MeCP2 regulates Tet1-catalyzed demethylation, CTCF binding, and learning-dependent alternative splicing of the BDNF gene in Turtle.

ABSTRACT: MECP2 mutations underlying Rett syndrome cause widespread misregulation of gene expression. Functions for MeCP2 other than transcriptional are not well understood. In an ex vivo brain preparation from the pond turtle Trachemys scripta elegans, an intraexonic splicing event in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene generates a truncated mRNA transcript in naïve brain that is suppressed upon classical conditioning. MeCP2 and its partners, splicing factor Y-box binding protein 1 (YB-1) and methylcytosine dioxygenase 1 (Tet1), bind to BDNF chromatin in naïve but dissociate during conditioning; the dissociation correlating with decreased DNA methylation. Surprisingly, conditioning results in new occupancy of BDNF chromatin by DNA insulator protein C

SUBMITTER: Zheng Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5481183 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature