No abstract

BAF (Brg/Brm-associated factors) complexes play important roles in development and are linked to chromatin plasticity at selected genomic loci. Nevertheless, a full understanding of their role in development and chromatin remodeling has been hindered by the absence of mutants completely lacking BAF complexes. Here, we report that the loss of BAF155/BAF170 in double-conditional knockout (dcKO) mice eliminates all known BAF subunits, resulting in an overall reduction in active chromatin marks (H3K9Ac), a global increase in repressive marks (H3K27me2/3), and downregulation of gene expression. We demonstrate that BAF complexes interact with H3K27 demethylases (JMJD3 and UTX) and potentiate their activity. Importantly, BAF complexes are indispensable for forebrain development, including proliferation, differentiation, and cell survival of neural progenitor cells. Our findings reveal a molecular mechanism mediated by BAF complexes that controls the global transcriptional program and chromatin state in development.

SUMMARY Mutations in the 3′-5′ exonuclease DIS3L2 are associated with Perlman syndrome and hypersusceptibility to Wilms’ tumorigenesis. Previously, we found that Dis3l2 specifically recognizes and degrades uridylated pre-let-7 microRNA. However, the widespread relevance of Dis3l2-mediated decay of uridylated substrates remains unknown. Here we applied an unbiased RNA immunoprecipitation strategy to identify Dis3l2 targets in mouse embryonic stem cells. The disease-associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) Rmrp, 7SL, as well as several other Pol III-transcribed noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) were among the most highly enriched Dis3l2-bound RNAs. 3′-uridylated Rmrp, 7SL, and snRNA species were highly stabilized in the cytoplasm of Dis3l2-depleted cells. Deep sequencing analysis of Rmrp 3′ ends revealed extensive oligouridylation mainly on transcripts with imprecise ends. We implicate the TUTases Zcchc6/11 in the uridylation of these ncRNAs, and biochemical reconstitution assays demonstrate the sufficiency of TUTase-Dis3l2 for Rmrp decay. This establishes Dis3l2-Mediated Decay (DMD) as a quality control pathway that eliminates aberrant ncRNAs.