Changes of bivalent chromatin coincide with increased expression of developmental genes in cancer

Bivalent (poised or paused) chromatin comprises activating and repressing histone modifications at the same location. This combination of epigenetic marks at promoter or enhancer regions keeps genes expressed at low levels but poised for rapid activation. Typically, DNA at bivalent promoters is only lowly methylated in normal cells, but frequently shows elevated methylation levels in cancer samples. Here, we developed a universal classifier built from chromatin data that can identify cancer samples solely from hypermethylation of bivalent chromatin. Tested on over 7,000 DNA methylation data sets from several cancer types, it reaches an AUC of 0.92. Although higher levels of DNA methylation are often associated with transcriptional silencing, counter-intuitive positive statistical dependencies between DNA methylation and expression levels have been recently reported for two cancer types. Here, we re-analyze combined expression and DNA methylation data sets, comprising over 5,000 samples, and demonstrate that the conjunction of hypermethylation of bivalent chromatin and up-regulation of the corresponding genes is a general phenomenon in cancer. This up-regulation affects many developmental genes and transcription factors, including dozens of homeobox genes and other genes implicated in cancer. Thus, we reason that the disturbance of bivalent chromatin may be intimately linked to tumorigenesis

Improved systematic tRNA gene annotation allows new insights into the evolution of mitochondrial tRNA structures and into the mechanisms of mitochondrial genome rearrangements

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are present in all types of cells as well as in organelles. tRNAs of animal mitochondria show a low level of primary sequence conservation and exhibit ‘bizarre’ secondary structures, lacking complete domains of the common cloverleaf. Such sequences are hard to detect and hence frequently missed in computational analyses and mitochondrial genome annotation. Here, we introduce an automatic annotation procedure for mitochondrial tRNA genes in Metazoa based on sequence and structural information in manually curated covariance models. The method, applied to re-annotate 1876 available metazoan mitochondrial RefSeq genomes, allows to distinguish between remaining functional genes and degrading ‘pseudogenes’, even at early stages of divergence. The subsequent analysis of a comprehensive set of mitochondrial tRNA genes gives new insights into the evolution of structures of mitochondrial tRNA sequences as well as into the mechanisms of genome rearrangements. We find frequent losses of tRNA genes concentrated in basal Metazoa, frequent independent losses of individual parts of tRNA genes, particularly in Arthropoda, and wide-spread conserved overlaps of tRNAs in opposite reading direction. Direct evidence for several recent Tandem Duplication-Random Loss events is gained, demonstrating that this mechanism has an impact on the appearance of new mitochondrial gene orders

DNA methylome analysis in Burkitt and follicular lymphomas identifies differentially methylated regions linked to somatic mutation and transcriptional control

Although Burkitt lymphomas and follicular lymphomas both have features of germinal center B cells, they are biologically and clinically quite distinct. Here we performed whole-genome bisulfite, genome and transcriptome sequencing in 13 IG-MYC translocation-positive Burkitt lymphoma, nine BCL2 translocation-positive follicular lymphoma and four normal germinal center B cell samples. Comparison of Burkitt and follicular lymphoma samples showed differential methylation of intragenic regions that strongly correlated with expression of associated genes, for example, genes active in germinal center dark-zone and light-zone B cells. Integrative pathway analyses of regions differentially methylated in Burkitt and follicular lymphomas implicated DNA methylation as cooperating with somatic mutation of sphingosine phosphate signaling, as well as the TCF3-ID3 and SWI/SNF complexes, in a large fraction of Burkitt lymphomas. Taken together, our results demonstrate a tight connection between somatic mutation, DNA methylation and transcriptional control in key B cell pathways deregulated differentially in Burkitt lymphoma and other germinal center B cell lymphomas

Structure et évolution des ARNt mitochondriaux animaux

Les approches bioinformatiques développées au cours de cette thèse ont permis d’une part le développement de banques de données concernant les ARNt classiques ainsi que les ARNt mitochondriaux de métazoaires. Celles-ci sont basées sur de nouveaux outils pour la détection de gènes d’ARNt «bizarres» et des alignements de séquences basés sur les propriétés structurales préservées. Les analyses des séquences collectées ont conduit non seulement à une vision globale de la diversité des ARNt dans les génomes mitochondriaux couvrant l’ensemble des groupes taxonomiques des métazoaires, mais également une meilleure connaissance de l’organisation des génomes et d’en proposer des liens évolutifs. Elles ont également permis de confirmer et d’élargir l’existence d’ARNt les plus petits connus à ce jour et de poser les bases de compréhension des repliements tridimensionnaux des ARNt mitochondriaux. Ces travaux permettent de mieux appréhender la compréhension des relations structure/fonction des ARNt mitochondriaux humains, et en particulier les dysfonctionnements dans les pathologies mitochondriales.The bioinformatic approaches presented in this thesis include the development of databases for classical tRNAs and the mitochondrial tRNAs of metazoans. They are based on new tools for the detection of "bizarre" tRNA genes and sequences, and for the calculation of alignments based on their structural features. The analysis of collected sequences have led to an global overview on the diversity of tRNAs in mitochondrial genomes covering all taxonomic groups of metazoans, but also to a better understanding of genome organization and their evolution. The present study revealed the existence of the smallest known tRNA so far and provides the basis for understanding the three-dimensional folding of mitochondrial tRNA. This work helps to better understand the structure/function relationships of human mitochondrial tRNAs and, in particular, the dysfunctions in mitochondrial pathologies

Structure et évolution des ARNt mitochondriaux animaux

Les approches bioinformatiques développées au cours de cette thèse ont permis d’une part le développement de banques de données concernant les ARNt classiques ainsi que les ARNt mitochondriaux de métazoaires. Celles-ci sont basées sur de nouveaux outils pour la détection de gènes d’ARNt «bizarres» et des alignements de séquences basés sur les propriétés structurales préservées. Les analyses des séquences collectées ont conduit non seulement à une vision globale de la diversité des ARNt dans les génomes mitochondriaux couvrant l’ensemble des groupes taxonomiques des métazoaires, mais également une meilleure connaissance de l’organisation des génomes et d’en proposer des liens évolutifs. Elles ont également permis de confirmer et d’élargir l’existence d’ARNt les plus petits connus à ce jour et de poser les bases de compréhension des repliements tridimensionnaux des ARNt mitochondriaux. Ces travaux permettent de mieux appréhender la compréhension des relations structure/fonction des ARNt mitochondriaux humains, et en particulier les dysfonctionnements dans les pathologies mitochondriales.The bioinformatic approaches presented in this thesis include the development of databases for classical tRNAs and the mitochondrial tRNAs of metazoans. They are based on new tools for the detection of "bizarre" tRNA genes and sequences, and for the calculation of alignments based on their structural features. The analysis of collected sequences have led to an global overview on the diversity of tRNAs in mitochondrial genomes covering all taxonomic groups of metazoans, but also to a better understanding of genome organization and their evolution. The present study revealed the existence of the smallest known tRNA so far and provides the basis for understanding the three-dimensional folding of mitochondrial tRNA. This work helps to better understand the structure/function relationships of human mitochondrial tRNAs and, in particular, the dysfunctions in mitochondrial pathologies

Structure et évolution des ARNt mitochondriaux animaux

Les approches bioinformatiques développées au cours de cette thèse ont permis d une part le développement de banques de données concernant les ARNt classiques ainsi que les ARNt mitochondriaux de métazoaires. Celles-ci sont basées sur de nouveaux outils pour la détection de gènes d ARNt bizarres et des alignements de séquences basés sur les propriétés structurales préservées. Les analyses des séquences collectées ont conduit non seulement à une vision globale de la diversité des ARNt dans les génomes mitochondriaux couvrant l ensemble des groupes taxonomiques des métazoaires, mais également une meilleure connaissance de l organisation des génomes et d en proposer des liens évolutifs. Elles ont également permis de confirmer et d élargir l existence d ARNt les plus petits connus à ce jour et de poser les bases de compréhension des repliements tridimensionnaux des ARNt mitochondriaux. Ces travaux permettent de mieux appréhender la compréhension des relations structure/fonction des ARNt mitochondriaux humains, et en particulier les dysfonctionnements dans les pathologies mitochondriales.The bioinformatic approaches presented in this thesis include the development of databases for classical tRNAs and the mitochondrial tRNAs of metazoans. They are based on new tools for the detection of "bizarre" tRNA genes and sequences, and for the calculation of alignments based on their structural features. The analysis of collected sequences have led to an global overview on the diversity of tRNAs in mitochondrial genomes covering all taxonomic groups of metazoans, but also to a better understanding of genome organization and their evolution. The present study revealed the existence of the smallest known tRNA so far and provides the basis for understanding the three-dimensional folding of mitochondrial tRNA. This work helps to better understand the structure/function relationships of human mitochondrial tRNAs and, in particular, the dysfunctions in mitochondrial pathologies.STRASBOURG-Bib.electronique 063 (674829902) / SudocSudocFranceF

metilene: fast and sensitive calling of differentially methylated regions from bisulfite sequencing data.

The detection of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) is a necessary prerequisite for characterizing different epigenetic states. We present a novel program, metilene, to identify DMRs within whole-genome and targeted data with unrivaled specificity and sensitivity. A binary segmentation algorithm combined with a two-dimensional statistical test allows the detection of DMRs in large methylation experiments with multiple groups of samples in minutes rather than days using off-the-shelf hardware. metilene outperforms other state-of-the-art tools for low coverage data and can estimate missing data. Hence, metilene is a versatile tool to study the effect of epigenetic modifications in differentiation/development, tumorigenesis, and systems biology on a global, genome-wide level. Whether in the framework of international consortia with dozens of samples per group, or even without biological replicates, it produces highly significant and reliable results