Abstract
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect and the main noninfectious cause of death during the neonatal stage. The non-POU domain containing, octamer-binding gene, NONO, performs a variety of roles involved in DNA repair, RNA synthesis, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. Currently, hemizygous loss-of-function mutation of NONO have been described as the genetic origin of CHD. However, essential effects of NONO during cardiac development have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we aim to understand role of Nono in cardiomyocytes during development by utilizing the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system to deplete Nono in the rat cardiomyocytes H9c2. Functional comparison of H9c2 control and knockout cells showed that Nono deficiency suppressed cell proliferation and adhesion. Furthermore, Nono depletion significantly affected the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and glycolysis, resulting in H9c2 overall metabolic deficits. Mechanistically we demonstrated that the Nono knockout impeded the cardiomyocyte function by attenuating phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase-serine/threonine kinase (Pi3k/Akt) signaling via the assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing in combination with RNA sequencing. From these results we propose a novel molecular mechanism of Nono to influence cardiomyocytes differentiation and proliferation during the development of embryonic heart. We conclude that NONO may represent an emerging possible biomarkers and targets for the diagnosis and treatment of human cardiac development defects.