Project description:Sense-antisense transcript (SAT) pairs are pairs of transcripts that fully or partially overlap but are transcribed in opposite directions. Although SAT expression occurs in various species, most SAT pairs have not been examined in detail. Because our previous studies revealed some tissue specificity in SAT expression, SAT pairs might be involved in cell differentiation and the maintenance of tissue-specific gene expression programs. To analyze such tissue-specific SAT pairs, we assessed the expression profiles of SATs from 12 tissues of normal mice at a genome-wide scale and found that a considerable number of SAT pairs showed expression patterns unique to testis. This finding prompted us to study the relationship between SAT expression pattern and another epigenetic gene regulatory mechanism, DNA methylation. We conducted a comparative global analysis of the DNA methylation status of CpG island (CGI)-associated SAT loci from various tissues and found that in 99 of the 4911 SAT pairs studied, DNA methylation could cooperatively suppress its downstream “sense” transcription together with the “antisense” transcriptional activity in a tissue-specific manner. The tissue-specific differentially methylated regions (T-DMRs) of these SAT pairs mainly occurred outside of the defined CGIs. In addition, some of these T-DMRs are situated at the 5′ region of the antisense transcripts. This positioning implies a novel mechanism for DNA methylation to regulate gene transcription, in which DNA methylation inhibits an opposing transcriptional activity and therefore maintains stable expression of a tissue-specific gene.
Project description:Sense-antisense transcript (SAT) pairs are pairs of transcripts that fully or partially overlap but are transcribed in opposite directions. Although SAT expression occurs in various species, most SAT pairs have not been examined in detail. Because our previous studies revealed some tissue specificity in SAT expression, SAT pairs might be involved in cell differentiation and the maintenance of tissue-specific gene expression programs. To analyze such tissue-specific SAT pairs, we assessed the expression profiles of SATs from 12 tissues of normal mice at a genome-wide scale and found that a considerable number of SAT pairs showed expression patterns unique to testis. This finding prompted us to study the relationship between SAT expression pattern and another epigenetic gene regulatory mechanism, DNA methylation. We conducted a comparative global analysis of the DNA methylation status of CpG island (CGI)-associated SAT loci from various tissues and found that in 99 of the 4911 SAT pairs studied, DNA methylation could cooperatively suppress its downstream “sense” transcription together with the “antisense” transcriptional activity in a tissue-specific manner. The tissue-specific differentially methylated regions (T-DMRs) of these SAT pairs mainly occurred outside of the defined CGIs. In addition, some of these T-DMRs are situated at the 5′ region of the antisense transcripts. This positioning implies a novel mechanism for DNA methylation to regulate gene transcription, in which DNA methylation inhibits an opposing transcriptional activity and therefore maintains stable expression of a tissue-specific gene. Twelve tissues (brain, thymus, heart, lung, liver, spleen, stomach, kidney, small intestine, testis, and placentae [10.5 and 13.5 days postcoitum (dpc)]) of C57BL/6J Jc1 and a mouse fibroblast cell line (SL10) were used for the mouse expression oligo-microarray. The expression array data were obtained by both oligo-dT and random priming methods, except for SL10 (olio-dT only). Twelve tissues (brain, thymus, heart, lung, liver, spleen, stomach, kidney, small intestine, testis, and placentae [10.5 and 13.5 days postcoitum (dpc)]) were used for DIP chip experiments. Nine of twelve tissues were separately analyzed classified on the basis of sex. A technical duplication of DIP chip analysis was performed by using the same genomic DNA of male kidney.
Project description:In mouse development, long-term silencing by CpG island DNA methylation is specifically targeted to germline genes, however the molecular mechanisms of this specificity remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that the transcription factor E2F6, a member of the polycomb repressive complex 1.6 (PRC1.6), is critical to target and initiate epigenetic silencing at germline genes in early embryogenesis. Genome-wide, E2F6 binds preferentially to CpG islands in embryonic cells. E2F6 cooperates with MGA to silence a subgroup of germline genes in mouse embryonic stem cells and in vivo, a function that critically depends on the E2F6 marked box domain. Inactivation of E2f6 leads to a failure to deposit CpG island DNA methylation at these genes during implantation. Furthermore, E2F6 is required to initiate epigenetic silencing in early embryonic cells but becomes dispensable for the maintenance in differentiated cells. Our findings elucidate the mechanisms of epigenetic targeting of germline genes and provide a paradigm for how transient repression signals by DNA-binding factors in early embryonic cells are translated into long term epigenetic silencing during mammalian development.
Project description:<p>High throughput RNA Sequencing has revealed that the human genome is widely transcribed. However, the extent of natural antisense transcription, the molecular mechanisms by which natural antisense transcripts (NATs) might affect their cognate sense genes, and the role of NATs in cancer are less well understood. Here, we use strand-specific paired-end RNA sequencing (ssRNASeq) on a cohort of 376 cancer patients covering 9 tissue types to comprehensively characterize the landscape of antisense expression. Our results reveal that greater than 60% of annotated transcripts have measureable antisense expression and the expression of sense and antisense transcript pairs is in general positively correlated. Furthermore, by studying the expression of sense/antisense pairs across tissues we identify lineage-specific, ubiquitous and cancer-specific antisense loci. Our results raise the possibility that NATs participate in the regulation of well-known tumor suppressors and oncogenes. Finally, this study provides a catalogue of cancer related genes with significant antisense transcription (oncoNAT). This resource will allow researchers to investigate the molecular mechanisms of sense/antisense regulation and further advance our understanding of their role in cancer.</p>
Project description:We used Illumina Infinium 27k Human DNA Methylation BeadChip v1.2 to assess genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of normal colon epithelial, adenomas and colorectal adenocarcinomas across approximately 27,000 CpGs in fresh frozen colorectal tissue samples. We found that cancer-associated methylation changes with impact on transcription occur nearly as frequent at non-CpG island as CpG island promoters in colorectal cancer (CRC).
Project description:The goal of the experiment – genome-wide profiling of DNA methylation reveals a class of normally methylated CpG island promoters Keywords: DNA methylation, Methylated CpG island amplification coupled with promoter arrays, normal tissue
Project description:Methylation of CpG islands is associated with transcriptional repression and, in cancer, leads to the abnormal silencing of tumor-suppressor genes. We developed a novel and robust technique that allows the unbiased, genome wide detection of CpG-methylation in limited DNA samples, without applying methylation-sensitive restriction endonucleases or bisulfite-treatment. The approach is based on a recombinant, methyl-CpG binding protein that efficiently binds CpG-methylated DNA depending on its degree of CpG methylation. Its application in methyl-CpG immunoprecipitation (MCIp) facilitates the monitoring of CpG-island methylation on a genome wide level (in combination with CpG-island microarrays). The power of this novel approach was demonstrated by the profiling of three myeloid cell lines leading to the identification of more than a hundred aberrantly methylated CpG islands and many novel, putative tumor-suppressor genes. Keywords: MCIp on Chip
Project description:DNA methylation plays a key role in demarcation of regulatory regions, including promoter-associated CpG islands. While CpG islands are typically maintained in an unmethylated state in normal cells, a proportion of CpG islands are subject to hypermethylation in cancer cells. It still remains elusive how the exquisite demarcation of the bimodal methylation state is established and maintained at the CpG island flanks and conversely what triggers the erosion of CpG island DNA methylation in tumorigenesis. Here, we applied whole-genome bisulphite sequencing to study the comprehensive methylation patterns of prostate normal and cancer tissues. Alongside we performed TET-assisted bisulphite sequencing to study genome-wide DNA hydroxymethylation patterns of normal prostate and prostate cancer tissues.
Project description:DNA methylation plays a key role in demarcation of regulatory regions, including promoter-associated CpG islands. While CpG islands are typically maintained in an unmethylated state in normal cells, a proportion of CpG islands are subject to hypermethylation in cancer cells. It still remains elusive how the exquisite demarcation of the bimodal methylation state is established and maintained at the CpG island flanks and conversely what triggers the erosion of CpG island DNA methylation in tumorigenesis. Here, we applied whole-genome bisulphite sequencing to study the comprehensive methylation patterns of prostate normal and cancer tissues. Alongside we performed TET-assisted bisulphite sequencing to study genome-wide DNA hydroxymethylation patterns of normal prostate and prostate cancer tissues.
Project description:We used Illumina Infinium 27k Human DNA Methylation BeadChip v1.2 to assess genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of normal colon epithelial, adenomas and colorectal adenocarcinomas across approximately 27,000 CpGs in fresh frozen colorectal tissue samples. We found that cancer-associated methylation changes with impact on transcription occur nearly as frequent at non-CpG island as CpG island promoters in colorectal cancer (CRC). Samples included 6 normal colon epithelial tissue samples, 6 adenomas, and 30 colorectal adenocarcinomas. Bisulfite-converted DNA from the 42 samples were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 27k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.2.