GSE134106
Regulation of embryonic and adult neurogenesis by Ars2
Neural development is tightly controlled at multiple levels to orchestrate appropriate choices of cell fate and differentiation. While more attention has been paid to the roles of neural-restricted factors, broadly-expressed factors can have compelling impacts on tissue-specific development. Here, we describe in vivo genetic analysis of Ars2, which has mostly been studied as a general RNA processing factor in yeast and cultured cells. Ars2 protein exhibits a dynamic expression pattern during neural lineage progression, and conditional knockout analyses demonstrated that Ars2 is required for proliferation of embryonic neural stem cells (NSCs). In addition, Ars2 null neural stem cells can still transition into post-mitotic neurons, but fail to undergo terminal differentiation. Ars2 is similarly required for neurogenesis in the adult brain. We next generated Ars2 ChIP-seq data to broaden evidence for a distinct role for Ars2 as a transcriptional regulator in neural development. Notably, Ars2 preferentially occupies DNA enhancers in NSCs, and broadly colocalizes with the NSC regulator SOX2, but exhibits markedly reduced association with chromatin following differentiation. Finally, we demonstrate a continuous requirement for Ars2 during adult neurogenesis, since adult-specific deletion of Ars2 compromises hippocampal neurogenesis and results in specific behavioral defects. Together, we provide evidence for Ars2 as an essential neural regulator that interacts dynamically with DNA and controls neural lineage development. Overall design: ChIP-seq of three proteins in primary mouse neural stem cells and differentiating neurospheres