PUBLICATION
Nanog safeguards early embryogenesis against global activation of maternal β-catenin activity by interfering with TCF factors
- Authors
- He, M., Zhang, R., Jiao, S., Zhang, F., Ye, D., Wang, H., Sun, Y.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-200724-27
- Date
- 2020
- Source
- PLoS Biology 18: e3000561 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- He, Mudan, Sun, Yonghua, Ye, Ding
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Wnt Signaling Pathway/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/chemistry
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
- Cell Nucleus/metabolism
- Embryonic Development/genetics*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Body Patterning/genetics
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Animals
- Nanog Homeobox Protein/chemistry
- Nanog Homeobox Protein/genetics
- Nanog Homeobox Protein/metabolism*
- Female
- Gene Knockdown Techniques
- Mutation/genetics
- Zygote/metabolism
- Repressor Proteins/metabolism
- Trans-Activators/metabolism*
- Protein Binding
- Transcription, Genetic
- beta Catenin/metabolism*
- Male
- Protein Transport
- PubMed
- 32702011 Full text @ PLoS Biol.
Citation
He, M., Zhang, R., Jiao, S., Zhang, F., Ye, D., Wang, H., Sun, Y. (2020) Nanog safeguards early embryogenesis against global activation of maternal β-catenin activity by interfering with TCF factors. PLoS Biology. 18:e3000561.
Abstract
Maternal β-catenin activity is essential and critical for dorsal induction and its dorsal activation has been thoroughly studied. However, how the maternal β-catenin activity is suppressed in the nondorsal cells remains poorly understood. Nanog is known to play a central role for maintenance of the pluripotency and maternal -zygotic transition (MZT). Here, we reveal a novel role of Nanog as a strong repressor of maternal β-catenin signaling to safeguard the embryo against hyperactivation of maternal β-catenin activity and hyperdorsalization. In zebrafish, knockdown of nanog at different levels led to either posteriorization or dorsalization, mimicking zygotic or maternal activation of Wnt/β-catenin activities, and the maternal zygotic mutant of nanog (MZnanog) showed strong activation of maternal β-catenin activity and hyperdorsalization. Although a constitutive activator-type Nanog (Vp16-Nanog, lacking the N terminal) perfectly rescued the MZT defects of MZnanog, it did not rescue the phenotypes resulting from β-catenin signaling activation. Mechanistically, the N terminal of Nanog directly interacts with T-cell factor (TCF) and interferes with the binding of β-catenin to TCF, thereby attenuating the transcriptional activity of β-catenin. Therefore, our study establishes a novel role for Nanog in repressing maternal β-catenin activity and demonstrates a transcriptional switch between β-catenin/TCF and Nanog/TCF complexes, which safeguards the embryo from global activation of maternal β-catenin activity.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping