Early shaping of the chromatin landscape specifies vagal neural crest into distinct lineages [RNA-seq]

Complex traits in enteropathies like Hirschsprung disease underscores a larger gene regulatory network (GRN) driving vagal neural crest (VNC) to form the enteric nervous system (ENS). To dissect the GRN and understand the function of non-coding regulatory regions, we used a novel highly conserved EdnrB E2 enhancer with a FoxD3 NC2 enhancer to generate a comprehensive map of VNC chromatin and transcriptional landscape during ENS development. Together with single-cell transcriptional profiles, we revealed three distinct lineages of VNC (glial, neuronal, and mesenchymal) that are each pre-specified by independent GRNs before delamination. We identified and functionally validated regulatory cores mediating the glial (Tfap2B and Sox10) and neuronal programmes (Sox3/Msx1) that in spatiotemporal combinations with other families of transcription factors, control the timing of enteric cell differentiation. Deconstructing the VNC-GRN identifies factors that pre-specifies cells to their presumptive fate and sheds light on how early GRN dysregulations influence the divergent neural phenotype in enteropathies. Transcriptomic profilling of avian neural crest cells isolated from their in vivo context at HH12, HH18 and HH25