TheWUSCHELandSHOOTMERISTEMLESSgenes fulfil complementary roles inArabidopsisshoot meristem regulation

Development ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 129 (13) ◽  
pp. 3195-3206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lenhard ◽  
Gerd Jürgens ◽  
Thomas Laux

Continuous organ formation from the shoot apical meristem requires the integration of two functions: a set of undifferentiated, pluripotent stem cells is maintained at the very tip of the meristem, while their daughter cells in the periphery initiate organ primordia. The homeobox genes WUSCHEL (WUS) and SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (STM) encode two major regulators of meristem formation and maintenance in Arabidopsis, yet their interaction in meristem regulation is presently unclear. Here, we have addressed this question using loss- and gain-of-function approaches. We show that stem cell specification by WUS does not require STM activity. Conversely, STM suppresses differentiation independently of WUS and is required and sufficient to promote cell division. Consistent with their independent and distinct phenotypic effects, ectopic WUS and STM activities induce the expression of different downstream target genes. Finally, the pathways regulated by WUS and STM appear to converge in the suppression of differentiation, since coexpression of both genes produced a synergistic effect, and increased WUS activity could partly compensate for loss of STM function. These results suggest that WUS and STM share labour in the shoot apical meristem: WUS specifies a subset of cells in the centre as stem cells, while STM is required to suppress differentiation throughout the meristem dome, thus allowing stem cell daughters to be amplified before they are incorporated into organs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (34) ◽  
pp. e2108145118
Author(s):  
Anja Bufe ◽  
Ana García del Arco ◽  
Magdalena Hennecke ◽  
Anchel de Jaime-Soguero ◽  
Matthias Ostermaier ◽  
...  

Canonical Wnt signaling plays critical roles in development and tissue renewal by regulating β-catenin target genes. Recent evidence showed that β-catenin–independent Wnt signaling is also required for faithful execution of mitosis. However, the targets and specific functions of mitotic Wnt signaling still remain uncharacterized. Using phosphoproteomics, we identified that Wnt signaling regulates the microtubule depolymerase KIF2A during mitosis. We found that Dishevelled recruits KIF2A via its N-terminal and motor domains, which is further promoted upon LRP6 signalosome formation during cell division. We show that Wnt signaling modulates KIF2A interaction with PLK1, which is critical for KIF2A localization at the spindle. Accordingly, inhibition of basal Wnt signaling leads to chromosome misalignment in somatic cells and pluripotent stem cells. We propose that Wnt signaling monitors KIF2A activity at the spindle poles during mitosis to ensure timely chromosome alignment. Our findings highlight a function of Wnt signaling during cell division, which could have important implications for genome maintenance, notably in stem cells.


Development ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 129 (13) ◽  
pp. 3207-3217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Gallois ◽  
Claire Woodward ◽  
G. Venugopala Reddy ◽  
Robert Sablowski

Almost all aerial parts of plants are continuously generated at the shoot apical meristem (SAM). To maintain a steady pool of undifferentiated cells in the SAM while continuously generating new organs, it is necessary to balance the rate of cell division with the rate of entrance into differentiation pathways. In the Arabidopsis meristem, SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STM) and WUSCHEL (WUS) are necessary to keep cells undifferentiated and dividing. Here, we tested whether ectopic STM and WUS functions are sufficient to revert differentiation and activate cell division in differentiating tissues. Ectopic STM and WUS functions interacted non-additively and activated a subset of meristem functions, including cell division, CLAVATA1 expression and organogenesis, but not correct phyllotaxy or meristem self-maintenance. Our results suggest that WUS produces a non-cell autonomous signal that activates cell division in combination with STM and that combined WUS/STM functions can initiate the progression from stem cells to organ initiation.


Blood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1275-1275
Author(s):  
Stephane Flamant ◽  
Jean-Claude Chomel ◽  
Christophe Desterke ◽  
Olivier Feraud ◽  
Emilie Gobbo ◽  
...  

Abstract Although human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can theoretically be differentiated into any cell type, their ability to generate hematopoietic cells shows a major variability from one cell line to another. The reasons of this variable differentiation potential, which is constant and reproducible in a given hPSC line, are not clearly established. In order to study this phenomenon, we comparatively studied 4 human embryonic stem cell lines (hESC) and 11 human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines using transcriptome assays. These cell lines exhibited a significant variability to generate in vitro hematopoiesis as evaluated by day-16 embryoid body (EB) formation followed by clonogenic (CFC) assays. Four out of 11 iPSC lines (PB6, PB9, PB12.1, and PB14.3) were found to lack any hematopoietic differentiation ability whereas 7 cell lines showed variable hematopoietic potential. Among hESC lines, H9 and CL0 had low H1 and SA01 exhibited high hematopoietic potential using the above assays. Among hESC and hIPSC displaying hematopoietic potential, two sub-groups were further defined based on their hematopoietic CFC efficiency: a group of poor (generation of less than 100 CFC/105 cells, PB4 / PB10 /H9 /CL01), and high hematopoietic competency (more than 120 CFC/105 cells, PB3/ PB6.1 /PB7 /PB13 /PB17 /SA01/H1). Using global miRNome analysis performed at the pluripotency stage, the expression of 754 individual miRNAs was analyzed from 15 hPSC lines in order to explore a potential predictive marker between both sub-groups of pluripotent cells according to their hematopoietic potency. Using this approach, 27 miRNAs out of 754 appeared differentially expressed allowing the identification of a miRNA signature associated with hematopoietic-competency. The hematopoietic competency was associated with down-regulation of miR-206, miR-135b, miR-105, miR-492, miR-622 and upregulation of miR-520a, miR-296, miR-122, miR-515, miR-335. Amongst these, miR-206 harbored the most significant variation (0.04-Fold change). To explore the role of miRNA-206 in this phenomenon, we have generated a miR-206-eFGP-Puro lentiviral vector which was transfected in hESC line H1 followed by puromycin selection. As a control, H1 cell line was transfected with a Arabidopsis thaliana microRNA sequence (ath-miR-159a), which has no specific targets in mammalian cells. The correct expression of the transgenes were evaluated by flow cytometry (using GFP) and q-RT-PCR for miR-206 expression. The hematopoietic potential of H1 cell line and its miR-206-overexpressing counterpart was then tested using standard in vitro assays via d16-EB generation. We found that both CFC numbers and percentage of CD34+ were significantly lower in H1-mir-206-derived day-16 EB cells than in H1-ath- derived day-16 EB cells (p < 0.05). Thus, over-expression of miR-206 in this blood-competent hESC appeared to repress its hematopoietic potential at very early stage, since a similar lower CFC efficiency was observed in day-3 EB cells derived from miR-206 overexpressing H1 cell line. We then conducted an integrative bioinformatics analysis on miR-206 predicted target genes. To this end, 773 mRNA target transcripts of the broadly conserved (across vertebrates) miR-1-3p/206 family were identified in the TargetScan database and were integrated into the global transcriptomic analysis performed by microarray on day-16 EB cells. Using supervised ranking product analysis, 62 predicted gene targets of the miR-1-3p/206 family were found to be significantly up-regulated in hematopoietic-competent EB samples including the transcription factors RUNX1 and TAL1. Hierarchical unsupervised clustering, based on this subset of 62 predicted mir-206 target genes, fully discriminated hematopoietic-deficient from hematopoietic-competent cells. In conclusion, miRNA profiling performed at pluripotency stage could be useful to predict the ability to human iPSC to give rise to blood cell progenitors. This work emphasizes for the first time the critical role of the muscle-specific miR-206 in hematopoietic differentiation. Finally, these results suggest that genetic manipulation of hESC/iPSC could be used to enhance their hematopoietic potential and to design protocols for generation of hPSC-derived hematopoietic stem cells with long-term reconstitution ability. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Development ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 148 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wakana Tanaka ◽  
Suzuha Ohmori ◽  
Naoto Kawakami ◽  
Hiro-Yuki Hirano

ABSTRACT Plant development depends on the activity of pluripotent stem cells in meristems, such as the shoot apical meristem and the flower meristem. In Arabidopsis thaliana, WUSCHEL (WUS) is essential for stem cell homeostasis in meristems and integument differentiation in ovule development. In rice (Oryza sativa), the WUS ortholog TILLERS ABSENT 1 (TAB1) promotes stem cell fate in axillary meristem development, but its function is unrelated to shoot apical meristem maintenance in vegetative development. In this study, we examined the role of TAB1 in flower development. The ovule, which originates directly from the flower meristem, failed to differentiate in tab1 mutants, suggesting that TAB1 is required for ovule formation. Expression of a stem cell marker was completely absent in the flower meristem at the ovule initiation stage, indicating that TAB1 is essential for stem cell maintenance in the ‘final’ flower meristem. The ovule defect in tab1 was partially rescued by floral organ number 2 mutation, which causes overproliferation of stem cells. Collectively, it is likely that TAB1 promotes ovule formation by maintaining stem cells at a later stage of flower development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seokheon Hong ◽  
Jee Hyun Yi ◽  
Soonje Lee ◽  
Chang-Hwan Park ◽  
Jong Hoon Ryu ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the current study we present evidence suggesting that PARP-1 regulates neurogenesis and its deficiency may result in schizophrenia-like behavioral deficits in mice. PARP-1 knockout neural stem cells exhibited a marked upregulation of embryonic stem cell phosphatase that can suppress the proliferative signaling of PI3K-Akt and ERK. The suppressed activity of Akt and ERK in the absence of PARP-1 results in the elevation of FOXO1 activity and its downstream target genes p21 and p27, leading to the inhibition of neural stem cell proliferation. Moreover, expression of neurogenic factors and neuronal differentiation were decreased in the PARP-1 knockout neural stem cells whereas glial differentiation was increased. In accordance with the in vitro data, PARP-1 knockout mice exhibited reduced brain weight with enlarged ventricle as well as decreased adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Interestingly, PARP-1 knockout mice exhibited schizophrenia-like symptoms such as anxiety, depression, social interaction deficits, cognitive impairments, and prepulse inhibition deficits. Taken together, our results suggest that PARP-1 regulates neurogenesis during development and in adult and its absence may lead to the schizophrenia-like behavioral abnormality in mice.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Tianqi Jia ◽  
Fan Li ◽  
Shuang Liu ◽  
Jin Dou ◽  
Tao Huang

WUSCHEL (WUS) protein regulates stem cell function in shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis. The expression of WUS gene is strictly regulated by developmental cues and environmental factors. As DnaJ domain-containing proteins, SDJ1 and SDJ3 have been proven to play an important role in transcriptional activation of promoter methylated genes. Here, we showed that three DnaJ domain-containing proteins including SDJ1 and SDJ3 can bind WUS protein as a complex, which further maintain the expression of WUS gene by binding to WUS promoter. We propose a model how DnaJ domain-containing proteins are involved in the self-regulation of WUS gene in stem cells maintenance of Arabidopsis.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Sardi ◽  
Muhammed Burak Bener ◽  
Taylor Simao ◽  
Abigail E. Descoteaux ◽  
Boris M. Slepchenko ◽  
...  

SummaryStem cell niche signals act over a short range so that only stem cells but not the differentiating daughter cells receive the self-renewal signals. Drosophila female germline stem cells (GSCs) are maintained by short range BMP signaling; BMP ligands Dpp/Gbb activate receptor Tkv to phosphorylate Mad (phosphor-Mad or pMad) which accumulates in the GSC nucleus and activates the stem cell transcription program. pMad is highly concentrated in the nucleus of the GSC, but is immediately downregulated in the nucleus of the pre-cystoblast (preCB), a differentiating daughter cell, that is displaced away from the niche. Here we show that this asymmetry in the intensity of pMad is formed even before the completion of cytokinesis. A delay in establishing the pMad asymmetry leads to germline tumors through conversion of differentiating cells into a stem cell-like state. We show that a Mad phosphatase Dullard (Dd) interacts with Mad at the nuclear pore, where it may dephosphorylate Mad. A mathematical model explains how an asymmetry can be established in a common cytoplasm. It also demonstrates that the ratio of pMad concentrations in GSC/preCB is highly sensitive to Mad dephosphorylation rate. Our study reveals a previously unappreciated mechanism for breaking symmetry between daughter cells during asymmetric stem cell division.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Bufe ◽  
Ana García del Arco ◽  
Magdalena-Isabell Hennecke ◽  
Matthias Ostermaier ◽  
Anchel de Jaime-Soguero ◽  
...  

AbstractCanonical Wnt signaling plays critical roles in development and tissue renewal by regulating β-catenin target genes. Recent evidence showed that β-catenin-independent Wnt signaling is also required for faithful execution of mitosis. This mitotic Wnt signaling functions through Wnt-dependent stabilization of proteins (Wnt/STOP), as well as through components of the LRP6 signalosome. However, the targets and specific functions of mitotic Wnt signaling still remain uncharacterized. Using phosphoproteomics, we identified that Wnt signaling regulates the microtubule depolymerase KIF2A during mitosis. We found that Dishevelled recruits KIF2A via its N-terminal and motor domains, which is further promoted upon LRP6 signalosome formation during mitosis. We show that Wnt signaling modulates KIF2A interaction with PLK1, which is critical for KIF2A localization at the spindle. Accordingly, Wnt signaling promotes chromosome congression and alignment by monitoring KIF2A protein levels at the spindle poles both in somatic cells and in pluripotent stem cells. Our findings highlight a novel function of Wnt signaling during cell division, which could have important implications for genome maintenance, notably in stem cells.SIGNIFICANCEWnt signaling plays essential roles in embryonic patterning, stem cell renewal, and cell cycle progression from G1 to S phase via the regulation of β-catenin target genes. Here, we show that Wnt signaling also promotes faithful execution of mitosis by ensuring chromosome congression and alignment before cell division, including in pluripotent stem cells. We demonstrate that the Wnt signaling transducer Dishevelled recruits the mitotic kinesin KIF2A, and mediates its binding to the spindle. KIF2A is a microtubule depolymerase that controls chromosome alignment and congression during mitosis. Consequently, we found that inhibition of Wnt signaling leads to KIF2A-dependent chromosome congression and alignment defects.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Ranjan ◽  
Jonathan Snedeker ◽  
Xin Chen

SUMMARYThrough the process of symmetric cell division, one mother cell gives rise to two identical daughter cells. Many stem cells utilize asymmetric cell division (ACD) to produce a self-renewed stem cell and a differentiating daughter cell. Since both daughter cells inherit the identical genetic information during ACD, a crucial question concerns how non-genic factors could be inherited differentially to establish distinct cell fates. It has been hypothesized that epigenetic differences at sister centromeres could contribute to biased sister chromatid attachment and segregation. However, direct in vivo evidence has never been shown. Here, we report that a stem cell-specific ‘mitotic drive’ ensures biased sister chromatid attachment and segregation. We have found during stem cell ACD, sister centromeres become asymmetrically enriched with proteins involved in centromere specification and kinetochore function. Furthermore, we show that that temporally asymmetric microtubule activities direct polarized nuclear envelope breakdown, allowing for the preferential recognition and attachment of microtubules to asymmetric sister kinetochores and sister centromeres. This communication occurs in a spatiotemporally regulated manner. Abolishment of either the establishment of asymmetric sister centromeres or the asymmetric microtubule emanation results in randomized sister chromatid segregation, which leads to stem cell loss. Our results demonstrate that the cis-asymmetry at sister centromeres tightly coordinates with the trans-asymmetry from the mitotic machinery to allow for differential attachment and segregation of genetically identical yet epigenetically distinct sister chromatids. Together, these results provide the first direct in vivo mechanisms for partitioning epigenetically distinct sister chromatids in asymmetrically dividing stem cells, which opens a new direction to study how this mechanism could be used in other developmental contexts to achieve distinct cell fates through mitosis.One Sentence SummaryDuring Drosophila male germline stem cell asymmetric division, sister centromeres communicate with spindle microtubules for differential attachment and segregation of sister chromatids.


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