Project description:PGCs undergo two distinct stages of demethylation before reaching a hypomethylated ground state at E13.5. Stage 1 occurs between E7.25- E9.5 in which PGCs experience a global loss of cytosine methylation. However, discreet loci escape this global loss of methylation and between E10.5-E13.5, stage 2 of demethylation takes place. In this stage these loci are targeted by Tet1 and Tet2 leading to the loss of the remaining methylation and resulting in the epigenetic ground state. Our data shows that Dnmt1 is responsible for maintaining the methylation of loci that escape stage 1 demethylation, and that it functions in a UHRF1 independent manner. Our data further demonstrates that when these loci lose methylation prior to stage 2 it results in early activation of the meiotic program, which leads to precocious differentiation of the germ line resulting in a decreased pool of PGCs in the embryo and subsequent infertility in adult mice.
Project description:We apply deep small-RNA sequencing technology for high-throughput profiling of microRNAs in ground state embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We provide global expression signatures of microRNAs in ESCs cultured under serum, 2i, and R2i conditions. We report that microRNAs are significantly differentially expressed when ESCs are cultured under different conditions, and that ground state pluripotency features a uniqure microRNA signature which is mainly encoded by microRNA-coding sequences within the developmentally important DLK1-Dio3 locus. Finally, we indicate that microRNA upregulated in ground state pluripotent cells (i.e. 2i/R2i) contribute to the maintenace of ground state pluripotency through stimulating self-renewal and inhibiting multi-lineague differentiation.
Project description:Dynamic reprogramming of global DNA methylation impacts on the genomic deposition of the Polycomb-mediated repressive histone mark H3K27me3. DNA hypomethylation in ground state embryonic stem cells (ESCs) results in a reversible redistribution of H3K27me3 from its normal target loci. Thus, a signalling induced shift of ESCs to ground state results in both DNA methylation and Polycomb patterns that are quite distinct from their primed counterparts. Here we investigated the impact of DNA methylation directed Polycomb redistribution on higher-order chromatin structure in the ground state. Using a targeted single-locus approach (FISH) we can demonstrate local decompaction at Hox loci in the ground state, which is consistent with genome-wide data (Hi-C) indicating that chromatin structure is globally altered in ground state relative to primed ESCs. Polycomb targets are similarly decompacted in hypomethylated E3.5 mouse blastocysts. ESC lines which maintain a high level of DNA methylation in ground state show no decompaction at Hox loci. Our results suggest that DNA-methylation mediated reprogramming of Polycomb binding drives higher order chromatin organisation in stem cells and early development.