The gene regulatory landscape driving mouse gonadal supporting cell differentiation

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Isabelle Stévant Elisheva Abberbock Meshi Ridnik Roni Weiss Linoy Swisa Christopher R Futtner Danielle M Maatouk Robin Lovell-Badge Valeriya Malysheva Nitzan Gonen
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Abstract

Gonadal sex determination relies on tipping a delicate balance involving the activation and repression of several transcription factors and signaling pathways. This is likely mediated by numerous noncoding regulatory elements that shape sex-specific transcriptomic programs. To explore the dynamics of these in detail, we performed paired time series of transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility assays on pre-granulosa and Sertoli cells throughout their development in the embryo, making use of new and existing mouse reporter lines. Regulatory elements were associated with their putative target genes by linkage analysis, and this was complemented and verified experimentally using promoter capture Hi-C. We identified the transcription factor motifs enriched in these regulatory elements along with their occupancy, pinpointing LHX9/EMX2 as potentially critical regulators of ovarian development. Variations in the DNA sequence of these regulatory elements are likely to be responsible for many of the unexplained cases of individuals with differences of sex development.

Journal details

Journal Science advances
Volume 11
Issue number 30
Pages eadv1885
Available online
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Publisher website (DOI) 10.1126/sciadv.adv1885
Europe PubMed Central 40712010
Pubmed 40712010

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The publication was previously a preprint. View preprint