Although structurally unrelated, the human killer cell immunoglobulin-like (KIR) and the rodent lectin-like Ly49 receptors serve similar functional roles in natural killer (NK) cells. Moreover, both gene families display variegated and mostly mono-allelic expression patterns established at the transcriptional level. DNA methylation, but not histone modifications, has recently been shown to play an important role in maintenance of the expression patterns of KIR genes but the potential role of DNA methylation in the expression of Ly49 genes was unknown. My thesis focuses on the role of epigenetic modifications, especially DNA methylation, in the maintenance of mouse Ly49 gene expression. I show that hypomethylation of the region encompassing the main promoter of Ly49a and Ly49c in primary C57BL/6 (B6) mouse NK cells correlates with expression of these genes. Using B6 x BALB/c Fl hybrid mice, I demonstrate that the expressed allele of Ly49a is hypomethylated while the non-expressed allele is heavily methylated, indicating a role for epigenetics in maintaining mono-allelic Ly49 gene expression. Furthermore, the Ly49a promoter region is heavily methylated in fetal NK cells but variably methylated in non-lymphoid tissues. In apparent contrast to the KIR genes, I show that histone acetylation state of the promoter region strictly correlate with Ly49A and Ly49G expression status. Also, the instability of Ly49G expression on some lymphoid cell lines is at least in part due to changes in the level of histone acetylation of the promoter region. As for the activating Ly49 receptors, it seems that although DNA methylation levels of the promoter regions do correlate with the state of expression of these receptors, the pattern of DNA methylation is different from that of the inhibitory Ly49a and c genes. In conclusion, my results support a role for epigenetic mechanisms in the maintenance of Ly49 expression. Moreover, these epigenetic mechanisms appear to vary among the Ly49 genes and also differ from those governing KIR expression.

Regulation of gene expression is vital for proper growth and prevention of disease states. In eukaryotes this regulation occurs in the context of chromatin which creates an inherent barrier for the binding of trans-acting factors, such as transcription factors and RNA polymerase. This dissertation focuses on the role of transcriptional activators and chromatin remodeling coactivators in the regulation of the repressible acid phosphatase gene PHO5. Our studies show that histone methylation at lysine 4 of histone H3 is required for the full repression of PHO5and GAL1-10. We show that bromodomains, a domain conserved in chromatin remodeling coactivators, may function to stabilize binding. Finally, we present a strategy using DNA methyltransferases as in vivo probes to detect DNA-protein interactions and examine chromatin structure. We extend this strategy to zinc-finger proteins which can be engineered to bind to any desired DNA sequence as a means of targeting methylation with potential use in epigenetic silencing.

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease both clinically and biologically. Approximately 55% of AML harbour karyotypic changes, and one of the most common chromosomal aberrations is the t(8;21)(q22;q22), which leads to the AML1-ETO fusion protein. Previous studies have found that this fusion protein recruits the N-CoR/mSin3A/HDAC complex, thereby acts as a transcriptional repressor. Recently, DNA methylation array studies have shown that DNA methylation patterns can stratify AML cases into different subgroups, and some of these correspond to certain chromosomal abnormalities, such as the t(8;21). These findings suggest a possible link between the fusion transcript AML1-ETO and epigenetic modifications. Additionally, c-kit mutations have emerged as an important disease modifier in the t(8;21) AML and are correlated with poor overall survival and event free survival in patients with t(8;21) AML. We therefore sought to investigate whether there are different DNA methylation patterns in t(8;21) AML with or without c-kit mutations. In our series, 52.2% of the t(8;21) AMLs harbored c-kit mutations, which were correlated with poor event free survival. We next performed pyrosequencing on a selected panel of genes and pinpointed the THBS4 and PAWR genes as hypermethylated in their promoter CpG islands in 86.4% and 59.1% of the t(8;21) AML patients, respectively. These data suggest that THBS4 and PAWR may be important in the pathogenesis of t(8;21) AML. / published_or_final_version / Pathology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene undergoes chromosomal translocation with over 60 different fusion partner genes in human leukemias. The resultant MLL-fusion oncoproteins are profoundly implicated in leukemias with poor prognosis. Epigenetic dysregulations have been frequently reported in MLL-rearranged leukemogenesis. Our study aims to investigate the correlations between epigenetic alterations, including both histone modification and DNA methylation, and gene dysregulation in MLL-rearranged leukemia. My study focused on MLL-EEN fusion protein, which causes an onset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A novel Mll-Een expressing cell line, VLA33, was derived from the bone marrow of Mll-Een knockin mouse with AML phenotype. The cells were mainly myeloblast cells, possessing clonogenic ability and showed upregulation of Hoxa cluster genes. Previous study demonstrated that the protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) plays a significant role in MLL-EEN leukemogenesis through conferring H4R3 asymmetric dimethylation (H4R3me2a) mark on HoxA9 locus. Consistently, our ChIP analysis demonstrated enrichment of H4R3me2a at the Hoxa promoters while knockdown of Prmt1 attenuated the expression of Hoxa genes and reduced in vitro clonogenic potential of VLA33 cells. CD41, Runx1 and Tgm2 genes, which showed elevated expression in VLA33 cells, were identified as potential target genes of Mll-Een/Prmt1 complex. However, enrichment of active H4R3me2a was only observed at Runx1 promoters, but not at the regulatory regions of CD41 and Tgm2. Inhibition of Prmt1 by inhibitor AMI-1 reduced Runx1 and CD41 expression. Although Prmt1 knockdown reduced the enrichment of H4R3me2a at Runx1 promoter, it did not suppress the expression of Runx1. These data suggest the involvement of other regulatory mechanism and Prmt1 is not the sole factor causing gene dysregulation. CD41 is a marker of murine definitive hematopoietic progenitors. Interestingly, the CD41+ VLA33 cells demonstrated a trend of enhanced self-renewal ability in colony-forming assay as compared with CD41-/low cells. The CD41 expression was positively correlated with Mll-Een and Prmt1 expression. In addition, CD41+ cells expressed higher level of Hoxa9, Bmi-1, Runx1, Tal-1 and Lmo2 genes that are associated with HSC activities, suggesting reactivation of stem-cell regulatory program in CD41+ leukemia cells, which confer as leukemia stem cell population. The association between DNA methylation and MLL-EEN leukemogenesis was also investigated. The results demonstrated the establishment of stem cell Hox code, which was correlated with DNA hypomethylation status at Hox gene promoters in Mll-Een leukemia cells. Besides, Hox activation through DNA hypomethylation was independent of Prmt1-mediated histone modification, but was found associated with reduction of Bmi-1 binding at Hox loci. In conclusion, my study identified novel dysregulated genes in Mll-Een leukemogenesis. My findings provide insight into the reactivation of stem-cell program in leukemia cells through epigenetic dysregulation, which furthers our understanding of MLL-rearranged leukemogenesis. / published_or_final_version / Pathology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

Although structurally unrelated, the human killer cell immunoglobulin-like (KIR) and the rodent lectin-like Ly49 receptors serve similar functional roles in natural killer (NK) cells. Moreover, both gene families display variegated and mostly mono-allelic expression patterns established at the transcriptional level. DNA methylation, but not histone modifications, has recently been shown to play an important role in maintenance of the expression patterns of KIR genes but the potential role of DNA methylation in the expression of Ly49 genes was unknown. My thesis focuses on the role of epigenetic modifications, especially DNA methylation, in the maintenance of mouse Ly49 gene expression. I show that hypomethylation of the region encompassing the main promoter of Ly49a and Ly49c in primary C57BL/6 (B6) mouse NK cells correlates with expression of these genes. Using B6 x BALB/c Fl hybrid mice, I demonstrate that the expressed allele of Ly49a is hypomethylated while the non-expressed allele is heavily methylated, indicating a role for epigenetics in maintaining mono-allelic Ly49 gene expression. Furthermore, the Ly49a promoter region is heavily methylated in fetal NK cells but variably methylated in non-lymphoid tissues. In apparent contrast to the KIR genes, I show that histone acetylation state of the promoter region strictly correlate with Ly49A and Ly49G expression status. Also, the instability of Ly49G expression on some lymphoid cell lines is at least in part due to changes in the level of histone acetylation of the promoter region. As for the activating Ly49 receptors, it seems that although DNA methylation levels of the promoter regions do correlate with the state of expression of these receptors, the pattern of DNA methylation is different from that of the inhibitory Ly49a and c genes. In conclusion, my results support a role for epigenetic mechanisms in the maintenance of Ly49 expression. Moreover, these epigenetic mechanisms appear to vary among the Ly49 genes and also differ from those governing KIR expression.

High throughput transcriptomic analyses have realized us with the fact that eukaryotic genome encodes thousands of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) with unknown function. In my thesis, I sought to address epigenetic regulation of transcription by ncRNA using the Kcnq1 imprinted cluster as a model system. Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon whereby one of the parental alleles is silenced by epigenetic mechanism in a parent of origin-specific manner. A long ncRNA Kcnq1ot1 regulates imprinting of nearly 8 protein coding genes in the Kcnq1 imprinted cluster. Expression of Kcnq1ot1 is restricted to the paternal chromosome while that of protein-coding genes to the maternal chromosome. Kcnq1ot1 is a 91kb long, moderately stable, nuclear localized and RNAPII encoded transcript. We demonstrated that Kcnq1ot1 RNA itself mediates lineage specific silencing on the paternal chromosome by interacting with chromatin and recruiting the repressive chromatin modifiers to the imprinted gene promoters. Previously we identified an 890bp silencing domain (SD) at the 5´end of the Kcnq1ot1 RNA which is responsible for gene silencing. Targeted deletion of the 890SD in mouse resulted in specific loss of silencing of ubiquitously imprinted genes. We have further shown that Kcnq1ot1 interacts with Dnmt1 and recruit Dnmt1 at the somatic DMRs flanking some of the ubiquitously imprinted genes. We next addressed the stability of the Kcnq1ot1 mediated epigenetic silencing using transgenic mouse where we have conditionally deleted the Kcnq1ot1 RNA at different developmental stages and we found that Kcnq1ot1 RNA is required to maintain the silencing of the ubiquitously imprinted genes. In addition, DNA methylation, which controls imprinting of the ubiquitous genes require Kcnq1ot1 for its maintenance. To characterize the ncRNAs that mediate gene regulation through chromatin interaction we have isolated chromatin associated RNAs (CARs) from sucrose gradient fractioned chromatin. High-throughput sequencing of the CARs resulted in the identification of the 141 intronic and 74 intergenic regions harboring CARs. We characterized one of the intergenic CARs which regulate the transcription of the two neighboring genes by modulating the chromatin marks. In summary current thesis has uncovered unprecedented role of ncRNAs in gene expression via chromatin level regulation.

DNA methylation is increasingly recognised as a significant epigenetic event that may initiate and drive the process of neoplasia in humans. In the colon, DNA methylation of key genes is common in a subset of colorectal cancers. The extent to which DNA methylation at various genes contributes to initiation of colorectal neoplasms is less clear. This study sought to clarify the biological and clinicopathological significance of methylation of various genes in the development of sporadic and familial colorectal neoplasia. Quantitative methylation-specific PCR (qMSP) assays (capable of detecting down to a measureable proportion of 0.1% of the total input DNA) were developed to determine the presence of CpG methylation at a given gene. Methylation of MLH1-C was found in the apparently normal mucosa samples from seven of 104 (7%) of individuals with sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) showing microsatellite instability (MSI). No methylation of MLH1-C was found in the biological samples of individuals with microsatellite stable (MSS) counterparts (n=131). MLH1-C methylation may be a field defect that predisposes to the development of sporadic colorectal neoplasia, particularly those demonstrating MSI. Methylation of three of five genes within the 3p22 region including AB002340, MLH1, ITGA9, PLCD1 and DLEC1 (regional 3p22 methylation) was found in 83% of sporadic MSI (n=86) and 12% of MSS cancers demonstrating BRAF V600E mutation (n=42). Regional 3p22 correlated strongly with CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), and other clinicopathological characteristics typical of CIMP. Thus, regional 3p22 methylation and CIMP may be overlapping phenomena. Regional 3p22 methylation and the BRAF V600E mutation were found in normal colonic mucosa of four individuals with sporadic MSI CRC, and these cases also had multiple synchronous serrated polyps. These molecular aberrancies may predispose some individuals to the development of metachronous serrated neoplasia. Germline epimutations of APC do not contribute towards the development of FAP, AFAP, or hyperplastic polyposis syndromes. However, APC methylation in normal colonic mucosa of these individuals may represent a field defect in the development of futher neoplasms. In conclusion, different patterns of DNA methylation in normal colonic mucosa may represent a field defect important in the development of different subtypes of colorectal neoplasia.