OVOL2 Maintains the Transcriptional Program of Human Corneal Epithelium by Suppressing Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition

• Main Authors: Koji Kitazawa, Takafusa Hikichi, Takahiro Nakamura, Kanae Mitsunaga, Azusa Tanaka, Masahiro Nakamura, Tatsuya Yamakawa, Shiori Furukawa, Mieko Takasaka, Naoki Goshima, Akira Watanabe, Keisuke Okita, Satoshi Kawasaki, Morio Ueno, Shigeru Kinoshita, Shinji Masui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2016-05-01
• Series: Cell Reports
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124716304338

In development, embryonic ectoderm differentiates into neuroectoderm and surface ectoderm using poorly understood mechanisms. Here, we show that the transcription factor OVOL2 maintains the transcriptional program of human corneal epithelium cells (CECs), a derivative of the surface ectoderm, and that OVOL2 may regulate the differential transcriptional programs of the two lineages. A functional screen identified OVOL2 as a repressor of mesenchymal genes to maintain CECs. Transduction of OVOL2 with several other transcription factors induced the transcriptional program of CECs in fibroblasts. Moreover, neuroectoderm derivatives were found to express mesenchymal genes, and OVOL2 alone could induce the transcriptional program of CECs in neural progenitors by repressing these genes while activating epithelial genes. Our data suggest that the difference between the transcriptional programs of some neuroectoderm- and surface ectoderm-derivative cells may be regulated in part by a reciprocally repressive mechanism between epithelial and mesenchymal genes, as seen in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.