PUBLICATION
Hybridization led to a rewired pluripotency network in the allotetraploid Xenopus laevis
- Authors
- Phelps, W.A., Hurton, M.D., Ayers, T.N., Carlson, A.E., Rosenbaum, J.C., Lee, M.T.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-231004-57
- Date
- 2023
- Source
- eLIFE 12: (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Hurton, Matthew, Lee, Miler
- Keywords
- developmental biology, evolutionary biology, xenopus
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Chromatin
- Chromosomes*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Genome
- Mammals/genetics
- Xenopus laevis/genetics
- Zebrafish*/genetics
- PubMed
- 37787392 Full text @ Elife
Citation
Phelps, W.A., Hurton, M.D., Ayers, T.N., Carlson, A.E., Rosenbaum, J.C., Lee, M.T. (2023) Hybridization led to a rewired pluripotency network in the allotetraploid Xenopus laevis. eLIFE. 12:.
Abstract
After fertilization, maternally contributed factors to the egg initiate the transition to pluripotency to give rise to embryonic stem cells, in large part by activating de novo transcription from the embryonic genome. Diverse mechanisms coordinate this transition across animals, suggesting that pervasive regulatory remodeling has shaped the earliest stages of development. Here, we show that maternal homologs of mammalian pluripotency reprogramming factors OCT4 and SOX2 divergently activate the two subgenomes of Xenopus laevis, an allotetraploid that arose from hybridization of two diploid species ~18 million years ago. Although most genes have been retained as two homeologous copies, we find that a majority of them undergo asymmetric activation in the early embryo. Chromatin accessibility profiling and CUT&RUN for modified histones and transcription factor binding reveal extensive differences in predicted enhancer architecture between the subgenomes, which likely arose through genomic disruptions as a consequence of allotetraploidy. However, comparison with diploid X. tropicalis and zebrafish shows broad conservation of embryonic gene expression levels when divergent homeolog contributions are combined, implying strong selection to maintain dosage in the core vertebrate pluripotency transcriptional program, amid genomic instability following hybridization.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping