Biology subjects

Baribault, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Baribault, C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Promoter-adjacent DNA hypermethylation can downmodulate gene expression: TBX15 in the muscle lineage

TBX15, which encodes a differentiation-related transcription factor, displays promoter-adjacent DNA hypermethylation in myoblasts and skeletal muscle (psoas) that is absent from non-expressing cells in other lineages. By whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) and enzymatic methyl-seq (EM-seq), these hypermethylated regions were found to border both sides of a constitutively unmethylated promoter. To understand the functionality of this DNA hypermethylation, we cloned the differentially methylated sequences (DMRs) in CpG-free reporter vectors and tested them for promoter or enhancer activity upon transient transfection. These cloned regions exhibited strong promoter activity and, when placed upstream of a weak promoter, strong enhancer activity specifically in myoblast host cells. In vitro CpG methylation targeted to the DMR sequences in the plasmids resulted in 86 - 100% loss of promoter or enhancer activity, depending on the insert sequence. These results as well as chromatin epigenetic and transcription profiles for this gene in various cell types support the hypothesis that DNA hypermethylation immediately upstream and downstream of the unmethylated promoter region suppresses enhancer/extended promoter activity, thereby downmodulating, but not silencing, expression in myoblasts and certain kinds of skeletal muscle. This promoter-border hypermethylation is not found in cell types with a silent TBX15 gene probably because they have no transcription to modulate. TBX18, TBX2, TBX3 and TBX1 display TBX15-like hypermethylated DMRs at their promoter borders and preferential expression in myoblasts. Therefore, promoter-adjacent DNA hypermethylation for downmodulating transcription to prevent overexpression may be used more frequently for transcription regulation than currently appreciated.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Epigenetics and expression of key genes associated with cardiac fibrosis: NLRP3, MMP2, MMP9, CCN2/CTGF, and AGT

Excessive inflammatory signaling and pathological remodeling of the extracellular matrix are important contributors to cardiac fibrosis and involve major changes in gene expression. We examined the relationships between tissue-specific expression and the epigenetics of five genes involved in these pathways, NLRP3, MMP2, MMP9, CCN2/CTGF, and AGT. The proteins encoded by these genes play major fibrosis-related roles in inflammasome formation, degradation of extracellular matrix proteins and remodeling of the extracellular matrix and vasculature, autocrine regulation of fibrosis, or cell signaling. Our analyses showed that the first four of these genes had super-enhancers (unusually strong enhancer clusters) that correlate with their very high expression in monocytes, neutrophils, fibroblasts, or venous cells. Expression of the gene encoding miR-223, a micro-RNA that plays an important role in downregulating NLRP3 protein levels, is also probably driven by the super-enhancer in which it is embedded. Enhancer chromatin for all these genes was inside as well as outside the gene body. While AGT, which encodes precursors of angiotensin II, lacked a super-enhancer, its tissue-specific expression profile correlates with the tissue-specific enhancer chromatin extending into its distant silent gene neighbor (CAPN9). Tissue-specific peaks of DNA hypomethylation, open chromatin (DNaseI hypersensitivity), and transcription factor binding were detected in subregions of these super-enhancers/enhancers that are likely to be the main drivers of expression of their associated gene. We found that CCN2/CTGF is co-expressed with its far-upstream neighbor LINC01013, a noncoding RNA gene, specifically in vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and chondrocytes. Evidence from chromatin looping profiling (Hi-C) suggests coregulation of these genes in HUVEC. Our findings indicate the importance of understanding the often-overlooked roles of enhancers and their hypomethylated, transcription factor-binding subregions in the regulation of expression of fibrosis-related genes in normal and fibrotic tissue.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Hypermethylation of human DNA: Fine-tuning transcription associated with development

Tissue-specific gene transcription can be affected by DNA methylation in ways that are difficult to discern from studies focused on genome-wide analyses of differentially methylated regions (DMRs). We studied 95 genes in detail using available epigenetic and transcription databases to detect and elucidate less obvious associations between development-linked hypermethylated DMRs in myoblasts (Mb) and cell-and tissue-specific expression. Many of these genes encode developmental transcription factors and display DNA hypermethylation also in skeletal muscle (SkM) and a few heterologous samples (e.g., aorta, mammary epithelial cells, or brain) among the 38 types of human cell cultures or tissues examined. Most of the DMRs overlapped transcription regulatory elements, including canonical, alternative, or cryptic promoters; enhancers; CTCF binding sites; and long-noncoding RNA (lncRNA) gene regions. Among the prominent relationships between DMRs and expression was promoter-region hypermethylation accompanying repression in Mb but not in many other repressed samples (26 genes). Another surprising relationship was down-modulated (but not silenced) expression in Mb associated with DNA hypermethylation at cryptic enhancers in Mb although such methylation was absent in both non-expressing samples and highly expressing samples (24 genes). The tissue-specificity of DNA hypermethylation can be explained for many of the genes by their roles in prenatal development or by the tissue-specific expression of neighboring genes. Besides elucidating developmental epigenetics, our study provides insights into the roles of abnormal DNA methylation in disease, e.g., cancer, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and congenital heart malformations.

genomics↗