Project description:This study describes the transcriptome profiling of MV4;11 human leukemia cells treated for 6 days with: 1) DMSO; 2) 3 µM of AS-99 ASH1L inhibitor.
Project description:The histone methyltransferases MLL and ASH1L are trithorax-group proteins that interact genetically through undefined molecular mechanisms to regulate developmental and hematopoietic gene expression. Here we show that the lysine 36-dimethyl mark of histone H3 (H3K36me2) written by ASH1L is preferentially bound in vivo by LEDGF, an MLL-associated protein that co-localizes with MLL, ASH1L and H3K36me2 on chromatin genome wide. Furthermore, ASH1L facilitates recruitment of LEDGF and wild type MLL proteins to chromatin at key leukemia target genes, and is a crucial regulator of MLL-dependent transcription and leukemic transformation. Conversely KDM2A, an H3K36me2 demethylase and Polycomb-group silencing protein, antagonizes MLL-associated leukemogenesis. Our studies illuminate the molecular mechanisms underlying epigenetic interactions wherein placement, interpretation and removal of H3K36me2 contribute to the regulation of gene expression and MLL leukemia, and suggest ASH1L as a target for therapeutic intervention. Investigation of multiple transcription factors and histone modification marks in MV4-11 human leukemia cells.
Project description:The histone methyltransferases MLL and ASH1L are trithorax-group proteins that interact genetically through undefined molecular mechanisms to regulate developmental and hematopoietic gene expression. Here we show that the lysine 36-dimethyl mark of histone H3 (H3K36me2) written by ASH1L is preferentially bound in vivo by LEDGF, an MLL-associated protein that co-localizes with MLL, ASH1L and H3K36me2 on chromatin genome wide. Furthermore, ASH1L facilitates recruitment of LEDGF and wild type MLL proteins to chromatin at key leukemia target genes, and is a crucial regulator of MLL-dependent transcription and leukemic transformation. Conversely KDM2A, an H3K36me2 demethylase and Polycomb-group silencing protein, antagonizes MLL-associated leukemogenesis. Our studies illuminate the molecular mechanisms underlying epigenetic interactions wherein placement, interpretation and removal of H3K36me2 contribute to the regulation of gene expression and MLL leukemia, and suggest ASH1L as a target for therapeutic intervention.
Project description:ASH1L and MLL1 are two histone methyltransferases that facilitate transcriptional activation during normal development. However, the roles of ASH1L and its enzymatic activity in the development of MLL-rearranged leukemias are not fully elucidated in Ash1L gene knockout animal models. In this study, we used an Ash1L conditional knockout mouse model to show that loss of ASH1L in hematopoietic progenitor cells impaired the initiation of MLL-AF9-induced leukemic transformation in vitro. Furthermore, genetic deletion of ASH1L in the MLL-AF9-transformed cells impaired the maintenance of leukemic cells in vitro and largely blocked the leukemia progression in vivo. Importantly, the loss of ASH1L function in the Ash1L-deleted cells could be rescued by wild-type but not the catalytic-dead mutant ASH1L, suggesting the enzymatic activity of ASH1L was required for its function in promoting MLL-AF9-induced leukemic transformation. At the molecular level, ASH1L enhanced the MLL-AF9 target gene expression by directly binding to the gene promoters and modifying the local histone H3K36me2 levels. Thus, our study revealed the critical functions of ASH1L in promoting the MLL-AF9-induced leukemogenesis, which provides a molecular basis for targeting ASH1L and its enzymatic activity to treat MLL-arranged leukemias.
Project description:The goal of this study is to assess the role of ASH1 like histone lysine methyltransferase (ASH1L) in the biology of anaplastic thyroid cancer. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to create cell lines derived from BHT-101 anaplastic thyroid cancer cells with premature stop codons prior to the catalytic domain within both alleles of ASH1L. ChIP-seq for H3K36me2, the histone mark catalyzed by ASH1L, was performed on two KO cell lines, and compared to wild type BHT-101 cells.
Project description:The ASH1L lysine methyltransferase plays a critical role in development and is frequently dysregulated in cancer and neurodevelopmental diseases. ASH1L catalyzes mono- and dimethylation of histone H3K36 and contains a set of uncharacterized domains. Here, we report the structure-function relationships of the C-terminal cassette of ASH1L encompassing a bromodomain (BD), a PHD finger and a bromo-associated homology (BAH) domain and show that ASH1L co-localizes with H3K4me3 but not with H3K36me2 at transcription start sites genome-wide and is involved in embryonic stem cell differentiation and transcriptional regulation of differentiation marker genes. Our crystal and NMR structural data provide mechanistic details for the recognition of H3K4me3 by PHD, the DNA binding activities of BD and BAH, and crosstalk among these domains. We show that the PHD-H3K4me3 interaction is inhibitory to the catalytic activity of ASH1L and that the DNA binding function of BAH is necessary for ASH1L engagement with the nucleosome. Our findings suggest a mechanism by which the C-terminus of ASH1L associates with chromatin and provide molecular and structural insights that are essential in therapeutic targeting of ASH1L.