SPELL - Nematode

Citation	Yuzyuk T, Fakhouri TH, Kiefer J, Mango SE. The polycomb complex protein mes-2/E(z) promotes the transition from developmental plasticity to differentiation in C. elegans embryos. Dev Cell, 2009.
PubMed ID	19460346
Short Description	The polycomb complex protein mes-2/E(z) promotes the transition from developmental plasticity to differentiation in C. elegans embryos. GEO Record: GSE14913 Platform: GPL8209 Download gene-centric, log2 transformed data: WBPaper00033206.ce.mr.csv
# of Conditions	21
Full Description	We have used expression profiling and in vivo imaging to characterize Caenorhabditis elegans embryos as they transit from a developmentally plastic state to the onset of differentiation. Normally, this transition is accompanied by activation of developmental regulators and differentiation genes, downregulation of early-expressed genes, and large-scale reorganization of chromatin. We find that loss of plasticity and differentiation onset depends on the Polycomb complex protein mes-2/E(Z). mes-2 mutants display prolonged developmental plasticity in response to heterologous developmental regulators. Early-expressed genes remain active, differentiation genes fail to reach wild-type levels, and chromatin retains a decompacted morphology in mes-2 mutants. By contrast, loss of the developmental regulators pha-4/FoxA or end-1/GATA does not prolong plasticity. This study establishes a model by which to analyze developmental plasticity within an intact embryo. mes-2 orchestrates large-scale changes in chromatin organization and gene expression to promote the timely loss of developmental plasticity. Our findings indicate that loss of plasticity can be uncoupled from cell fate specification. Experimental Details: WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_2-cell_1 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_2-cell_2 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_2-cell_3 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_2E_1 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_2E_2 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_2E_3 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_4E_1 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_4E_2 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_4E_3 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_8E_1 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_8E_2 WBPaper00033206:WT_embryo_8E_3 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_2E_1 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_2E_2 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_2E_3 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_4E_1 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_4E_2 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_4E_3 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_8E_1 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_8E_2 WBPaper00033206:mes-2_embryo_8E_3.
Tags	Method: microarray, Species: Caenorhabditis elegans, Topic: WT vs. mutant