GATA4/FOG2 transcriptional complex regulates Lhx9 gene expression in murine heart development

BACKGROUND: GATA4 and FOG2 proteins are required for normal cardiac development in mice. It has been proposed that GATA4/FOG2 transcription complex exercises its function through gene activation as well as repression; however, targets of GATA4/FOG2 action in the heart remain elusive. RESULTS: Here we report identification of the Lhx9 gene as a direct target of the GATA4/FOG2 complex. We demonstrate that the developing mouse heart normally expresses truncated isoforms of Lhx9 – Lhx9α and Lhx9β, and not the Lhx9-HD isoform that encodes a protein with an intact homeodomain. At E9.5 Lhx9α/β expression is prominent in the epicardial primordium, septum transversum while Lhx9-HD is absent from this tissue; in the E11.5 heart LHX9α/β-positive cells are restricted to the epicardial mesothelium. Thereafter in the control hearts Lhx9α/β epicardial expression is promptly down-regulated; in contrast, mouse mutants with Fog2 gene loss fail to repress Lhx9α/β expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation from the E11.5 hearts demonstrated that Lhx9 is a direct target for GATA4 and FOG2. In transient transfection studies the expression driven by the cis-regulatory regions of Lhx9 was repressed by FOG2 in the presence of intact GATA4, but not the GATA4(ki )mutant that is impaired in its ability to bind FOG2. CONCLUSION: In summary, the Lhx9 gene represents the first direct target of the GATA4/FOG2 repressor complex in cardiac development.