Integrating developmental pathways and chromatin structure during lineage specifcation

为了使受精卵发育成活体动物，控制细胞再生能力、身份和命运的基因必须在正确的时间和地点被开启和关闭。DNA序列与蛋白质包装的方式的变化，形成了一种称为染色质的结构，在这种基因表达调控中非常重要。然而，到目前为止，这主要是在人工细胞培养系统中进行的研究，对特定基因在与胚胎发育更相关的情况下发生的染色质结构变化知之甚少。我们建议使用一种新开发的细胞培养系统，使小鼠胚胎干细胞能够向通常形成肌肉和骨骼(中胚层)或肠道、肺、肝脏和胰腺(内胚层)的细胞类型发展。有了这个系统，我们可以产生大量与胚胎中的等价物非常相似的细胞，并用已知对胚胎发育重要的特定化学信号来挑战这些细胞。这个系统将被用来研究染色质结构如何在全球范围内以及在一组特定的基因上发生变化，HOX基因是发育的关键调节基因。我们的全球分析将帮助我们了解细胞逐渐限制在中胚层和内胚层谱系的方式，特别是在Hox簇，我们将能够提出关于这一过程的具体问题。这项工作将有助于更好地理解干细胞如何在再生医学中用于靶向来自这些细胞类型的器官。

In order for the fertilized egg to develop into a live-borne animal, genes that control the regenerative capacity, identity and fate of cells must be switched on and off at the right time and place. Changes in the way that the DNA sequence is packaged up with proteins, to form a structure called chromatin, are important in this regulation of gene expression. However, to date this has mainly been studied in artificial cell culture systems and little is known about the changes in chromatin structure that happen at specific genes in a situation that is more relevant to the development of the embryo. We propose to use a newly developed cell culture system that enables mouse embryonic stem cells to be directed to undergo development towards cell types that usually go on to form muscle and bone (mesoderm) or gut, lung, liver and pancreas (endoderm). With this system we can produce large quantities of cells that closely resemble their equivalents in an embryo and challenge these cells with specific chemical signals that are known to be important for embryonic development. This system will be used to study how chromatin structure is changed both globally and at a particular set of genes, the Hox genes, which are key regulators of development. Our global analysis will help us to understand the way in which cells are progressively restricted to the mesoderm and endoderm lineages, while at the Hox cluster in particular we will be able to ask specific questions about how this happens. This work will help to better understand how stem cells can be used to target organs derived from these cell types in regenerative medicine.