Sakthi D Moorthy

Abstract Embryonic development depends on spatially and temporally orchestrated gene regulatory networks. Expressed in neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs), the transcription factor sex-determining region Y box 2 (Sox2) is critical for embryogenesis and stem cell maintenance in neural development. Whereas Sox2 is regulated by a distal cluster of enhancers in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), enhancers closer to the gene have been implicated in Sox2 transcriptional regulation in the neural lineage.

Abstract Enhancers play a critical role in regulating the precise gene expression patterns essential for development and cellular identity; however, how gene-enhancer specificity is encoded within the genome is not clearly defined. To investigate how this specificity arises within topologically associated domains (TAD), we performed allele-specific genome editing of sequences surrounding the Lefty1 and Lefty2 paralogs in mouse embryonic stem cells.

Abstract Embryonic development depends on spatially and temporally orchestrated gene regulatory networks. Expressed in neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs), the transcription factor sex-determining region Y box 2 (Sox2) is critical for embryogenesis and stem cell maintenance in neural development. Whereas the enhancers of Sox2 are well defined in early embryogenesis, little is known about Sox2 gene regulation in the neural lineage.