Histone deacetylase 1 maintains lineage integrity through histone acetylome refinement during early embryogenesis

  1. Jeff Jiajing Zhou
  2. Jin Sun Cho
  3. Han Han
  4. Ira L Blitz
  5. Wenqi Wang
  6. Ken WY Cho  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of California, Irvine, United States

Abstract

Histone acetylation is a pivotal epigenetic modification that controls chromatin structure and regulates gene expression. It plays an essential role in modulating zygotic transcription and cell lineage specification of developing embryos. While the outcomes of many inductive signals have been described to require enzymatic activities of histone acetyltransferases and deacetylases (HDACs), the mechanisms by which HDACs confine the utilization of the zygotic genome remain to be elucidated. Here, we show that histone deacetylase 1 (Hdac1) progressively binds to the zygotic genome from mid blastula and onward. The recruitment of Hdac1 to the genome at blastula is instructed maternally. Cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) bound by Hdac1 possess epigenetic signatures underlying distinct functions. We highlight a dual function model of Hdac1 where Hdac1 not only represses gene expression by sustaining a histone hypoacetylation state on inactive chromatin, but also maintains gene expression through participating in dynamic histone acetylation-deacetylation cycles on active chromatin. As a result, Hdac1 maintains differential histone acetylation states of bound CRMs between different germ layers and reinforces the transcriptional program underlying cell lineage identities, both in time and space. Taken together, our study reveals a comprehensive role for Hdac1 during early vertebrate embryogenesis.

Data availability

Sequencing data have been deposited in GEO under accession code GSE198378.Publicly available datasets used in this study are available at NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus using the accession GSE56000, GSE67974 ,GSE65785, GSE85273, GSE81458, GSE129236. Relevant bioinformatic analysis scripts are accessible at https://github.com/jiajinglz/bioRxiv_05052022_Hdac_dual_roles.

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

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Jeff Jiajing Zhou

    Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Jin Sun Cho

    Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Han Han

    Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Ira L Blitz

    Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Wenqi Wang

    Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4053-5088
  6. Ken WY Cho

    Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States
    For correspondence
    kwcho@uci.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7282-1770

Funding

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM126395)

  • Ken WY Cho

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM139617)

  • Ken WY Cho

National Science Foundation (1755214)

  • Ken WY Cho

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM126048)

  • Wenqi Wang

American Cancer Society (RSG-18-009-01-CCG)

  • Wenqi Wang

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

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocols (#AUP-21-068) of the University of California, Irvine.

Copyright

© 2023, 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

  • 1,045
    views
  • 160
    downloads
  • 7
    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. Jeff Jiajing Zhou
  2. Jin Sun Cho
  3. Han Han
  4. Ira L Blitz
  5. Wenqi Wang
  6. Ken WY Cho
(2023)
Histone deacetylase 1 maintains lineage integrity through histone acetylome refinement during early embryogenesis
eLife 12:e79380.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79380

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79380

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Qian Wang, Hongge Li ... Xin Zhang
    Research Article

    Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling elicits multiple downstream pathways, most notably the Ras/MAPK cascade facilitated by the adaptor protein Grb2. However, the mechanism by which Grb2 is recruited to the FGF signaling complex remains unresolved. Here, we showed that genetic ablation of FGF signaling prevented murine lens induction by disrupting transcriptional regulation and actin cytoskeletal arrangements, which could be reproduced by deleting the juxtamembrane region of the FGF receptor and rescued by Kras activation. Conversely, mutations affecting the Frs2-binding site on the FGF receptor or the deletion of Frs2 and Shp2 primarily impact later stages of lens vesicle development involving lens fiber cell differentiation. Our study further revealed that the loss of Grb2 abolished MAPK signaling, resulting in a profound arrest of lens development. However, removing Grb2’s putative Shp2 dephosphorylation site (Y209) neither produced a detectable phenotype nor impaired MAPK signaling during lens development. Furthermore, the catalytically inactive Shp2 mutation (C459S) only modestly impaired FGF signaling, whereas replacing Shp2’s C-terminal phosphorylation sites (Y542/Y580) previously implicated in Grb2 binding only caused placental defects, perinatal lethality, and reduced lacrimal gland branching without impacting lens development, suggesting that Shp2 only partially mediates Grb2 recruitment. In contrast, we observed that FGF signaling is required for the phosphorylation of the Grb2-binding sites on Shc1 and the deletion of Shc1 exacerbates the lens vesicle defect caused by Frs2 and Shp2 deletion. These findings establish Shc1 as a critical collaborator with Frs2 and Shp2 in targeting Grb2 during FGF signaling.

    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Evolutionary Biology
    Simon Rethemeier, Sonja Fritzsche ... Vera S Hunnekuhl
    Research Article

    The insect brain and the timing of its development underwent evolutionary adaptations. However, little is known about the underlying developmental processes. The central complex of the brain is an excellent model to understand neural development and divergence. It is produced in large parts by type II neuroblasts, which produce intermediate progenitors, another type of cycling precursor, to increase their neural progeny. Type II neuroblasts lineages are believed to be conserved among insects, but little is known on their molecular characteristics in insects other than flies. Tribolium castaneum has emerged as a model for brain development and evolution. However, type II neuroblasts have so far not been studied in this beetle. We created a fluorescent enhancer trap marking expression of Tc-fez/earmuff, a key marker for intermediate progenitors. Using combinatorial labeling of further markers, including Tc-pointed, we characterized embryonic type II neuroblast lineages. Intriguingly, we found nine lineages per hemisphere in the Tribolium embryo while Drosophila produces only eight per brain hemisphere. These embryonic lineages are significantly larger in Tribolium than they are in Drosophila and contain more intermediate progenitors. Finally, we mapped these lineages to the domains of head patterning genes. Notably, Tc-otd is absent from all type II neuroblasts and intermediate progenitors, whereas Tc-six3 marks an anterior subset of the type II lineages. Tc-six4 specifically marks the territory where anterior-medial type II neuroblasts differentiate. In conclusion, we identified a conserved pattern of gene expression in holometabolan central complex forming type II neuroblast lineages, and conserved head patterning genes emerged as new candidates for conferring spatial identity to individual lineages. The higher number and greater lineage size of the embryonic type II neuroblasts in the beetle correlate with a previously described embryonic phase of central complex formation. These findings stipulate further research on the link between stem cell activity and temporal and structural differences in central complex development.