Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE103813: RUNX1 and the endothelial origin of blood

Bulk RNA sequencing

The transcription factor RUNX1 is required in the embryo for formation of the adult hematopoietic system. Here we describe the seminal findings that led to the discovery of RUNX1 and of its critical role in blood cell formation in the embryo from hemogenic endothelium. We also present RNA-Seq data demonstrating that hemogenic endothelial cells in different anatomic sites, which produce hematopoietic progenitors with dissimilar differentiation potentials, are molecularly distinct. Hemogenic endothelial cells and non-hemogenic endothelial cells in the yolk sac are more closely related to each other than either are to hemogenic or non-hemogenic endothelial cells in the major arteries. Thus, a major driver of the different lineage potentials of the committed erythro-myeloid progenitors that emerge in the yolk sac, versus hematopoietic stem cells that originate in the major arteries, is likely to be the distinct molecular properties of the hemogenic endothelial cells from which they are derived. We use bioinformatics analyses to predict signaling pathways active in arterial hemogenic endothelium, several of which are functionally validated pathways including Notch, Wnt, and Hedgehog. We also use a novel bioinformatics approach to assemble transcriptional regulatory networks and predict transcription factors that may be specifically involved in hematopoietic cell formation from arterial hemogenic endothelium, which is the origin of the adult hematopoietic system. SOURCE: Long Gao (gaol3@email.chop.edu) - Tan Lab The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia