Tumor suppressor gene silencing through cytosine methylation contributes to cancer formation. Whether DNA demethylation enzymes counteract this oncogenic effect is unknown. Here, we show that TET1, a dioxygenase involved in cytosine demethylation, is downregulated in prostate and breast cancer tissues. TET1 depletion facilitates cell invasion, tumor growth, and cancer metastasis in prostate xenograft models and correlates with poor survival rates in breast cancer patients. Consistently, enforced expression of TET1 reduces cell invasion and breast xenograft tumor formation. Mechanistically, TET1 suppresses cell invasion through its dioxygenase and DNA binding activities. Furthermore, TET1 maintains the expression of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP) family proteins 2 and 3 by inhibiting their DNA methylation. Concurrent low expression of TET1 and TIMP2 or TIMP3 correlates with advanced node status in clinical samples. Together, these results illustrate a mechanism by which TET1 suppresses tumor development and invasion partly through downregulation of critical gene methylation.

O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) transferase (OGT) is the only known enzyme that catalyzes the O-GlcNAcylation of proteins at the Ser or Thr side chain hydroxyl group. OGT participates in transcriptional and epigenetic regulation, and dysregulation of OGT has been implicated in diseases such as cancer. However, the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. Here we show that OGT is required for the trimethylation of histone 3 at K27 to form the product H3K27me3, a process catalyzed by the histone methyltransferase enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) in the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). H3K27me3 is one of the most important histone modifications to mark the transcriptionally silenced chromatin. We found that the level of H3K27me3, but not other H3 methylation products, was greatly reduced upon OGT depletion. OGT knockdown specifically down-regulated the protein stability of EZH2, without altering the levels of H3K27 demethylases UTX and JMJD3, and disrupted the integrity of the PRC2 complex. Furthermore, the interaction of OGT and EZH2/PRC2 was detected by coimmunoprecipitation and cosedimentation experiments. Importantly, we identified that serine 75 is the site for EZH2 OGlcNAcylation, and the EZH2 mutant S75A exhibited reduction in stability. Finally, microarray and ChIP analysis have characterized a specific subset of potential tumor suppressor genes subject to repression via the OGT-EZH2 axis. Together these results indicate that OGT-mediated O-GlcNAcylation at S75 stabilizes EZH2 and hence facilitates the formation of H3K27me3. The study not only uncovers a functional posttranslational modification of EZH2 but also reveals a unique epigenetic role of OGT in regulating histone methylation.

Highlights d Adipose-specific Naa10p depletion prevents diet-induced obesity d Naa10p depletion increases Ucp1 expression and thermogenesis in beige adipocytes d N-terminal acetylation of Pgc1a by Naa10p suppresses thermogenic gene expression d Higher NAA10 expression correlates with human obesity

BackgroundAutophagy and molecular chaperones both regulate protein homeostasis and maintain important physiological functions. Atg7 (autophagy-related gene 7) and Hsp27 (heat shock protein 27) are involved in the regulation of neurodegeneration and aging. However, the genetic connection between Atg7 and Hsp27 is not known.MethodsThe appearances of the fly eyes from the different genetic interactions with or without polyglutamine toxicity were examined by light microscopy and scanning electronic microscopy. Immunofluorescence was used to check the effect of Atg7 and Hsp27 knockdown on the formation of autophagosomes. The lifespan of altered expression of Hsp27 or Atg7 and that of the combination of the two different gene expression were measured.ResultsWe used the Drosophila eye as a model system to examine the epistatic relationship between Hsp27 and Atg7. We found that both genes are involved in normal eye development, and that overexpression of Atg7 could eliminate the need for Hsp27 but Hsp27 could not rescue Atg7 deficient phenotypes. Using a polyglutamine toxicity assay (41Q) to model neurodegeneration, we showed that both Atg7 and Hsp27 can suppress weak, toxic effect by 41Q, and that overexpression of Atg7 improves the worsened mosaic eyes by the knockdown of Hsp27 under 41Q. We also showed that overexpression of Atg7 extends lifespan and the knockdown of Atg7 or Hsp27 by RNAi reduces lifespan. RNAi-knockdown of Atg7 expression can block the extended lifespan phenotype by Hsp27 overexpression, and overexpression of Atg7 can extend lifespan even under Hsp27 knockdown by RNAi.ConclusionsWe propose that Atg7 acts downstream of Hsp27 in the regulation of eye morphology, polyglutamine toxicity, and lifespan in Drosophila.

Embryonic germ (EG) cells are undifferentiated stem cells isolated from cultured primordial germ cells (PGC). These cells share many characteristics with embryonic stem cells including their morphology and pluripotency. Undifferentiated porcine EG cell lines demonstrating capacities of both in vitro and in vivo differentiation have been established (Shim H et al. 1997 Biol. Reprod. 57, 1089-1095. Since EG cells can be cultured indefinitely in an undifferentiated state, whereas somatic cells in primary culture are often unstable and have limited lifespan, EG cells may provide an inexhaustible source of karyoplasts in nuclear transfer (NT). This would be particularly advantageous in maintaining nuclear donor cells carrying a transgene. In addition, genome-wide demethylation of DNA occurs in pre-implantation embryos as well as PGC. Nuclear transfer embryos using EG cells rather than somatic cells may be close to embryos from normal fertilization in their DNA methylation status. If combined with NT technique, EG cells may potentially be useful for genetic manipulation in pigs. In this study the efficiencies of transgenesis and NT using porcine fetal fibroblast and EG cells were compared. Two different techniques were used to perform NT. When conventional NT procedure (Roslin method) involving fusion of donor cells with enucleated oocytes was used, the rates of development to the blastocyst stage were 16.8% (59/351) and 14.1% (50/354) in EG and somatic cell NT, respectively. In piezo-driven micromanipulation (Honolulu method) involving direct injection of donor nuclei into enucleated oocytes, the rates of blastocyst formation in EG and somatic cell NT were 11.9% (15/126) and 7.5% (12/160), respectively. Although the differences between EG and somatic cell NT were statistically insignificant, the rates of blastocyst development in EG cell NT were comparable to the somatic cell counterpart regardless of NT methods used in the present study. To investigate if EG cells can be used for transgenesis in pigs, GFP gene was introduced into porcine EG cells. Nuclear transfer embryos using transfected EG cells gave rise to blastocysts (29/137, 21.2%), and all embryos that developed to the blastocyst stage expressed GFP, based on observation under fluorescence microscope. In this study, the possibility of using EG cells as karyoplast donors in NT procedure was tested. The results suggest that EG cell NT may be used as an alternative to somatic cell NT, and transgenic pig embryos may be produced using EG cells. It has been reported that aggregation of two nuclear transfer (NT) mouse embryos shows an improvement in full-term development (Boiani M et al. 2003 EMBO J. 22, 5304-5312). In this study, we examined the effect of aggregation on in vitro development of bovine NT embryos. As donor cells for NT, cumulus cells of passage 3-5 were used following culture in serum-starved medium for 5-7 days. NT was performed as previously described (Akagi S et al. 2003 Mol. Reprod. Dev. 66, 264-272). NT embryos were cultured in a serum-free me...