Neuroscience

Viral-mediated Oct4 overexpression and inhibition of Notch signaling synergistically induce neurogenic competence in mammalian Müller glia

Nguyet Le
Sherine Awad
Isabella Palazzo
Thanh Hoang
Seth Blackshaw author has email address

Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States
Michigan Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States
Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.106450.2

Open access
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Figures and data

AAV-mediated overexpression of Oct4 induces neurogenesis in control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP Müller glia following NMDA-induced excitotoxicity.
(A) Schematic of the transgenic construct used to specifically label Müller glia with Sun1-GFP expression. (B) Schematic of the GFAP AAV constructs and experimental workflow. (C) Representative images of retinas immunolabeled for GFP, mCherry, Otx2, and HuC/D. White arrowheads indicate GFP-positive Müller glia-derived neurons expressing neuronal markers Otx2 or HuC/D. (D) Quantification of mean percentage ± SD of GFP-positive Müller glia-derived neurons expressing either Otx2 or HuC/D. Significance was determined via two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test: ****p < 0.0001. Each data point was calculated from an individual retina. TAM, tamoxifen; ONL, outer nuclear layer; INL, inner nuclear layer; GCL, ganglion cell layer. Scale bar = 50μm.

Oct4 overexpression enhances neurogenesis in Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia.
(A) Schematic of the transgenic constructs used to induce loss of function of Rbpj specifically in Müller glia. (B) Schematic of the GFAP AAV constructs and experimental workflow. (C) Representative images of retinas immunolabeled for GFP, mCherry, Otx2, and HuC/D. White arrowheads indicate GFP-positive Müller glia-derived neurons expressing neuronal markers Otx2 or HuC/D. (D) Quantification of mean percentage ± SD of GFP-positive Müller glia-derived neurons expressing either Otx2 or HuC/D. Significance was determined via two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test: ****p < 0.0001. TAM, tamoxifen; ONL, outer nuclear layer; INL, inner nuclear layer; GCL, ganglion cell layer. Scale bar = 50μm.

ScRNA-Seq analysis of Müller glia and Müller glia-derived neurons from Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP;Rbpj^lox/loxMüller glia following Oct4 overexpression.
(A) Schematic of the scRNA-seq experimental pipeline. (B) UMAP plot showing the clustering of GFP-positive cells from Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia retinas infected with GFAP-mCherry and GFAP-Oct4-mCherry AAV constructs. (C) Stacked bar plots showing the proportion of cells in each cluster across two sample groups. (D) Feature plots highlighting the cluster of Müller glia (Hes5), neurogenic MGPCs (Neurog2, Insm1, Ascl1), bipolar cells (Otx2), and amacrine cells (Elavl3). (E) Heatmap showing the expression of top differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from the Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia cell cluster from retinas infected with GFAP-mCherry and GFAP-Oct4-mCherry AAV constructs. (F) Heatmap showing the expression of top differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for MGPC cell cluster from retinas infected with GFAP-mCherry and GFAP-Oct4-mCherry AAV constructs.

Integrated snRNA/scATAC-Seq analysis of control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP and Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia following Oct4 overexpression.
(A) Schematic of the multiomic scRNA/ATAC-seq experimental pipeline. (B) UMAP plot of multiomic datasets showing the clustering of GFP+ cells from control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP and Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia from GFAP-mCherry and GFAP-Oct4-mCherry AAV infected retinas. (C) UMAP plot showing the identity of cell clusters determined by marker gene expression. (D) Stacked bar plots represent the proportion of cells in each cluster across different sample groups. (E) Feature plots highlighting the cluster of Müller glia (Hes1), neurogenic MGPCs (Neurog2, Sox4), bipolar cells (Otx2), Pou5f1- and Rfx4-expressing cells. (F) Heatmap showing expression of DEGs along the neurogenesis trajectory. (G) Heatmap showing differential motif activity along the neurogenesis trajectory. (H) Heatmaps of DEGs differentially expressed between Oct4 and mCherry control samples in the control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP and Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia clusters. Venn diagram showing unique and common DEGs between Oct4 and mCherry control in the control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP and Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia. (I) Increased chromatin accessibility regions associated with the Oct4 and Rfx4 loci observed following Oct4 overexpression in both control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP and Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Rbpj^lox/lox;Sun1-GFP Müller glia. (J) Top-ranked enriched motifs in chromatin regions showing increased accessibility following Oct4 overexpression in both control GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP and Rbpj-deficient GlastCreER;Sun1-GFP;Rbpj^lox/lox Müller glia cell clusters.

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