DamID identifies targets of CEH-60/PBX that are associated with neuron development and muscle structure in Caenorhabditis elegans

© 2020 Van de Walle et al.Transcription factors govern many of the time- and tissue-specific gene expression events in living organisms. CEH-60, a homolog of the TALE transcription factor PBX in vertebrates, was recently characterized as a new regulator of intestinal lipid mobilization in Caenorhabditis elegans. Because CEH-60’s orthologs and paralogs exhibit several other functions, notably in neuron and muscle development, and because ceh-60 expression is not limited to the C. elegans intestine, we sought to identify additional functions of CEH-60 through DNA adenine methyltransferase identification (DamID). DamID identifies protein-genome interaction sites through GATC-specific methylation. We here report 872 putative CEH-60 gene targets in young adult animals, and 587 in L2 larvae, many of which are associated with neuron development or muscle structure. In light of this, we investigate morphology and function of ceh-60 expressing AWC neurons, and contraction of pharyngeal muscles. We find no clear functional consequences of loss of ceh-60 in these assays, suggesting that in AWC neurons and pharyngeal muscle, CEH-60 function is likely more subtle or redundant with other factors.PVdW is an n SB PhD fellow of the FWO Flanders (1S00617N, https://www.fwo.be). The authors are grateful to the FWO Flanders (G095915) and KU Leuven (https://www.kuleuven. be, C16/19/003), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2019-105069GB-I00 and MDM-2016-0687 to PA) and the Spanish Research Council (2019AEP142 to PA) for financial support. We are especially grateful to the Genie COST action (BM1408) for supporting this research