone resorption. In addition, loss of Piezo1/2 rendered resistant to further bone loss caused by unloading in both bone development and homeostasis. Mechanistically, Piezo1/2 relayed fluid shear stress and extracellular matrix stiffness signals to activate Ca2+ influx to stimulate Calcineurin, which promotes concerted activation of NFATc1, YAP1 and β-catenin transcription factors by inducing their dephosphorylation as well as NFAT/YAP1/β-catenin complex formation. Yap1 and β-catenin activities were reduced in the Piezo1 and Piezo1/2 mutant bones and such defects were partially rescued by enhanced β-catenin activities.
Data availability
RNAseq source data for Figure. S3 has been deposited in GEO under the accession number GSE139121.All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
-
RNA seq of femur and humerus bone tissues from Prx1cre driven Piezo1/2 mutant pups at the age of P0NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE139121.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE025866)
- Yingzi Yang
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE025866)
- Qian Cong
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (R01AR070877)
- Yingzi Yang
National Cancer Institute (R01CA222571)
- Yuchen Liu
China Scholarship Council (201806380049)
- Taifeng Zhou
China Scholarship Council (201806210436)
- Jiachen Lin
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (R01AR070877)
- Prem S Yadav
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
- Yi Fan
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the NIH. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#IS00000121-3) of the Harvard Medical School. The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Harvard Medical School.
Copyright
© 2020, Zhou 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
-
- 10,801
- views
-
- 1,865
- downloads
-
- 233
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
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)
Further reading
-
- Developmental Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
Asthenoteratozoospermia, a prevalent cause of male infertility, lacks a well-defined etiology. DNAH12 is a special dynein featured by the absence of a microtubule-binding domain, however, its functions in spermatogenesis remain largely unknown. Through comprehensive genetic analyses involving whole-exome sequencing and subsequent Sanger sequencing on infertile patients and fertile controls from six distinct families, we unveiled six biallelic mutations in DNAH12 that co-segregate recessively with male infertility in the studied families. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed pronounced axonemal abnormalities, including inner dynein arms (IDAs) impairment and central pair (CP) loss in sperm flagella of the patients. Mouse models (Dnah12-/- and Dnah12mut/mut) were generated and recapitulated the reproductive defects in the patients. Noteworthy, DNAH12 deficiency did not show effects on cilium organization and function. Mechanistically, DNAH12 was confirmed to interact with two other IDA components DNALI1 and DNAH1, while disruption of DNAH12 leads to failed recruitment of DNALI1 and DNAH1 to IDAs and compromised sperm development. Furthermore, DNAH12 also interacts with radial spoke head proteins RSPH1, RSPH9, and DNAJB13 to regulate CP stability. Moreover, the infertility of Dnah12-/- mice could be overcome by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment. Collectively, DNAH12 plays a crucial role in the proper organization of axoneme in sperm flagella, but not cilia, by recruiting DNAH1 and DNALI1 in both humans and mice. These findings expand our comprehension of dynein component assembly in flagella and cilia and provide a valuable marker for genetic counseling and diagnosis of asthenoteratozoospermia in clinical practice.
-
- Developmental Biology
The lateral line system enables fishes and aquatic-stage amphibians to detect local water movement via mechanosensory hair cells in neuromasts, and many species to detect weak electric fields via electroreceptors (modified hair cells) in ampullary organs. Both neuromasts and ampullary organs develop from lateral line placodes, but the molecular mechanisms underpinning ampullary organ formation are understudied relative to neuromasts. This is because the ancestral lineages of zebrafish (teleosts) and Xenopus (frogs) independently lost electroreception. We identified Bmp5 as a promising candidate via differential RNA-seq in an electroreceptive ray-finned fish, the Mississippi paddlefish (Polyodon spathula; Modrell et al., 2017, eLife 6: e24197). In an experimentally tractable relative, the sterlet sturgeon (Acipenser ruthenus), we found that Bmp5 and four other Bmp pathway genes are expressed in the developing lateral line, and that Bmp signalling is active. Furthermore, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis targeting Bmp5 in G0-injected sterlet embryos resulted in fewer ampullary organs. Conversely, when Bmp signalling was inhibited by DMH1 treatment shortly before the formation of ampullary organ primordia, supernumerary ampullary organs developed. These data suggest that Bmp5 promotes ampullary organ development, whereas Bmp signalling via another ligand(s) prevents their overproduction. Taken together, this demonstrates opposing roles for Bmp signalling during ampullary organ formation.