Roberts syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by craniofacial anomalies, tetraphocomelia and loss of cohesion at heterochromatic regions of centromeres and the Y chromosome. We identified mutations in a new human gene, ESCO2, associated with Roberts syndrome in 15 kindreds. The ESCO2 protein product is a member of a conserved protein family that is required for the establishment of sister chromatid cohesion during S phase and has putative acetyltransferase activity.

The liver is a central regulator of metabolism, and liver failure thus constitutes a major health burden. Understanding how this complex organ develops during embryogenesis will yield insights into how liver regeneration can be promoted and how functional liver replacement tissue can be engineered. Recent studies of animal models have identified key signaling pathways and complex tissue interactions that progressively generate liver progenitor cells, differentiated lineages and functional tissues. In addition, progress in understanding how these cells interact, and how transcriptional and signaling programs precisely coordinate liver development, has begun to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying this complexity. Here, we review the lineage relationships, signaling pathways and transcriptional programs that orchestrate hepatogenesis.

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Human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells (hESCs/hiPSCs) hold great promise for cell-based therapies and drug discovery. However, homogeneous differentiation remains a major challenge, highlighting the need for understanding developmental mechanisms. We performed genome-scale CRISPR screens to uncover regulators of definitive endoderm (DE) differentiation, which unexpectedly uncovered five JNK/JUN family genes as key barriers of DE differentiation. The JNK/JUN pathway does not act through directly inhibiting the DE enhancers. Instead JUN co-occupies ESC enhancers with OCT4, NANOG and SMAD2/3, and specifically inhibits the exit from the pluripotent state by impeding the decommissioning of ESC enhancers and inhibiting the reconfiguration of SMAD2/3 chromatin binding from ESC to DE enhancers. Therefore, the JNK/JUN pathway safeguards pluripotency from precocious DE differentiation. Direct pharmacological inhibition of JNK significantly improves the efficiencies of generating DE and DE-derived pancreatic and lung progenitor cells, highlighting the potential of harnessing the knowledge from developmental studies for regenerative medicine.

Roberts syndrome/SC phocomelia (RBS) is an autosomal recessive disorder with growth retardation, craniofacial abnormalities and limb reduction. Cellular alterations in RBS include lack of cohesion at the heterochromatic regions around centromeres and the long arm of the Y chromosome, reduced growth capacity, and hypersensitivity to DNA damaging agents. RBS is caused by mutations in ESCO2, which encodes a protein belonging to the highly conserved Eco1/Ctf7 family of acetyltransferases that is involved in regulating sister chromatid cohesion. We identified 10 new mutations expanding the number to 26 known ESCO2 mutations. We observed that these mutations result in complete or partial loss of the acetyltransferase domain except for the only missense mutation that occurs in this domain (c.1615T>G, W539G). To investigate the mechanism underlying RBS, we analyzed ESCO2 mutations for their effect on enzymatic activity and cellular phenotype. We found that ESCO2 W539G results in loss of autoacetyltransferase activity. The cellular phenotype produced by this mutation causes cohesion defects, proliferation capacity reduction and mitomycin C sensitivity equivalent to those produced by frameshift and nonsense mutations associated with decreased levels of mRNA and absence of protein. We found decreased proliferation capacity in RBS cell lines associated with cell death, but not with increased cell cycle duration, which could be a factor in the development of phocomelia and cleft palate in RBS. In summary, we provide the first evidence that loss of acetyltransferase activity contributes to the pathogenesis of RBS, underscoring the essential role of the enzymatic activity of the Eco1p family of proteins.

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SUMMARYThe GATA4 transcription factor is implicated in promoting cardiogenesis in combination with other factors, including TBX5, MEF2C and BAF60C. However, when expressed in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), GATA4 was shown to promote endoderm, not cardiac mesoderm. The capacity of related GATA factors to promote cardiogenesis is untested. We found that expression of the highly related gene, Gata5, very efficiently promotes cardiomyocyte fate from murine ESCs. Gata5 directs development of beating sheets of cells that express cardiac troponin T and show a full range of action potential morphologies that are responsive to pharmacological stimulation. We discovered that by removing serum from the culture conditions, GATA4 and GATA6 are each also able to efficiently promote cardiogenesis in ESC derivatives, with some distinctions. Thus, GATA factors can function in ESC derivatives upstream of other cardiac transcription factors to direct the efficient generation of cardiomyocytes.

While Mek1/2 and Gsk3β inhibition (“2i”) supports the maintenance of murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in a homogenous naïve state, prolonged culture in 2i results in aneuploidy and DNA hypomethylation that impairs developmental potential. Additionally, 2i fails to support derivation and culture of fully potent female ESCs. Here we find that mouse ESCs cultured in 2i/LIF supplemented with lipid-rich albumin (AlbuMAX) undergo pluripotency transition yet maintain genomic stability and full potency over long-term culture. Mechanistically, lipids in AlbuMAX impact intracellular metabolism including nucleotide biosynthesis, lipid biogenesis, and TCA cycle intermediates, with enhanced expression of DNMT3s that prevent DNA hypomethylation. Lipids induce a formative-like pluripotent state through direct stimulation of Erk2 phosphorylation, which also alleviates X chromosome loss in female ESCs. Importantly, both male and female “all-ESC” mice can be generated from de novo derived ESCs using AlbuMAX-based media. Our findings underscore the importance of lipids to pluripotency and link nutrient cues to genome integrity in early development.