Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.

Individual metazoan transcription factors (TFs) regulate distinct sets of genes depending on cell type and developmental or physiological context. The precise mechanisms by which regulatory information from ligands, genomic sequence elements, co-factors, and post-translational modifications are inte...

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Main Authors: Jordan D Ward, Nagagireesh Bojanala, Teresita Bernal, Kaveh Ashrafi, Masako Asahina, Keith R Yamamoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3861103?pdf=render
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author Jordan D Ward
Nagagireesh Bojanala
Teresita Bernal
Kaveh Ashrafi
Masako Asahina
Keith R Yamamoto
author_facet Jordan D Ward
Nagagireesh Bojanala
Teresita Bernal
Kaveh Ashrafi
Masako Asahina
Keith R Yamamoto
author_sort Jordan D Ward
collection DOAJ
description Individual metazoan transcription factors (TFs) regulate distinct sets of genes depending on cell type and developmental or physiological context. The precise mechanisms by which regulatory information from ligands, genomic sequence elements, co-factors, and post-translational modifications are integrated by TFs remain challenging questions. Here, we examine how a single regulatory input, sumoylation, differentially modulates the activity of a conserved C. elegans nuclear hormone receptor, NHR-25, in different cell types. Through a combination of yeast two-hybrid analysis and in vitro biochemistry we identified the single C. elegans SUMO (SMO-1) as an NHR-25 interacting protein, and showed that NHR-25 is sumoylated on at least four lysines. Some of the sumoylation acceptor sites are in common with those of the NHR-25 mammalian orthologs SF-1 and LRH-1, demonstrating that sumoylation has been strongly conserved within the NR5A family. We showed that NHR-25 bound canonical SF-1 binding sequences to regulate transcription, and that NHR-25 activity was enhanced in vivo upon loss of sumoylation. Knockdown of smo-1 mimicked NHR-25 overexpression with respect to maintenance of the 3° cell fate in vulval precursor cells (VPCs) during development. Importantly, however, overexpression of unsumoylatable alleles of NHR-25 revealed that NHR-25 sumoylation is critical for maintaining 3° cell fate. Moreover, SUMO also conferred formation of a developmental time-dependent NHR-25 concentration gradient across the VPCs. That is, accumulation of GFP-tagged NHR-25 was uniform across VPCs at the beginning of development, but as cells began dividing, a smo-1-dependent NHR-25 gradient formed with highest levels in 1° fated VPCs, intermediate levels in 2° fated VPCs, and low levels in 3° fated VPCs. We conclude that sumoylation operates at multiple levels to affect NHR-25 activity in a highly coordinated spatial and temporal manner.
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spelling doaj.art-e23799e7bdcc4b0bb8069f74d19ba6032022-12-21T23:00:42ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042013-01-01912e100399210.1371/journal.pgen.1003992Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.Jordan D WardNagagireesh BojanalaTeresita BernalKaveh AshrafiMasako AsahinaKeith R YamamotoIndividual metazoan transcription factors (TFs) regulate distinct sets of genes depending on cell type and developmental or physiological context. The precise mechanisms by which regulatory information from ligands, genomic sequence elements, co-factors, and post-translational modifications are integrated by TFs remain challenging questions. Here, we examine how a single regulatory input, sumoylation, differentially modulates the activity of a conserved C. elegans nuclear hormone receptor, NHR-25, in different cell types. Through a combination of yeast two-hybrid analysis and in vitro biochemistry we identified the single C. elegans SUMO (SMO-1) as an NHR-25 interacting protein, and showed that NHR-25 is sumoylated on at least four lysines. Some of the sumoylation acceptor sites are in common with those of the NHR-25 mammalian orthologs SF-1 and LRH-1, demonstrating that sumoylation has been strongly conserved within the NR5A family. We showed that NHR-25 bound canonical SF-1 binding sequences to regulate transcription, and that NHR-25 activity was enhanced in vivo upon loss of sumoylation. Knockdown of smo-1 mimicked NHR-25 overexpression with respect to maintenance of the 3° cell fate in vulval precursor cells (VPCs) during development. Importantly, however, overexpression of unsumoylatable alleles of NHR-25 revealed that NHR-25 sumoylation is critical for maintaining 3° cell fate. Moreover, SUMO also conferred formation of a developmental time-dependent NHR-25 concentration gradient across the VPCs. That is, accumulation of GFP-tagged NHR-25 was uniform across VPCs at the beginning of development, but as cells began dividing, a smo-1-dependent NHR-25 gradient formed with highest levels in 1° fated VPCs, intermediate levels in 2° fated VPCs, and low levels in 3° fated VPCs. We conclude that sumoylation operates at multiple levels to affect NHR-25 activity in a highly coordinated spatial and temporal manner.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3861103?pdf=render
spellingShingle Jordan D Ward
Nagagireesh Bojanala
Teresita Bernal
Kaveh Ashrafi
Masako Asahina
Keith R Yamamoto
Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.
PLoS Genetics
title Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.
title_full Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.
title_fullStr Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.
title_full_unstemmed Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.
title_short Sumoylated NHR-25/NR5A regulates cell fate during C. elegans vulval development.
title_sort sumoylated nhr 25 nr5a regulates cell fate during c elegans vulval development
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3861103?pdf=render
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