Project description:Somatic mutations of the MLL2 methyltransferase gene represent a common genetic lesion in multiple cancer types. In diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL), these mutations are highly recurrent and occur early during tumorigenesis, suggesting a central role in transformation. Here we show that FL/DLBCL-associated MLL2 mutations impair its enzymatic activity and lead to diminished global H3K4 methylation in germinal center (GC) B cells and DLBCL, consistent with the enrichment of MLL2 binding at enhancer and promoter regions marked by mono- and tri-methylation. Conditional deletion of Mll2 early during B cell development, but not after initiation of the GC reaction, leads to an increase in GC B cells, whose transcriptional profile is enriched in cell-cycle regulatory and B-cell receptor signaling genes. Consistently, Mll2-deficient B cells exhibit proliferative advantage ex vivo. Loss of Mll2 combined with BCL2 deregulation, mimicking FL/DLBCL pathogenesis, leads to an increased incidence of clonal lymphoproliferations resembling the features of the human tumors. These findings suggest that early MLL2 loss facilitates lymphomagenesis by remodeling the epigenetic landscape of the cancer precursor cells. Eradication of MLL2-deficient cells may represent a rational therapeutic approach targeting early tumorigenic events. ChIP-seq analysis of MLL2 bound regions and histone methylation (H3K4me3, H3K4me1) in normal human germinal center B cells.
Project description:Somatic mutations of the MLL2 methyltransferase gene represent a common genetic lesion in multiple cancer types. In diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) (collectively, over 70% of all lymphoma diagnoses), these mutations are highly recurrent and appear early during transformation, possibly in pre-malignant precursors. Here we show that FL- and DLBCL-associated MLL2 mutations impair its enzymatic activity and lead to diminished global H3K4 methylation in normal germinal-center (GC) B cells and DLBCL, consistent with the enrichment of MLL2 binding at enhancer and promoter regions marked by mono- and tri-methylation. Conditional deletion of Mll2 early during B cell development, but not after initiation of the GC reaction, leads to increased percentages and numbers of GC B cells, which feature a distinct transcriptional profile defined by the enrichment of cell-cycle regulatory and B-cell receptor signaling genes. Consistently, Mll2-deficient B cells exhibit proliferative advantage and accumulation in the S phase of the cell cycle, which is influenced by the number of cell divisions. While GC-specific loss of Mll2 was not sufficient to initiate malignant transformation, compound Mll2-deficient/BCL2-transgenic mice displayed an increased incidence of clonal lymphoproliferations resembling the features of human FL and DLBCL. These findings suggest that early MLL2 loss favors BCL2-induced lymphomagenesis by remodeling the epigenetic landscape of the cancer precursor cells. Eradication of MLL2-deficient cells may represent a rational therapeutic approach targeting early tumorigenic events. Murine germinal center B cells (B220+CD95+PNA+) were sorted from the spleen of conditional Mll2 knock-out, Mll2 heterozygous and Mll2 wild type mice (crossed with CD19-Cre or Cg1-Cre deletor strains) and sacrificed at day 12 after immunization with sheep red blood cells (SRBC)(n=3 mice per genotype). Total RNA was extracted from single cell suspensions and processed according to the Ovation RNA Amplification System and Encore® Biotin Module protocols (both from NuGEN). Samples were analyzed on Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 arrays.
Project description:The transcriptomic impact of Hells loss-of-function was quantified by RNA sequencing of sample from conditional knockout (Mb1-Cre+/WT HellsF/F) and littermate control mice (Mb1-CreWT/WT HellsF/F). Three time points were chosen to follow the kinetic: day 0 for naïve B cells collection, day 7 and day 14 post NP-CGG intraperitoneal immunization for germinal center B cells collection. At each time point, 4 mice of each genotype were used. Live cells were FACS sorted (AriaIII) using surface markers as follows: B220+CD21+CD23+ for naïve B cells, and B220+CD95+GL7+ for germinal center B cells. Due to their low frequency, germinal center B cells were FACS-sorted twice using the same gating strategy. Collected samples were lysed and processed for RNA extraction.
Project description:To describe the protein profile in hippocampus, colon and ileum tissue’ changing after the old faeces transplants, we adopted a quantitative label free proteomics approach.
Project description:Somatic mutations of the MLL2 methyltransferase gene represent a common genetic lesion in multiple cancer types. In diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) (collectively, over 70% of all lymphoma diagnoses), these mutations are highly recurrent and appear early during transformation, possibly in pre-malignant precursors. Here we show that FL- and DLBCL-associated MLL2 mutations impair its enzymatic activity and lead to diminished global H3K4 methylation in normal germinal-center (GC) B cells and DLBCL, consistent with the enrichment of MLL2 binding at enhancer and promoter regions marked by mono- and tri-methylation. Conditional deletion of Mll2 early during B cell development, but not after initiation of the GC reaction, leads to increased percentages and numbers of GC B cells, which feature a distinct transcriptional profile defined by the enrichment of cell-cycle regulatory and B-cell receptor signaling genes. Consistently, Mll2-deficient B cells exhibit proliferative advantage and accumulation in the S phase of the cell cycle, which is influenced by the number of cell divisions. While GC-specific loss of Mll2 was not sufficient to initiate malignant transformation, compound Mll2-deficient/BCL2-transgenic mice displayed an increased incidence of clonal lymphoproliferations resembling the features of human FL and DLBCL. These findings suggest that early MLL2 loss favors BCL2-induced lymphomagenesis by remodeling the epigenetic landscape of the cancer precursor cells. Eradication of MLL2-deficient cells may represent a rational therapeutic approach targeting early tumorigenic events.
Project description:Introgressed variants from other species can be an important source of genetic variation because they may arise rapidly, can include multiple mutations on a single haplotype, and have often been pretested by selection in the species of origin. Although introgressed alleles are generally deleterious, several studies have reported introgression as the source of adaptive alleles-including the rodenticide-resistant variant of Vkorc1 that introgressed from Mus spretus into European populations of Mus musculus domesticus. Here, we conducted bidirectional genome scans to characterize introgressed regions into one wild population of M. spretus from Spain and three wild populations of M. m. domesticus from France, Germany, and Iran. Despite the fact that these species show considerable intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation, introgression was observed in all individuals, including in the M. musculus reference genome (GRCm38). Mus spretus individuals had a greater proportion of introgression compared with M. m. domesticus, and within M. m. domesticus, the proportion of introgression decreased with geographic distance from the area of sympatry. Introgression was observed on all autosomes for both species, but not on the X-chromosome in M. m. domesticus, consistent with known X-linked hybrid sterility and inviability genes that have been mapped to the M. spretus X-chromosome. Tract lengths were generally short with a few outliers of up to 2.7 Mb. Interestingly, the longest introgressed tracts were in olfactory receptor regions, and introgressed tracts were significantly enriched for olfactory receptor genes in both species, suggesting that introgression may be a source of functional novelty even between species with high barriers to gene flow.