Article: Modular super-enhancer controls retinal development
Source: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Published: January 11, 2022
Article: Super-Enhancer Oversees the Development of the Retina
Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
Published: January 12, 2022
Enhancers are regions of DNA that do not code for proteins, but control
how genes are expressed. Super-enhancers are clusters of enhancers that
together regulate genes with important roles in cell identity. Scientists recently identified functions for regions of a super-enhancer, a "modular" transcription factor called Vsx2, that controls gene expression during retina formation. In particular, the Vsx2 super-enhancer has four distinct regions with different functions. This transcription factor is expressed in retinal progenitor cells and maintained in differentiated bipolar neurons and Müller glia. In animals models using wherein the gene Vsx2 is deleted (traditional knockout approaches), the eye does not form, presenting a challenge to studying the enhancer's function in detail. In the present study, the researchers wanted to understand how the Vsx2 gene is expressed in different cell types at different time points during eye development. Their functional tests of the Vsx2 super-enhancer revealed that it controls the complex and dynamic pattern of expression involved in retinal development in a modular way, with three regions playing a role in early retinal
development, and another portion being important for bipolar cell
genesis in later development. The authors report this being the first time researchers have demonstrated independent functions of distinct regions within a super-enhancer, which has implications for easier gene editing of individual transcription factors in different cell types at different stages of development. Finally, understanding how one super-enhancer works provides the blueprint for later study of other super-enhancers that affect other developmental processes, such as neurogenesis.
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| Evolutionary conservation of Vsx2 super-enhancer regions across species |
My rating of this study: ⭐⭐⭐
Honnell V, Norrie JL, Patel AG, et al.
"Identification of a modular super-enhancer in murine retinal development." Nature Communications. 11 January 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27924-y
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