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Temporal uncoupling of the DNA methylome and transcriptional repression during embryogenesis

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation is a tightly regulated epigenetic mark associated with transcriptional repression. Next-generation sequencing of purified methylated DNA obtained from early Xenopus tropicalis embryos demonstrates that this genome is heavily methylated during blastula and gastrula stages. Although DNA methylation is largely absent from transcriptional start sites marked with histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3), we find both promoters and gene bodies of active genes robustly methylated. By contrast, DNA methylation is absent in large H3K27me3 domains, indicating these two repression pathways have different roles. Comparison with chromatin state maps of human ES cells reveals strong conservation of epigenetic makeup and gene regulation between the two systems. Strikingly, genes that are highly expressed in human pluripotent cells and in Xenopus embryos but not in differentiated cells exhibit relatively high methylation in both promoters and gene bodies in embryos. Therefore we tested the repressive potential of DNA methylation using transient and transgenic approaches and show that methylated promoters are robustly transcribed in blastula and gastrula-stage embryos, but not in oocytes or late embryos where methylated templates are repressed efficiently. These findings have implications for reprogramming and the epigenetic regulation of pluripotency and differentiation, suggesting a relatively open, pliable chromatin state in early embryos followed by re-established methylation-dependent transcriptional repression during organogenesis and differentiation.

ORGANISM(S): Xenopus tropicalis

PROVIDER: GSE23913 | GEO | 2011/06/23

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA130531

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:During development histone modifying enzymes are required for cell identity and lineage commitment, however little is known about the regulatory origins of the epigenome during embryonic development. Here we generate a comprehensive set of embryonic epigenome reference maps, which we use to determine the extent to which maternal factors shape chromatin state in Xenopus embryos. Using Î±-amanitin to inhibit zygotic transcription, we find that the majority of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3-enriched regions form a maternally defined epigenetic regulatory space with an underlying logic of hypomethylated islands. This maternal regulatory space extends to a substantial proportion of neurula stage-activated promoters. In contrast, p300-recruitment to distal regulatory regions requires embryonic transcription at most loci. The results show that H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 are part of a regulatory space that exerts an extended maternal control well into post-gastrulation development, and highlight the combinatorial action of maternal and zygotic factors through proximal and distal regulatory sequences. We have performed ChIP-sequencing of eight histone modifications, RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and the enhancer protein p300 at five stages of development: blastula (st. 9), gastrula (st. 10.5, 12.5), neurula (st. 16) and tailbud (st. 30). These experiments allow identification of enhancers (H3K4me1, p300), promoters (H3K4me3, H3K9ac), transcribed regions (H3K36me3, RNAPII) and repressed and heterochromatic domains (H3K27me3, H3K9me2, H3K9me3, H4K20me3). In addition we generated pre-MBT (st. 8) maps for three histone modifications (H3K4me3, H3K9ac, H3K27me3) and single-base resolution DNA methylome maps using whole genome bisulfite sequencing of blastula and gastrula (st. 9 and 10.5) embryos. To determine the maternal and zygotic contributions to chromatin state, we used alpha-amanitin to block embryonic transcription. Fertilised eggs were injected with 2.3 nl of 2.67 ng/ul alpha-amanitin and developed until the control embryos reached mid-gastrulation. Alpha-amanitin and control embryos were used for RNA-seq and ChIP-seq of RNAPII, H3K4me3, H3K27me3 and p300. For all ChIP-seq samples of the epigenome reference maps and RNAPII ChIP-seq samples of the Î±-amanitin experiments three biological replicates of different chromatin isolations of 45 embryos were pooled. Two biological replicates for H3K4me3 (Î±-amanitin injected: resp. 90 and 56 embryo equivalents (eeq); control: resp. 45 and 67 eeq), H3K27me3 (Î±-amanitin injected: resp. 90 and 180 eeq; control: resp. 45 and 202 eeq) and p300 (Î±-amanitin injected: resp. 112 and 56 eeq; control: resp. 112 and 67 eeq) ChIP-seq samples of the Î±-amanitin experiments were generated. For RNA-seq samples of the Î±-amanitin experiments RNA from 5 embryos from one biological replicate was isolated and depleted of ribosomal RNA

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Temporal uncoupling of the DNA methylome and transcriptional repression during embryogenesis

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