Center for Precision Disease Modeling, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center for Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Center for Precision Disease Modeling, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Dev Biol. 2022 Oct;490:53-65. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2022.07.003. Epub 2022 Jul 16.
Mammalian KMT2C, KMT2D, and HCFC1 are expressed during heart development and have been associated with congenital heart disease, but their roles in heart development remain elusive. We found that the Drosophila Lpt and trr genes encode the N-terminal and C-terminal homologs, respectively, of mammalian KMT2C or KMT2D. Lpt and trr mutant embryos showed reduced cardiac progenitor cells. Silencing of Lpt, trr, or both simultaneously in the heart led to similar abnormal cardiac morphology, tissue fibrosis, and cardiac functional defects. Like KMT2D, Lpt and trr were found to modulate histone H3K4 mono- and dimethylation, but not trimethylation. Investigation of downstream genes regulated by mouse KMT2D in the heart showed that their fly homologs are similarly regulated by Lpt or trr in the fly heart, suggesting that Lpt and trr regulate an evolutionarily conserved transcriptional network for heart development. Moreover, we showed that cardiac silencing of Hcf, the fly homolog of mammalian HCFC1, leads to heart defects similar to those observed in Lpt and trr silencing, as well as reduced H3K4 monomethylation. Our findings suggest that Lpt and trr function together to execute the conserved function of mammalian KMT2C and KMT2D in histone H3 lysine K4 mono- and dimethylation required for heart development. Possibly aided by Hcf, which we show plays a related role in H3K4 methylation during fly heart development.
哺乳动物 KMT2C、KMT2D 和 HCFC1 在心脏发育过程中表达,与先天性心脏病有关,但它们在心脏发育中的作用仍不清楚。我们发现果蝇 Lpt 和 trr 基因分别编码哺乳动物 KMT2C 或 KMT2D 的 N 端和 C 端同源物。Lpt 和 trr 突变体胚胎显示心脏祖细胞减少。在心脏中沉默 Lpt、trr 或两者同时沉默导致类似的异常心脏形态、组织纤维化和心脏功能缺陷。与 KMT2D 一样,Lpt 和 trr 被发现调节组蛋白 H3K4 单甲基化和二甲基化,但不调节三甲基化。对在心脏中受 mouse KMT2D 调节的下游基因的研究表明,其果蝇同源物在果蝇心脏中也受到 Lpt 或 trr 的类似调节,这表明 Lpt 和 trr 调节心脏发育的进化保守转录网络。此外,我们还表明,心脏中果蝇 Hcf(HCFC1 的同源物)的沉默导致与 Lpt 和 trr 沉默观察到的类似的心脏缺陷,以及 H3K4 单甲基化减少。我们的研究结果表明,Lpt 和 trr 一起发挥作用,执行哺乳动物 KMT2C 和 KMT2D 在心脏发育所需的组蛋白 H3 赖氨酸 K4 单甲基化和二甲基化中的保守功能。可能在 Hcf 的帮助下,我们在果蝇心脏发育过程中 H3K4 甲基化中显示出相关作用。