Inability to switch from ARID1A-BAF to ARID1B-BAF impairs exit from pluripotency and commitment towards neural crest formation in ARID1B-related neurodevelopmental disorders

Mutations in the ARID1B subunit of the BAF chromatin remodeling complex are associated with the neurodevelopmental Coffin-Siris syndrome. Here the authors reveal that there is a transition from ARID1A-containing complexes to ARID1B during cranial neural crest cell differentiation that is impaired in Coffin-Siris patient-derived cells, which is important for exit from pluripotency.Subunit switches in the BAF chromatin remodeler are essential during development. ARID1B and its paralog ARID1A encode for mutually exclusive BAF subunits. De novo ARID1B haploinsufficient mutations cause neurodevelopmental disorders, including Coffin-Siris syndrome, which is characterized by neurological and craniofacial features. Here, we leveraged ARID1B(+/-) Coffin-Siris patient-derived iPSCs and modeled cranial neural crest cell (CNCC) formation. We discovered that ARID1B is active only during the first stage of this process, coinciding with neuroectoderm specification, where it is part of a lineage-specific BAF configuration (ARID1B-BAF). ARID1B-BAF regulates exit from pluripotency and lineage commitment by attenuating thousands of enhancers and genes of the NANOG and SOX2 networks. In iPSCs, these enhancers are maintained active by ARID1A-containing BAF. At the onset of differentiation, cells transition from ARID1A- to ARID1B-BAF, eliciting attenuation of the NANOG/SOX2 networks and triggering pluripotency exit. Coffin-Siris patient cells fail to perform the ARID1A/ARID1B switch, and maintain ARID1A-BAF at the pluripotency enhancers throughout all stages of CNCC formation. This leads to persistent NANOG/SOX2 activity which impairs CNCC formation. Despite showing the typical neural crest signature (TFAP2A/SOX9-positive), ARID1B-haploinsufficient CNCCs are also aberrantly NANOG-positive. These findings suggest a connection between ARID1B mutations, neuroectoderm specification and a pathogenic mechanism for Coffin-Siris syndrome.Therapeutic cell differentiatio

Comparative gene expression analysis of avian embryonic facial structures reveals new candidates for human craniofacial disorders

Mammals and birds have common embryological facial structures, and appear to employ the same molecular genetic developmental toolkit. We utilized natural variation found in bird beaks to investigate what genes drive vertebrate facial morphogenesis. We employed cross-species microarrays to describe the molecular genetic signatures, developmental signaling pathways and the spectrum of transcription factor (TF) gene expression changes that differ between cranial neural crest cells in the developing beaks of ducks, quails and chickens. Surprisingly, we observed that the neural crest cells established a species-specific TF gene expression profile that predates morphological differences between the species. A total of 232 genes were differentially expressed between the three species. Twenty-two of these genes, including Fgfr2, Jagged2, Msx2, Satb2 and Tgfb3, have been previously implicated in a variety of mammalian craniofacial defects. Seventy-two of the differentially expressed genes overlap with un-cloned loci for human craniofacial disorders, suggesting that our data will provide a valuable candidate gene resource for human craniofacial genetics. The most dramatic changes between species were in the Wnt signaling pathway, including a 20-fold up-regulation of Dkk2, Fzd1 and Wnt1 in the duck compared with the other two species. We functionally validated these changes by demonstrating that spatial domains of Wnt activity differ in avian beaks, and that Wnt signals regulate Bmp pathway activity and promote regional growth in facial prominences. This study is the first of its kind, extending on previous work in Darwin's finches and provides the first large-scale insights into cross-species facial morphogenesis