BioProject

Histone methylation patterns regulate gene expression and are highly dynamic during development. More...

Histone methylation patterns regulate gene expression and are highly dynamic during development. The erasure of histone methylation is carried out by histone demethylase enzymes. We had previously shown that vitamin C enhances the activity of Tet enzymes in embryonic stem (ES) cells, leading to DNA demethylation and activation of germline genes. We report here that vitamin C induces a remarkably specific demethylation of histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) in ES cells. Vitamin C treatment reduces global levels of H3K9me2, but not other histone methylation marks analyzed, as measured by Western blot, immunofluorescence and mass spectrometry. Vitamin C leads to widespread loss of H3K9me2 at large chromosomal domains as well as gene promoters and repeat elements. Vitamin C-induced loss of H3K9me2 occurs rapidly within 24 hours and is reversible. Importantly, we found that the histone demethylases Kdm3a and Kdm3b are required for vitamin C-induced demethylation of H3K9me2. Moreover, we show that vitamin C-induced Kdm3a/b-mediated H3K9me2 demethylation and Tet-mediated DNA demethylation are independent processes. Lastly, we document Kdm3a/b are partially required for the up-regulation of germline genes by vitamin C. These results reveal a specific role for vitamin C in histone demethylation in ES cells, and document that DNA methylation and H3K9me2 cooperate to silence germline genes in pluripotent cells. Overall design: ChIP for H3K9me2 was performed on untreated and vitamin C-treated ES cells. ChIP DNA and Input DNA were subjected to paired-end sequencing. Less...