{"doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkaf288","title":"Regulation of <i>hlh-2</i> transcription during specification of the anchor cell of the <i>C. elegans</i> hermaphrodite gonad","abstract":"The anchor cell (AC) of the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite somatic gonad primordium is a signaling nexus that regulates uterine and vulval development. As the somatic gonad primordium is forming, four cells, two α and two β cells, are born with the potential to be the AC. This potential becomes restricted to the α cells, which undergo the LIN-12/Notch-mediated AC/VU decision to resolve which α cell will become the AC. The transcription factor HLH-2, the sole E/Daughterless protein ortholog in C. elegans, is critical for this process, and dynamic regulation of hlh-2 transcription contributes to the robust specification of a single AC. The hlh-2prox regulatory element mediates the dynamic pattern of hlh-2 transcription: the initial expression in the parents of the α and β cells, which is briefly sustained in the α and β cells after they are born; its subsequent restriction to the α cells during the AC/VU decision; and its continued expression in the AC. In this study, we identify the cis-acting sequences within hlh-2prox and transcription factors required for the initial expression of hlh-2 in the α and β cells and their parents, demonstrate that the Wnt/β-catenin Asymmetry Pathway (WβA) regulates restriction of hlh-2 transcription to the α cells, and show that the maintenance of hlh-2 transcription in α cells requires distinct elements and the chromatin factor LSY-12. This analysis extends our understanding of regulatory mechanisms that operate during a precise and robust Notch-mediated lateral specification paradigm.","journal":"G3 Genes Genomes Genetics","year":2025,"id":584152,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9533,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":432226,"name":"Iva Greenwald","orcid":"0000-0001-7180-3706","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":946450,"name":"J. Kim","orcid":"0000-0003-0304-3738","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":53,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:11.978098Z","pmid":"41329633","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}