Unraveling the evolutionary origin of the complex Nuclear Receptor Element (cNRE), a cis-regulatory module required for preferential expression in the atrial chamber
oleh: Luana Nunes Santos, Ângela Maria Sousa Costa, Martin Nikolov, João E. Carvalho, Allysson Coelho Sampaio, Frank E. Stockdale, Gang Feng Wang, Hozana Andrade Castillo, Mariana Bortoletto Grizante, Stefanie Dudczig, Michelle Vasconcelos, Nadia Rosenthal, Patricia Regina Jusuf, Hieu T. Nim, Paulo de Oliveira, Tatiana Guimarães de Freitas Matos, William Nikovits, Izabella Luisa Tambones, Ana Carolina Migliorini Figueira, Michael Schubert, Mirana Ramialison, José Xavier-Neto
| Format: | Article |
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| Diterbitkan: | Nature Portfolio 2024-04-01 |
Deskripsi
Abstract Cardiac function requires appropriate proteins in each chamber. Atria requires slow myosin to act as reservoirs, while ventricles demand fast myosin for swift pumping. Myosins are thus under chamber-biased cis-regulation, with myosin gene expression imbalances leading to congenital heart dysfunction. To identify regulatory inputs leading to cardiac chamber-biased expression, we computationally and molecularly dissected the quail Slow Myosin Heavy Chain III (SMyHC III) promoter that drives preferential expression to the atria. We show that SMyHC III gene states are orchestrated by a complex Nuclear Receptor Element (cNRE) of 32 base pairs. Using transgenesis in zebrafish and mice, we demonstrate that preferential atrial expression is achieved by a combinatorial regulatory input composed of atrial activation motifs and ventricular repression motifs. Using comparative genomics, we show that the cNRE might have emerged from an endogenous viral element through infection of an ancestral host germline, revealing an evolutionary pathway to cardiac chamber-specific expression.