A β-catenin-driven switch in TCF/LEF transcription factor binding to DNA target sites promotes commitment of mammalian nephron progenitor cells

Autor: Qiuyu Guo, Albert Kim, Bin Li, Andrew Ransick, Helena Bugacov, Xi Chen, Nils Lindström, Aaron Brown, Leif Oxburgh, Bing Ren, Andrew P McMahon
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: eLife, Vol 10 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2050-084X
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.64444
Popis: The canonical Wnt pathway transcriptional co-activator β-catenin regulates self-renewal and differentiation of mammalian nephron progenitor cells (NPCs). We modulated β-catenin levels in NPC cultures using the GSK3 inhibitor CHIR99021 (CHIR) to examine opposing developmental actions of β-catenin. Low CHIR-mediated maintenance and expansion of NPCs are independent of direct engagement of TCF/LEF/β-catenin transcriptional complexes at low CHIR-dependent cell-cycle targets. In contrast, in high CHIR, TCF7/LEF1/β-catenin complexes replaced TCF7L1/TCF7L2 binding on enhancers of differentiation-promoting target genes. Chromosome confirmation studies showed pre-established promoter–enhancer connections to these target genes in NPCs. High CHIR-associated de novo looping was observed in positive transcriptional feedback regulation to the canonical Wnt pathway. Thus, β-catenin’s direct transcriptional role is restricted to the induction of NPCs, where rising β-catenin levels switch inhibitory TCF7L1/TCF7L2 complexes to activating LEF1/TCF7 complexes at primed gene targets poised for rapid initiation of a nephrogenic program.
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