Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men in developed countries. Overexpression of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), the major histone H3 lysine 27 methyltransferase, has been connected to prostate cancer malignancy. However, its downstream genes and pathways have not been well established.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the version of this article originally published, the references were incorrectly re-ordered during production. The hyphen in "N-methyladenosine" in the title was also superscript. The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFN-Methyladenosine (mA) RNA modification is present in messenger RNAs (mRNA), ribosomal RNAs (rRNA), and spliceosomal RNAs (snRNA) in humans. Although mRNA mA modifications have been extensively studied and shown to play critical roles in many cellular processes, the identity of mA methyltransferases for rRNAs and the function of rRNA mA modifications are unknown. Here we report a new mA methyltransferase, ZCCHC4, which primarily methylates human 28S rRNA and also interacts with a subset of mRNAs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome affecting up to 8% of pregnancies worldwide. While PE is a leading cause of maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, the pathophysiology of PE is unclear to date. Here, we have verified that dysregulation of CD39/ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase-1 (ENTPD1) and zinc finger DHHC-type containing 14 (ZDHHC14) via DNA methylation plays a vital role in late-onset PE pathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
October 2018
The programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression by tumors results in potent antitumor immune suppression through binding to programmed death-1 (PD-1) on T cells and subsequent inhibition of T cells activity. Although recent pathological studies have shown that PD-L1 is actively expressed in certain ERα-negative breast cancer, little is known about whether ER signaling regulates PD-L1 gene expression. Here, we investigated the relationship between ERα and PD-L1 in breast cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetes is a complex metabolic syndrome that is characterized by prolonged high blood glucose levels and frequently associated with life-threatening complications. Epidemiological studies have suggested that diabetes is also linked to an increased risk of cancer. High glucose levels may be a prevailing factor that contributes to the link between diabetes and cancer, but little is known about the molecular basis of this link and how the high glucose state may drive genetic and/or epigenetic alterations that result in a cancer phenotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpermatogenesis is precisely controlled by complex gene expression programs and involves epigenetic reprogramming, including histone modification and DNA methylation. SET domain-containing 2 (SETD2) is the predominant histone methyltransferase catalyzing the trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 36 (H3K36me3) and plays key roles in embryonic stem cell differentiation and somatic cell development. However, its role in male germ cell development remains elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFN-methyladenosine (mA) is an abundant modification in eukaryotic mRNA, regulating mRNA dynamics by influencing mRNA stability, splicing, export, and translation. However, the precise mA regulating machinery still remains incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that ZC3H13, a zinc-finger protein, plays an important role in modulating RNA mA methylation in the nucleus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProstate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in male. Numerous studies have focused on the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis and progression, aiming at developing new therapeutic strategies. Here we describe Lanthionine synthase C-like protein 1 (LanCL1), a member of the LanCL family, is a potential prostate cancer susceptibility gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStem Cell Reports
November 2017
Naked mole rat (NMR) is a valuable model for aging and cancer research due to its exceptional longevity and cancer resistance. We observed that the reprogramming efficiency of NMR fibroblasts in response to OSKM was drastically lower than that of mouse fibroblasts. Expression of SV40 LargeT antigen (LT) dramatically improved reprogramming of NMR fibroblasts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNono is a component of the para-speckle, which stores and processes RNA. Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) lack para-speckles, leaving the function of Nono in mESCs unclear. Here, we find that Nono functions as a chromatin regulator cooperating with Erk to regulate mESC pluripotency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTen Eleven Translocation (TET) protein-catalyzed 5mC oxidation not only creates novel DNA modifications, such as 5hmC, but also initiates active or passive DNA demethylation. TETs' role in the crosstalk with specific histone modifications, however, is largely elusive. Here, we show that TET2-mediated DNA demethylation plays a primary role in the de novo establishment and maintenance of H3K4me3/H3K27me3 bivalent domains underlying methylated DNA CpG islands (CGIs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTen-eleven translocation (Tet) proteins are key players involved in the dynamic regulation of cytosine methylation and demethylation. Inactivating mutations of Tet2 are frequently found in human malignancies, highlighting the essential role of Tet2 in cellular transformation. However, the factors that control Tet enzymatic activity remain largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreeclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. However, as a common form of PE, the etiology of late-onset PE is elusive. We analyzed 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) levels in the placentas of late-onset severe PE patients (n = 4) and normal controls (n = 4) using a (hydroxy)methylated DNA immunoprecipitation approach combined with deep sequencing ([h]MeDIP-seq), and the results were verified by (h)MeDIP-qPCR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) has been reported to repress and activate transcription by mediating histone H3K4me1/2 and H3K9me1/2 demethylation, respectively. The molecular mechanism that underlies this dual substrate specificity has remained unknown. Here we report that an isoform of LSD1, LSD1+8a, does not have the intrinsic capability to demethylate H3K4me2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBS69 (also called ZMYND11) contains tandemly arranged PHD, BROMO, and PWWP domains, which are chromatin recognition modalities. Here, we show that BS69 selectively recognizes histone variant H3.3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe histone H3 Lys 27 (H3K27) demethylase JMJD3 has been shown to play important roles in transcriptional regulation and cell differentiation. However, the mechanism underlying JMJD3-mediated transcriptional regulation remains incompletely understood. Here we show that JMJD3 is associated with KIAA1718, whose substrates include dimethylated H3K27 (H3K27me2), and proteins involved in transcriptional elongation.
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