Chez les eucaryotes, l’ADN est empaqueté dans des complexes protéiques d’histones nommés nucléosomes qui assurent sa conformation. Cet arrangement est hétérogène à travers le génome et peut être dynamiquement modifié. La régulation de l’architecture chromatinienne joue un rôle essentiel dans la stabilité des génomes ainsi que la dynamique transcriptionnelle. Certaines régions qualifiées d’ ‘’heterochromatine constitutive’’ sont toutefois connues pour être maintenues à l’état condensé. Régionalisées aux extrémités et centres des chromosomes, l’hétérochromatine constitutive participe des fonctions télomériques et centromériques.Spodoptera frugiperda (S.fru, Lépidoptère, Noctuelle) est un ravageur de culture endémique du continent américain, récemment invasif dans le continent africain. Comme tous les Lépidoptères, S.fru est une espèce holocentrique dont le centromère est réparti le long des chromosomes et non restreint en un point unique. Cette disposition interroge sur l’établissement, la distribution ainsi que la fonction conservée de l’HC puisque cette dernière est principalement décrite pour être majoritairement localisée dans de larges régions péricentriques. Comprendre l’architecture chromatinienne chez S.fru peut avoir un intérêt en lutte biologique mais également permettre d’approfondir les connaissances en épigénétique chez un organisme non-modèle.Dans le cadre de la thèse, nous nous sommes demandés si la diméthylation de la lysine 9 de l’histone 3 (H3K9me2), marqueur de l’hétérochromatine constitutive, possédait un rôle conservé chez S.fru. Pour ce faire, nous avons comparé des données de ChIP-seq d’H3K9me2 sur cellules et larves entières après avoir annoté les gènes et l’ensemble des éléments répétés du génome, susceptibles d’être enrichis par cette marque. Parallèlement, des échantillons d’ARN-seq ont été étudiés afin de questionner le statut répressif de l’hétérochromatine constitutive. Nos résultats suggèrent un invariable maintien d’H3K9me2 dans les régions (sub)télomériques transcriptionnellement inactives ainsi qu’une forte association aux locus répétés d'ADN ribosomal (rDNA). Ces séquences ne constituent toutefois qu’une minorité des régions enrichies, le reste étant retrouvé dans des séquences répétées ainsi que dans le corps des gènes, indifféremment de leur état transcriptionnel. La persistante association d’H3K9me2 aux télomères et rDNA présagerait d’un maintien de la marque à proximité des centromères dont nous proposons un modèle d’établissement.La disposition de l’hétérochromatine constitutive questionne celle des régions euchromatiniennes, pauvres en nucléosomes, transcriptionnellement active et dynamiquement modifiées au cours du développement, du cycle cellulaire et des conditions environnementales. Afin de tester l’antagonisme de ces conformations, nous avons respectivement étudié la répartition des zones ouvertes et fermées du génome de la larve au stade L4 par approches de FAIRE-seq et de MAINE-seq. Ces structures ont été décrites dans la littérature pour être enrichies par de spécifiques modifications d’histones. Ainsi nous avons mis au point le protocole de native ChIP-seq d’H3K4me3 (marque active) et H3K9me2, H3K9me3, H3K27me3 (marques répressives). L’analyse en cours de l’ensemble de ces données de séquençages permettra d’avoir une vue intégrée de l’architecture chromatinienne au stade ravageur. / In eukaryotes, DNA is arranged in histones proteins complexes called nucleosomes that shape its conformation. This arrangement is heterogeneous across genomes and can be dynamically modified. Regulation of chromatin architecture plays an essential role in genome stability and transcription dynamics. Some regions named ‘’constitutive heterochromatin’’ are nonetheless known to remain highly condensed, regardless of conditions. Regionalized at extremities and chromosomes centers, constitutive heterochromatin contributes to telomeric and centromeric functions.Spodoptera frugiperda (S.fru, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) is major crop pest in the Americas that recently invaded Africa. Like all Lepidopteran, S.fru is holocentric which means that its centromere is spread along chromosome and not restricted to a uniq point. This disposition question about establishment, distribution but also conserved function of constitutive heterochromatin since its usually and mainly localized in large pericentric regions.Deciphering chromatinian architecture in S.fru can be of interest in biological control but also allow to deepen epigenetic knowledge in a non-model organism.During my phD, we questionned the role of histone 3 lysine 9 demethylated (H3K9me2) in S.fru, a histone modification known in other yet described organisms to be a constitutive constitutive heterochromatinian hallmark.We compared H3K9me2 ChIP-seq data on cells and larvae after overall genomic functional annotation, potentially enriched for this mark. In parallel, RNA-seq samples were analyzed to question the putative repressive status of constitutive heterochromatin.Our results suggest an invariant retention of H3K9me2 in (sub)telomeric regions transcriptionally inactive but also a strong association of this mark in repeated ribosomal DNA locus (rDNA).These sequences constitutes nonetheless a minority of enriched regions since most of them regionalize in repeated sequences like transposons and tandem array but also gene bodies, independently of their transcriptional states.Persistent H3K9me2 association to telomeres and rDNA could predict of the conserved expression of this mark near centromeres. Based on literature and bioinformatics analysis, we proposed a model for S.fru holocentromeres.Constitutive heterochromatin questions euchromatin arrangement, described to be nucleosome poor, transcriptionally active and dynamically modified across development, cell cycle and environmental conditions. In order to test these structural antagonisms, we respectively studied open and closed genome conformations by FAIRE-seq and MAINE in larvae. These structures are reported to be associated to specific histones marks. We developed a native ChIP-seq protocol on H3K4me3 (active mark) and H3K9me2, H3K9me3, H3K27me3 (repressives marks). Overall analysis of these NGS data would help to picture an integrative view of chromatin architecture during larval pest stage.

The human genome contains slightly more than 20 000 genes that are expressed in a tissue specific manner. Transcription factors play a key role in gene regulation. By mapping the transcription factor binding sites genome-wide we can understand their role in different biological processes. In this thesis we have mapped transcription factors and histone marks along with nucleosome positions and RNA levels. In papers I and II, we used ChIP-seq to map five liver specific transcription factors that are crucial for liver development and function. We showed that the mapped transcription factors are involved in metabolism and other cellular processes. We showed that ChIP-seq can also be used to detect protein-protein interactions and functional SNPs. Finally, we showed that the epigenetic histone mark studied in paper I is associated with transcriptional activity at promoters. In paper III, we mapped nucleosome positions before and after treatment with transforming growth factor  β (TGFβ) and found that many nucleosomes changed positions when expression changed. After treatment with TGFβ, the transcription factor HNF4α was replaced by a nucleosome in some regions. In paper IV, we mapped USF1 transcription factor and three active chromatin marks in normal liver tissue and in liver tissue of patients diagnosed with alcoholic steatohepatitis. Using gene ontology, we as expected identified many metabolism related genes as active in normal samples whereas genes in cancer pathways were active in steatohepatitis tissue. Cancer is a common complication to the disease and early signs of this were found. We also found many novel and GWAS catalogue SNPs that are candidates to be functional. In conclusion, our results have provided information on location and structure of regulatory elements which will lead to better knowledge on liver function and disease.

Inheritance of gene expression patterns through multiple rounds of cell division is crucial for the normal development of multi-cellular organisms and is mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Many epigenetic mechanisms are believed to involve heritable changes to chromatin structure. This includes maintenance of transcriptional repression by Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins. It is unknown how PcG-dependent repression is maintained during or re-established after mitosis, a process that involves many physical and biochemical changes to chromatin. Understanding the behavior of PcG proteins during mitosis is key to answering this question: if PcG proteins remain bound in mitosis they may constitute the memory themselves, or else transcriptional memory must reside elsewhere, such as in the altered chromatin structures induced by PcG proteins. PcG protein association with chromosomes in mitosis in Drosophila S2 cells was examined by immunofluorescence and cellular fractionation. PcG proteins are associated with mitotic chromosomes, which is consistent with a role in carrying information about transcriptional repression through mitosis. Localization of PcG proteins to specific sites in the genome was assessed by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by genome-wide sequencing (ChIP- SEQ) on mitotic cells. A method for isolating pure populations of mitotic cells was developed to access PcG protein localization in mitosis unambiguously. PcG proteins were not detected at well-characterized PcG targets including Hox genes on mitotic chromosomes, but a covalent modification of histone H3 associated with PcG- dependent repression, trimethylation of lysine 27 (H3K27me3), is retained at these sites. Two PcG proteins Posterior Sex Combs (PSC) and Polyhomeotic (PH) remain at about 10% of their interphase binding sites in mitosis. PSC and PH are preferentially retained in mitosis at sites that overlap recently described borders of chromatin domains (1), including sites that overlap domain borders flanking Hox gene clusters. These persistent binding sites may serve to nucleate re-establishment of PcG binding at target genes upon mitotic exit, perhaps with assistance of H3K27me3. Thus PcG proteins may form part of the transcriptional memory carried through mitosis, but perhaps not by persistent association at the targets of repression. Retention of elements at chromatin boundaries in mitosis may serve as a general mechanism for epigenetic memory.

The healthy development of a living cell requires precise spatial-temporal gene expression. The code that dictates when and where genes are expressed is stored in a pattern of specific sequence motifs, which can be recognised by transcription factors. Understanding the interaction between these DNA sequence motifs and transcription factors will help to elucidate how genomic sequences build transcriptional control networks. However, the DNA-binding specificities of ~1400 human transcription factors are largely unknown. The in vivo DNA-binding events of transcription factors involve great subtlety, because most transcription factors recognise degenerate sequence motifs and related transcription factors often prefer similar or even identical sequences. Forkhead transcription factors exemplify these challenges. To understand how members within the Forkhead transcription factor family gain their binding and functional specificities, we used chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) to interrogate the genome-wide chromatin binding events of three Forkhead transcription factors: FOXM1, FOXO3 and FOXK2. We find that FOXM1 specifically binds to the promoters of a large array of genes whose activities peak at the G2 and M phases of the cell cycle. The canonical Forkhead consensus GTAAACA is not enriched within the FOXM1 cistrome. It gains its own specific binding events and biological functions by interacting and cooperating with the MMB complex. FOXO3 and FOXK2 are recruited to chromatin by the canonical Forkhead consensus GTAAACA, and they bind both shared and specific regions in the genome. FOXO3 mostly binds to the regions which are also bound by FOXK2, but no competitive or assisted binding between FOXO3 and FOXK2 is detected within those regions. Overall, these results help explain how individual members of the Forkhead transcription factor family gain binding specificity within the genome yet raises new questions of how functional specificity is achieved by other family members.

Adult skeletal muscles can regenerate after injury due to the presence of satellite cells, a quiescent population of myogenic progenitor cells characterized by expressing the transcription factor Pax7. Once activated, satellite cells repair the muscle damage and replenish the stem cell niche due to the coordinated function of several transcription factors including Pax7 and the myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs). MRFs are skeletal muscle-specific transcription factors that can convert non-muscle cells into the myogenic lineage. MRFs are known to cooperate with other transcription factors in regulating the complex transcriptional network driving myogenic differentiation of muscle progenitors. The Six4 transcription factor emerges as a strong candidate for cooperating with MRFs. Six4 is expressed in skeletal muscles; the lack of a muscle development phenotype in Six4-null mice has been attributed to compensation by other Six family members. However, this did not exclude a critical role for Six4 during muscle development as Six1;Six4 double mutant mice show a more severe muscle phenotype than Six1 mutant mice. Nevertheless, the role of Six4 during adult muscle regeneration has never been addressed. I combined a partial loss-of-function of Six4 with high-throughput approaches to address the role of Six4 during adult skeletal muscle regeneration. I observed an important function of Six4 during muscle regeneration in vivo and in in vitro cell models. Using RNA interference assays against Six4 in tibialis anterior muscle regeneration after cardiotoxin-induced muscle damage, I observed for the first time that Six4 plays a role in proper muscle regeneration. The ability of the MRF MyoD, a central regulator of skeletal myogenesis, to convert a non-muscle cell model into the myogenic lineage was impaired with attenuated Six4 expression. I employed genome-wide approaches by combining ChIP-sequencing with gene expression profiling and identified a set of muscle genes coordinately regulated by both Six4 and MyoD. Throughout the genome, the cooperation between Six4 and MyoD was associated with binding of the H3K27me3 demethylase Utx and depletion of the H3K27me3 repressive chromatin mark. Together, these results reveal an important role for Six4 during adult muscle regeneration, and suggest a widespread mechanism of cooperation between Six4 and MyoD that correlates with modifying the epigenetic landscape of the regulatory regions of a large set of genes needed for efficient myogenesis.

Sex differences in mammalian gene expression result from differences in genotypic sex as well as in hormonal regulators between males and females. In rat, mouse and human liver, ~1000 genes are expressed in a sex-dependent manner, and contribute to sex differences in metabolism of drugs, steroids and lipids, and in liver and cardiovascular disease risk. In rats and mice, sex-biased liver gene expression is primarily dictated by the sexually dimorphic pattern of pituitary growth hormone (GH) release and its STAT5-dependent transcriptional activities. Studies presented in this thesis include the following. (1) A computational approach based on DNA sequence and phylogenetic conservation was developed and used to identify novel functional STAT5 binding sites - both consensus and non-consensus STAT5 sequences - near prototypic GH-responsive genes. (2) Global gene expression analysis of livers from pituitary-ablated male and female mice identified four major classes of sex-biased genes differing in their profiles of GH dependence. (3) Sex-differences in DNase-hypersensitive sites (DHS, corresponding to open chromatin regions) were identified genome-wide in mouse liver. These sex-differential DHSs were enriched for association with sex-biased genes, but a majority was distant from sex-biased genes. Furthermore, many were responsive to GH treatment, demonstrating that GH-mediated regulation involves chromatin remodeling. Analysis of sequence motifs enriched at sex-biased DHSs implicated STAT5 and novel transcription factors such as PBX1 and TAL1 in sex-biased gene regulation. (4) Genome-wide mapping of histone modifications revealed distinct mechanisms of sex-biased gene regulation in male and female liver: sex-dependent K27me3-mediated repression is an important mechanism of repression of female-biased, but not of male-biased, genes, and a sex-dependent K4me1 distribution, suggesting nucleosome repositioning by pioneer factors, is observed at male-biased, but not female-biased, regulatory sites. STAT5-mediated activation was most strongly associated with sex-biased chromatin modifications, while BCL6-mediated repression primarily occurs in association with sex-independent chromatin modifications, both at binding sites and at target genes. The relationships between sex-dependent chromatin accessibility, chromatin modifications and transcription-factor binding uncovered by these studies help elucidate the molecular mechanisms governing sex-differential gene expression, and underscore the utility of functional genomic and epigenetic studies as tools for elucidating transcriptional regulation in complex mammalian systems.

La voie Wnt/β-caténine est impliquée dans la prolifération et le contrôle du destin cellulaire de nombreux tissus à la fois au cours du développement et pour le maintien de l’homéostasie chez l’adulte. L’équipe a montré qu’une activation aberrante de la β-caténine conduisait au développement de carcinomes hépatocellulaires (CHC), alors que son activation physiologique dans une souspopulation d'hépatocytes du foie adulte (les hépatocytes éricentraux) permet la mise en place et le maintien du zonage métabolique. Ce zonage hépatique peut être considéré comme une différenciation terminale des hépatocytes, et permet au foie d'être pleinement fonctionnel. L’objet de ma thèse a été d’identifier les déterminants moléculaires expliquant la diversité d’action de la β-caténine dans le foie. J'ai tiré profit de modèles génétiques développés au laboratoire d'activation ou d'inactivation inductibles de la voie β-caténine dans le foie. A partir d'hépatocytes isolés de ces modèles, j'ai recherché par ChIp-seq (immunoprécipitation de chromatine couplée à un séquençage haut-débit) les sites de fixation sur l’ADN de la β-caténine et de Tcf4, que j'ai identifié comme principal médiateur de l’activité nucléaire de la β-caténine dans le foie. Ces données, couplées à des études d’accessibilité de la chromatine et de transcriptome ont permis d’identifier la structure de la chromatine et Hnf4a comme déterminants majeurs permettant à la beta-caténine de contrôlerpositivement et négativement des programmes génétiques spécifiquement hépatiques, qui luipermettent d'assurer le zonage métabolique du foie. En effet, Hnf4a a un rôle antagoniste de la β-caténine, contrôlant positivement la transcription des gènes réprimés par la β-caténine. Ce contrôles'exerce grâce à un dialogue d'Hnf4a avec Tcf4 et la β-caténine, qui s'opère majoritairement via des interactions entre ces protéines. Nous proposons ainsi que la β-caténine coopère avec le facteur de transcription Hnf4a, connu pour contrôler les gènes du métabolisme hépatocytaire, pour assurer la différenciation terminale hépatique. J'ai également recherché les partenaires protéiques nucléaires de la β-caténine par coimmunoprécipiatation couplée à de la spectrométrie de masse. Plusieurs protéines jouant un rôle dans l'épissage des ARN ont pu être identifiées de cette manière. La quantification exon par exon des transcrits séquencés par RNA-Seq m'ont également permis d'identifier une possible régulation directede l’épissage des gènes SLC39A14 et NDRG2 par la β-caténine. Enfin, nous nous sommes attachés à comprendre comment la β-caténine jouait un rôle prolifératif suite à son activation aberrante dans le foie d'une part (par l'utilisation d'un modèle transgénique prénéoplasique) et lors de la régénération hépatique d'autre part. Nous avons pu démontré que ce rôle prolifératif était complexe, seulement partiellement autocrine, mettant en jeu la Cycline D1 et le facteur de croissance Tgfa, que nous avons définis comme étant des cibles directes de la β-caténine dans le foie. Ces derniers résultats évoquent également un dialogue fonctionnel entre la voie β-caténine et la cascade de signalisation Tgfa-Egf/Egfr/Erk pour assurer la prolifération hépatocytaire. / The Wnt/β-catenin pathway is involved in proliferation and cell fate control and regulatesdevelopmental stages as well as adult tissue homeostasis. Our team has previously shown that aberrantB-catenin signaling induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) development, whereas physiologicalactivation in a subpopulation of adult liver hepatocytes (pericentral hepatocytes) patterns liverzonation. This hepatic zonation can be considered as hepatocytes terminal differenciation.My thesis aimed to identify key molecular determinants allowing diversity upon β-catenin activation.I took advantage of genetically engineered mice models of activation or inactivation of β-catenin,developped in the laboratory. Using hepatocytes obtained from these models I identified β-catenin andTcf4, that I previously identifed as the main effector of nuclear β-catenin in liver, binding sites byChIp-seq (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing). Couplingbinding site localization to transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility studies allowed to identifychromatin structure and tissue specific transcription factor HNF4A as key modulators of β-cateninsignaling in the liver and therefore modulators of metabolic zonation. Indeed, β-catenin negativelyregulates Hnf4a target genes. This negative control exerts essentially via protein interactions. Wepropose that β-catenin and Hnf4a cooperates to ensure terminal hepatic differenciation.I also searched for nuclear β-catenin partners by co-immunoprecipitation followed by massspectrometry. This approach revealed many splicing factors as beta-catenin partners. RNA seqanalysis revealed a possible direct regulation of splicing of SL39A14 and NDRG2 genes.Finally we tried to understand the proliferative role of β-catenin during liver regeneration. Wedemonstrated a complex and partially autocrine role of B-catenin. We defined CyclinD1 and thegrowth factor Tgfa as β-catenin direct targets in the liver. These latest results also imply a functionnaldialog between the β-catenin pathway and Tgfa-Egf/Egfr/Erk signalisation cascade to allowhepatocytes proliferation.

G-quadruplexes (G4s) are four-stranded, non-canonical secondary DNA structures which have been shown to readily form in G-rich sequences in vitro. G4 formation can affect chromatin architecture and has been implicated in promoting genomic instability, and linked to biological processes such as transcription, replication and telomere maintenance. In this project, ChIP-seq data derived with G4-specific antibodies from mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) are analysed and integrated with different histone 3 (H3) modification data sets.The analysis method follows a standard ChIP-seq data analysis workflow, which includes steps such as calculation of quality metrics, peak calling and downstream analyses. The results show enrichment of G-rich motifs and prevalence of G4s in functional regions such as promoter-TSSs and 5'UTRs. In addition, there is some evidence of a potential association with oncogene promoter regions and location of G4s, which would support previous findings. Furthermore, the results indicate a possible correlation between loss of histone modifications H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), and G4 occurence. G4s have become increasingly popular to study in recent times and may harbour potential to be targeted for cancer therapy.

La méthode ChIP-seq est une technologie combinant la technique de chromatine immunoprecipitation avec le séquençage haut-débit et permettant l’analyse in vivo des facteurs de transcription à grande échelle. Le traitement des grandes quantités de données ainsi générées nécessite des moyens informatiques performants et de nombreux outils ont vu le jour récemment. Reste cependant que cette multiplication des logiciels réalisant chacun une étape de l’analyse engendre des problèmes de compatibilité et complique les analyses. Il existe ainsi un besoin important pour une suite de logiciels performante et flexible permettant l’identification des motifs. Nous proposons ici un ensemble complet d’analyse de données ChIP-seq disponible librement dans R et composé de trois modules PICS, rGADEM et MotIV. A travers l’analyse de quatre jeux de données des facteurs de transcription CTCF, STAT1, FOXA1 et ER nous avons démontré l’efficacité de notre ensemble d’analyse et mis en avant les fonctionnalités novatrices de celui-ci, notamment concernant le traitement des résultats par MotIV conduisant à la découverte de motifs non détectés par les autres algorithmes. / ChIP-seq is a technology combining the chromatin immunoprecipitation method with high-throughput sequencing and allowing the analysis of transcription factors in vivo on a genome wide scale. The treatment of such amount of data generated by this method requires strong computer resources and new tools have been recently developed. Though this proliferation of software performing only one step of the analyze leads to compatibility problems and complicates the analysis. Thus, there is a real need for an integrated, powerful and flexible pipeline for motifs identification. Here we proposed a complete pipeline for the analysis of ChIP-seq data freely available in R and composed of three R packages PICS, rGADEM and MotIV. Analyzing four data sets for the human transcription factors CTCF, STAT1, FOXA1 and ER we demonstrated the efficiency of or pipeline and highlighted its new features, especially concerning the processing of the results by MotIV that led to the identification of motif not detected by other methods.

Background: Histone modifications play an important role in gene regulation. Their genomic locations are of great interest. Usually, the location is measured by ChIP-seq and analyzed with a peak-caller. Replicated ChIP-seq experiments become more and more available. However, their analysis is based on single-experiment peak-calling or on tools like PePr which allows peak-calling of replicates but whose underlying model might not be suitable for the conditions under which the experiments are performed. Results: We propose a new peak-caller called \"Sierra Platinum\" that allows peak-calling of replicated ChIP-seq experiments. Moreover, it provides a variety of quality measures together with integrated visualizations supporting the assessment of the replicates and the resulting peaks, as well as steering the peak-calling process. Conclusion: We show that Sierra Platinum outperforms currently available methods using a newly generated benchmark data set and using real data from the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Project. It is robust against noisy replicates.