Project description:Epithelial (CD31-CD45-EpCAM+) lung cells were derived by FACS from ShhCre;Ezh2fl/fl and control ShhCre;Ezh2fl/+ mouse embryos at day E16.5 (2 biological replicates per genotype). Chromatin from each of the replicates was immunoprecipitated with H3K27me3 antibody (Millipore #07-449) and subjected to NGS library preparation using TruSeq Nano DNA Sample Preparation Kit (Illumina). Completed libraries from different samples were sequenced on HiSeq 2500 TruSeq with SBS Kit v3 - HS reagents (Illumina) as 100 bp single end reads at the Australian Genome Research Facility. ChIP-seq profiles of H3K27 tri-methylation from Ezh2 deficient and control lung epithelium (2 replicates per genotype).
Project description:Epithelial (CD31-CD45-EpCAM+) and stromal (CD31-CD45-EpCAM-) lung cells were derived by FACS from ShhCre;Ezh2fl/fl and control ShhCre;Ezh2fl/+ mouse embryos at day E16.5 (3 biological replicates per genotype-tissue combination). Total RNA extracted from the samples was subjected to NGS library preparation using TruSeq Stranded Total RNA with Ribo-Zero (Illumina). Completed libraries from different samples were sequenced on HiSeq 2000 TruSeq with SBS Kit v3 - HS reagents (Illumina) as 100 bp single end reads at the Australian Genome Research Facility. RNA-seq gene expression profiles from Ezh2 deficient and control lung epithelial and stromal cell populations at day E16.5 (3 replicates per genotype-tissue combination).
Project description:This goal of this study was to identify genes that are deregulated in the absence of EZH2 in early lymphocyte progenitors. Due to a requirement for EZH2 to repress Cdkn2a in early B and T cell development we generated Cdkn2a-/-Ezh2fl/fl Il7racre/+ mice. We examined gene expression by RNA-sequencing in sorted pro-B cells (B220+CD19+CD43+), DN3 cells (Lin- CD25+ CD117-), from Cdkn2a-/- Ezh2fl/fl Il7racre/+ and Cdkn2a-/- Il7racre/+ control mice. Reads were aligned to the mm10 reference genome by Tophat2.1.0. Reads were assigned to genes using the htseq-count tool from HTSeq v 0.6.1 and gene annotations from Ensembl release 78. Differential expression was calculated across 3 independent replicates by EdgeR. We found that pro-B and DN3 cells remain specified to their respective lineages despite loss of EZH2. In contrast, loss of EZH2 led to expression of alternate lineage determinants in pro-B but not DN3 cells indicating that EZH2 is required for lineage commitment in B, but not T lymphocyte progenitors.
Project description:Differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells into effector (Th1, Th2 and Th17) and induced regulatory (iTreg) T cells requires lineage-specifying transcription factors and epigenetic modifications that allow appropriate repression or activation of gene transcription. The epigenetic silencing of cytokine genes is associated with the repressive H3K27 trimethylation mark, mediated by Ezh2 or Ezh1 methyltransferase components of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). EZH2 over-expression and activating mutations are implicated in tumorigenesis and correlate with poor prognosis in several tumor types 35. This spurred the development of EZH2 inhibitors which, by inducing tumor cell growth arrest and cell death, show therapeutic promise in cancer. A role for Ezh2 in suppressing Th1 and Th2 cytokine production and survival has recently been reported. It is not entirely clear whether Ezh2-PRC2 plays a role in H3K27me3 in cytokine loci in naïve CD4+ T cells and whether H3K27me3 has a non-redundant role in T helper cell lineage differentiation and survival. Here, we investigate the effects of T cell-specific Ezh2 deletion to determine the role that Ezh2-PRC2 plays in regulating the fate of differentiating naïve CD4+ T cells. Loss of Ezh2 altered the expression of 1328 genes in Th0 and 1979 genes in iTreg cells. Gene expression changes were positively correlated in both cell types, indicating that Ezh2 targets similar genes in these cells. As expected, Ifng was one of the genes most increased in expression by following loss of Ezh2. In addition, expression of Tbx21 homolog Eomes, a transcription factor that regulates IFNG production, was also significantly increased. We then performed H3K27me3 ChIP-seq on Ezh2fl/fl and Ezh2fl/fl.CD4Cre Th0 cells. Consistent with cellular phenotype and RNA-seq data, we observed a loss of the H3K27me3 at Eomes, Il4 and Il10 loci . Very low levels of H3K27me3 marks were present at Ifng and Tbx21 loci in differentiated Ezh2fl/fl Th0 cells, suggesting that upon differentiation, upregulation or activation of transcription factors accounts for IFNG overproduction. A significant loss of H3K27me3 was observed >2kb upstream of Gata3 locus , however this did not result in increased transcription . Of the 22381 genes tested for changes in H3K27me3, 1360 showed a statistically significant decrease in Ezh2fl/fl.CD4Cre Th0 cells, compared to wildtype. Furthermore, 404 of these genes also showed a concomitant gain in expression in Ezh2fl/fl.CD4Cre Th0 cells, suggesting that these loci are likely direct Ezh2-PRC2 targets. There are 3 biological replicates each of Ezh2fl/fl.CD4Cre and Ezh2fl/fl in both Th0 and iTreg cells for the RNA-seq experiment. There are 2 biological replicates each of Ezh2fl/fl.CD4Cre and Ezh2fl/fl in Th0 cells for the ChIP-seq experiment.
Project description:The responses of macrophages to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) might determine the direction of clinical manifestations of sepsis, which is the immune response against severe infection. Meanwhile, the enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (Ezh2), a histone lysine methyltransferase of epigenetic regulation, might interfere with LPS response. With a single LPS stimulation, Ezh2 null(Ezh2flox/flox; LysM-Crecre/−) macrophages demonstrated lower supernatant TNF-α than Ezh2 control (Ezh2fl/fl; LysM-Cre−/−), perhaps due to an upregulation of Socs3, which is a suppressor of cytokine signaling 3, due to the loss of the Ezh2 gene. In LPS tolerance, Ezh2 null macrophages indicated higher supernatant TNF-α and IL-6 than the control, supporting an impact of the loss of the Ezh2 inhibitory gene. In parallel, Ezh2 null mice demonstrated lower serum TNF-α and IL-6 than the control mice after an LPS injection, indicating a less severe LPS-induced hyper-inflammation in Ezh2 null mice. In conclusion, an absence of Ezh2 in macrophages resulted in less severe LPS-induced inflammation, as indicated by low serum cytokines, with less severe LPS tolerance, as demonstrated by higher cytokine production, partly through the upregulated Socs3.
Project description:Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are essential for maintaining proper immune homeostasis. Extracellular signals (e.g. TCR, CD28, IL-2R) are necessary for the generation and maintenance of Tregs, but how these signals are integrated to control the gene expression patterns of Tregs is less clear. Here we show that the epigenetic regulator, Ezh2, was induced by CD28 costimulation and Ezh2 activity was elevated in Tregs as compared to conventional CD4+ T cells. Deletion of Ezh2 in mouse Tregs led to a progressive autoimmune disease because Tregs were compromised after activation, losing proper control of essential Treg lineage genes and adopting a gene expression pattern similar to Foxp3-deficient ‘Tregs.’ Lineage-tracing of Ezh2-deficient Tregs in vivo confirmed that the cells were destabilized selectively in activated Treg populations, which led to a significant loss of Tregs in non-lymphoid tissues. These studies reveal an essential role for Ezh2 in the maintenance of Treg “identity” during cellular activation and differentiation. RNAseq of sorted populations of CD62Lhi or CD62Llo Tregs for both Ezh2-HET (Foxp3YFP-Cre/Foxp3WT;Ezh2fl/+ female mice) and Ezh2-KO (Foxp3YFP-Cre/Foxp3WT;Ezh2fl/fl female mice) were generated, in triplicate for each condition, using Illumina HiSeq 2500 single-end 50bp sequencing platform.
Project description:This goal of this study was to identify genes that are deregulated in the absence of EZH2 in early lymphocyte progenitors. We examined gene expression by RNA-sequencing in sorted CLPs (Lin-CD117int CD127+ CD135+), pro-B cells (B220+CD19+CD43+), DN3 cells (Lin- CD25+ CD117-), splenic NK cells (Lin-NK1.1+DX5+) and bone marrow ILC2 cells (Lin- Sca1+CD127+) from Ezh2fl/fl Il7racre/+ and Il7racre/+ control mice. Reads were aligned to the mm10 reference genome by Tophat2.1.0. Reads were assigned to genes using the htseq-count tool from HTSeq v 0.6.1 and gene annotations from Ensembl release 78. Differential expression was calculated across 2-3 independent replicates by EdgeR. We found that CLPs, ILC2s, and splenic NK cells maintained their normal transcriptional programs despite loss of EZH2. In contrast, loss of EZH2 caused over 1000 genes to be deregulated in pro-B and DN3 cells indicating that EZH2 is required for transcriptomic stability in adaptive, but not innate lymphocyte progenitors.
Project description:Epithelial (CD31-CD45-EpCAM+) lung cells were derived by FACS from ShhCre;Ezh2fl/fl and control ShhCre;Ezh2fl/+ mouse embryos at day E16.5 (2 biological replicates per genotype). Chromatin from each of the replicates was immunoprecipitated with H3K27me3 antibody (Millipore #07-449) and subjected to NGS library preparation using TruSeq Nano DNA Sample Preparation Kit (Illumina). Completed libraries from different samples were sequenced on HiSeq 2500 TruSeq with SBS Kit v3 - HS reagents (Illumina) as 100 bp single end reads at the Australian Genome Research Facility.