scholarly journals Mammalian non-CG methylations are conserved and cell-type specific and may have been involved in the evolution of transposon elements

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weilong Guo ◽  
Michael Q. Zhang ◽  
Hong Wu

Abstract Although non-CG methylations are abundant in several mammalian cell types, their biological significance is sparsely characterized. We gathered 51 human and mouse DNA methylomes from brain neurons, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, primordial germ cells and oocytes. We utilized an unbiased sub-motif prediction method and reported CW as the representative non-CG methylation context, which is distinct from CC methylation in terms of sequence context and genomic distribution. A two-dimensional comparison of non-CG methylations across cell types and species was performed. Unambiguous studies of sequence preferences and genomic region enrichment showed that CW methylation is cell-type specific and is also conserved between humans and mice. In brain neurons, it was found that active long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) lacked CW methylations but not CG methylations. Coincidentally, both human Alu and mouse B1 elements preferred high CW methylations at specific loci during their respective evolutionary development. Last, the strand-specific distributions of CW methylations in introns and long interspersed nuclear elements are also cell-type specific and conserved. In summary, our results illustrate that CW methylations are highly conserved among species, are dynamically regulated in each cell type, and are potentially involved in the evolution of transposon elements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee Jung Choi ◽  
So Dam Jin ◽  
Deivendran Rengaraj ◽  
Jin Hwa Kim ◽  
Bertrand Pain ◽  
...  

Abstract Background NANOG is a core transcription factor (TF) in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and primordial germ cells (PGCs). Regulation of the NANOG gene by TFs, epigenetic factors, and autoregulatory factors is well characterized in ESCs, and transcriptional regulation of NANOG is well established in these cells. Although NANOG plays a key role in germ cells, the molecular mechanism underlying its transcriptional regulation in PGCs has not been studied. Therefore, we investigated the mechanism that regulates transcription of the chicken NANOG (cNANOG) gene in PGCs and ESCs. Results We first identified the transcription start site of cNANOG by 5′-rapid amplification of cDNA ends PCR analysis. Then, we measured the promoter activity of various 5′ flanking regions of cNANOG in chicken PGCs and ESCs using the luciferase reporter assay. cNANOG expression required transcriptional regulatory elements, which were positively regulated by POU5F3 (OCT4) and SOX2 and negatively regulated by TP53 in PGCs. The proximal region of the cNANOG promoter contains a positive transcriptional regulatory element (CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (CEBP)-binding site) in ESCs. Furthermore, small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown demonstrated that POU5F3, SOX2, and CEBP played a role in cell type-specific transcription of cNANOG. Conclusions We show for the first time that different trans-regulatory elements control transcription of cNANOG in a cell type-specific manner. This finding might help to elucidate the mechanism that regulates cNANOG expression in PGCs and ESCs.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee Jung Choi ◽  
So Dam Jin ◽  
Deivendran Rengaraj ◽  
Jin Hwa Kim ◽  
Bertrand Pain ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundNANOG is a core transcription factor (TF) in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and primordial germ cells (PGCs). Regulation of the NANOG gene by TFs, epigenetic factors, and autoregulatory factors is well characterized in ESCs, and transcriptional regulation of NANOG is well established in these cells. Although NANOG plays a key role in germ cells, the molecular mechanism underlying its transcriptional regulation in PGCs has not been studied. Therefore, we investigated the mechanism that regulates transcription of the chicken NANOG (cNANOG) gene in PGCs and ESCs. ResultsWe first identified the transcription start site of cNANOG by 5’-rapid amplification of cDNA ends PCR analysis. Then, we measured the promoter activity of various 5’ flanking regions of cNANOG in chicken PGCs and ESCs using the luciferase reporter assay. cNANOG expression required transcriptional cis-regulatory elements, which were positively regulated by POU5F3 (OCT4) and SOX2 and negatively regulated by TP53 in PGCs. The proximal region of the cNANOG promoter contains a positive cis-regulatory element (CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (CEBP)-binding site) in ESCs. Furthermore, small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown demonstrated that POU5F3, SOX2, and CEBP played a role in cell type-specific transcription of cNANOG.ConclusionsWe show for the first time that different cis-regulatory elements control transcription of cNANOG in a cell type-specific manner. This finding might help to elucidate the mechanism that regulates cNANOG expression in PGCs and ESCs.



Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3365
Author(s):  
Gabriela Maria Guerra ◽  
Doreen May ◽  
Torsten Kroll ◽  
Philipp Koch ◽  
Marco Groth ◽  
...  

SMG6 is an endonuclease, which cleaves mRNAs during nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), thereby regulating gene expression and controling mRNA quality. SMG6 has been shown as a differentiation license factor of totipotent embryonic stem cells. To investigate whether it controls the differentiation of lineage-specific pluripotent progenitor cells, we inactivated Smg6 in murine embryonic neural stem cells. Nestin-Cre-mediated deletion of Smg6 in mouse neuroprogenitor cells (NPCs) caused perinatal lethality. Mutant mice brains showed normal structure at E14.5 but great reduction of the cortical NPCs and late-born cortical neurons during later stages of neurogenesis (i.e., E18.5). Smg6 inactivation led to dramatic cell death in ganglionic eminence (GE) and a reduction of interneurons at E14.5. Interestingly, neurosphere assays showed self-renewal defects specifically in interneuron progenitors but not in cortical NPCs. RT-qPCR analysis revealed that the interneuron differentiation regulators Dlx1 and Dlx2 were reduced after Smg6 deletion. Intriguingly, when Smg6 was deleted specifically in cortical and hippocampal progenitors, the mutant mice were viable and showed normal size and architecture of the cortex at E18.5. Thus, SMG6 regulates cell fate in a cell type-specific manner and is more important for neuroprogenitors originating from the GE than for progenitors from the cortex.



Reproduction ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 147 (5) ◽  
pp. D1-D12 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Michael Roberts ◽  
Kyle M Loh ◽  
Mitsuyoshi Amita ◽  
Andreia S Bernardo ◽  
Katsuyuki Adachi ◽  
...  

It is imperative to unveil the full range of differentiated cell types into which human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can develop. The need is twofold: it will delimit the therapeutic utility of these stem cells and is necessary to place their position accurately in the developmental hierarchy of lineage potential. Accumulated evidence suggested that hPSC could develop in vitro into an extraembryonic lineage (trophoblast (TB)) that is typically inaccessible to pluripotent embryonic cells during embryogenesis. However, whether these differentiated cells are truly authentic TB has been challenged. In this debate, we present a case for and a case against TB differentiation from hPSCs. By analogy to other differentiation systems, our debate is broadly applicable, as it articulates higher and more challenging standards for judging whether a given cell type has been genuinely produced from hPSC differentiation.



DNA Repair ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 1659-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
H DEWAARD ◽  
E SONNEVELD ◽  
J DEWIT ◽  
R LANGE ◽  
J HOEIJMAKERS ◽  
...  


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117793222093806
Author(s):  
Venkat S. Malladi ◽  
Anusha Nagari ◽  
Hector L Franco ◽  
W Lee Kraus

The differentiation of embryonic stem cells into various lineages is highly dependent on the chromatin state of the genome and patterns of gene expression. To identify lineage-specific enhancers driving the differentiation of progenitors into pancreatic cells, we used a previously described computational framework called Total Functional Score of Enhancer Elements (TFSEE), which integrates multiple genomic assays that probe both transcriptional and epigenomic states. First, we evaluated and compared TFSEE as an enhancer-calling algorithm with enhancers called using GRO-seq-defined enhancer transcripts (method 1) versus enhancers called using histone modification ChIP-seq data (method 2). Second, we used TFSEE to define the enhancer landscape and identify transcription factors (TFs) that maintain the multipotency of a subpopulation of endodermal stem cells during differentiation into pancreatic lineages. Collectively, our results demonstrate that TFSEE is a robust enhancer-calling algorithm that can be used to perform multilayer genomic data integration to uncover cell type-specific TFs that control lineage-specific enhancers.



2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anyou Wang ◽  
Yan Zhong ◽  
Yanhua Wang ◽  
Qianchuan He

Discriminating cell types is a daily request for stem cell biologists. However, there is not a user-friendly system available to date for public users to discriminate the common cell types, embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and somatic cells (SCs). Here, we develop WCTDS, a web-server of cell type discrimination system, to discriminate the three cell types and their subtypes like fetal versus adult SCs. WCTDS is developed as a top layer application of our recent publication regarding cell type discriminations, which employs DNA-methylation as biomarkers and machine learning models to discriminate cell types. Implemented by Django, Python, R, and Linux shell programming, run under Linux-Apache web server, and communicated through MySQL, WCTDS provides a friendly framework to efficiently receive the user input and to run mathematical models for analyzing data and then to present results to users. This framework is flexible and easy to be expended for other applications. Therefore, WCTDS works as a user-friendly framework to discriminate cell types and subtypes and it can also be expended to detect other cell types like cancer cells.



2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Sung Soo Kim ◽  
Hee-Jang Pyeon ◽  
Yoon Kyung Bae ◽  
Hyun Nam ◽  
Chung Kwon Kim ◽  
...  

Adult human multipotent neural cells (ahMNCs) are unique cells derived from adult human temporal lobes. They show multipotent differentiation potentials into neurons and astrocytes. In addition, they possess proangiogenic capacities. The objective of this study was to characterize ahMNCs in terms of expression of cell type-specific markers, in vitro differentiation potentials, and paracrine factors compared with several other cell types including fetal neural stem cells (fNSCs) to provide detailed molecular and functional features of ahMNCs. Interestingly, the expression of cell type-specific markers of ahMNCs could not be differentiated from those of pericytes, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), or fNSCs. In contrast, differentiation potentials of ahMNCs and fNSCs into neural cells were higher than those of other cell types. Compared with MSCs, ahMNCs showed lower differentiation capacities into osteogenic and adipogenic cells. Moreover, ahMNCs uniquely expressed higher levels of MCP-1 and GRO family paracrine factors than fNSCs and MSCs. These high levels of MCP-1 and GRO family mediated in vivo proangiogenic effects of ahMNCs. These results indicate that ahMNCs have their own distinct characteristics that could distinguish ahMNCs from other cell types. Characteristics of ahMNCs could be utilized further in the preclinical and clinical development of ahMNCs for regenerative medicine. They could also be used as experimental references for other cell types including fNSCs.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
yuanyuan wang ◽  
mingyan lin

The pathology underlying schizophrenia (SCZ) involves cell type-specific and developmental stage-specific dysregulation of multiple gene regulatory networks dominated by some key transcription factors, such as SCZ risk gene transcription factor 4 (TCF4). Previous studies on the regulatory mechanism of TCF4 use SY5Y as the cellular model, which could not reflect its cell type-specific role in the real world. Using the transcriptional profile of whole brain during development stages and single-cell transcriptome data in the developing human prefrontal cortex, we found that TCF4 was preferentially expressed in the interneuron. Chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with sequencing (ChIP-Seq) in human embryonic stem cells (hESC)-derived interneurons revealed that TCF4 primarily activate transcription of genes associated with cortex development and telencephalon regionalization in a long-range manner. As expected, the downstream targets of TCF4 were distinct in inhibitory neurons and neural stem cells during early neurodevelopment, justifying the importance of our study. Deeper investigation further revealed that TCF4 regulate genes related to neurotransmission distally in interneuron in a c-FOS dependent manner, while TCF4 and TCF3 synergistically regulate genes associated with cell proliferation associated proximally in neural stem cells. Our findings suggested that defects in development of interneuron, for instance as a result of TCF4 abnormality, may break excitation and inhibition balance and contribute significantly to the risk of SCZ.



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