Chromatin dynamics and the role of G9a in gene regulation and enhancer silencing during early mouse development.

Early mouse development is accompanied by dynamic changes in chromatin modifications, including G9a-mediated histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2), which is essential for embryonic development. Here we show that genome-wide accumulation of H3K9me2 is crucial for postimplantation development, and coincides with redistribution of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2)-dependent histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3). Loss of G9a or EZH2 results in upregulation of distinct gene sets involved in cell cycle regulation, germline development and embryogenesis. Notably, the H3K9me2 modification extends to active enhancer elements where it promotes developmentally-linked gene silencing and directly marks promoters and gene bodies. This epigenetic mechanism is important for priming gene regulatory networks for critical cell fate decisions in rapidly proliferating postimplantation epiblast cells.Wellcome Trust: Jan J Zylicz, Ufuk Günesdogan, Jamie A Hackett, Delphine Cougot, Caroline Lee, MA Surani, WT096738; European Commission (EC): Ufuk Günesdogan; Wellcome Trust: Jan J Zylicz, RG44593This is the final version of the article. It was first available from eLife via http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.0957

Liver Cell Transformation in Chronic HBV Infection

Epidemiological studies have provided overwhelming evidence for a causal role of chronic HBV infection in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the molecular mechanisms underlying virally-induced tumorigenesis remain largely debated. In the absence of a dominant oncogene encoded by the HBV genome, indirect roles have been proposed, including insertional activation of cellular oncogenes by HBV DNA integration, induction of genetic instability by viral integration or by the regulatory protein HBx, and long term effects of viral proteins in enhancing immune-mediated liver disease. In this chapter, we discuss different models of HBV-mediated liver cell transformation based on animal systems of hepadnavirus infection as well as functional studies in hepatocyte and hepatoma cell lines. These studies might help identifying the cellular effectors connecting HBV infection and liver cell transformation

PRMT5 protects genomic integrity during global DNA demethylation in primordial germ cells and preimplantation embryos.

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) and preimplantation embryos undergo epigenetic reprogramming, which includes comprehensive DNA demethylation. We found that PRMT5, an arginine methyltransferase, translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus during this process. Here we show that conditional loss of PRMT5 in early PGCs causes complete male and female sterility, preceded by the upregulation of LINE1 and IAP transposons as well as activation of a DNA damage response. Similarly, loss of maternal-zygotic PRMT5 also leads to IAP upregulation. PRMT5 is necessary for the repressive H2A/H4R3me2s chromatin modification on LINE1 and IAP transposons in PGCs, directly implicating this modification in transposon silencing during DNA hypomethylation. PRMT5 translocates back to the cytoplasm subsequently, to participate in the previously described PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway that promotes transposon silencing via de novo DNA remethylation. Thus, PRMT5 is directly involved in genome defense during preimplantation development and in PGCs at the time of global DNA demethylation.U.G. was supported by a Marie Sk1odowska Curie Intra-European Fellowship. J.J.Z. was a recipient of a Wellcome Trust PhD Studentship (RG44593). This research was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust to M.A.S. (WT096738).This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/abstract/S1097-2765%2814%2900787-4

Etude fonctionnelle du rôle de l'interaction de la proteine HBx du virus de l'hépatite B avec les histones acétyltransférases dans la réplication virale et l'hépatocarcinogenèse

PARIS7-Bibliothèque centrale (751132105) / SudocSudocFranceF

Tbx3 Is a Downstream Target of the Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway and a Critical Mediator of β-Catenin Survival Functions in Liver Cancer

International audienceTbx3 encodes a transcriptional repressor that is important for diverse patterning events during development, and Tbx3 mutation in humans causes the ulnar-mammary syndrome. Here, we describe the identification of Tbx3 in array-based search for genes downstream Wnt/beta-catenin that are implicated in liver tumorigenesis. Overexpression of Tbx3 is closely associated with the mutational status of beta-catenin in murine liver tumors induced by Myc as well as in human hepatocellular carcinomas and hepatoblastomas. Moreover, Tbx3 transcription is activated by ectopic expression of beta-catenin in mouse liver and in human tumor cell lines. Evidence that Tbx3 transcription is directly regulated by beta-catenin is provided by chromatin immunoprecipitation and reporter assays. Although HepG2 cells stably transfected with Tbx3 display moderately enhanced growth rate, the dominant negative mutant Tbx3-Y149S drastically inhibits hepatoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, small interfering RNAs (siRNA) directed against Tbx3 inhibit anchorage-independent growth of liver and colon carcinoma cells. We further show that inhibition of Tbx3 expression by specific siRNAs blocks beta-catenin-mediated cell survival and renders cells sensitive to doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. Conversely, ectopic expression of Tbx3 inhibits apoptosis induced by beta-catenin depletion. Marked overexpression of Tbx3 in a subset of hepatoblastomas is associated with chemotherapy-resistant phenotype and unfavorable patient outcome. These results reveal an unsuspected role of Tbx3 as a mediator of beta-catenin activities on cell proliferation and survival and as an important player in liver tumorigenesis

Automated Tumour Recognition and Digital Pathology Scoring Unravels New Role for PD-L1 in Predicting Good Outcome in ER-/HER2+ Breast Cancer

The role of PD-L1 as a prognostic and predictive biomarker is an area of great interest. However, there is a lack of consensus on how to deliver PD-L1 as a clinical biomarker. At the heart of this conundrum is the subjective scoring of PD-L1 IHC in most studies to date. Current standard scoring systems involve separation of epithelial and inflammatory cells and find clinical significance in different percentages of expression, e.g., above or below 1%. Clearly, an objective, reproducible and accurate approach to PD-L1 scoring would bring a degree of necessary consistency to this landscape. Using a systematic comparison of technologies and the application of QuPath, a digital pathology platform, we show that high PD-L1 expression is associated with improved clinical outcome in Triple Negative breast cancer in the context of standard of care (SoC) chemotherapy, consistent with previous findings. In addition, we demonstrate for the first time that high PD-L1 expression is also associated with better outcome in ER- disease as a whole including HER2+ breast cancer. We demonstrate the influence of antibody choice on quantification and clinical impact with the Ventana antibody (SP142) providing the most robust assay in our hands. Through sampling different regions of the tumour, we show that tumour rich regions display the greatest range of PD-L1 expression and this has the most clinical significance compared to stroma and lymphoid rich areas. Furthermore, we observe that both inflammatory and epithelial PD-L1 expression are associated with improved survival in the context of chemotherapy. Moreover, as seen with PD-L1 inhibitor studies, a low threshold of PD-L1 expression stratifies patient outcome. This emphasises the importance of using digital pathology and precise biomarker quantitation to achieve accurate and reproducible scores that can discriminate low PD-L1 expression