RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Analysis of SMAD1/5 target genes in a sea anemone reveals ZSWIM4-6 as a novel BMP signaling modulator
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.06.03.494682
DO 10.1101/2022.06.03.494682
A1 Paul Knabl
A1 Alexandra Schauer
A1 Autumn Penecilla Pomreinke
A1 Bob Zimmermann
A1 Katherine W. Rogers
A1 Patrick Müller
A1 Grigory Genikhovich
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/03/2022.06.03.494682.abstract
AB BMP signaling has a conserved function in patterning the dorsal-ventral body axis in Bilateria and the directive axis in anthozoan cnidarians. So far, cnidarian studies have focused on the role of different BMP signaling network components in regulating pSMAD1/5 gradient formation. Much less is known about the target genes downstream of BMP signaling. To address this, we generated a genome-wide list of direct pSMAD1/5 target genes in the anthozoan Nematostella vectensis, several of which were conserved in Drosophila and Xenopus. Our ChIP-Seq analysis revealed that many of the regulatory molecules with documented bilaterally symmetric expression in Nematostella are directly controlled by BMP signaling. Among the so far uncharacterized BMP-dependent transcription factors and signaling molecules we identified several, whose bilaterally symmetric expression may be indicative of their involvement in secondary axis patterning. One of these molecules, zswim4-6, encodes a novel nuclear modulator of the pSMAD1/5 gradient potentially promoting BMP-dependent gene repression. Strikingly, overexpression of the zebrafish homologue zswim5 suggests that its effect on the pSMAD1/5 gradient is conserved between anthozoan Cnidaria and Bilateria.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.