scholarly journals Specification and epigenetic resetting of the pig germline exhibit conservation with the human lineage

Author(s):  
Qifan Zhu ◽  
Fei Sang ◽  
Sarah Withey ◽  
Walfred Tang ◽  
Sabine Dietmann ◽  
...  

SummaryInvestigations on the human germline and programming are challenging due to limited access to embryonic material. However, the pig as a model may provide insight on transcriptional network and epigenetic reprogramming applicable to both species. Here we show that during the pre- and early migratory stages pig primordial germ cells (PGCs) initiate large-scale epigenetic reprogramming, including DNA demethylation involving TET-mediated hydroxylation and potentially base excision repair (BER). There is also macroH2A1 depletion and increased H3K27me3, as well as X chromosome reactivation (XCR) in females. Concomitantly, there is dampening of glycolytic metabolism genes and re-expression of some pluripotency genes like those in preimplantation embryos. We identified evolutionarily young transposable elements and gene coding regions resistant to DNA demethylation in acutely hypomethylated gonadal PGCs, with potential for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Detailed insights into the pig germline will likely contribute significantly to advances in human germline biology, including in vitro gametogenesis.

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1609) ◽  
pp. 20110330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Seisenberger ◽  
Julian R. Peat ◽  
Timothy A. Hore ◽  
Fátima Santos ◽  
Wendy Dean ◽  
...  

In mammalian development, epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation patterns, play a crucial role in defining cell fate but also represent epigenetic barriers that restrict developmental potential. At two points in the life cycle, DNA methylation marks are reprogrammed on a global scale, concomitant with restoration of developmental potency. DNA methylation patterns are subsequently re-established with the commitment towards a distinct cell fate. This reprogramming of DNA methylation takes place firstly on fertilization in the zygote, and secondly in primordial germ cells (PGCs), which are the direct progenitors of sperm or oocyte. In each reprogramming window, a unique set of mechanisms regulates DNA methylation erasure and re-establishment. Recent advances have uncovered roles for the TET3 hydroxylase and passive demethylation, together with base excision repair (BER) and the elongator complex, in methylation erasure from the zygote. Deamination by AID, BER and passive demethylation have been implicated in reprogramming in PGCs, but the process in its entirety is still poorly understood. In this review, we discuss the dynamics of DNA methylation reprogramming in PGCs and the zygote, the mechanisms involved and the biological significance of these events. Advances in our understanding of such natural epigenetic reprogramming are beginning to aid enhancement of experimental reprogramming in which the role of potential mechanisms can be investigated in vitro . Conversely, insights into in vitro reprogramming techniques may aid our understanding of epigenetic reprogramming in the germline and supply important clues in reprogramming for therapies in regenerative medicine.


2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1575) ◽  
pp. 2266-2273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Hajkova

Epigenetic reprogramming in the germline provides a developmental model to study the erasure of epigenetic memory as it occurs naturally in vivo in the course of normal embryonic development. Our data show that germline reprogramming comprises both active DNA demethylation and extensive chromatin remodelling that are mechanistically linked through the activation of the base excision DNA repair pathway involved in the DNA demethylation process. The observed molecular hallmarks of the germline reprogramming exhibit intriguing similarities to other dedifferentiation or regeneration systems, pointing towards the existence of unifying molecular pathways underlying cell fate reversal. Elucidation of molecular processes involved in the resetting of epigenetic information in vivo will thus add to our ability to manipulate cell fate and to restore pluripotency in in vitro settings.


1999 ◽  
pp. 301-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Frosina ◽  
Enrico Cappelli ◽  
Paola Fortini ◽  
Eugenia Dogliotti

2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 893
Author(s):  
María José Peña-Gómez ◽  
Marina Suárez-Pizarro ◽  
Iván V. Rosado

Whilst avoidance of chemical modifications of DNA bases is essential to maintain genome stability, during evolution eukaryotic cells have evolved a chemically reversible modification of the cytosine base. These dynamic methylation and demethylation reactions on carbon-5 of cytosine regulate several cellular and developmental processes such as embryonic stem cell pluripotency, cell identity, differentiation or tumourgenesis. Whereas these physiological processes are well characterized, very little is known about the toxicity of these cytosine analogues when they incorporate during replication. Here, we report a role of the base excision repair factor XRCC1 in protecting replication fork upon incorporation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2′-deoxycytosine (5hmC) and its deamination product 5-hydroxymethyl-2′-deoxyuridine (5hmU) during DNA synthesis. In the absence of XRCC1, 5hmC exposure leads to increased genomic instability, replication fork impairment and cell lethality. Moreover, the 5hmC deamination product 5hmU recapitulated the genomic instability phenotypes observed by 5hmC exposure, suggesting that 5hmU accounts for the observed by 5hmC exposure. Remarkably, 5hmC-dependent genomic instability and replication fork impairment seen in Xrcc1−/− cells were exacerbated by the trapping of Parp1 on chromatin, indicating that XRCC1 maintains replication fork stability during processing of 5hmC and 5hmU by the base excision repair pathway. Our findings uncover natural epigenetic DNA bases 5hmC and 5hmU as genotoxic nucleosides that threaten replication dynamics and genome integrity in the absence of XRCC1.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almaz Nigatu Tesfahun ◽  
Marina Alexeeva ◽  
Miglė Tomkuvienė ◽  
Aysha Arshad ◽  
Prashanna Guragain ◽  
...  

DNA polymerase III mis-insertion may, where not corrected by its 3′→ 5′ exonuclease or the mismatch repair (MMR) function, result in all possible non-cognate base pairs in DNA generating base substitutions. The most thermodynamically unstable base pair, the cytosine (C)⋅C mismatch, destabilizes adjacent base pairs, is resistant to correction by MMR in Escherichia coli, and its repair mechanism remains elusive. We present here in vitro evidence that C⋅C mismatch can be processed by base excision repair initiated by the E. coli formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (Fpg) protein. The kcat for C⋅C is, however, 2.5 to 10 times lower than for its primary substrate 8-oxoguanine (oxo8G)⋅C, but approaches those for 5,6-dihydrothymine (dHT)⋅C and thymine glycol (Tg)⋅C. The KM values are all in the same range, which indicates efficient recognition of C⋅C mismatches in DNA. Fpg activity was also exhibited for the thymine (T)⋅T mismatch and for N4- and/or 5-methylated C opposite C or T, Fpg activity being enabled on a broad spectrum of DNA lesions and mismatches by the flexibility of the active site loop. We hypothesize that Fpg plays a role in resolving C⋅C in particular, but also other pyrimidine⋅pyrimidine mismatches, which increases survival at the cost of some mutagenesis.


2011 ◽  
Vol 286 (41) ◽  
pp. 35334-35338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanu Maiti ◽  
Alexander C. Drohat

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) excises T from G·T mispairs and is thought to initiate base excision repair (BER) of deaminated 5-methylcytosine (mC). Recent studies show that TDG, including its glycosylase activity, is essential for active DNA demethylation and embryonic development. These and other findings suggest that active demethylation could involve mC deamination by a deaminase, giving a G·T mispair followed by TDG-initiated BER. An alternative proposal is that demethylation could involve iterative oxidation of mC to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (hmC) and then to 5-formylcytosine (fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (caC), mediated by a Tet (ten eleven translocation) enzyme, with conversion of caC to C by a putative decarboxylase. Our previous studies suggest that TDG could excise fC and caC from DNA, which could provide another potential demethylation mechanism. We show here that TDG rapidly removes fC, with higher activity than for G·T mispairs, and has substantial caC excision activity, yet it cannot remove hmC. TDG excision of fC and caC, oxidation products of mC, is consistent with its strong specificity for excising bases from a CpG context. Our findings reveal a remarkable new aspect of specificity for TDG, inform its catalytic mechanism, and suggest that TDG could protect against fC-induced mutagenesis. The results also suggest a new potential mechanism for active DNA demethylation, involving TDG excision of Tet-produced fC (or caC) and subsequent BER. Such a mechanism obviates the need for a decarboxylase and is consistent with findings that TDG glycosylase activity is essential for active demethylation and embryonic development, as are mechanisms involving TDG excision of deaminated mC or hmC.


2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichi Kiyonari ◽  
Saki Tahara ◽  
Maiko Uchimura ◽  
Tsuyoshi Shirai ◽  
Sonoko Ishino ◽  
...  

We have been studying the functions of PCNA (proliferating-cell nuclear antigen) for the assembly and reassembly of the replisome during replication fork progression. We have identified the functional interactions between PCNA and several proteins involved in DNA replication and repair from Pyrococcus furiosus. We recently reported that the activity of UDG (uracil–DNA glycosylase) in P. furiosus (PfuUDG) is stimulated by PCNA (PfuPCNA) in vitro, and identified an atypical PCNA-binding site, AKTLF, in the PfuUDG protein. To understand further the function of the complex in the BER (base excision repair) process, we investigated the AP (apurinic/apyrimidinic) endonuclease, which can process the BER pathway after uracil removal by UDG. Interestingly, one candidate ORF (open reading frame) for the AP endonuclease was found in the operon containing the gene encoding UDG in the P. furiosus genome. However, this ORF did not exhibit any activity. Instead, we identified the AP endonuclease activity from the other candidate gene products, and designated the protein as PfuAP. We discovered a physical interaction between PfuAP and PfuPCNA, suggesting the formation of a BER complex in one of the repair systems in P. furiosus.


2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (18) ◽  
pp. 8145-8153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Huamani ◽  
C. Alex McMahan ◽  
Damon C. Herbert ◽  
Robert Reddick ◽  
John R. McCarrey ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Germ line DNA directs the development of the next generation and, as such, is profoundly different from somatic cell DNA. Spermatogenic cells obtained from young adult lacI transgenic mice display a lower spontaneous mutant frequency and greater in vitro base excision repair activity than somatic cells and tissues obtained from the same mice. However, spermatogenic cells from old lacI mice display a 10-fold higher mutant frequency. This increased spontaneous mutant frequency occurs coincidentally with decreased in vitro base excision repair activity for germ cell and testicular extracts that in turn corresponds to a decreased abundance of AP endonuclease. To directly test whether a genetic diminution of AP endonuclease results in increased spontaneous mutant frequencies in spermatogenic cell types, AP endonuclease heterozygous (Apex +/−) knockout mice were crossed with lacI transgenic mice. Spontaneous mutant frequencies were significantly elevated (approximately twofold) for liver and spleen obtained from 3-month-old Apex +/− lacI + mice compared to frequencies from Apex +/+ lacI + littermates and were additionally elevated for somatic tissues from 9-month-old mice. Spermatogenic cells from 9-month-old Apex +/− lacI + mice were significantly elevated twofold compared to levels for 9-month-old Apex +/+ lacI + control mice. These data indicate that diminution of AP endonuclease has a significant effect on spontaneous mutagenesis in somatic and germ line cells.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 3708-3721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melike Çağlayan

Abstract DNA ligase I and DNA ligase III/XRCC1 complex catalyze the ultimate ligation step following DNA polymerase (pol) β nucleotide insertion during base excision repair (BER). Pol β Asn279 and Arg283 are the critical active site residues for the differentiation of an incoming nucleotide and a template base and the N-terminal domain of DNA ligase I mediates its interaction with pol β. Here, we show inefficient ligation of pol β insertion products with mismatched or damaged nucleotides, with the exception of a Watson–Crick-like dGTP insertion opposite T, using BER DNA ligases in vitro. Moreover, pol β N279A and R283A mutants deter the ligation of the promutagenic repair intermediates and the presence of N-terminal domain of DNA ligase I in a coupled reaction governs the channeling of the pol β insertion products. Our results demonstrate that the BER DNA ligases are compromised by subtle changes in all 12 possible noncanonical base pairs at the 3′-end of the nicked repair intermediate. These findings contribute to understanding of how the identity of the mismatch affects the substrate channeling of the repair pathway and the mechanism underlying the coordination between pol β and DNA ligase at the final ligation step to maintain the BER efficiency.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document