Bimodal Function of Chromatin Remodeler in Neural Crest Induction and Wnt-dependent Emigration

During gastrulation, neural crest cells are specified at the neural plate border, as characterized by expression. Using single-cell RNA sequencing coupled with high-resolution hybridization to identify novel transcriptional regulators, we show that chromatin remodeler is highly expressed prior to specification and maintained in migrating chick neural crest cells. Temporally controlled CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockouts uncovered two distinct functions of in neural crest development. At the neural plate border, regulates Pax7-dependent neural crest lineage specification. At premigratory stages, a second role manifests where loss reduces cranial crest emigration from the dorsal neural tube independent of Interestingly, this is rescued by stabilized ß-catenin, thus implicating as a canonical Wnt activator. Together, our results show that functions in a bimodal manner during neural crest development to regulate specification at the neural plate border, and subsequent emigration from the neural tube via canonical Wnt signaling.