EKLF/KLF1 expression defines a unique macrophage subset during mouse erythropoiesis

Abstract

Erythroblastic islands are a specialized niche that contain a central macrophage surrounded by erythroid cells at various stages of maturation. However, identifying the precise genetic and transcriptional control mechanisms in the island macrophage remains difficult due to macrophage heterogeneity. Using unbiased global sequencing and directed genetic approaches focused on early mammalian development, we find that fetal liver macrophage exhibit a unique expression signature that differentiates them from erythroid and adult macrophage cells. The importance of EKLF/KLF1 in this identity is shown by expression analyses in EKLF-/- and in EKLF-marked macrophage cells. Single cell sequence analysis simplifies heterogeneity and identifies clusters of genes important for EKLF-dependent macrophage function and novel cell surface biomarkers. Remarkably, this singular set of macrophage island cells appears transiently during embryogenesis. Together these studies provide a detailed perspective on the importance of EKLF in establishment of the dynamic gene expression network within erythroblastic islands in the developing embryo and provide the means for their efficient isolation.

Data availability

Data deposite in GEO, accession number: GSE156153, Source data are included for Figures 1,3,4,5,6.

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Kaustav Mukherjee

    Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Li Xue

    Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Antanas Planutis

    Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Merlin Nithya Gnanapragasam

    Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Andrew Chess

    Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. James J Bieker

    Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States
    For correspondence
    james.bieker@mssm.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5128-7476

Funding

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01 DK102260)

  • James J Bieker

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01 DK121671)

  • James J Bieker

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K01 DK115686)

  • Merlin Nithya Gnanapragasam

Black Family Stem Cell Institute (Postdoctoral award)

  • Kaustav Mukherjee

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 National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#18-1911) of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Copyright

© 2021, Mukherjee 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

  • 1,526
    views
  • 198
    downloads
  • 23
    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. Kaustav Mukherjee
  2. Li Xue
  3. Antanas Planutis
  4. Merlin Nithya Gnanapragasam
  5. Andrew Chess
  6. James J Bieker
(2021)
EKLF/KLF1 expression defines a unique macrophage subset during mouse erythropoiesis
eLife 10:e61070.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61070

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61070

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Heungjin Ryu, Kibum Nam ... Jung-Hoon Park
    Research Article

    In most murine species, spermatozoa exhibit a falciform apical hook at the head end. The function of the sperm hook is not yet clearly understood. In this study, we investigate the role of the sperm hook in the migration of spermatozoa through the female reproductive tract in Mus musculus (C57BL/6), using a deep tissue imaging custom-built two-photon microscope. Through live reproductive tract imaging, we found evidence indicating that the sperm hook aids in the attachment of spermatozoa to the epithelium and facilitates interactions between spermatozoa and the epithelium during migration in the uterus and oviduct. We also observed synchronized sperm beating, which resulted from the spontaneous unidirectional rearrangement of spermatozoa in the uterus. Based on live imaging of spermatozoa-epithelium interaction dynamics, we propose that the sperm hook plays a crucial role in successful migration through the female reproductive tract by providing anchor-like mechanical support and facilitating interactions between spermatozoa and the female reproductive tract in the house mouse.

    1. Developmental Biology
    Michele Bertacchi, Gwendoline Maharaux ... Michèle Studer
    Research Article Updated

    The morphogen FGF8 establishes graded positional cues imparting regional cellular responses via modulation of early target genes. The roles of FGF signaling and its effector genes remain poorly characterized in human experimental models mimicking early fetal telencephalic development. We used hiPSC-derived cerebral organoids as an in vitro platform to investigate the effect of FGF8 signaling on neural identity and differentiation. We found that FGF8 treatment increases cellular heterogeneity, leading to distinct telencephalic and mesencephalic-like domains that co-develop in multi-regional organoids. Within telencephalic regions, FGF8 affects the anteroposterior and dorsoventral identity of neural progenitors and the balance between GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons, thus impacting spontaneous neuronal network activity. Moreover, FGF8 efficiently modulates key regulators responsible for several human neurodevelopmental disorders. Overall, our results show that FGF8 signaling is directly involved in both regional patterning and cellular diversity in human cerebral organoids and in modulating genes associated with normal and pathological neural development.