Omics · study · 2026
TEAD4 regulates apical domain homeostasis and cell-positioning to maintain the trophectoderm lineage during mouse blastocyst development
Listed in NCBI GEO
In mammalian preimplantation embryos, distinct cell lineages occupy defined spatial niches.
Description
The outer trophectoderm (TE) forms an epithelial monolayer surrounding the inner cell mass (ICM) and blastocyst cavity. In mice, the Tead4 gene encodes a polarity-dependent transcription factor required for TE specification.
Here, we demonstrate that Tead4 also preserves TE integrity during blastocyst maturation. Clonal siRNA-mediated Tead4 knockdown disrupts outer-cell apical domain morphology, causing abnormal allocation of these clones to an enlarged ICM, despite minimal impact on established polarity. Fixed sample and live embryo light-sheet microscopy imaging reveal that TEAD4-deficient outer cells atypically migrate into the blastocyst ICM, sometimes via apical domain abscission, or are repositioned post-division, linking disrupted apical domain morphology to altered spatial positioning and fate.
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Transcriptomic analysis indicates TEAD4 regulates genes involved in cytoskeletal organisation, particularly those related to actin and cell adhesion, which we propose are critical for maintaining outer cell TE positioning. Combined knockdown of Tead4 and two of its targets, the atypical GTPases Rnd1 and Rnd3, partially rescues misallocation but does not prevent apical morphological abnormalities. These findings indicate TEAD4 and its downstream regulatory network actively contribute to blastocyst TE maintenance, beyond initial specification, up until the peri-implantation stage, ensuring proper lineage segregation.
Links
Get the data
- GEO FTP directory ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/series/GSE346nnn/GSE346221 ↗
download · from NCBI GEO
Where it is published
- GEO accession page ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE346221 ↗
landing page · from NCBI GEO
Documentation and papers
- PRJNA1523982 ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA1523982 ↗
project · from NCBI GEO
Topics
- Stated by source
- Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing · Mus musculus
- From keywords
- Life Sciences
- Inferred from text
- Imaging 75% · Microscopy 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 9 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCBI GEO | GSE346221 | 12 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:life-sciences | mapping · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[method].geo_series_type:expression-profiling-by-high-throughput-sequencing | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /gdstype |
| concepts[modality].local:modality:imaging | enrichment · NCBI GEO | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (75%) |
| concepts[modality].local:modality:microscopy | enrichment · NCBI GEO | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (75%) |
| concepts[organism].NCBITaxon:10090 | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /taxon |
| description | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /summary |
| publication_date | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /title |