Creb5 establishes the competence for Prg4 expression in articular cartilage

Zhang et al. identify Creb5 as a transcription factor that is required for induction of Prg4 expression by TGFbeta and EGFR ligands. They show that Creb5 directly binds to two Prg4 promoter-proximal regulatory elements, working together with a more distal regulatory element to drive induction of Prg4 by TGFbeta. These findings provide new insight into the molecular regulation of Prg4 expression in superficial zone articular chondrocytes. We conducted RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, experiments using bovine superficial zone articular chondrocytes (SZC) and deep zone articular chondrocytes (DZC).