BackgroundGenomic imprinting is governed by allele-specific DNA methylation at imprinting control regions (ICRs), and the mechanism controlling its differential methylation establishment during gametogenesis has been a subject of intensive research interest. However, recent studies have reported that gamete methylation is not restricted at the ICRs, thus highlighting the significance of ICR methylation maintenance during the preimplantation period where genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming takes place. Using transgenic mice (TgM), we previously demonstrated that the H19 ICR possesses autonomous activity to acquire paternal-allele-specific DNA methylation after fertilization. Furthermore, this activity is indispensable for the maintenance of imprinted methylation at the endogenous H19 ICR during the preimplantation period. In addition, we showed that a specific 5′ fragment of the H19 ICR is required for its paternal methylation after fertilization, while CTCF and Sox-Oct motifs are essential for its maternal protection from undesirable methylation after implantation.ResultsTo ask whether specific cis elements are sufficient to reconstitute imprinted methylation status, we employed a TgM co-placement strategy for facilitating detection of postfertilization methylation activity and precise comparison of test sequences. Bacteriophage lambda DNA becomes highly methylated regardless of its parental origin and thus can be used as a neutral sequence bearing no inclination for differential DNA methylation. We previously showed that insertion of only CTCF and Sox-Oct binding motifs from the H19 ICR into a lambda DNA (LCb) decreased its methylation level after both paternal and maternal transmission. We therefore appended a 478-bp 5′ sequence from the H19 ICR into the LCb fragment and found that it acquired paternal-allele-specific methylation, the dynamics of which was identical to that of the H19 ICR, in TgM. Crucially, transgene expression also became imprinted. Although there are potential binding sites for ZFP57 (a candidate protein thought to control the methylation imprint) in the larger H19 ICR, they are not found in the 478-bp fragment, rendering the role of ZFP57 in postfertilization H19 ICR methylation a still open question.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that a differentially methylated region can be reconstituted by combining the activities of specific imprinting elements and that these elements together determine the activity of a genomically imprinted region in vivo.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13072-018-0207-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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MMP-2 may be involved in the mechanism by which bFGF ameliorates the survival of fat grafts.

Background: Paternal allele-specific DNA methylation of the H19 imprinting control region (ICR) regulates imprinted expression of the Igf2/H19 genes. The molecular mechanism by which differential methylation of the H19 ICR is established during gametogenesis and maintained after fertilization, however, is not fully understood. We previously showed that a 2.9-kb H19 ICR fragment in transgenic mice was differentially methylated only after fertilization, demonstrating that two separable events, gametic and post-fertilization methylation, occur at the H19 ICR. We then determined that CTCF/Sox-Oct motifs and the 478-bp sequence of the H19 ICR are essential for maintaining its maternal hypomethylation status and for acquisition of paternal methylation, respectively, during the post-fertilization period.Results: Using a series of 5′-truncated H19 ICR transgenes to dissect the 478-bp sequence, we identified a 118-bp region required for post-fertilization methylation activity. Deletion of the sequence from the paternal endogenous H19 ICR caused loss of methylation after fertilization, indicating that methylation activity of the sequence is required to protect endogenous H19 ICR from genome-wide reprogramming. We then reconstructed a synthetic DNA fragment in which the CTCF binding sites, Sox-Oct motifs, as well as the 118-bp sequence, were inserted into lambda DNA, and used it to replace the endogenous H19 ICR. The fragment was methylated during spermatogenesis; moreover, its allele-specific methylation status was faithfully maintained after fertilization, and imprinted expression of the both Igf2 and H19 genes was recapitulated. Conclusions:Our results identified a 118-bp region within the H19 ICR that is required for de novo DNA methylation of the paternally inherited H19 ICR during pre-implantation period. A lambda DNA-based artificial fragment that contains the 118-bp sequence, in addition to the previously identified cis elements, could fully replace the function of the H19 ICR in the mouse genome.

Genomic imprinting at the mouse Igf2/H19 locus is controlled by the H19 ICR, within which paternal allele-specific DNA methylation originating in sperm is maintained throughout development in offspring. We previously found that a 2.9 kb transgenic H19 ICR fragment in mice can be methylated de novo after fertilization only when paternally inherited, despite its unmethylated state in sperm. When the 118 bp sequence responsible for this methylation in transgenic mice was deleted from the endogenous H19 ICR, the methylation level of its paternal allele was significantly reduced after fertilization, suggesting the activity involving this 118 bp sequence is required for methylation maintenance at the endogenous locus. Here, we determined protein binding to the 118 bp sequence using an in vitro binding assay and inferred the binding motif to be RCTG by using a series of mutant competitors. Furthermore, we generated H19 ICR transgenic mice with a 5-bp substitution mutation that disrupts the RCTG motifs within the 118 bp sequence, and observed loss of methylation from the paternally inherited transgene. These results indicate that imprinted methylation of the H19 ICR established de novo during the post-fertilization period involves binding of specific factors to distinct sequence motifs within the 118 bp sequence.