Chromatin remodelers interact with Eya1 and Six2 to control nephron progenitor cell self-renewal maintenance

Eya1 interacts with Six1/2 to induce nephron fate and promote nephron progenitor self-renewal. Haploinsufficiency for these genes in humans causes kidney agenesis or hypoplasia. However, how the Eya1-centered network operates remains elusive. Here we identify Eya1's interacting factors via mass-spectrometry and show that Eya1 and Six2 interact with Brg1-based SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complex in the kidney. Depletion of Brg1 results in lack of metanephric mesenchyme and depletion of nephron progenitor cells, which is linked to loss of Eya1 expression. Transcriptional profiling reveals conspicuous downregulation of the proto-oncogene Pbx1 and the Dchs1/Fat4 signaling but premature upregulation of a large subset of genes for podocyte lineages and aberrant activation of oncogenic factors in Brg1-deficent cell. ChIP-seq identifies Brg1-occupancy to enhancers at Pbx1 to a distal enhancer of Eya1 that drives nephron progenitor-specific expression. We demonstrate Six2-dependent Brg1 enrichment to the proximal-promoter of Mycn and two distal enhancers of Pbx1, all of which govern nephron progenitor-specific expression in response to binding to Six2. Together, our results suggest a possible mechanism through which the functional specificity of Brg1-BAFs and Eya1-Six2 in cell cycle regulation and self-renewal of the nephron progenitors may be in part achieved. Overall design: Genome-wide Brg1 binding feature was characterized in kidney using ChIP-seq.