Project description:In C.elegans nematodes small RNAs enable transmission of epigenetic responses across multiple generations. While RNA interference (RNAi) inheritance mechanisms that enable “memorization” of ancestral responses are being elucidated, it is not known why or how, after a few generations, epigenetic effects are “forgotten”. We show that exposure to dsRNA activates a feedback loop that determines the duration of inherited silencing. We find that gene-specific RNAi responses dictate the transgenerational duration of RNAi responses mounted against unrelated genes, elicited separately in previous generations. RNA-seq analysis reveals that aside from silencing of genes with complementary sequences, dsRNA-induced RNAi affects the production of heritable endogenous small RNAs, which regulate the expression of RNAi factors. Manipulating genes in this feedback pathway changes the duration of heritable silencing. Active control of transgenerational effects could be adaptive, since ancestral responses would be detrimental if the environments of the progeny and the ancestors would differ.
Project description:Reprogramming-associated aberrant DNA methylation determines hematopoietic differentiation capacity of human induced pluripotent stem cells
Project description:Data supporting the manuscript: A methyltransferase-independent role for METTL1 in tRNA aminoacylation and oncogenic transformation
Project description:We evaluated the effects of suppressing MAP4K4 on transcriptome and YAP1 pathway based on the observation that partial suppression of MAP4K4 leads to transformation through activation of YAP1. Mutations and deletions involving subunits of the serine-threonine phosphatase PP2A occur in a broad range of human cancers, and partial loss of PP2A function contributes to cell transformation. In particular, displacement of regulatory B subunits by the viral oncoprotein SV40 small-t antigen (ST) or mutation or deletion of PP2A subunits alters the abundance and types of PP2A complexes in cells and induces cell transformation in human cells. Here we show that ST not only displaces common PP2A B subunits but also promotes PP2A A-C subunit interactions with a set of alternative B subunits (B’’’, striatins) that are components of the Striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase (STRIPAK) complex. We found that members of the STRIPAK complex are required for ST-PP2A induced cell transformation. PP2A interacts with and dephosphorylates the STRIPAK-associated kinase MAP4K4, which induces cell transformation in part through the regulation of the Hippo pathway effector YAP1. These observations identify an unanticipated role of MAP4K4 in transformation and show that the STRIPAK complex plays a key role in defining PP2A specificity and activity.
Project description:The variation among induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in their differentiation capacity to specific lineages is frequently attributed to somatic memory. In this study, we compared hematopoietic differentiation capacity of 35 human iPSC lines derived from four different tissues and four embryonic stem cell lines. The analysis revealed that hematopoietic commitment capacity (PSCs to hematopoietic precursors) is correlated with the expression level of the IGF2 gene independent of the iPSC origins. In contrast, maturation capacity (hematopoietic precursors to mature blood) is affected by iPSC origin; blood-derived iPSCs showed the highest capacity. However, some fibroblast-derived iPSCs showed higher capacity than blood-derived clones. Tracking of DNA methylation changes during reprogramming reveals that maturation capacity is highly associated with aberrant DNA methylation acquired during reprogramming, rather than the types of iPSC origins. These data demonstrated that variations in the hematopoietic differentiation capacity of iPSCs are not attributable to somatic memories of their origins. Methyl-seq analysis for undifferentiated induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines (n = 21), human dermal fibroblast (HDF, n = 1), human peripheral blood (n = 1), and human keratinocyte (n = 1), and ATAC-seq analysis for 2 iPSC lines and an embryonic stem cell (ESC) line with two different culture conditions. CTCF-ChIP-seq analysis for an ESC line.