FoxH1 represses miR-430 during early embryonic development of zebrafish via non-canonical regulation

Background FoxH1 is a forkhead transcription factor with conserved key functions in vertebrate mesoderm induction and left-right patterning downstream of the TGF-beta/Nodal signaling pathway. Binding of the forkhead domain (FHD) of FoxH1 to a highly conserved proximal sequence motif was shown to regulate target gene expression. Results We identify the conserved microRNA-430 family (miR-430) as a novel target of FoxH1. miR-430 levels are increased in foxH1 mutants, resulting in a reduced expression of transcripts that are targeted by miR-430 for degradation. To determine the underlying mechanism of miR-430 repression, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation studies and overexpression experiments with mutant as well as constitutive active and repressive forms of FoxH1. Our studies reveal a molecular interaction of FoxH1 with miR-430 loci independent of the FHD. Furthermore, we show that previously described mutant forms of FoxH1 that disrupt DNA binding or that lack the C-terminal Smad Interaction Domain (SID) dominantly interfere with miR-430 repression, but not with the regulation of previously described FoxH1 targets. Conclusions We were able to identify the distinct roles of protein domains of FoxH1 in the regulation process of miR-430 . We provide evidence that the indirect repression of miR-430 loci depends on the connection to a distal repressive chromosome environment via a non-canonical mode. The widespread distribution of such non-canonical binding sites of FoxH1, found not only in our study, argues against a function restricted to regulating miR-430 and for a more global role of FoxH1 in chromatin folding.