Transcriptional Regulatory Network of the Embryonic Diapause Termination Process in Artemia

Artemia is a typical animal used for the study of the diapause mechanism. The research on the regulation mechanism of diapause mainly focuses on the occurrence and maintenance of diapause. There are few studies on the mechanism of embryonic pause termination (EDT), especially for its transcriptional regulation mechanism. This study integrated transcriptional regulatory data from ATAC-seq and gene expression data from RNA-seq to explore the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involved in the EDT process. Through integrated analysis, four important transcription factors (TFs), SVP, MYC, RXR, and SMAD6, were found to play a role in the EDT process, in which SVP, MYC, and RXR were upregulated, while SMAD6 was downregulated in the EDT stage. Through co-expression analysis, a transcription regulatory network for these four TFs was constructed and the functions of the TFs were analyzed. The expression of the TFs was further verified by RT-qPCR. Through functional analysis, SVP was found to be predominantly involved in cell adhesion and signal transduction. MYC probably played a role in protein binding. RXR may function in the process of RNA binding and the transfer of phosphorus-containing groups. Smad6 regulated the signal transduction, cell adhesion, and oxidation-reduction processes. The expression of the key TFs was verified by RT-qPCR. The results of this work provide important clues for the mechanism of transcriptional regulation in the EDT process of Artemia.