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Rare event of histone demethylation can initiate singular gene expression of olfactory receptors.

ABSTRACT: Mammals sense odors through the gene family of olfactory receptors (ORs). Despite the enormous number of OR genes (?1,400 in mouse), each olfactory sensory neuron expresses one, and only one, of them. In neurobiology, it remains a long-standing mystery how this singularity can be achieved despite intrinsic stochasticity of gene expression. Recent experiments showed an epigenetic mechanism for maintaining singular OR expression: Once any ORs are activated, their expression inhibits further OR activation by down-regulating a histone demethylase Lsd1 (also known as Aof2 or Kdm1a), an enzyme required for the removal of the repressive histone marker H3K9me3 on OR genes. However, it remains unclear at a quantitative level how singularity can be initiated in the first place. In particular, does a simple activation/feedback scheme suffice to generate singularity? Here we show theoretically that rare events of histone demethylation can indeed produce robust singularity by separating two timescales: slow OR activation by stepwise H3K9me3 demethylation, and fast feedback to turn off Lsd1. Given a typical 1-h response of transcriptional feedback, to achieve the observed extent of singularity (only 2% of neurons express more than one ORs), we predict that OR activation must be as slow as 5–10 d-a timescale compatible with experiments. Our model further suggests H3K9me3-to-H3K9me2 demethylation as an additional rate-limiting step responsible for OR singularity. Our conclusions may be generally applicable to other systems where monoallelic expression is desired, and provide guidelines for the design of a synthetic system of singular expression.

SUBMITTER: Tan L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3876194 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rare event of histone demethylation can initiate singular gene expression of olfactory receptors.

Tan Longzhi L Zong Chenghang C Xie X Sunney XS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20131201 52

Mammals sense odors through the gene family of olfactory receptors (ORs). Despite the enormous number of OR genes (∼1,400 in mouse), each olfactory sensory neuron expresses one, and only one, of them. In neurobiology, it remains a long-standing mystery how this singularity can be achieved despite intrinsic stochasticity of gene expression. Recent experiments showed an epigenetic mechanism for maintaining singular OR expression: Once any ORs are activated, their expression inhibits further OR act ...[more]

PMID: 24344257

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Project description:Olfactory ensheathing cells are one of the few central nervous system regenerative cells discovered so far. It is characterized by its lifelong nerve regeneration function, and it can also release a variety of neurotrophic factors and neural adhesion molecules. It is considered to be the glial cell with the strongest myelination ability. Olfactory ensheathing cells and Schwann cells have phenotypes in common, they can promote axon regeneration(R. Doucette, 1995). Olfactory ensheathing cells have the characteristics of Schwann cells and astrocytes, but the overall performance tends to be the former, which has two unique characteristics. First, it exists not only in the peripheral nerves (Schwann cells), but also in the central nervous system (astroglia); second, the olfactory mucosa has the ability to regenerate life-long, including human olfactory ensheathing cells(J. C. Bartolomei and C. A. Greer, 2000). Regeneration is a process in which olfactory ensheathing cells participate in efficient regulation, although the specific mechanism is not yet clear. Olfactory ensheathing cells are different from astrocytes and Schwann cells, but at the same time have the characteristics of these two cells(S. C. Barnett, 2004), like Schwann cells help axon growth, but more than Schwann cells It can make axons grow long distances, that is, it has stronger migration(A. Ramon-Cueto et al., 1998); there are also astrocytes that have a nutritional effect on the survival of neurons and the growth of axons, but olfactory ensheathing cells can also wrap neurons forms myelin sheath to support the growth of nerve processes(R. Devon and R. Doucette, 1992; J. Gu et al., 2019). There are two characteristics that make olfactory ensheathing cells the best choice for the treatment of neurological diseases(S. C. Chiu et al., 2009; J. Kim et al., 2018; M. Abdel-Rahman et al., 2018). Olfactory ensheathing cells are gradually used to treat spinal cord injuries and have shown amazing effects(J. C. Bartolomei and C. A. Greer, 2000; K. J. Liu et al., 2010; R. Yao et al., 2018). Olfactory ensheathing cells that have been used in research are usually derived from the olfactory bulb(E. H. Franssen et al., 2007), but it is easier to obtain olfactory ensheathing cells from the olfactory mucosa in clinical practice(M. Ryszard et al., 2006), so the difference between the olfactory ensheathing cells from the olfactory bulb and the olfactory mucosa There are more and more studies(B. M. U. et al., 2007), and previous studies have shown that they not only have many similar functions, but also have many differences(M. W. Richter et al., 2005; L. Wang et al., 2014; K. E. Smith et al., 2020). Because olfactory ensheathing cells derived from the olfactory bulb are not easy to obtain, olfactory ensheathing cells derived from the olfactory mucosa have become the focus of attention. Although we know that olfactory ensheathing cells from two sources have nerve repair functions, it is not clear why the two different sources of olfactory ensheathing cells have different therapeutic effects. Nicolas G. once studied that the genetic difference between the two cells and found that there are many genes related to wound repair and nerve regeneration(G. Nicolas et al., 2010). We have reason to guess that olfactory ensheathing cells from these two sources will also have a large difference in protein level. Our research group wants to use the current mature transcriptome and proteomic sequencing technologies to explore the difference between olfactory ensheathing cells from the olfactory bulb and olfactory mucosa, and explain why the two sources of olfactory ensheathing cells shows different therapeutic effects, hope to provide a new theoretical basis for future clinical treatment.

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Rare event of histone demethylation can initiate singular gene expression of olfactory receptors.

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Rare event of histone demethylation can initiate singular gene expression of olfactory receptors.

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