Oligodendrocytes produce myelin for rapid transmission and saltatory conduction of action potentials in the vertebrate central nervous system. Activation of the myelination program requires several transcription factors including Sox10, Olig2, and Nkx2.2. Functional interactions among them are poorly understood and important components of the regulatory network are still unknown. Here, we identify Nfat proteins as Sox10 targets and regulators of oligodendroglial differentiation in rodents and humans. Overall levels and nuclear fraction increase during differentiation. Inhibition of Nfat activity impedes oligodendrocyte differentiation in vitro and in vivo. On a molecular level, Nfat proteins cooperate with Sox10 to relieve reciprocal repression of Olig2 and Nkx2.2 as precondition for oligodendroglial differentiation and myelination. As Nfat activity depends on calcium-dependent activation of calcineurin signaling, regulatory network and oligodendroglial differentiation become sensitive to calcium signals. NFAT proteins are also detected in human oligodendrocytes, downregulated in active multiple sclerosis lesions and thus likely relevant in demyelinating disease.

Differentiation of oligodendrocytes and myelin production in the vertebrate central nervous system require highly concerted changes in gene expression. The transcription factors Sox10 and Myrf are both central to this process and jointly regulate expression of myelin genes. Here we show that Sox10 and Myrf also cooperate in the activation of the gene coding for the dual specificity protein phosphatase Dusp15 (also known as VHY) during this process. Activation is mediated by the Dusp15 promoter, which is also sufficient to drive oligodendroglial gene expression in vivo. It contains both a functional Sox10 and a functional Myrf binding site. Whereas Sox10 binds as a monomer, Myrf binds as a trimer. Available data furthermore indicate that cooperative activation is not a function of facilitated binding, but occurs at a later step of the activation process. shRNA-mediated knockdown of Dusp15 reduced expression of early and late differentiation markers in CG4 and primary oligodendroglial cells, whereas Dusp15 overexpression increased it transiently. This argues that Dusp15 is not only a joint target of Sox10 and Myrf in oligodendrocytes but may also mediate some of their effects during oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelin formation. GLIA 2016;64:2120-2132.

In oligodendrocytes of the vertebrate central nervous system a complex network of transcriptional regulators is required to ensure correct and timely myelination of neuronal axons. Here we identify Zfp276, the only mammalian ZAD-domain containing zinc finger protein, as a transcriptional regulator of oligodendrocyte differentiation and central myelination downstream of Sox10. In the central nervous system, Zfp276 is exclusively expressed in mature oligodendrocytes. Oligodendroglial deletion of Zfp276 led to strongly reduced expression of myelin genes in the early postnatal mouse spinal cord. Retroviral overexpression of Zfp276 in cultured oligodendrocyte precursor cells induced precocious expression of maturation markers and myelin genes, further supporting its role in oligodendroglial differentiation. On the molecular level, Zfp276 directly binds to and represses Sox10-dependent gene regulatory regions of immaturity factors and functionally interacts with the transcriptional repressor Zeb2 to enable fast transition of oligodendrocytes to the myelinating stage.

The originally published version of this Article omitted Tanja Kuhlmann and Michael Wegner as jointly supervising authors. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.