Nuclear transcription factors NFYB and NFYC promote terminal erythroid differentiation

Objective To predict potential regulators of terminal erythroid differentiation by single-cell transcriptome data mining, and then focus on exploring the expression pattern and function of nuclear transcription factors NFYB and NFYC in terminal erythroid differentiation. Methods Using published single-cell transcriptome data of human terminal erythropoiesis, SCENIC analysis was performed to predict stage-specific transcription regulators. The expression levels of two predicted regulators, NFYB and NFYC, in different stages of human and mouse terminal erythropoiesis were first analyzed in public bulk RNA-seq data; cells among different stages of terminal erythroid differentiation in mouse fetal liver were sorted by flow cytometry, NFYB and NFYC expression levels were then detected by RT-qPCR. In addition, the expression of NFYB and NFYC was inhibited by lentivirus-mediated shRNA interference and the efficiency of terminal erythroid differentiation and enucleation was examined. Results NFYB and NFYC were potent