Project description:BackgroundTo facilitate deciphering underlying transcriptional regulatory circuits in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, recent ChIP-seq data provided genome-wide binding locations of several key transcription factors (TFs); meanwhile, existing efforts profiled gene expression in ES cells and in their early differentiated state. It has been shown that the gene expression profiles are correlated with the binding of these TFs. However, it remains unclear whether other TFs, referred to as cofactors, participate the gene regulation by collaborating with the ChIP-seq TFs.ResultsBased on our analyses of the ES gene expression profiles and binding sites of potential cofactors in vicinity of the ChIP-seq TF binding locations, we identified a list of co-binding features that show significantly different characteristics between different gene expression patterns (activated or repressed gene expression in ES cells) at a false discovery rate of 10%. Gene classification with a subset of the identified features achieved up to 20% improvement over classification only based on the ChIP-seq TFs. More than 1/3 of reasoned regulatory roles of cofactor candidates involved in these features are supported by existing literatures. Finally, the predicted target genes of the majority candidates present expected expression change in another independent data set, which serves as a supplementary validation of these candidates.ConclusionsOur results revealed a list of combinatorial genomic features that are significantly associated with gene expression in ES cells, suggesting potential cofactors of the ChIP-seq TFs for gene regulation.
Project description:Mobilization of retrotransposons to new genomic locations is a significant driver of mammalian genome evolution, but these mutagenic events can also cause genetic disorders. In humans, retrotransposon mobilization is mediated primarily by proteins encoded by LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposons, which mobilize in pluripotent cells early in development. Here we show that TEX19.1, which is induced by developmentally programmed DNA hypomethylation, can directly interact with the L1-encoded protein L1-ORF1p, stimulate its polyubiquitylation and degradation, and restrict L1 mobilization. We also show that TEX19.1 likely acts, at least in part, through promoting the activity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase UBR2 towards L1-ORF1p. Moreover, loss of Tex19.1 increases L1-ORF1p levels and L1 mobilization in pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells, implying that Tex19.1 prevents de novo retrotransposition in the pluripotent phase of the germline cycle. These data show that post-translational regulation of L1 retrotransposons plays a key role in maintaining trans-generational genome stability in mammals.
Project description:Recent study has identified the cis-regulatory elements in the mouse genome as well as their genomic localizations. Recent discoveries have shown the enrichment of H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) binding as an active promoter and the presence of H3 lysine 4 monomethylation (H3K4me1) outside promoter regions as a mark for an enhancer. In this work, we further identified highly expressed genes by H3K4me3 mark or by both H3K4me3 and H3K4me1 marks in mouse liver using ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq. We found that in mice, the liver carries embryonic stem cell-related functions while the embryonic stem cell also carries liver-related functions. We also identified novel genes in RNA-Seq experiments for mouse liver and for mouse embryonic stem cells. These genes are not currently in the Ensemble gene database at NCBI.
