The histone demethylase Jmjd3 plays a critical role in cell lineage specification and differentiation at various stages of development. However, its function during normal myeloid development remains poorly understood. Here, we carried out a systematic in vivo screen of epigenetic factors for their function in hematopoiesis and identified Jmjd3 as a new epigenetic factor that regulates myelopoiesis in zebrafish. We demonstrated that jmjd3 was essential for zebrafish primitive and definitive myelopoiesis, knockdown of jmjd3 suppressed the myeloid commitment and enhanced the erythroid commitment. Only overexpression of spil but not the other myeloid regulators rescued the myeloid development in jmjd3 morphants. Furthermore, preliminary mechanistic studies demonstrated that Jmjd3 could directly bind to the spil regulatory region to alleviate the repressive H3K27me3 modification and activate spil expression. Thus, our studies highlight that Jmjd3 is indispensable for early zebrafish myeloid development by promoting spil expression.
基金:
Chinese National Key Basic Research Project [2013CB966803]; National Scientific Foundation of China [81090412, 81270628, 81430002]; Shanghai Municipal Committee of Science and Technology [09XD1403000]