Epigenetic Patterns Maintained in Early Caenorhabditis elegans Embryos Can Be Established by Gene Activity in the Parental Germ Cells
Epigenetic Patterns Maintained in Early Caenorhabditis elegans Embryos Can Be Established by Gene Activity in the Parental Germ Cells
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pgen.1001391
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发表时间：
2011-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Kelly, William G.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Arico, Jackelyn K.;Katz, David J.;Kelly, William G.
表观遗传信息，如父母的印记，可以通过生殖系从父母传递到后代的遗传信息。最近的报告表明，组蛋白修饰可以通过精子作为这种信息传递的一个组成部分进行传递。人们对传递的信息是如何在亲本中建立并在后代中保持的知之甚少。我们以前描述了一种形式的印记X灭活秀丽隐杆线虫在组蛋白3上的二甲基化赖氨酸4（H3K4me2），一个活跃的染色质的标记，被排除在精子发生过程中的父亲的X染色体（Xp），并持续通过早期细胞分裂的胚胎。基于Xp（不像母体X或任何常染色体）在父生殖系中基本上是转录失活的观察，我们假设父生殖系中的转录活性可能影响胚胎继承和维持的表观遗传信息。我们报告说，染色质修饰和组蛋白变异模式组装在生殖细胞系可以保留在成熟的配子。此外，尽管在受精时发生了广泛的染色质重塑事件，但配子的修饰模式在很大程度上保留在早期胚胎中。使用转基因，我们观察到，在父母的生殖细胞的表达与差异染色质组装，复制和维持在早期胚胎。在成体生殖细胞中的表达也与后代体细胞谱系中更稳健的表达相关。这些结果表明，在亲本生殖系的差异表达可能提供了一个潜在的机制，为建立父母的起源表观基因组内容。该内容可以保持，并且可能会遗传性地影响后代的基因表达。
Epigenetic information, such as parental imprints, can be transmitted with genetic information from parent to offspring through the germ line. Recent reports show that histone modifications can be transmitted through sperm as a component of this information transfer. How the information that is transferred is established in the parent and maintained in the offspring is poorly understood. We previously described a form of imprinted X inactivation in Caenorhabditis elegans where dimethylation on histone 3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me2), a mark of active chromatin, is excluded from the paternal X chromosome (Xp) during spermatogenesis and persists through early cell divisions in the embryo. Based on the observation that the Xp (unlike the maternal X or any autosome) is largely transcriptionally inactive in the paternal germ line, we hypothesized that transcriptional activity in the parent germ line may influence epigenetic information inherited by and maintained in the embryo. We report that chromatin modifications and histone variant patterns assembled in the germ line can be retained in mature gametes. Furthermore, despite extensive chromatin remodeling events at fertilization, the modification patterns arriving with the gametes are largely retained in the early embryo. Using transgenes, we observe that expression in the parental germline correlates with differential chromatin assembly that is replicated and maintained in the early embryo. Expression in the adult germ cells also correlates with more robust expression in the somatic lineages of the offspring. These results suggest that differential expression in the parental germ lines may provide a potential mechanism for the establishment of parent-of-origin epigenomic content. This content can be maintained and may heritably affect gene expression in the offspring.