BioData Mining | Short Report (Biomedcentral.Com) Combinatorial Analyses Identify A Core Response to the CDX2 Homeoprotein During Development and In Pathologies

Abstract

Whether a gene involved in distinct tissue or cell functions exerts a core of common molecular activities is a relevant topic in the evolutionary, developmental and therapeutic perspective. Here, we addressed this question by focusing on the CDX2 homeobox gene that encodes a transcription factor with important functions during embryonic development and in adult pathologies. By analysing RNAseq data and ChIPseq data, we unveiled the existence of a core of genes whose expression is responsive to the Cdx2 homeoprotein and also a core of chromosomal regions targeted by Cdx2 at three important steps of mouse development: trophectoderm formation, posterior body elongation and intestinal specification. In addition, based on human cancer data, we highlighted the relevance of the core of responsive genes by displaying a significant number of human orthologues exhibiting an altered expression along with CDX2 in human malignancies.