Expression characterization and the promoter activity analysis of zebrafish hdac4

HDAC4 promotes the growth and metastasis of gastric cancer via autophagic degradation of MEKK3

Background

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been shown to be involved in tumorigenesis, but their precise role and molecular mechanisms in gastric cancer (GC) have not yet been fully elucidated.

Methods

Bioinformatics screening analysis, qRT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to identify the expression of HDAC4 in GC. In vitro and in vivo functional assays illustrated the biological function of HDAC4. RNA-seq, GSEA pathway analysis, and western blot revealed that HDAC4 activated p38 MAPK signalling. Immunofluorescence, western blot, and IHC verified the effect of HDAC4 on autophagy. ChIP and dual-luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that the transcriptional regulation mechanism of HDAC4 and ATG4B.

Results

HDAC4 is upregulated in GC and correlates with poor prognosis. In vitro and in vivo assays showed that HDAC4 contributes to the malignant phenotype of GC cells. HDAC4 inhibited the MEF2A-driven transcription of ATG4B and prevented MEKK3 from p62-dependent autophagic degradation, thus activating p38 MAPK signalling. Reciprocally, the downstream transcription factor USF1 enhanced HDAC4 expression by regulating HDAC4 promoter activity, forming a positive feedback loop and continuously stimulating HDAC4 expression and p38 MAPK signalling activation.

Conclusion

HDAC4 plays an oncogenic role in GC, and HDAC4-based targeted therapy would represent a novel strategy for GC treatment.

Characterization of the enhancer element of the Danio rerio minor globin gene locus

In Danio rerio, the alpha- and beta-globin genes are present in two clusters: a major cluster located on chromosome 3 and a minor cluster located on chromosome 12. In contrast to the segregated alpha- and beta-globin gene domains of warm-blooded animals, in Danio rerio, each cluster contains both alpha- and beta-globin genes. Expression of globin genes present in the major cluster is controlled by an erythroid-specific enhancer similar to the major regulatory element of mammalian and avian alpha-globin gene domains. The enhancer controlling expression of the globin genes present in the minor locus has not been identified yet. Based on the distribution of epigenetic marks, we have selected two genomic regions that might harbor an enhancer of the minor locus. Using transient transfection of constructs with a reporter gene, we have demonstrated that a ~500-bp DNA fragment located ~1.7 Kb upstream of the αe4 gene possesses an erythroid-specific enhancer active with respect to promoters present in both the major and the minor globin gene loci of Danio rerio. The identified enhancer element harbors clustered binding sites for GATA-1, NF-E2, and EKLF similar to the enhancer of the major globin locus on chromosome 3. Both enhancers appear to have emerged as a result of independent evolution of a duplicated regulatory element present in an ancestral single alpha-/beta-globin locus that existed before teleost-specific genome duplication.