Genome-wide maps of Usp16, ubH2A and gene expression profiles in wild type and Usp16 knock out mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and embryoid bodies (EBs)
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ABSTRACT: Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 and histone H2A ubiquitination (ubH2A) contribute to embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency by repressing lineage-specific gene expression. However, whether active deubiquitination co-regulates ubH2A levels in ESCs and during differentiation is not known. Here, we report that the histone H2A deubiquitinase Usp16 regulates H2A deubiquitination and gene expression in ESCs, and importantly, is required for ESC differentiation. Usp16 knockout is embryonic lethal in mice, but does not affect ESC viability or identity. Usp16 binds to the promoter regions of a large number of genes in ESCs and Usp16 binding is inversely correlated with ubH2A levels and positively correlated with gene expression levels. Intriguingly, Usp16-/- ESCs fail to differentiate due to ubH2A-mediated repression of lineage-specific genes. Finally, Usp16, but not the enzymatically inactive mutant, rescues the differentiation defects of Usp16-/- ESCs. Therefore, this study identifies Usp16 and H2A deubiquitination as critical regulators of ESC gene expression and differentiation. Examination of binding pattern of H2A deubiquitinase Usp16 and ubH2A in mouse embryonic stem cells and embroid bodies
Project description:Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 and histone H2A ubiquitination (ubH2A) contribute to embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency by repressing lineage-specific gene expression. However, whether active deubiquitination co-regulates ubH2A levels in ESCs and during differentiation is not known. Here, we report that the histone H2A deubiquitinase Usp16 regulates H2A deubiquitination and gene expression in ESCs, and importantly, is required for ESC differentiation. Usp16 knockout is embryonic lethal in mice, but does not affect ESC viability or identity. Usp16 binds to the promoter regions of a large number of genes in ESCs and Usp16 binding is inversely correlated with ubH2A levels and positively correlated with gene expression levels. Intriguingly, Usp16-/- ESCs fail to differentiate due to ubH2A-mediated repression of lineage-specific genes. Finally, Usp16, but not the enzymatically inactive mutant, rescues the differentiation defects of Usp16-/- ESCs. Therefore, this study identifies Usp16 and H2A deubiquitination as critical regulators of ESC gene expression and differentiation.
Project description:The transplantation of ESCs into living recipients causes teratoma formation which accompanies with several biological reactions in both the transplanted cells and recipient. Co-injection of ESCs with somatic cells that influence donor-recipient homogeneity can affect transcriptional profile of transplanted ESCs. We investigated global gene expression of parental ESCs and ESC-like cells derived from teratomas which were formed by different injection conditions to find transcriptional differences according to donor-recipient homogeneity and somatic cell co-injection. Parental ESCs or teratoma-derived ESC-like cells from different treatments were retrieved for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:The H2A variant H2AZ is essential for embryonic development and for proper execution of developmental gene expression programs in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Divergent regions in H2AZ are likely key for its functional specialization, but we know little about how these differences contribute to chromatin regulation. Here, we show that the extended acidic patch, specifically the three divergent residues in the C-terminal docking domain, is necessary for lineage commitment during ESC differentiation and proper execution of gene expression programs during ESC differentiation. Surprisingly, disruption of the acidic patch domain has a distinct consequence on cellular specification compared to H2AZ depletion. This is consistent with differences in gene expression profiles of H2AZ M-bM-^@M-^Sdepleted and acidic patch (AP) mutant ESCs during early lineage commitment. Interestingly, the distinct consequence of AP mutant expression on gene regulation is coincidence with an altered destabilized chromatin state and high chromatin mobility dependent on active transcription. Collectively, our data shows that the divergent residues within the acidic patch domain are key structural determinants of H2AZ function and links chromatin structure and dynamics with gene regulation and cell fate specification. H2AZ extended acidic patch was mutated, or H2AZ was KD in mouse embryonic stem cells and RNA-Seq analysis was performed on the resulting cultures. Characterization of H2AZ-WT and -AP3-mutant binding specificities were performed by ChIP-Seq.
Project description:We used microarrays to identify the gene expression changes in Cbx1-/- (HP1beta) knockout embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and Cbx5-/- (HP1alpha) knockout ESCs compared to WT ESCs and in embryoid bodies (EBs) differentiated from those three ESC types. ESCs were grown and the pluripotent SSEA1-positive cells from all ESC types using MACS were sorted and harvested or sorted and differentiated into EBs. Total RNA from all samples was extracted.
Project description:Embryonic stem cell (ESC) fate decisions are regulated by a complex molecular circuitry that requires tight and coordinated gene expression regulations at multiple levels from chromatin organization to mRNA processing. Recently, ribosome biogenesis and translation have emerged as key pathways that efficiently control stem cell homeostasis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of these pathways remain largely unknown to date. Here, we analyzed the expression, in mouse ESCs, of over 300 genes involved in ribosome biogenesis and we identified RSL24D1 as the most differentially expressed between self-renewing and differentiated ESCs. RSL24D1 is highly expressed in multiple mouse pluripotent stem cell models and its expression profile is conserved in human ESCs. RSL24D1 is associated with nuclear pre-ribosomes and is required for the maturation and the synthesis of 60S subunits in mouse ESCs. Interestingly, RSL24D1 depletion significantly impairs global translation, particularly of key pluripotency factors, including POU5F1 and NANOG, as well as components of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). Consistently, RSL24D1 is required for mouse ESC self-renewal and proliferation. Taken together, we show that RSL24D1-dependant ribosome biogenesis is required to both sustain the expression of pluripotent transcriptional programs and silence developmental programs, which concertedly dictate ESC homeostasis.
Project description:Eed (embryonic ectoderm development) is a core component of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) which catalyzes the methylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27). Trimethylated H3K27 (H3K27me3) can act as a signal for PRC1 recruitment in the process of gene silencing and chromatin condensation. Previous studies with Eed KO ESCs revealed a failure to down-regulate a limited list of pluripotency factors in differentiating ESCs. Our aim was to analyze the consequences of Eed KO for ESC differentiation. To this end we first analyzed ESC differentiation in the absence of Eed and employed in silico data to assess pluripotency gene expression and H3K27me3 patterns. We linked these data to expression analyses of wildtype and Eed KO ESCs. We observed that in wildtype ESCs a subset of pluripotency genes including Oct4, Nanog, Sox2 and Oct4 target genes progressively gain H3K27me3 during differentiation. These genes remain expressed in differentiating Eed KO ESCs. This suggests that the deregulation of a limited set of pluripotency factors impedes ESC differentiation. Global analyses of H3K27me3 and Oct4 ChIP-seq data indicate that in ESCs the binding of Oct4 to promoter regions is not a general predictor for PRC2-mediated silencing during differentiation. However, motif analyses suggest a binding of Oct4 together with Sox2 and Nanog at promoters of genes that are PRC2-dependently silenced during differentiation. In summary, our data further characterize Eed function in ESCs by showing that Eed/PRC2 is essential for the onset of ESC differentiation. RNAs obtained from undifferentiated (d0) wild type and Eed KO ESCs and from day 3 (d3) and day 7 (d7) respective Ebs were subjected to Affymetrix Mouse Gene 1.0 ST Array. 24 samples in total.
Project description:The H2A variant H2AZ is essential for embryonic development and for proper execution of developmental gene expression programs in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Divergent regions in H2AZ are likely key for its functional specialization, but we know little about how these differences contribute to chromatin regulation. Here, we show that the extended acidic patch, specifically the three divergent residues in the C-terminal docking domain, is necessary for lineage commitment during ESC differentiation and proper execution of gene expression programs during ESC differentiation. Surprisingly, disruption of the acidic patch domain has a distinct consequence on cellular specification compared to H2AZ depletion. This is consistent with differences in gene expression profiles of H2AZ M-bM-^@M-^Sdepleted and acidic patch (AP) mutant ESCs during early lineage commitment. Interestingly, the distinct consequence of AP mutant expression on gene regulation is coincidence with an altered destabilized chromatin state and high chromatin mobility dependent on active transcription. Collectively, our data shows that the divergent residues within the acidic patch domain are key structural determinants of H2AZ function and links chromatin structure and dynamics with gene regulation and cell fate specification. H2AZ extended acidic patch was mutated, or H2AZ was KD in mouse embryonic stem cells and RNA-Seq analysis was performed on the resulting cultures. Characterization of H2AZ-WT and -AP3-mutant binding specificities were performed by ChIP-Seq.
Project description:Differences of metabolism-related gene expression profiles in human ESCs and ESC-derived purified cardiomyocytes were analyzed and successfully identified. Human ESCs and ESC-derived purified cardiomyocytes were used for this experiment.
Project description:Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are highly conserved epigenetic transcriptional repressors important for the control of numerous developmental gene expression programs and have recently been implicated in the modulation of embryonic stem cell (ESC) identity. We identified the PcG protein PCL2 (polycomb-like 2) in a genome-wide screen for novel regulators of self-renewal and pluripotency and predicted that it would play an important role in mouse ESC fate determination. Using multiple biochemical strategies, we provide evidence that PCL2 is a novel Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2)-associated protein in mouse ESCs. Knockdown of Pcl2 in ESCs resulted in heightened self-renewal characteristics, defects in differentiation and altered patterns of histone methylation. Through integration of global gene expression and promoter occupancy analyses of both PCL2 and PRC2 components EZH2 and SUZ12, we have predicted PCL2 target genes and formulated regulatory networks describing the role of PCL2 both in modulating transcription of ESC self-renewal genes in undifferentiated ESCs as well as developmental regulators during early commitment and differentiation. Cells were stably expressing Pcl2 shRNA or shRNA mismatch control sequences. Hybridizations of three biological replicates for both the control and Pcl2 shRNA clone were performed.
Project description:Stem cell fate is governed by the integration of intrinsic and extrinsic positive and negative signals upon inherent transcriptional networks. To identify novel embryonic stem cell (ESC) regulators and assemble transcriptional networks controlling ESC fate, we performed temporal expression microarray analyses of ESCs following the initiation of commitment and integrated these data with known genome-wide transcription factor binding. Effects of forced under- or over-expression of predicted novel regulators, defined as differentially expressed genes with potential binding sites for known regulators of pluripotency, demonstrated greater than 90% correspondence with predicted function, as assessed by functional and high content assays of self-renewal. We next assembled 43 theoretical transcriptional networks in ESCs, 82% (23 out of 28 tested) of which were supported by analysis of genome-wide expression in Oct4 knockdown cells. By using this integrative approach we have, for the first time, formulated novel networks describing gene repression of key developmental regulators in undifferentiated ESCs and successfully predicted the outcomes of genetic manipulation of these networks. Experiment Overall Design: 1, 3, and 5 days LIF differentiated ESCs, and 1 and 2 days RA differentiated ESCs