PUBLICATION

Rb1 promotes T cell maturation from premature apoptosis by inhibiting E2F1

Authors
Zhang, Z., Liu, W., Zhao, L., Huang, Z., Chen, X., Ma, N., Xu, J., Zhang, W., Zhang, Y.
ID
ZDB-PUB-171213-5
Date
2017
Source
Development (Cambridge, England)   145(1): (Journal)
Registered Authors
Chen, Xiaohui, Huang, Zhibin, Liu, Wei, Ma, Ning, Zhang, Wenqing, Zhang, Yiyue, Zhang, Zili, Zhao, Lingfeng
Keywords
Apoptosis, E2F1, Rb1, T lymphocyte, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Apoptosis/physiology*
  • E2F1 Transcription Factor/genetics
  • E2F1 Transcription Factor/metabolism*
  • Retinoblastoma Protein/genetics
  • Retinoblastoma Protein/metabolism*
  • T-Lymphocytes/cytology
  • T-Lymphocytes/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
  • Zinc Finger E-box-Binding Homeobox 1/genetics
  • Zinc Finger E-box-Binding Homeobox 1/metabolism
PubMed
29229770 Full text @ Development
Abstract
T lymphocytes are key cellular components of an acquired immune system and play essential roles in cell-mediated immunity. T cell development occurs in the thymus where 95% of immature thymocytes are eliminated via apoptosis. It is known that mutation of Zeb1, one of the retinoblastoma 1 (Rb1) target genes, results in a decrease in the number of immature T cells in mice. E2F1, an RB1-interacting protein, has been shown to regulate mature T cell development by interfering with thymocyte apoptosis. However, whether Rb1 regulates thymocyte development in vivo still needs to be further investigated. Here, we use a zebrafish model to investigate the role of Rb1 in T cell development. We show that Rb1-deficient fish exhibit a significant reduction in T cell number during early development that it is attributed to the accelerated apoptosis of immature T cells in a caspase-dependent manner. We further show that E2F1 overexpression could mimic the reduced T lymphocytes phenotype of Rb1 mutants, and E2F1 knockdown could rescue the phenotype in Rb1-deficient mutants. Collectively, our data indicate that the Rb1-E2F1-caspase axis is crucial for protecting immature T cells from apoptosis during early T lymphocyte maturation.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping