Le maintien de l'intégrité du génome est essentiel pour la survie cellulaire et la propagation de l'information génétique. Une mauvaise prise en charge des dommages de l’ADN et / ou une aberration de la maintenance de l’intégrité des télomères - les extrémités des chromosomes linéaires - provoquent chez l'homme des pathologies associées à une instabilité génétique. Ainsi, des dysfonctions télomériques sont à l’origine de la Dyskératose Congénitale (DC), et de sa forme rare et sévère, le Syndrome de Hoyeraal-Hreidarsson (HHS). Les DC et HHS se caractérisent principalement par une insuffisance médullaire progressive, des défauts développementaux et une prédisposition à développer des cancers. Par ailleurs, de nombreux syndromes associant déficits immunitaires et anomalies développementales sont causés par des défauts de réparation de l'ADN (cas de déficits immunitaires sévères, de l’Anémie de Fanconi (FA), de l’ataxie télangiectasie (AT), etc …). Au cours de ce travail, nous avons réalisé une étude phénotypique et génétique de patients atteints de deux pathologies aux caractéristiques cliniques distinctes. Ce travail de thèse a permis : 1) d'une part d'identifier des mutations de RTEL1 chez 3 patients atteints de HHS, décrivant ainsi une nouvelle cause moléculaire de cette pathologie. L'analyse des cellules de ces patients a révélé le rôle crucial que joue RTEL1 sur la stabilité du génome et le maintien des télomères dans des cellules humaines. 2) d'autre part, d'identifier un défaut en MYSM1, une histone déubiquitinase, dans un nouveau syndrome immuno-hématologique associé à des défauts de réparation de l’ADN présentant certaines similitudes avec l'anémie de Fanconi. Cette étude démontre pour la première fois, qu'outre son rôle dans la régulation transcriptionnelle, MYSM1 participe également aux mécanismes de réparation des lésions de l'ADN. / Maintaining genome integrity is essential for cell survival and propagation of the genetic information. Improper management of DNA damages and / or aberrations in maintenance of telomere - the ends of linear chromosomes - causes humans disorders associated with genetic instability. Thus, in humans, telomere dysfunction causes Dyskeratosis Congenita (DC), and its rare and severe form, Hoyeraal-Hreidarsson Syndrome (HHS). DC and HHS are mainly characterized by progressive bone marrow failure, developmental defects and predisposition to cancer. In addition, many syndromes involving immunodeficiency and developmental abnormalities are caused by defects in DNA repair (e.g. severe immune deficiencies, Fanconi Anemia (FA), Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT),…). In this work, we performed a phenotypic and genetic study of patients with two syndromes presenting distinct clinical features. This work permitted : 1) on one hand, to identify RTEL1 mutations in patients with HHS and describe a new molecular cause of this disease. The analysis of patients’ cells revealed the crucial role for RTEL1 in genome stability and telomere maintenance in human cells. 2) on the other hand, to identify mutations in MYSM1, a histone deubiquitinase, in a new immuno-hematological syndrome associated with defects in DNA repair and sharing some similarities with Fanconi anemia. This study demonstrates for the first time that, in addition to its role in transcriptional regulation, MYSM1 is required to cope with DNA damages.

A bacterial and archaeal adaptive immune system, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas), has recently been engineered for genome editing. This RNA-guided platform has simplified genetic manipulation and holds promise for therapeutic applications. However, off-target editing has been one of the major concerns of the commonly used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpyCas9). Despite extensive enzyme engineering to reduce off-target editing of SpyCas9, we have turned to nature and uncovered a Cas9 ortholog from Neisseria meningitidis (Nme) with high fidelity. In the first part of my thesis, we have systematically characterized Nme1Cas9 for engineering mammalian genomes and demonstrated its high specificity by genome-wide off-targeting detection methods in vitro and in cellulo, and thus provided a new platform for accurate genome editing. Due to its flexibility, CRISPR is becoming a versatile tool not only for genome editing, but also for chromatin manipulation. These alternative applications are possible because of the programmable targeting capacity of catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9). In the second part of my thesis, we have combined dCas9 with the engineered plant enzyme ascorbate peroxidase (APEX2) to develop a proteomic method called dCas9-APEX2 biotinylation at genomic elements by restricted spatial tagging (C-BERST). Relying on the spatially restricted, fast biotin labeling of proteins near defined genomic loci, C-BERST enables the high-throughput identification of known telomere- and centromere- associated proteomes and novel factors. Furthermore, we have extended C-BERST to map the c-fos promoter and gained new insights regarding the dynamic transcriptional regulation process. Taken together, C-BERST can advance our understanding of chromatin regulators and their roles in nuclear and chromosome biology.

- Extended longevity and high fecundity are two phenomena typical for reproductive castes (queens, eventually kings) of eusocial insects. In my thesis, we explore the hypothesis that the longevity of reproductives in the termite Prorhinotermes simplex is linked with the activation of the telomerase enzyme complex. Telomerase is well known for its life-extension functions, due especially to its capacity to prolong the telomeric ends of chromosomes. Therefore, we studied here the gene expression of: (1) the gene TERT coding for the catalytic subunit of the telomerase and (2) the genes of the main endocrine regulatory pathways, known to be responsible for the control of reproduction and longevity in insects. Expression dynamics of these genes were measured in sterile and reproductive castes of P. simplex during their development and sexual maturation. Based on our results obtained from the TERT expression analyses and their comparison with telomerase enzyme activities, we assume that the telomerase action in the long-lived reproductive individuals is regulated at a post-transcription level. Furthermore, we observed in reproductive castes a simultaneous upregulation of some transcription variants of vitellogenin and the genes for insulin signalling pathways. We can, therefore, conclude that in...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Telomere maintenance is a critical component of genomic stability. An increasing body of evidence suggests BRCA1, a tumor suppressor gene with a variety of functions including DNA repair and cell cycle regulation, plays a role in telomere maintenance. Mutations in BRCA1 account for approximately half of all hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, and the gene is silenced via promoter methylation and loss of heterozygosity in a proportion of sporadic breast and ovarian cancers. The objective of this study was to determine whether GRN163L, a telomerase inhibitor, currently in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer, has enhanced anti-cancer activity in BRCA1 mutant breast/ovarian cancer cell lines compared to wild-type cancer cells. BRCA1 mutant cancer cells were observed to have shorter telomeres and increased sensitivity to telomerase inhibition, compared to cell lines with wild-type BRCA1. Importantly, GRN163L treatment was synergistic with DNA-damaging drugs, suggesting potential synthetic lethality of the BRCA1 cancer subtype and telomerase inhibition In a related study to examine the roles of BRCA1/2 in telomere maintenance, DNA and RNA extracted from peripheral blood were used to investigate the age-adjusted telomere lengths and telomere-related gene expression profiles of BRCA1 and BRCA2 individuals compared to individuals who developed sporadic cancer and healthy controls. BRCA1 mutation carriers and breast cancer patients showed the shortest average telomere lengths compared to the other groups. In addition, distinct genomic profiles of BRCA mutation carriers were obtained regarding overexpression of telomere-related genes compared to individuals who developed sporadic or familial breast cancer. In summary, telomerase inhibition may be a viable treatment option in BRCA1 mutant breast or ovarian cancers. These data also provides insights into further investigations on the role of BRCA1 in the biology underlying telomere dysfunction in cancer development.

Exposure of DNA to reactive oxygen species (ROS) results in the modified nucleobases (lesions) as well as strand scissions under physiological conditions. Due to its lowest oxidation potential (1.29 eV), guanine is the most easily oxidisable nucleobase. Furthermore, it has been observed that the 5'-guanine in G-tracts (e.g. GGG) has even lower oxidation potential (1.00 V vs. NHE). One of the representative G-rich examples is telomeres that consist of repeating units of 5'-d [TTAGGG]-3' found at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres play an important role in biological functions, serving as guardians of genome stability; however, their G-rich nature implies that they can be readily oxidized. So how does nature protect these biologically important regions from oxidation? We believe the formation of a secondary structure known as G-Quadruplex in telomeric regions can partly serve as a protective role. In the first part of this work, we investigated DNA G-Quadruplex damage under various oxidation conditions and compare the damage results with single-stranded telomeric sequences. Damage to G-Quadruplex is generally less than single strands and is condition dependent. Guanines are the primary damage sites, but damage of adenine and thymine is also possible. Based on our studies, telomeric DNA can be readily oxidized to produce DNA lesions. How do DNA lesions affect the conformation and the stability of telomeric G-Quadruplex DNA? In the second part, we sought to address this question using various biophysical methods. Several native (OxodG, OxodA, and abasic site) and non-native (8-NH 2 -dA and 8-Br-dA) lesions were tested. UV thermal denaturation and circular dichroism revealed that the conformation and the stability of G-Quadruplex DNA are dependent on the location and the type of lesion in the sequence. G-Quadruplex DNA containing OxodG maintains its conformation with a decreased stability. Abasic site in the TTA loop affects the conformation of G-Quadruplex DNA but shows little effect on its stability. An unexpected stabilization of telomeric G-Quadruplex DNA was observed when deoxyadenosine (dA) in the loops was replaced with its native oxidized form OxodA. This is the first example of native DNA lesion that increases the stability of G-Quadruplex DNA. Like OxodA lesion, 8-NH 2 -dA (a non native DNA lesion) increases the stability of G-Quadruplex DNA while 8-Br-dA only affects the stability in KCl but has no significant effect in NaCl. In addition, studies of the effect of OxodA lesion on the human telomerase activity using TRAP assay will be discussed.

<p>  </p> <p>Mutations drive evolution, generating variation that selection can act upon. Germline mutations are heritable genetic alterations that occur in the gametes prior to fertilization and until embryogenesis. The study of germline mutations is vital to understanding the genetic basis of heritable diseases and evolution. Somatic mutations are genetic alterations across the body that arise post-fertilization in non-gametic cells. Although somatic mutations in most animals cannot be inherited, they can still significantly affect an organism's reproductive success. In humans, for example, cancers can be the result of somatic mutations. Somatic mutations originate from both exogenous mutagens (e.g. UV radiation) and endogenous processes (e.g. DNA replication, aging). Beyond their origins, we know little about the distribution and frequency of somatic mutations across Animalia. Honey bees provide a unique model for the study of somatic mutations as they are haplodiploid: males come from unfertilized eggs and are haploid, while females come from fertilized eggs and are diploid. It is therefore possible to sequence and robustly identify somatic mutations in haploid males. I have developed a unique exploratory study to elucidate the distribution of somatic mutation accumulation in honey bee drones. With this, I aim to investigate processes generating somatic mutations. Our findings demonstrate that variance in somatic mutational load is better captured across individuals rather than within individuals (across tissues). I provide a comprehensive tissue atlas of somatic mutagenesis in haploids. Our findings drive us to enhance our view of mutagenesis from the tissue level down to the cellular level. </p>

La dysfonction de l’endothélium vasculaire, associée à une diminution de ses propriétés vasorelaxantes et anti-thrombogéniques, survient avec le vieillissement mais également chez de plus jeunes patients athérosclérotiques présentant plusieurs facteurs de risque cardiovasculaire. Au niveau cellulaire, le vieillissement des cellules endothéliales (CE) mène à un état irréversible de non division cellulaire appelé sénescence. Ces cellules sénescentes présentent des changements spécifiques au niveau de leur morphologie et de l’expression génique, menant à leur dysfonction. La sénescence dite réplicative est déclenchée par le raccourcissement des télomères survenant à chaque division cellulaire, mais peut également être induite prématurément par le stress oxydant (SIPS). L’objectif principal de cette étude est de caractériser la sénescence de CE vasculaires isolées à partir de patients athérosclérotiques, et d’observer l’impact des facteurs de risque sur cette sénescence. Afin de confirmer la contribution des deux principales voies de la sénescence, nous avons par la suite étudié conjointement ou séparément, l’impact d’un traitement chronique avec un antioxydant sur la sénescence de CE, et d’une surexpression de la sous-unité catalytique de la télomérase (hTERT), une enzyme responsable de l’allongement des télomères. Nous avons isolé et cultivé des CE provenant d’artères mammaires internes prélevées lors de pontages coronariens. Selon les études, les cellules ont été infectées ou non avec un lentivirus surexprimant la hTERT, et cultivées in vitro jusqu’à sénescence, en présence ou en absence de l’antioxydant N-acétyl-L-cystéine (NAC). Différents marqueurs des deux principales voies de la sénescence (réplicative ou SIPS) ont été quantifiés. La sénescence cellulaire se développe exponentiellement avec le temps et est associée à une réduction de la viabilité et de la prolifération cellulaires. Chez les patients athérosclérotiques, le vieillissement des CE passe par les deux principales voies de la sénescence : des télomères courts initialement en culture et la durée d’exposition in vivo aux facteurs de risque cardiovasculaire prédisent une apparition prématurée de la sénescence. Toutefois, chez les fumeurs, la sénescence est exclusivement du type SIPS. Ces facteurs de risque cardiovasculaire et principalement l’hypertension, semblent accélèrer le vieillissement biologique et favoriser la dysfonction des CE. Lorsque traitées chroniquement avec le NAC, les CE présentant initialement de moindres dommages cellulaires et moléculaires ainsi qu’une meilleure défense antioxydante développent une sénescence retardée. Lorsque le NAC est combiné à une surexpression de la hTERT, les deux voies de la sénescence sont bloquées et une immortalisation cellulaire est observée. À l’inverse, dans les CE les plus endommagées par les ROS in vivo, le NAC n’a aucun effet sur le développement de la sénescence, la hTERT, seule ou en combinaison avec le NAC, retarde légèrement la sénescence mais aucune immortalisation n’est observée lorsque ces traitements sont combinés. En conclusion, nos études démontrent que l’exposition chronique au stress oxydant associé aux facteurs de risque cardiovasculaire accélère le développement de la sénescence de CE vasculaires, contribuant potentiellement à l’athérogénèse. Dans les cellules de patients athérosclérotiques, il semble exister un seuil de dommages cellulaires et moléculaires subis in vivo au-delà duquel, aucun traitement (antioxydant ou hTERT) ne peut être bénéfique. / Vascular aging is associated with a decrease in endothelial dilatory and antithrombotic functions. This typical endothelial dysfunction, however, is also present in younger patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). At the cellular level, aging of healthy vascular endothelial cells (EC) leads to senescence, a state of permanent growth arrest. Senescence is characterized by specific changes in cell morphology and gene expression, which reduce EC function and thus are proposed to be pro-atherogenic. Age-associated telomere shortening leads to replicative senescence of human endothelial cells, but senescence can also be induced prematurely by oxidative stress (SIPS). Our aim was to characterize senescence of EC isolated from atherosclerotic patients and look at the influence of risk factors for CVD on the onset of senescence. To confirm the contribution of each of the two mains pathways triggering senescence, we then looked at the impact on senescence of a chronic treatment with an antioxidant combined or not with an overexpression of the catalytic subunit of telomerase (hTERT), a reverse transcriptase involved in telomere elongation. We used EC isolated from internal mammary arteries discarded during coronary bypass graft surgery. Depending on the study, EC were infected or not with a lentivirus overexpressing hTERT, and cells were cultured in vitro until senescence, in the presence or the absence of the antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC). Different markers of the two main pathways of senescence (replicative ou SIS) were quantified. Senescence develops exponentially with time in culture and is associated with a decrease in cell viability and proliferation. In atherosclerotic patients, cellular aging displays an overlap between replicative and stress-induced senescence: short initial telomere length in vitro and a long exposure to risk factors for CVD in vivo predict the onset of a premature senescence. However, in smoking patients, premature senescence is exclusively induced by oxidative stress. Risk factors for CVD seem to accelerate the biological aging leading to EC dysfunction. When treated chronically with NAC, EC presenting initially lower levels of damage and a better endogenous antioxidant capacity develop a delayed senescence, probably due to a slight hTERT activation. When NAC is combined with an overexpression of hTERT, both pathways triggerring senescence are blocked and cellular immortalization is observed. In contrast, in EC presenting higher levels of damage undergone in vivo, NAC has no effect by itself on the onset of senescence, hTERT delays the onset of senescence in combination or not with NAC, but no cellular immortalization was observed in NAC-hTERT cells. In conclusion, our studies show that a chronic in vivo exposition to oxidative stress associated with risk factors for CVD accelerates the onset of vascular endothelial cells senescence that could potentially contribute to atherogenesis. EC having strong antioxidant defense capacity and DNA repair mechanisms may be rescued from replicative and stress-induced senescence unless EC have undergone an insurmountable cellular and molecular damage possibly due to uncontrolled free radical production associated with risk factors for CVD.

Please find the referenced videos attached / The physical ends of eukaryotic chromosomes consist of repetitive DNA sequences, which are associated with specialized proteins forming a nucleoprotein structure essential for the integrity of the linear chromosomes, and are known as telomeres. Telomerase is an enzyme responsible for the maintenance of the telomeric repeats at the end of the chromosomes. Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein, which contains a catalytic subunit that possesses reverse transcriptase activity, and a RNA subunit that acts as a template, since it possess the telomeric repeat sequences necessary to amplify telomere ends. Telomeres are transcribed in most eukaryotes into a non-coding RNA know as TERRA (Telomeric repeats-containing RNA). It has been proposed that TERRA may act as a regulator of telomere homeostasis, and as an inhibitor of telomerase, however, its specific function is still unknown. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, TERRA is rapidly degraded by the 5’-3’ Rat1 exonuclease, which has hampered its study by classic biochemical experiments in yeast. In this thesis, we report the use of cytological approaches to study TERRA in budding yeast. Two different approaches were used for this purpose: the fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) and the labeling of TERRA by the MS2-GFP system, which allow the visualization of TERRA transcripts form a single telomere in living cells. With these two approaches, we observed that TERRA is expressed from a single telomere and accumulates as a single perinuclear foci, in a small percentage of cells population. We also demonstrate that TERRA expression occurs due to telomere shortening. We demonstrate that TERRA interacts in vivo with the telomerase RNA (TLC1) in yeast. Telomere elongation depends on the action of several telomerase molecules that are visible as clusters, which associate with telomeres in late S phase in yeast, and mammalian cells. In adidition, we show that TERRA stimulates the nucleation of telomerase clusters. By performing time course experiments of TERRA and TLC1 RNA in live cells, we observed that TERRA acts as a scaffold for generating telomerase clusters, which are then recruited in late S phase to the telomere from which TERRA molecules originated. The recruitment of TERRA to its telomere of origin is dependent on factors that control telomerase recruitment at telomeres like: Mre11, Tel1 and the yKu complex. We propose that a short telomere expresses TERRA to assemble and organize telomerase molecules, which later on allows their recruitment at the short telomere, where elongation is needed. Finally we showed an up-regulation of TERRA, and telomerase RNA TLC1, accompanied by a predominant cytoplasmic localization as cell growth progresses from exponential growth to diauxic shift, and stationary phase. In these conditions, TERRA foci co-localize with TLC1 RNA foci, suggesting that the function of TERRA as a scaffold molecule to generate telomerase cluster is necessary for this yeast cell growth phases. / Les télomères à l’extrémité des chromosomes constituent une structure d’ADN et de protéines essentielle à l’intégrité de ces chromosomes. La télomérase est l’enzyme responsable du maintien des répétitions télomériques à l’extrémité des chromosomes. Cette enzyme est constituée d’une sous-unité catalytique, qui possède une activité de transcriptase réverse, et d’une sous-unité d’ARN, qui fourni la matrice nécessaire à la synthèse des répétitions télomériques. Les ARN contenant des répétions télomériques (ou Telomeric repeats-containing RNA; TERRA) constitue une nouvelle classe d’ARN non-codants transcrits à partir des télomères et conservée chez la plupart des eucaryotes. TERRA a été proposé d’agir comme un régulateur de l‘homéostasie des télomères et comme inhibiteur de la télomérase, mais sa fonction spécifique reste inconnue. De plus, chez la levure Saccharomyces cerevisiae, TERRA est rapidement dégradé par l’exonucléase 5’-3’ Rat1, ce qui complique l’étude de cet ARN par les méthodes biochimiques classiques. Dans cette thèse, nous rapportons l‘utilisation d’une approche cytologique pour étudier TERRA dans les cellules de levures. Deux approches sont utilisées : l’hybridation in situ en fluorescence (FISH) et l’étiquetage de TERRA à l’aide du système MS2-GFP, qui nous permet de visualiser l’expression de TERRA transcrit d’un seul télomère dans des cellules vivantes. Avec ces deux approches, nous observons que TERRA exprimé à partir d’un seul télomère s’accumule dans un faible nombre de cellules, sous la forme d’un focus périnucléaire. De plus, nous montrons que TERRA est exprimé lorsque son télomère raccourcit. Par immunoprécipitation, nous montrons que TERRA interagit in vivo avec l’ARN de la télomérase de levure, TLC1. L’élongation des télomères dépend de l‘action de multiples molécules de télomérase, qui sont visibles sous la forme de clusters de télomérases, qui s‘associent en phase S avec les télomères chez la levure et les cellules de mammifère. Nous démontrons que TERRA stimule la nucléation de ces clusters de télomérase. Par imagerie en temps réel de TERRA et de l’ARN TLC1, nous observons que TERRA agit comme molécule d’échafaudage pour générer des clusters de télomérases, qui sont par la suite recrutés, en phase S, au télomère duquel TERRA a été exprimé. Le recrutement d’un focus de TERRA à son télomère d’origine dépend des facteurs contrôlant le recrutement de la télomérase aux télomères : Mre11, Tel1 et le complexe yKu. Nous proposons qu’un télomère court exprime TERRA pour assembler et organiser les molécules de télomérase, afin que celles-ci soit puissent être recrutées au télomère court pour permettre son élongation. Enfin, nous observons une surexpression de l’ARN de la télomérase TLC1 et de TERRA, ainsi qu’une accumulation cytoplasmique de ceux-ci sous la forme de foci, lorsque la cellule passe de la phase de croissance exponentiel à la phase diauxique, puis à la phase stationnaire. Dans ces conditions, les foci d’ARN TLC1 colocalisent avec les foci de TERRA, suggérant que la fonction de TERRA comme molécule d’échafaudage pour générer des foci de télomérase est aussi nécessaire durant ces phases du cycle de croissance des levures.

Ce travail de thèse se propose d’étudier le retard de croissance intra-utérin sous l’angle de la cytogénétique placentaire, avec deux approches distinctes et complémentaires. La première approche visera à réévaluer l’influence des anomalies chromosomiques limitées au placenta sur la croissance fœtale, car des études précédentes ont rapporté des résultats contradictoires à ce sujet. La première partie de ce travail permettra en outre d’étudier l’incidence et l’influence de la disomie uniparentale chez les fœtus issus des grossesses compliquées d’une anomalie chromosomique limitée au placenta. La deuxième approche de notre travail s’intéressera à la longueur de structures chromosomiques particulières, les télomères, au niveau placentaire. Il a récemment été décrit que la longueur des télomères des cellules placentaires était réduite au terme des grossesses compliquées d’un retard de croissance intra-utérin. La longueur télomérique placentaire n’a jamais été évaluée au cours de ces grossesses et pourrait potentiellement être utilisée comme biomarqueur placentaire du retard de croissance intra-utérin. La deuxième partie de ce travail nous permettra également d’évaluer le nombre de copies des régions chromosomiques portant les gènes codant pour les principales sous-unités du complexe enzymatique télomérase et de rechercher la présence d’agrégats télomériques au niveau placentaire en cas de retard de croissance intra-utérin. / This thesis proposes to study intrauterine growth restriction in terms of cytogenetics of placenta, with two distinct and complementary approaches. The first approach will be to reassess the influence of confined placental mosaicism on fetal growth, as previous studies have reported conflicting results on this issue. The first part of this work will also study the influence of fetal uniparental disomy in case of confined placental mosaicism. The second approach of our work will focus on the length of terminal chromosomal structures, telomeres, at the placental level. It has recently been reported that telomere length was reduced in placental cells collected at term in pregnancies complicated by intrauterine growth restriction. Placental telomere length has never been evaluated in ongoing pregnancies and it could potentially be used as a placental biomarker of intrauterine growth restriction. The second part of this work will also focus on the copy number of chromosomal regions carrying genes encoding the main subunits of the telomerase enzyme complex and will look for the presence of placental telomeric aggregates in case of intrauterine growth restriction.

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