Publications by authors named "Flore Mietton"

Background: The histone variant macroH2A (mH2A), the most deviant variant, is about threefold larger than the conventional histone H2A and consists of a histone H2A-like domain fused to a large Non-Histone Region responsible for recruiting PARP-1 to chromatin. The available data suggest that the histone variant mH2A participates in the regulation of transcription, maintenance of heterochromatin, NAD metabolism, and double-strand DNA repair.

Results: Here, we describe a novel function of mH2A, namely its implication in DNA oxidative damage repair through PARP-1.

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Article Synopsis
  • Globozoospermia is a type of male infertility characterized by round-headed sperm that lack an acrosome, with genetic anomalies in the DPY19L2 gene accounting for 50-70% of cases, often due to complete gene deletions.* -
  • A study involving 69 patients found that 36% had homozygous deletions of the DPY19L2 gene, and even higher proportions of genetic defects correlated with increased rates of globozoospermia, indicating a strong relationship between genotype and phenotype.* -
  • The study suggests a new diagnostic approach focusing on patients with over 50% globozoospermia by initially testing for DPY19L2 deletions using
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Invasive fungal infections cause significant morbidity and mortality among immunocompromised individuals, posing an urgent need for new antifungal therapeutic strategies. Here we investigate a chromatin-interacting module, the bromodomain (BD) from the BET family of proteins, as a potential antifungal target in Candida albicans, a major human fungal pathogen. We show that the BET protein Bdf1 is essential in C.

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Bromodomain and Extra-terminal motif (BET) proteins play a central role in transcription regulation and chromatin signalling pathways. They are present in unicellular eukaryotes and in this study, the role of the BET protein Bdf1 has been explored in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mutation of Bdf1 bromodomains revealed defects on both the formation of spores and the meiotic progression, blocking cells at the exit from prophase, before the first meiotic division.

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A modular approach to synthesize anti-Apicomplexa parasite inhibitors was developed that takes advantage of a pluripotent cyclic tetrapeptide scaffold capable of adjusting appendage and skeletal diversities in only a few steps (one to three steps). The diversification processes make use of selective radical coupling reactions and involve a new example of a reductive carbon-nitrogen cleavage reaction with SmI2. The resulting bioactive cyclic peptides have revealed new insights into structural factors that govern selectivity between Apicomplexa parasites such as Toxoplasma and Plasmodium and human cells.

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Histone deacetylases (HDACs) regulate inflammatory gene expression, as indicated by the potent antiinflammatory activity of pan-HDAC inhibitors. However, the specific contribution of each of the 11 HDAC proteins to the inflammatory gene expression program is unknown. Using an integrated genomic approach, we found that Hdac3-deficient macrophages were unable to activate almost half of the inflammatory gene expression program when stimulated with LPS.

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The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) controls T-cell differentiation in response to polarizing cytokines. We previously found that mTOR blockade by rapamycin (RAPA) delays the G1-S cell cycle transition and lymphocyte proliferation. Here, we report that both mTOR complex 1 and mTOR complex 2 are readily activated following TCR/CD28 engagement and are critical for early expression of Ifng, Il4 and Foxp3, and for effector T cell differentiation in the absence of polarizing cytokines.

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Mammalian genomes are pervasively transcribed outside mapped protein-coding genes. One class of extragenic transcription products is represented by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), some of which result from Pol_II transcription of bona-fide RNA genes. Whether all lncRNAs described insofar are products of RNA genes, however, is still unclear.

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Article Synopsis
  • Enhancers are crucial for controlling gene expression in specific tissues and are marked by certain chemical modifications and proteins, like H3K4me1 and p300.
  • The study focused on macrophages to identify how certain enhancers become active in response to stimuli, highlighting the importance of the protein PU.1 alongside other transcription factors like NF-kappaB and IRF.
  • The findings suggest that the interaction of various tissue-specific and stress-induced transcription factors regulates enhancer activity, which could be a common mechanism in gene regulation across different tissues and environmental conditions.
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We studied the enrichment and distribution of the histone variant mH2A1 in the condensed inactive X (Xi) chromosome. By using highly specific antibodies against mH2A1 and stable HEK 293 cell lines expressing either green fluorescent protein (GFP)-mH2A1 or GFP-H2A, we found that the Xi chromosome contains approximately 1.5-fold more mH2A1 than the autosomes.

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The histone variant mH2A is believed to be involved in transcriptional repression, but how it exerts its function remains elusive. By using chromatin immunoprecipitation and tandem affinity immunopurification of the mH2A1.1 nucleosome complex, we identified numerous genes with promoters containing mH2A1.

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Remodeling machines play an essential role in the control of gene expression, but how their activity is regulated is not known. Here we report that the nuclear protein nucleolin possesses a histone chaperone activity and that this factor greatly enhances the activity of the chromatin remodeling machineries SWI/SNF and ACF. Interestingly, nucleolin is able to induce the remodeling by SWI/SNF of macroH2A, but not of H2ABbd nucleosomes, which are otherwise resistant to remodeling.

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macroH2A (mH2A) is an unusual histone variant consisting of a histone H2A-like domain fused to a large nonhistone region. In this work, we show that histone mH2A represses p300- and Gal4-VP16-dependent polymerase II transcription, and we have dissected the mechanism by which this repression is realized. The repressive effect of mH2A is observed at the level of initiation but not at elongation of transcription, and mH2A interferes with p300-dependent histone acetylation.

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Adaptation to cold and warm conditions requires dramatic change in gene expression. The acclimatization process of the common carp Cyprinus carpio L. in its natural habitat has been used to study how organisms respond to natural environmental changes.

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