Natural Single-Nucleosome Epi-Polymorphisms in Yeast

Epigenomes commonly refer to the sequence of presence/absence of specific epigenetic marks along eukaryotic chromatin. Complete histone-borne epigenomes have now been described at single-nucleosome resolution from various organisms, tissues, developmental stages, or diseases, yet their intra-species natural variation has never been investigated. We describe here that the epigenomic sequence of histone H3 acetylation at Lysine 14 (H3K14ac) differs greatly between two unrelated strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using single-nucleosome chromatin immunoprecipitation and mapping, we interrogated 58,694 nucleosomes and found that 5,442 of them differed in their level of H3K14 acetylation, at a false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.0001. These Single Nucleosome Epi-Polymorphisms (SNEPs) were enriched at regulatory sites and conserved non-coding DNA sequences. Surprisingly, higher acetylation in one strain did not imply higher expression of the relevant gene. However, SNEPs were enriched in genes of high transcriptional variability and one SNEP was associated with the strength of gene activation upon stimulation. Our observations suggest a high level of inter-individual epigenomic variation in natural populations, with essential questions on the origin of this diversity and its relevance to gene x environment interactions

The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2024: phenotypes around the world.

The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English. Since our last report, a total of 2239 new HPO terms and 49235 new HPO annotations were developed, many in collaboration with external groups in the fields of psychiatry, arthrogryposis, immunology and cardiology. The Medical Action Ontology (MAxO) is a new effort to model treatments and other measures taken for clinical management. Finally, the HPO consortium is contributing to efforts to integrate the HPO and the GA4GH Phenopacket Schema into electronic health records (EHRs) with the goal of more standardized and computable integration of rare disease data in EHRs

Implication des factures de remodelage de chromatine de la famille CHD dans les réseaux de régulation transcriptionnelle des cellules souches embryonnaires

Embryonic stem cells have the unique capacity to divide indefinitely and to differentiate in all cell types. They are promising for therapeutic applications for future treatments. Understanding the contribution of chromatin remodeler to the control of gene expression is critical to reach this goal. The Chd family which belongs to the SNF2 superfamily, contains nine members and represend about one third of the chromatin remodelers expressed in ES cells. Our aim was to identify the target genes of each remodeler, to understand how they are involved in transcription regulation and how they share chromatin regulation in ES. This large-scale study started with the tagging of each Chd. Using homologous recombination, we generated 9 ES cell lines each carring a tagged allele. The C-terminus of each gene was fused with a FLAG-HA tag. This tag allowed efficient chromatin immunoprecipitation for all the proteins. We performed tandem affinity chromatin IP for each protein. Immunoprecipitated DNA was sequenced onto an Illumina plateform in the lab of I. Gut (CEA/CNG and CNAG). We next analysed the transcriptome of Chd-depleted ES cells, using microarray hybridization and RNA-seq strategy. Our data show that NuRD (Chd4, Hdac2) is extensively involved in ES transcriptional pluripotency core network. Data obtained for Chd1, Chd8 and Chd4 show that each Chd has a particular binding pattern onto the mouse ES cell genome, suggesting different roles. However they regulated each other and belong to the same complexe core circuit. Finally, our results lead to new hypothesis to explain how Chd proteins contribute to genome regulation.Les cellules souches embryonnaires (cellules ES) ont la capacité unique de se diviser indéfiniment et de pouvoir se différencier en de multiples types cellulaires. Elles apparaissent donc très prometteuses comme agents thérapeutiques dans les traitements médicaux du futur. Un enjeu majeur de la recherche actuelle consiste à comprendre la contribution des protéines régulatrices de la chromatine à la plasticité et au contrôle de l'expression du génome des cellules. La famille des remodeleurs Chd, qui fait partie de la super famille SNF2, comprend neuf membres, soit le tiers des remodeleurs exprimés dans les cellules ES murines. L'objectif principal de ce projet de thèse a consisté à identifier de manière exhaustive les gènes cibles de chaque facteur pour comprendre comment ils participent à la régulation du génome et se partagent le remodelage de la chromatine. Nous avons entrepris un projet à grande échelle dans lequel chaque gène codant chaque Chd a été fusionné, à son extrémité carboxy-terminale, à une séquence codant une étiquette, par recombinaison homologue en cellules ES. Les cellules ES étiquetées ont ensuite été utilisées pour des expériences d'immunoprécipitation de chromatine (ChIP-seq). La présence de l'étiquette a permis de standardiser et d'optimiser les méthodes d'immunoprécipitation des protéines. Les fragments d'ADN isolés ont ensuite été séquencés dans le laboratoire d'Ivo Gut (CEA/CNG -Evry- et CNAG -Barcelone-). Nous avons également analysé les transcriptomes des cellules ES où la déplétion de chaque protéine Chd a été réalisée, par hybridation sur puce et RNA-seq. Ces données ont permis de montrer le rôle de NuRD (Chd4, Hdac2) au sein des réseaux de la régulation transcriptionnelle des ES. Les données obtenues pour les facteurs Chd1, Chd8 et Chd4 montrent des rôles différents mais interconnectés pour chaque protéine. Enfin, ces données nous ont permis de proposer des hypothèses pour expliquer comment ces protéines contribuent à la régulation du génome

DNA Methylation and Chromatin: Role(s) of Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein ZBTB38

International audienceDNA methylation plays an essential role in the control of gene expression during early stages of development as well as in disease. Although many transcription factors are sensitive to this modification of the DNA, we still do not clearly understand how it contributes to the establishment of proper gene expression patterns. We discuss here the recent findings regarding the biological and molecular function(s) of the transcription factor ZBTB38 that binds methylated DNA sequences in vitro and in cells. We speculate how these findings may help understand the role of DNA methylation and DNA methylation-sensitive transcription factors in mammalian cells

Molecular and Clinical Relevance of ZBTB38 Expression Levels in Prostate Cancer

International audienceProstate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men. A number of genomic and clinical studies have led to a better understanding of prostate cancer biology. Still, the care of patients as well as the prediction of disease aggressiveness, recurrence and outcome remain challenging. Here, we showed that expression of the gene ZBTB38 is associated with poor prognosis in localised prostate cancer and could help discriminate aggressive localised prostate tumours from those who can benefit only from observation. Analysis of different prostate cancer cohorts indicates that low expression levels of ZBTB38 associate with increased levels of chromosomal abnormalities and more aggressive pathological features, including higher rate of biochemical recurrence of the disease. Importantly, gene expression profiling of these tumours, complemented with cellular assays on prostate cancer cell lines, unveiled that tumours with low levels of ZBTB38 expression might be targeted by doxorubicin, a compound generating reactive oxygen species. Our study shows that ZBTB38 is involved in prostate cancer pathogenesis and may represent a useful marker to identify high risk and highly rearranged localised prostate cancer susceptible to doxorubicin

Assessing the consequences of environmental exposures on the expression of the human receptor and proteases involved in SARS-CoV-2 cell-entry

International audienceThe role of environmental condition on the infection by the novel pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 virus remains uncertain. In here, exploiting a large panel of publicly available genome-wide data, we investigated whether the human receptor ACE2 and human proteases TMPRSS2, FURIN and CATHEPSINs (B, L and V), which are involved in SARS-CoV-2 cell entry, are transcriptionally regulated by environmental cues. We report that more than 50 chemicals modulate the expression of ACE2 or human proteases important for SARS-CoV-2 cell entry. We further demonstrate that transcription factor AhR, which is commonly activated by pollutants, binds to the promoter of TMPRSS2 and enhancers and/or promoters of Cathepsin B, L and V encoding genes. Our exploratory study documents an influence of environmental exposures on the expression of genes involved in SARS-CoV-2 cell entry. These results could be conceptually and medically relevant to our understanding of the COVID-19 disease, and should be further explored in laboratory and epidemiologic studies

The chromatin remodelling protein LSH/HELLS regulates the amount and distribution of DNA hydroxymethylation in the genome

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Depletion of ZBTB38 potentiates the effects of DNA demethylating agents in cancer cells via CDKN1C mRNA up-regulation

Abstract DNA methyltransferase inhibitor (DNMTi) treatments have been used for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and have shown promising beneficial effects in some other types of cancers. Here, we demonstrate that the transcriptional repressor ZBTB38 is a critical regulator of the cellular response to DNMTi. Treatments with 5-azacytidine, or its derivatives decitabine and zebularine, lead to down-regulation of ZBTB38 protein expression in cancer cells, in parallel with cellular damage. The depletion of ZBTB38 by RNA interference enhances the toxicity of DNMTi in cell lines from leukemia and from various solid tumor types. Further we observed that inactivation of ZBTB38 causes the up-regulation of CDKN1C mRNA, a previously described indirect target of DNMTi. We show that CDKN1C is a key actor of DNMTi toxicity in cells lacking ZBTB38. Finally, in patients with MDS a high level of CDKN1C mRNA expression before treatment correlates with a better clinical response to a drug regimen combining 5-azacytidine and histone deacetylase inhibitors. Collectively, our results suggest that the ZBTB38 protein is a target of DNMTi and that its depletion potentiates the toxicity of DNMT inhibitors in cancer cells, providing new opportunities to enhance the response to DNMT inhibitor therapies in patients with MDS and other cancers

USP9X deubiquitinase couples the pluripotency network and cell metabolism to regulate ESC differentiation potential

International audienceABSTRACT Embryonic stem cells (ESC) have the unique ability to differentiate into all three germ cell layers. ESC transition through different states of pluripotency in response to growth factor signals and environmental cues before becoming terminally differentiated. Here, we demonstrated, by a multi-omic strategy, that the deubiquitinase USP9X regulates the developmental potential of ESC, and their transition from a naive to a more developmentally advance, or primed, state of pluripotency. We show that USP9X facilitates developmental gene expression and induces modifications of the mitochondrial bioenergetics, including decreased routing of pyruvate towards its oxidation and reduced respiration. In addition, USP9X binds to the pluripotency factor ESRRB, regulates its abundance and the transcriptional levels of a subset of its target genes. Finally, under permissive culture conditions, depletion of Usp9X accelerates cell differentiation in all cell lineages. We thus identified a new regulator of naive pluripotency and show that USP9X couples ESRRB pluripotency transcriptional network and cellular metabolism, both of which are important for ESC fate and pluripotency

Histone Variant H2A.L.2 Guides Transition Protein-Dependent Protamine Assembly in Male Germ Cells

International audienceHistone replacement by transition proteins (TPs) and protamines (Prms) constitutes an essential step for the successful production of functional male gametes, yet nothing is known on the underlying functional interplay between histones, TPs, and Prms. Here, by studying spermatogenesis in the absence of a spermatid-specific histone variant, H2A.L.2, we discover a fundamental mechanism involved in the transformation of nucleosomes into nucleoprotamines. H2A.L.2 is synthesized at the same time as TPs and enables their loading onto the nucleosomes. TPs do not displace histones but rather drive the recruitment and processing of Prms, which are themselves responsible for histone eviction. Altogether, the incorporation of H2A.L.2 initiates and orchestrates a series of successive transitional states that ultimately shift to the fully compacted genome of the mature spermatozoa. Hence, the current view of histone-to-nucleoprotamine transition should be revisited and include an additional step with H2A.L.2 assembly prior to the action of TPs and Prms