Abstract

Background

Zebrafish pigment cell differentiation provides an attractive model for studying cell fate progression as a neural crest progenitor engenders diverse cell types, including two morphologically distinct pigment cells: black melanophores and reflective iridophores. Nontrivial classical genetic and transcriptomic approaches have revealed essential molecular mechanisms and gene regulatory circuits that drive neural crest-derived cell fate decisions. However, how the epigenetic landscape contributes to pigment cell differentiation, especially in the context of iridophore cell fate, is poorly understood.

Results

We chart the global changes in the epigenetic landscape, including DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility, during neural crest differentiation into melanophores and iridophores to identify epigenetic determinants shaping cell type-specific gene expression. Motif enrichment in the epigenetically dynamic regions reveals putative transcription factors that might be responsible for driving pigment cell identity. Through this effort, in the relatively uncharacterized iridophores, we validate alx4a as a necessary and sufficient transcription factor for iridophore differentiation and present evidence on alx4a’s potential regulatory role in guanine synthesis pathway.

Conclusions

Pigment cell fate is marked by substantial DNA demethylation events coupled with dynamic chromatin accessibility to potentiate gene regulation through cis-regulatory control. Here, we provide a multi-omic resource for neural crest differentiation into melanophores and iridophores. This work led to the discovery and validation of iridophore-specific alx4a transcription factor.

Details

Title
Epigenetic dynamics shaping melanophore and iridophore cell fate in zebrafish
Author
Jang, Hyo Sik; Chen, Yujie; Ge, Jiaxin; Wilkening, Alicia N; Hou, Yiran; Lee, Hyung Joo; You Rim Choi; Lowdon, Rebecca F; Xing, Xiaoyun; Li, Daofeng; Kaufman, Charles K; Johnson, Stephen L; Wang, Ting  VIAFID ORCID Logo 
Pages
1-18
Section
Research
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
BioMed Central
ISSN
14747596
e-ISSN
1474760X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2583113571
Copyright
© 2021. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.