Foxa2 Regulates Polarity and Epithelialization in the Endoderm Germ Layer of the Mouse Embryo Ingo Burtscher and Heiko Lickert*
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RESEARCH ARTICLE 1029 Development 136, 1029-1038 (2009) doi:10.1242/dev.028415 Foxa2 regulates polarity and epithelialization in the endoderm germ layer of the mouse embryo Ingo Burtscher and Heiko Lickert* In the mouse, one of the earliest events in the determination of cell fate is the segregation of cells into germ layers during gastrulation; however, the cellular and molecular details are not well defined due to intrauterine development. We were able to visualize a clear sequence of events occurring in the process of germ-layer formation, using immunohistochemistry and time-lapse confocal imaging. The T-box transcription factor brachyury (T) and the Forkhead transcription factor Foxa2 specify mesoderm and endoderm in the posterior epiblast. Fate-specified epiblast cells lose their polarity and undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition to invade into the primitive streak region, where these cell populations quickly separate and differentiate into morphologically and molecularly distinct Foxa2-positive endoderm and T-positive mesoderm populations. The endoderm cells flatten and acquire apical- basal polarity during intercalation into the outside epithelium in order to establish proper intracellular junctions with pre-existing cells. By contrast, the mesodermal cells become spherical during migration and acquire a mesenchymal fate. Interestingly, axial mesodermal cells are descended from Foxa2-positive epiblast cells that upregulate T protein in the anterior primitive streak region. These cells, as well as Foxa2-positive endoderm cells, are highly polarized and epithelialized, suggesting that Foxa2 promotes an epithelial fate and suppresses a mesenchymal fate. This observation is supported by the fact that Foxa2 mutant endodermal cells fail to maintain polarity and do not establish proper cellular junctions, and are thus unable to functionally integrate into the endoderm epithelium. We propose that Foxa2 regulates a molecular program that induces an epithelial cellular phenotype. KEY WORDS: Foxa2, Brachyury, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Mesenchymal-epithelial transition, Morphogenesis, Cell polarity, Cell adhesion, Epithelialization, Gastrulation, Germ-layer formation, Time-lapse imaging INTRODUCTION lineages that are destined for different parts of the body (Kinder et During gastrulation the multilayered body plan of the mouse embryo al., 1999; Kinder et al., 2001). Therefore, allocation of mesoderm is established through differentiation and highly coordinated and endoderm in the embryo takes place in an anteroposterior (AP) morphogenetic events. By the start of gastrulation, at embryonic day manner determined by the timing and order of recruitment through (E) 6.5, the embryonic cup-shaped epiblast is surrounded by a the PS. The majority of definitive endodermal (DE) cells ingress single-layered epithelium of visceral endoderm (VE) that will give through the anterior end of the primitive streak (APS) at the mid- rise to the endodermal component of the yolk sac (Wells and Melton, streak (MS) stage and intercalate into the overlying VE to give rise 1999). Pluripotent epiblast cells constitute the progenitor cells for to the foregut (Kwon et al., 2008); however, a small population of all cell lineages in the embryo proper and differentiate to form the DE cells might directly delaminate into the VE from the epiblast three principal germ layers: endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm (Tam and Beddington, 1992). Taken together, these studies clearly (Beddington and Robertson, 1999; Tam and Loebel, 2007). Clonal indicate that mesoderm and endoderm are specified in a analysis of epiblast cell fate revealed that in the early-streak embryo spatiotemporal manner during gastrulation; however, it is not clear at E6.5, the proximal one-third of the posterior epiblast contains the if these cells become specified in the epiblast or PS region and when precursors of the extra-embryonic mesoderm and the primordial these cells differentiate into morphological and molecular distinct germ cells. By contrast, the distal region of the epiblast contains the cell populations. precursors of the entire neural ectoderm, and the intermediate The T-box transcription factor brachyury (T) was shown to mark posterior epiblast contains the precursors for the anterior mesoderm progenitor cells for mesoderm and endoderm in ES cell and definitive endoderm (Lawson et al., 1991; Lawson and differentiation cultures, suggesting that these cells originate from a Pedersen, 1992; Tam and Beddington, 1992; Lawson and Hage, common progenitor (Kubo et al., 2004). In the mouse embryo, T 1994). Clonal descendants were not necessarily confined to a single protein is localized in the posterior epiblast at the early-streak stage germ layer, indicating that these lineages are not separated at the and is detected in nascent mesoderm in the PS region during beginning of gastrulation. In support of this notion are embryonic gastrulation, as well as in the node and notochord from the late- stem (ES) cell differentiation experiments (Kubo et al., 2004), as streak (LS) stage onwards (Inman and Downs, 2006). T localization well as conditional gene targeting results, indicating that bipotential in the mesoderm and notochord suggests that abnormalities in these mesendodermal progenitor cell populations exist (Lickert et al., cell populations are responsible for the homozygous mutant 2002) (for a review, see Rodaway and Patient, 2001). At various phenotype (Wilkinson et al., 1990). By contrast, Foxa2 is also stages of gastrulation, the primitive streak (PS) has been shown to expressed in the posterior epiblast from the early stage onwards and contain precursor cells of different mesodermal and endodermal is then confined to anterior definitive endoderm (ADE) and axial mesoderm, which consists of the head process, prechordal plate, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Stem Cell Research, Ingolstädter notochord and node (Sasaki and Hogan, 1993; Monaghan et al., Landstrasse 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany. 1993). Foxa2 is a member of the Forkhead transcription factor family, which includes three related transcription factors: Foxa1, *Author for correspondence (e-mail: [email protected]) Foxa2 and Foxa3, first identified by their ability to regulate liver- Accepted 15 January 2009 specific gene expression (Lai et al., 1990; Lai et al., 1991). A null DEVELOPMENT 1030 RESEARCH ARTICLE Development 136 (6) mutation of the Foxa2 gene leads to absence of ADE and axial GAG; Tomato rev (5Ј-SpeI), 3Ј-NNNACTAGTTTACTTGTACAGC - mesoderm (Ang and Rossant, 1994; Weinstein et al., 1994). Foxa1 TCGTCCATGCCG; YFP fwd, 5Ј-GCGGCCGCATCTAGAATGGTGAG- and Foxa3 are expressed from E7.5 onwards in the definitive CAAGGGCGAGGAGCTGTTC; YFP rev, 3Ј-ACTAGTTTACTTGTAC - endoderm and can compensate for the loss of Foxa2 in the null AGCTCGTCCATGCCGAGAG. NotI/SpeI-digested PCR products were mutants, which allows hindgut, but not fore- and midgut formation cloned into the pBKS vector. (Sasaki and Hogan, 1993; Monaghan et al., 1993; Ang and Rossant, For generation of Lyn-Tomato, an oligonucleotide was subcloned between the NotI and XbaI sites in the pBKS vector in front of the 1994; Weinstein et al., 1994; Dufort et al., 1998). These results td-Tomato: Lyn-Oligo fwd, 5Ј-GGCCGCATAACTTCGTATAGCATA - collectively demonstrate that T and Foxa2 are functionally important CATTATACGAAGTTATGCCACCATGGGATGTATTAAATCAAAAA - for mesoderm and endoderm development; however, it is not clear GGAAAGACGGGGCCCGGTACT; Lyn-Oligo rev, 5Ј-CTAGAGTA - how these transcription factors regulate a molecular and cellular CCGGGCCC CGTCTTT CCTTTTTGATTTAATACATCCCATGGTG G C- program for the differentiation of these cell populations. ATAACTTC GTATAATGTATGCTATACGAAGTTATGCTTATGC. The In addition to cellular differentiation, the gastrulating embryo also NotI/SpeI-digested fluorescent markers were subcloned into the NotI/NheI undergoes dramatic morphological changes to form the three sites of the eukaryotic expression vector pCAGGS (Niwa et al., 1991). principal germ layers and the basic body plan. One of the first Generation of fluorescent reporter ES cell lines morphogenetic events is the formation of the PS when signals and The fluorescent ES cell and mouse lines used in this study were generated factors trigger epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of epiblast by electroporation of ScaI-linearized pCAGGS vector DNA containing cells to give rise to mesoderm and endoderm (Thiery and Sleeman, dsRed, YFP or Lyn-Tomato into wild-type IDG3.2 ES cells (Hitz et al., 2006). During this process, epiblast cells lose their apical-basal (AB) 2007) or Foxa2–/– R1 ES cells (Ang et al., 1994). Cells were selected with 1 epithelial polarity, downregulate the cell-cell adhesion molecule E- μg/ml puromycin, and resistant clones were screened for uniform and cadherin (cadherin 1 – Mouse Genome Informatics) and break ubiquitous reporter expression in cell culture and in vivo using embryos through the basement membrane (BM) to invade into the PS region. derived from ES cells. The interstitial mesodermal cells acquire a mesenchymal cellular Generation of chimeras and mouse lines fate and migrate over long distances between the endoderm and the Diploid or tetraploid chimeras were generated according to standard ectoderm germ layer before they re-aggregate to form distinct organs protocols (Nagy, 2003). Embryos were collected from dsRed- (Vintersten et such as the heart or kidney. By contrast, cells that are fate-specified al., 2004) and YFP- (Hadjantonakis et