scholarly journals Dynamic Competition of Polycomb and Trithorax in Transcriptional Programming

2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitzi I. Kuroda ◽  
Hyuckjoon Kang ◽  
Sandip De ◽  
Judith A. Kassis

Predicting regulatory potential from primary DNA sequences or transcription factor binding patterns is not possible. However, the annotation of the genome by chromatin proteins, histone modifications, and differential compaction is largely sufficient to reveal the locations of genes and their differential activity states. The Polycomb Group (PcG) and Trithorax Group (TrxG) proteins are the central players in this cell type–specific chromatin organization. PcG function was originally viewed as being solely repressive and irreversible, as observed at the homeotic loci in flies and mammals. However, it is now clear that modular and reversible PcG function is essential at most developmental genes. Focusing mainly on recent advances, we review evidence for how PcG and TrxG patterns change dynamically during cell type transitions. The ability to implement cell type–specific transcriptional programming with exquisite fidelity is essential for normal development.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Halsall ◽  
Simon Andrews ◽  
Felix Krueger ◽  
Charlotte E. Rutledge ◽  
Gabriella Ficz ◽  
...  

AbstractChromatin configuration influences gene expression in eukaryotes at multiple levels, from individual nucleosomes to chromatin domains several Mb long. Post-translational modifications (PTM) of core histones seem to be involved in chromatin structural transitions, but how remains unclear. To explore this, we used ChIP-seq and two cell types, HeLa and lymphoblastoid (LCL), to define how changes in chromatin packaging through the cell cycle influence the distributions of three transcription-associated histone modifications, H3K9ac, H3K4me3 and H3K27me3. We show that chromosome regions (bands) of 10–50 Mb, detectable by immunofluorescence microscopy of metaphase (M) chromosomes, are also present in G1 and G2. They comprise 1–5 Mb sub-bands that differ between HeLa and LCL but remain consistent through the cell cycle. The same sub-bands are defined by H3K9ac and H3K4me3, while H3K27me3 spreads more widely. We found little change between cell cycle phases, whether compared by 5 Kb rolling windows or when analysis was restricted to functional elements such as transcription start sites and topologically associating domains. Only a small number of genes showed cell-cycle related changes: at genes encoding proteins involved in mitosis, H3K9 became highly acetylated in G2M, possibly because of ongoing transcription. In conclusion, modified histone isoforms H3K9ac, H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 exhibit a characteristic genomic distribution at resolutions of 1 Mb and below that differs between HeLa and lymphoblastoid cells but remains remarkably consistent through the cell cycle. We suggest that this cell-type-specific chromosomal bar-code is part of a homeostatic mechanism by which cells retain their characteristic gene expression patterns, and hence their identity, through multiple mitoses.


1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 552-562
Author(s):  
L Pani ◽  
X B Quian ◽  
D Clevidence ◽  
R H Costa

The transcription factor hepatocyte nuclear factor 3 (HNF-3) is involved in the coordinate expression of several liver genes. HNF-3 DNA binding activity is composed of three different liver proteins which recognize the same DNA site. The HNF-3 proteins (designated alpha, beta, and gamma) possess homology in the DNA binding domain and in several additional regions. To understand the cell-type-specific expression of HNF-3 beta, we have defined the regulatory sequences that elicit hepatoma-specific expression. Promoter activity requires -134 bp of HNF-3 beta proximal sequences and binds four nuclear proteins, including two ubiquitous factors. One of these promoter sites interacts with a novel cell-specific factor, LF-H3 beta, whose binding activity correlates with the HNF-3 beta tissue expression pattern. Furthermore, there is a binding site for the HNF-3 protein within its own promoter, suggesting that an autoactivation mechanism is involved in the establishment of HNF-3 beta expression. We propose that both the LF-H3 beta and HNF-3 sites play an important role in the cell-type-specific expression of the HNF-3 beta transcription factor.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yupeng Wang ◽  
Rosario B. Jaime-Lara ◽  
Abhrarup Roy ◽  
Ying Sun ◽  
Xinyue Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractWe propose SeqEnhDL, a deep learning framework for classifying cell type-specific enhancers based on sequence features. DNA sequences of “strong enhancer” chromatin states in nine cell types from the ENCODE project were retrieved to build and test enhancer classifiers. For any DNA sequence, sequential k-mer (k=5, 7, 9 and 11) fold changes relative to randomly selected non-coding sequences were used as features for deep learning models. Three deep learning models were implemented, including multi-layer perceptron (MLP), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Network (RNN). All models in SeqEnhDL outperform state-of-the-art enhancer classifiers including gkm-SVM and DanQ, with regard to distinguishing cell type-specific enhancers from randomly selected non-coding sequences. Moreover, SeqEnhDL is able to directly discriminate enhancers from different cell types, which has not been achieved by other enhancer classifiers. Our analysis suggests that both enhancers and their tissue-specificity can be accurately identified according to their sequence features. SeqEnhDL is publicly available at https://github.com/wyp1125/SeqEnhDL.


1996 ◽  
Vol 271 (6) ◽  
pp. G1104-G1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Muraoka ◽  
M. Kaise ◽  
Y. J. Guo ◽  
J. Yamada ◽  
I. Song ◽  
...  

H(+)-K(+)-adenosinetriphosphatase (H(+)-K(+)-ATPase) is the principal enzyme responsible for the process of gastric acid secretion. This enzyme is expressed in a cell-type-specific manner in gastric parietal cells. To explore the mechanisms regulating its expression, we transfected differentiated canine parietal cells in primary culture with H(+)-K(+)-ATPase-luciferase reporter genes and assessed transcriptional activities. Deletional analysis of the 5'-flanking region of this gene demonstrated a remarkable increment in transcriptional activity associated with a segment between bases -54 to -45 (5' GCTCCGCCTC 3') relative to the transcriptional initiation site. Gel shift assays with competition and supershift analysis demonstrated that this segment is specifically bound by the transcription factor Sp1. A point mutation, eliminating Sp1 binding, diminished basal transcriptional activity by 80%, indicating that this Sp1 binding site is important for constitutive transcriptional activity. Although these studies indicate that Sp1 is required to maintain a high concentration of the H(+)-K(+)-ATPase gene in the parietal cell, its cell-type-specific expression must rely on other elements because Sp1 is a ubiquitously expressed transcription factor.


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