{"title":"The Enhancer-Promoter-Mediated <i>Wnt8a</i> Transcription During Neurite Regrowth of Injured Cortical Neurons.","authors":"Shr-Han Weng, Wen-Ling Liao, Linyi Chen","doi":"10.3390/cells14050319","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Brain injuries can result from accidents, warfare, sports injuries, or brain diseases. Identifying regeneration-associated genes (RAGs) during epigenome remodeling upon brain injury could have a significant impact on reducing neuronal death and subsequent neurodegeneration for patients with brain injury. We previously identified several WNT genes as RAGs involved in the neurite regrowth of injured cortical neurons. Among them, the expression of the <i>Wnt8a</i> gene increased most significantly during neurite regrowth, indicating its potential to promote neuronal regeneration. In this study, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of <i>Wnt8a</i> transcription. An algorithm was developed to predict the novel enhancer regions of candidate genes. By combining active enhancer marks, histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), and histone H3 lysine 4 mono-methylation (H3K4me1), we identified a candidate enhancer region for <i>Wnt8a</i> located 1.7 Mb upstream and 0.1 Mb downstream of the <i>Wnt8a</i> gene. This region was organized into enhancers (Ens) 1-15. Enhancer RNA expression from the predicted En1-15 regions, DNA topological dynamics, and the activity of predicted enhancers were analyzed to validate the candidate active enhancers. Our findings showed that the En8, 9, 10, 14, and 15 regions expressed higher eRNAs during neurite regrowth. Notably, the En8-2 and En14-2 subregions showed significantly up-regulated H3K4me1 modification during neurite regrowth. Using chromatin conformation capture assays and enhancer-reporter assays, we delineated that the molecular regulation of <i>Wnt8a</i> transcription during neurite regrowth occurs through looped En8-promoter interplay.</p>","PeriodicalId":9743,"journal":{"name":"Cells","volume":"14 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11898497/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cells","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/cells14050319","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CELL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Brain injuries can result from accidents, warfare, sports injuries, or brain diseases. Identifying regeneration-associated genes (RAGs) during epigenome remodeling upon brain injury could have a significant impact on reducing neuronal death and subsequent neurodegeneration for patients with brain injury. We previously identified several WNT genes as RAGs involved in the neurite regrowth of injured cortical neurons. Among them, the expression of the Wnt8a gene increased most significantly during neurite regrowth, indicating its potential to promote neuronal regeneration. In this study, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of Wnt8a transcription. An algorithm was developed to predict the novel enhancer regions of candidate genes. By combining active enhancer marks, histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), and histone H3 lysine 4 mono-methylation (H3K4me1), we identified a candidate enhancer region for Wnt8a located 1.7 Mb upstream and 0.1 Mb downstream of the Wnt8a gene. This region was organized into enhancers (Ens) 1-15. Enhancer RNA expression from the predicted En1-15 regions, DNA topological dynamics, and the activity of predicted enhancers were analyzed to validate the candidate active enhancers. Our findings showed that the En8, 9, 10, 14, and 15 regions expressed higher eRNAs during neurite regrowth. Notably, the En8-2 and En14-2 subregions showed significantly up-regulated H3K4me1 modification during neurite regrowth. Using chromatin conformation capture assays and enhancer-reporter assays, we delineated that the molecular regulation of Wnt8a transcription during neurite regrowth occurs through looped En8-promoter interplay.
CellsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all)
CiteScore
9.90
自引率
5.00%
发文量
3472
审稿时长
16 days
期刊介绍:
Cells (ISSN 2073-4409) is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal which provides an advanced forum for studies related to cell biology, molecular biology and biophysics. It publishes reviews, research articles, communications and technical notes. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. Full experimental and/or methodical details must be provided.