Project description:The vertebrate body plan and organs are shaped during a highly conserved embryonic phase called the phylotypic stage, however the mechanisms that guide the epigenome through this transition and their evolutionary conservation remain elusive. Here we report widespread DNA demethylation of thousands of enhancers during the phylotypic period in zebrafish, Xenopus and mouse. These dynamic enhancers are linked to essential developmental genes that display coordinated transcriptional and epigenomic changes in the diverse vertebrates during embryogenesis. Phylotypic stage-specific binding of Tet proteins to (hydroxy)methylated DNA, and enrichment of hydroxymethylcytosine on these enhancers, implicated active DNA demethylation in this process. Furthermore, loss of function of Tet1/2/3 in zebrafish caused reduced chromatin accessibility and increased methylation levels specifically on these enhancers, indicative of DNA methylation being an upstream regulator of phylotypic enhancer function. Overall, our study reveals a novel regulatory module associated with the most conserved phase of vertebrate embryogenesis and uncovers an ancient developmental role for the Tet dioxygenases.
Project description:The vertebrate body plan and organs are shaped during a conserved embryonic phase called the phylotypic stage, however the mechanisms that guide the epigenome through this transition and their evolutionary conservation remain elusive. Here we report widespread DNA demethylation of enhancers during the phylotypic period in zebrafish, Xenopus and mouse. These enhancers are linked to developmental genes that display coordinated transcriptional and epigenomic changes in the diverse vertebrates during embryogenesis. Binding of Tet proteins to (hydroxy)methylated DNA, and enrichment of hydroxymethylcytosine on these regions, implicated active DNA demethylation in this process. Furthermore, loss of function of Tet1/2/3 in zebrafish caused reduced chromatin accessibility and increased methylation levels specifically on these enhancers, indicative of DNA methylation being an upstream regulator of phylotypic enhancer function. Overall, our study reveals a novel regulatory module associated with the most conserved phase of vertebrate embryogenesis and uncovers an ancient developmental role for the Tet dioxygenases.
Project description:The DNA methylation program is at the bottom layer of the epigenetic regulatory cascade of vertebrate development. While the methylation at C-5 position of the cytosine (C) residues on the vertebrate genomes is achieved through the catalytic activities of the DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), the conversion of the methylated cytosine (5mC) could be accomplished by the combined actions of the TET enzyme and DNA repair. Interestingly, it has been found recently that the mouse and human DNMTs also possess active DNA demethylation activity in vitro in a Ca2+- and redox condition-dependent manner. We report here the study of tracking down the fate of the methyl group removed from 5mC on DNA during in vitro demethylation reaction by mouse de novo DNMTs, i.e. DNMT3A and DNMT3B. Remarkably, the methyl group becomes covalently linked to the catalytic cysteines utilized by the two de novo DNMTs in their DNA methylation reactions. Thus, the forward and reverse reactions of DNA methylations by the DNMTs may utilize the same cysteine residue(s) as the active site despite of their distinctive pathways. Secondly, we demonstrate that active DNA demethylation of a heavily methylated GFP reporter plasmid by ectopically expressed DNMT3A or DNMT3B occurs in vivo in transfected human HEK 293 cells in culture. Furthermore, the extent of DNA demethylation by the DNMTs in this cell-based system is affected by Ca2+ homeostasis as well as by mutation of their putative active cysteines. These findings substantiate the roles of the vertebrate DNMTs as double-edged swords in DNA methylation-demethylation in vitro as well as in a cellular context.
Project description:All living cells require a minimal iron threshold to sustain anabolic metabolism. However, the mechanisms by which cells sense iron to regulate anabolic processes are unclear. Here, we report a universal eukaryotic pathway for iron sensing in which molecular iron is required to sustain active histone demethylation and maintain the expression of critical components of the pro-anabolic mTORC1 pathway. Specifically, we identify the iron-binding histone-demethylase KDM3B as an intrinsic iron sensor that regulates mTORC1 activity by demethylating H3K9me2 at enhancers of a high-affinity leucine transporter and RAPTOR. By directly suppressing leucine availability and RAPTOR levels, iron deficiency (ID) supersedes other nutrient inputs into mTORC1. This process occurs in vivo, and is not an indirect effect by canonical iron-utilizing pathways. These data demonstrate a novel mechanism of eukaryotic iron sensing through dynamic chromatin remodeling and repression of mTORC1 mediated anabolism. Due to ancestral eukaryotes sharing homologues of KDMs and mTORC1 core components, this pathway likely predated the emergence of the other kingdom-specific nutrient sensors for mTORC1.
Project description:The epigenomes of mammalian sperm and oocytes, characterized by gamete-specific 5-methylcytosine (5mC) patterns, are reprogrammed in early embryogenesis to establish full developmental potential. It is broadly accepted that the paternal genome is actively demethylated in the zygote while the maternal genome undergoes passive demethylation thanks to DNA replication over the subsequent cleavage divisions. Here we reveal that both maternal and paternal genomes undergo widespread active and passive demethylation in the pronuclear zygote before the first mitotic division. Whereas the passive demethylation requires DNA replication, the active demethylation relies on enzymatic oxidation of 5mC, as deletion of the DNA dioxygenase, Tet3, but not the inhibition of replication, blocks the active demethylation. At actively demethylated loci, 5mCs appear to be processed to unmodified cytosines in a manner independent of the DNA glycosylase TDG. These observations suggest the occurrence of genuine active demethylation in both parental genomes following fertilization. An extra supportive Tet3 knock-out female pronuclear sample related to experiment Series GSE56650.
Project description:We report that the winged helix transcription factor FOXA1 is unexpectedly associated with components of single and double stranded-DNA repair complexes. Biochemical studies and high-throughput approaches validated the hierarchical composition of this FOXA1-nucleated machinery and revealed the dependency on FOXA1 for global targeting of the key repair polymerase POLB. Genome-wide DNA methylomes at single-base resolution demonstrated that FOXA1-DNA repair complex is functionally linked to DNA demethylation in a lineage specific fashion. Loss-of-function studies indicate that a significant portion of FOXA1-bound regions display localized reestablishment of methylation and that the subsets with most consistent hypermethylation are represented by active promoters and enhancers that also exhibit the greatest depletion of POLB following FOXA1 removal. Consistently, forced expression of FOXA1 commits its binding sites to an active DNA demethylation in a POLB dependent manner. Finally, we showed that FOXA1-associated DNA demethylation is tightly coupled with genomic targeting of estrogen receptor and estrogen responsiveness. Together, our results link FOXA1-associated DNA demethylation to its transcriptional pioneering.
Project description:Active DNA demethylation in mammals involves TET-mediated iterative oxidation of 5-methylcytosine (5mC)/5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and subsequent excision repair of highly oxidized cytosine bases 5-formylcytosine (5fC)/5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) by Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG). However, quantitative and high-resolution analysis of active DNA demethylation activity remains challenging. Here we describe M.SssI methylase-assisted bisulfite sequencing (MAB-seq), a method that directly maps 5fC/5caC at single-base resolution. Genome-wide MAB-seq allows systematic identification of 5fC/5caC in Tdg-depleted embryonic stem cells, thereby generating a base-resolution map of active DNA demethylome. A comparison of 5fC/5caC and 5hmC distribution maps indicates that catalytic processivity of TET enzymes correlates with local chromatin accessibility. MAB-seq also reveals strong strand asymmetry of active demethylation within palindromic CpGs. Integrating MAB-seq with other base-resolution mapping methods enables quantitative measurement of cytosine modification states at key transitioning steps of active demethylation pathway, and reveals a regulatory role of 5fC/5caC excision repair in active DNA demethylation cascade. Analysis of 5fC/5caC excision repair-dependent active DNA demethylome by MAB-seq in mouse embryonic stem cells.
Project description:The tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 (TET2) enzyme catalyzes the conversion of the modified DNA base 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. TET2 is frequently mutated or dysregulated in multiple human cancers, and loss of TET2 is associated with changes in DNA methylation patterns. Here, using newly developed TET2-specific antibodies and the estrogen response as a model system for studying the regulation of gene expression, we demonstrate that endogenous TET2 occupies active enhancers and facilitates the proper recruitment of ERalpha. Knockout of TET2 by CRISPR-CAS9 leads to a global increase of DNA-methylation at enhancers resulting in attenuation of the estrogen response. We further identified a positive feedback loop between TET2 and ERalpha, which further requires MLL3/COMPASS at these enhancers. Together, this study reveals an epigenetic axis coordinating a transcriptional program through enhancer activation via DNA demethylation.