Histone acetyltransferase KAT2A modulates neural stem cell differentiation and proliferation by inducing degradation of the transcription factor PAX6.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) proliferation and differentiation rely on proper expression and posttranslational modification of transcription factors involved in the determination of cell fate. Further characterization is needed to connect modifying enzymes with their transcription factor substrates in the regulation of these processes. Here, we demonstrated that the inhibition of KAT2A, a histone acetyltransferase, leads to a phenotype of small eyes in the developing embryo of zebrafish, which is associated with enhanced proliferation and apoptosis of NSCs in zebrafish eyes. We confirmed that this phenotype is mediated by the elevated level of PAX6 protein. We further verified that KAT2A negatively regulates PAX6 at the protein level in cultured neural stem cells of rat cerebral cortex. We revealed that PAX6 is a novel acetylation substrate of KAT2A and the acetylation of PAX6 promotes its ubiquitination mediated by the E3 ligase RNF8 that facilitated PAX6 degradation. Our study proposes that KAT2A inhibition results in accelerated proliferation, delayed differentiation, or apoptosis, depending on the context of PAX6 dosage. Thus, the KAT2A/PAX6 axis plays an essential role to keep a balance between the self-renewal and differentiation of NSCs.

PAX3 Promotes Cell Migration and CXCR4 Gene Expression in Neural Crest Cells.

Neural crest (NC) cells are a multipotent cell population with powerful migration ability during development. C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) is a chemokine receptor implicated to mediate NC migration in various species, whereas the underlying mechanism is not well documented yet. PAX3 is a critical transcription factor for the formation of neural crest and the migration and differentiation of NCs. In this study, we retrieved a potential PAX3 binding element in the promoter of the CXCR4 gene, and we further found that PAX3 could promote the expression of CXCR4 and facilitate the migration of NCs. We finally demonstrated that PAX3 could bind the promoter region of CXCR4 and increase CXCR4 transcription by luciferase assay and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). These findings suggested that PAX3 is a pivotal modulator of NC migration via regulating CXCR4 expression.

PAX3 inhibits ß-Tubulin-III expression and neuronal differentiation of neural stem cell.

PAX3 functions at the nodal point in neural stem cell maintenance and differentiation. Using bioinformatics methods, we identified PAX3 as a potential regulator of ß-Tubulin-III (TUBB3) gene transcription, and the results indicated that PAX3 might be involved in neural stem cell (NSC) differentiation by orchestrating the expression of cytoskeletal proteins. In the present study, we reported that PAX3 could inhibit the differentiation of NSCs and the expression of TUBB3. Further, using luciferase and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we demonstrated that PAX3 could bind to the promoter region of TUBB3 and inhibit TUBB3 transcription. Finally, we confirmed that PAX3 could bind to the promoter region of endogenous TUBB3 in the native chromatin of NSCs. These findings indicated that PAX3 is a pivotal factor targeting various molecules during differentiation of NSCs in vitro.