title: The GATA transcription factor GtaC regulates early developmental gene expression dynamics in Dictyostelium.
abstract: In many systems, including the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, development is often marked by dynamic morphological and transcriptional changes orchestrated by key transcription factors. However, efforts to examine sequential genome-wide changes of gene regulation in developmental processes have been fairly limited. Here we report the developmental regulatory dynamics of GtaC, a GATA-type zinc-finger transcription factor, through the analyses of serial ChIP- and RNA-sequencing data. GtaC is essential for developmental progression, decoding extracellular cAMP pulses during early development and may play a role in mediating cell-type differentiation at later stages. We find that GtaC exhibits temporally distinctive DNA-binding patterns concordant with each developmental stage. We identify direct GtaC targets and observe cotemporaneous GtaC-binding and developmental expression regulation. Our results suggest that GtaC regulates multiple physiological processes as Dictyostelium transitions from a group of unicellular amoebae to an integrated multicellular organism.
authors.affiliation: 1] Graduate Program in Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA [2] Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Balaji
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Santhanam
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
authors.forename: Huaqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
authors.forename: Peter N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Devreotes
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Gad
authors.identifier: 0000000205320551
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shaulsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katoh-Kurasawa
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000502:physiology*; D011485:Protein Binding; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016053:RNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D016053:RNA, Protozoan; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA