Cerna network regulation of tgf-β, wnt, foxo, hedgehog pathways in the pharynx of ciona robusta

The transforming growth factor- (TGF- ) family of cytokines performs a multifunctional signaling, which is integrated and coordinated in a signaling network that involves other pathways, such as Wintless, Forkhead box-O (FOXO) and Hedgehog and regulates pivotal functions related to cell fate in all tissues. In the hematopoietic system, TGF- signaling controls a wide spectrum of biological processes, from immune system homeostasis to the quiescence and self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Recently an important role in post-transcription regulation has been attributed to two type of ncRNAs: microRNAs and pseudogenes. Ciona robusta, due to its philogenetic position close to vertebrates, is an excellent model to investigate mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation evolutionarily highly conserved in immune homeostasis. The combined use of NGS and bioinformatic analyses suggests that in the pharynx, the hematopoietic organ of Ciona robusta, the Tgf- , Wnt, Hedgehog and FoxO pathways are involved in tissue homeostasis, as they are in human. Furthermore, ceRNA network interactions and 30UTR elements analyses of Tgf- , Wnt, Hedgehog and FoxO pathways genes suggest that different miRNAs conserved (cin-let-7d, cin-mir-92c, cinmir- 153), species-specific (cin-mir-4187, cin-mir-4011a, cin-mir-4056, cin-mir-4150, cin-mir-4189, cinmir- 4053, cin-mir-4016, cin-mir-4075), pseudogenes (ENSCING00000011392, ENSCING00000018651, ENSCING00000007698) and mRNA 30UTR elements are involved in post-transcriptional regulation in an integrated way in C. robusta