HIRA is essential for the development of gibel carp

Abstract

HIRA is one of the chaperones of histone H3.3. Mutation of Hira results in embryonic lethality in mice, suggesting a critical role in embryogenesis. However, Hira-mutated Drosophila may survive to adults, indicating that it is dispensable in Drosophila development. The role of Hira in fish development is unknown. In this study we first investigated the expression of Hira during embryogenesis of gibel carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) by whole-mount in situ hybridization. We found that Hira signal appeared ubiquitously in the early embryos. After gastrulation, it appeared mainly along the anterior-posterior axis, including the tail bud. In hatching period, the signal was detected in head, heart, and the endoderm region on the back of yolk. Then by microinjection with morpholino-HIRA at the beginning of development, we observed delayed gastrulation and abnormal somitogenesis in gibel carp embryos. The HIRA morphants exhibited short trunk, limited yolk extension, and twisted tail. Most of the mutants died during embryogenesis or shortly after hatching. The rest of the HIRA morphants could survive to larvae but with severe defects in organogenesis. These data suggest that HIRA may be essential for the development of gibel carp, and this function is conserved in vertebrates.

Histone H3 Variants and Their Chaperones During Development and Disease: Contributing to Epigenetic Control

“…This suggests that HIRA-dependent H3.3 incorporation may be involved in maintaining mesoderm signals after they have been induced. This might be of relevance across vertebrates, as a similar role for HIRA has been described in gibel carp, where HIRA morpholinos delay gastrulation, leading to aberrant somitogenesis (Wang et al 2014). Potential cross talk with the deposition of H2A.Z, also required for X. laevis gastrulation (Ridgway et al 2004), could be interesting to investigate.…”

H3.3 Nucleosome Assembly Mutants Display a Late-Onset Maternal Effect

“…Thus, H3.3-containing chromatin is important for essential cellular processes in eukaryotes, and mutations in components of these complexes drive human disease. Nonetheless, much of what is known about HIRA, ATRX, and H3.3 derives from studies of cell culture because loss of the HIRA complex, ATRX, or H3.3 results in embryonic lethality in many species [16][17][18][19][20]. We sought to understand the biological role of H3.3 assembly pathways by studying mutants that perturb this complex in C. elegans and discovered an unusual maternal effect: the inheritance of H3.3 assembly components via the maternal germline is sufficient to rescue defects that manifest near adulthood.…”

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the HIRA Gene Affect Litter Size in Small Tail Han Sheep

“…HIRA is involved in various chromatin regulatory processes, such as gene transcription, sperm chromatin remodeling and embryonic development [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Until now, most HIRA studies focused on embryogenesis in fish and mice [ 11 ]. HIRA is reported to be crucial for H3.3 variant deposition during chromatin assembly and the depletion of it can affect H3.3/H4 replacement, which affects mouse oocyte development by preventing the oocytes from maintaining the full dynamic range of gene expression [ 12 , 13 ].…”