Transcriptional regulators in the Hippo signaling pathway control organ growth in Xenopus tadpole tail regeneration.

The size and shape of tissues are tightly controlled by synchronized processes among cells and tissues to produce an integrated organ. The Hippo signaling pathway controls both cell proliferation and apoptosis by dual signal-transduction states regulated through a repressive kinase cascade. Yap1 and Tead, transcriptional regulators that act downstream of the Hippo signaling kinase cascade, have essential roles in regulating cell proliferation. In amphibian limb or tail regeneration, the local tissue outgrowth terminates when the correct size is reached, suggesting that organ size is strictly controlled during epimorphic organ-level regeneration. We recently demonstrated that Yap1 is required for the regeneration of Xenopus tadpole limb buds (Hayashi et al., 2014, Dev. Biol. 388, 57-67), but the molecular link between the Hippo pathway and organ size control in vertebrate epimorphic regeneration is not fully understood. To examine the requirement of Hippo pathway transcriptional regulators in epimorphic regeneration, including organ size control, we inhibited these regulators during Xenopus tadpole tail regeneration by overexpressing a dominant-negative form of Yap (dnYap) or Tead4 (dnTead4) under a heat-shock promoter in transgenic animal lines. Each inhibition resulted in regeneration defects accompanied by reduced cell mitosis and increased apoptosis. Single-cell gene manipulation experiments indicated that Tead4 cell-autonomously regulates the survival of neural progenitor cells in the regenerating tail. In amphibians, amputation at the proximal level of the tail (deep amputation) results in faster regeneration than that at the distal level (shallow amputation), to restore the original-sized tail with similar timing. However, dnTead4 overexpression abolished the position-dependent differential growth rate of tail regeneration. These results suggest that the transcriptional regulators in the Hippo pathway, Tead4 and Yap1, are required for general vertebrate epimorphic regeneration as well as for organ size control in appendage regeneration. In regenerative medicine, these findings should contribute to the development of three-dimensional organs with the correct size for a patient's body.

Wound healing in mammals and amphibians: toward limb regeneration in mammals.

Mammalian fetal skin regenerates perfectly, but adult skin repairs by the formation of scar tissue. The cause of this imperfect repair by adult skin is not understood. In contrast, wounded adult amphibian (urodeles and anurans) skin is like mammalian fetal skin in that it repairs by regeneration, not scarring. Scar-free wound repair in adult Xenopus is associated with expression of the paired homeobox transcription factor Prx1 by mesenchymal cells of the wound, a feature shared by mesenchymal cells of the regeneration blastema of the axolotl limb. Furthermore, mesenchymal cells of Xenopus skin wounds that harbor the mouse Prx1-limb-enhancer as a transgene exhibit activation of the enhancer despite the fact that they are Xenopus cells, suggesting that the mouse Prx1 enhancer possesses all elements required for its activation in skin wound healing, even though activation of the same enhancer in the mouse is not seen in the wounded skin of an adult mouse. Elucidation of the role of the Prx1 gene in amphibian skin wound healing will help to clarify the molecular mechanisms of scarless wound healing. Shifting the molecular mechanism of wound repair in mammals to that of amphibians, including reactivation of the Prx1-limb-enhancer, will be an important clue to stimulate scarless wound repair in mammalian adult skin. Finding or creating Prx1-positive stem cells in adult mammal skin by activating the Prx1-limb-enhancer may be a fast and reliable way to provide for scarless skin wound repair, and even directly lead to limb regeneration in mammals.

Fluid flow and interlinked feedback loops establish left-right asymmetric decay of Cerl2 mRNA.

Breaking of left-right symmetry in mouse embryos requires fluid flow at the node, but the precise action of the flow has remained unknown. Here we show that the left-right asymmetry of Cerl2 expression around the node, a target of the flow, is determined post-transcriptionally by decay of Cerl2 mRNA in a manner dependent on its 3' untranslated region. Cerl2 mRNA is absent specifically from the apical region of crown cells on the left side of the node. Preferential decay of Cerl2 mRNA on the left is initiated by the leftward flow and further enhanced by the operation of Wnt-Cerl2 interlinked feedback loops, in which Wnt3 upregulates Wnt3 expression and promotes Cerl2 mRNA decay, whereas Cerl2 promotes Wnt degradation. Mathematical modelling and experimental data suggest that these feedback loops behave as a bistable switch that can amplify in a noise-resistant manner a small bias conferred by fluid flow.

Cilia at the node of mouse embryos sense fluid flow for left-right determination via Pkd2.

Unidirectional fluid flow plays an essential role in the breaking of left-right (L-R) symmetry in mouse embryos, but it has remained unclear how the flow is sensed by the embryo. We report that the Ca(2+) channel Polycystin-2 (Pkd2) is required specifically in the perinodal crown cells for sensing the nodal flow. Examination of mutant forms of Pkd2 shows that the ciliary localization of Pkd2 is essential for correct L-R patterning. Whereas Kif3a mutant embryos, which lack all cilia, failed to respond to an artificial flow, restoration of primary cilia in crown cells rescued the response to the flow. Our results thus suggest that nodal flow is sensed in a manner dependent on Pkd2 by the cilia of crown cells located at the edge of the node.

Two rotating cilia in the node cavity are sufficient to break left-right symmetry in the mouse embryo.

Determination of left-right asymmetry in mouse embryos is achieved by a leftward fluid flow (nodal flow) in the node cavity that is generated by clockwise rotational movement of 200-300 cilia in the node. The precise action of nodal flow and how much flow input is required for the robust read-out of left-right determination remains unknown. Here we show that a local leftward flow generated by as few as two rotating cilia is sufficient to break left-right symmetry. Quantitative analysis of fluid flow and ciliary rotation in the node of mouse embryos shows that left-right asymmetry is already established within a few hours after the onset of rotation by a subset of nodal cilia. Examination of various ciliary mutant mice shows that two rotating cilia are sufficient to initiate left-right asymmetric gene expression. Our results suggest the existence of a highly sensitive system in the node that is able to sense an extremely weak unidirectional flow, and may favour a model in which the flow is sensed as a mechanical force.

Left-right asymmetry in the level of active Nodal protein produced in the node is translated into left-right asymmetry in the lateral plate of mouse embryos.

Left-right (L-R) asymmetry in the mouse embryo is generated in the node and is dependent on cilia-driven fluid flow, but how the initial asymmetry is transmitted from the node to the lateral plate has remained unknown. We have now identified a transcriptional enhancer (ANE) in the human LEFTY1 gene that exhibits marked L>R asymmetric activity in perinodal cells of the mouse embryo. Dissection of ANE revealed that it is activated in the perinodal cells on the left side by Nodal signaling, suggesting that Nodal activity in the node is asymmetric at a time when Nodal expression is symmetric. Phosphorylated Smad2/3 (pSmad2) indeed manifested an L-R asymmetric distribution at the node, being detected in perinodal cells preferentially on the left side. This asymmetry in pSmad2 distribution was found to be generated not by unidirectional transport of Nodal but rather as a result of LR distribution of active Nodal in the node is translated into the asymmetry in LPM.

SKIP modifies gene expression by affecting both transcription and splicing.

SKIP has been described as a transcriptional coregulator as well as a spliceosome component, but the relationship between these functions is not clear. We found that SKIP activated reporter gene expression from the basal promoters of viral origin. SKIP exhibited more prominent effect on the promoters with stronger activities, in an experiment employing a series of reporter constructs carrying different numbers of GC boxes. We also found that SKIP suppressed aberrant splicing at a cryptic splice donor site in the luciferase reporter gene. In addition, SKIP suppressed splicing of an extra intron created by a beta-thalassemia mutation in the human beta-globin gene. In the transfection experiment, an intronless reporter exhibited a higher level of expression, but was less significantly activated by SKIP, than the intron-containing reporter. These results indicate that SKIP affects gene expression by both transcriptional activation and regulation of pre-mRNA splicing.