Transmission-selective muscle pathology induced by the active propagation of mutant huntingtin across the human neuromuscular synapse.

Neuron-to-neuron transmission of aggregation-prone, misfolded proteins may potentially explain the spatiotemporal accumulation of pathological lesions in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative protein-misfolding diseases (PMDs). However, little is known about protein transmission from the central nervous system to the periphery, or how this propagation contributes to PMD pathology. To deepen our understanding of these processes, we established two functional neuromuscular systems derived from human iPSCs. One was suitable for long-term high-throughput live-cell imaging and the other was adapted to a microfluidic system assuring that connectivity between motor neurons and muscle cells was restricted to the neuromuscular junction. We show that the Huntington's disease (HD)-associated mutant HTT exon 1 protein (mHTTEx1) is transmitted from neurons to muscle cells across the human neuromuscular junction. We found that transmission is an active and dynamic process that starts before aggregate formation and is regulated by synaptic activity. We further found that transmitted mHTTEx1 causes HD-relevant pathology at both molecular and functional levels in human muscle cells, even in the presence of the ubiquitous expression of mHTTEx1. In conclusion, we have uncovered a causal link between mHTTEx1 synaptic transmission and HD pathology, highlighting the therapeutic potential of blocking toxic protein transmission in PMDs.

Distinct Transcriptional Responses across Tissue-Resident Macrophages to Short-Term and Long-Term Metabolic Challenge.

The innate immune system safeguards the organism from both pathogenic and environmental stressors. Also, physiologic levels of nutrients affect organismal and intra-cellular metabolism and challenge the immune system. In the long term, over-nutrition leads to low-grade systemic inflammation. Here, we investigate tissue-resident components of the innate immune system (macrophages) and their response to short- and long-term nutritional challenges. We analyze the transcriptomes of six tissue-resident macrophage populations upon acute feeding and identify adipose tissue macrophages and the IL-1 pathway as early sensors of metabolic changes. Furthermore, by comparing functional responses between macrophage subtypes, we propose a regulatory, anti-inflammatory role of heat shock proteins of the HSP70 family in response to long- and short-term metabolic challenges. Our data provide a resource for assessing the impact of nutrition and over-nutrition on the spectrum of macrophages across tissues with a potential for identification of systemic responses.

CGG Repeat-Induced FMR1 Silencing Depends on the Expansion Size in Human iPSCs and Neurons Carrying Unmethylated Full Mutations.

In fragile X syndrome (FXS), CGG repeat expansion greater than 200 triplets is believed to trigger FMR1 gene silencing and disease etiology. However, FXS siblings have been identified with more than 200 CGGs, termed unmethylated full mutation (UFM) carriers, without gene silencing and disease symptoms. Here, we show that hypomethylation of the FMR1 promoter is maintained in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from two UFM individuals. However, a subset of iPSC clones with large CGG expansions carries silenced FMR1. Furthermore, we demonstrate de novo silencing upon expansion of the CGG repeat size. FMR1 does not undergo silencing during neuronal differentiation of UFM iPSCs, and expression of large unmethylated CGG repeats has phenotypic consequences resulting in neurodegenerative features. Our data suggest that UFM individuals do not lack the cell-intrinsic ability to silence FMR1 and that inter-individual variability in the CGG repeat size required for silencing exists in the FXS population.

Cbx2 targets PRC1 to constitutive heterochromatin in mouse zygotes in a parent-of-origin-dependent manner.

Polycomb repressive complexes PRC1 and PRC2 regulate expression of genes involved in proliferation and development. In mouse early embryos, however, canonical PRC1 localizes to paternal pericentric heterochromatin (pat-PCH), where it represses transcription of major satellite repeats. In contrast, maternal PCH (mat-PCH) is enriched for H3 lysine 9 tri-methylation (H3K9me3) and Hp1ß. How PRC1 is targeted to pat-PCH, yet excluded from mat-PCH, has remained elusive. Here, we identify a PRC1 targeting mechanism that relies on Cbx2 and Hp1ß. Cbx2 directs catalytically active PRC1 to PCH via its chromodomain (CD(Cbx2)) and neighboring AT-hook (AT(Cbx2)) binding to H3K27me3 and AT-rich major satellites, respectively. CD(Cbx2) prevents AT(Cbx2) from interacting with DNA at PCH marked by H3K9me3 and Hp1ß. Loss-of-function studies show that Hp1ß and not H3K9me3 prevents PRC1 targeting to mat-PCH. Our findings indicate that CD(Cbx2) and AT(Cbx2) separated by a short linker function together to integrate H3K9me3/HP1 and H3K27me3 states.

Contrasted evolution of the vomeronasal receptor repertoires in mammals and squamate reptiles.

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is an olfactory structure that detects pheromones and environmental cues. It consists of sensory neurons that express evolutionary unrelated groups of transmembrane chemoreceptors. The predominant V1R and V2R receptor repertoires are believed to detect airborne and water-soluble molecules, respectively. It has been suggested that the shift in habitat of early tetrapods from water to land is reflected by an increase in the ratio of V1R/V2R genes. Snakes, which have a very large VNO associated with a sophisticated tongue delivery system, are missing from this analysis. Here, we use RNA-seq and RNA in situ hybridization to study the diversity, evolution, and expression pattern of the corn snake vomeronasal receptor repertoires. Our analyses indicate that snakes and lizards retain an extremely limited number of V1R genes but exhibit a large number of V2R genes, including multiple lineages of reptile-specific and snake-specific expansions. We finally show that the peculiar bigenic pattern of V2R vomeronasal receptor gene transcription observed in mammals is conserved in squamate reptiles, hinting at an important but unknown functional role played by this expression strategy. Our results do not support the hypothesis that the shift to a vomeronasal receptor repertoire dominated by V1Rs in mammals reflects the evolutionary transition of early tetrapods from water to land. This study sheds light on the evolutionary dynamics of the vomeronasal receptor families in vertebrates and reveals how mammals and squamates differentially adapted the same ancestral vomeronasal repertoire to succeed in a terrestrial environment.

Repressive and active histone methylation mark distinct promoters in human and mouse spermatozoa.

In higher eukaryotes, histone methylation is involved in maintaining cellular identity during somatic development. As most nucleosomes are replaced by protamines during spermatogenesis, it is unclear whether histone modifications function in paternal transmission of epigenetic information. Here we show that two modifications important for Trithorax- and Polycomb-mediated gene regulation have methylation-specific distributions at regulatory regions in human spermatozoa. Histone H3 Lys4 dimethylation (H3K4me2) marks genes that are relevant in spermatogenesis and cellular homeostasis. In contrast, histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) marks developmental regulators in sperm, as in somatic cells. However, nucleosomes are only moderately retained at regulatory regions in human sperm. Nonetheless, genes with extensive H3K27me3 coverage around transcriptional start sites in particular tend not to be expressed during male and female gametogenesis or in preimplantation embryos. Promoters of orthologous genes are similarly modified in mouse spermatozoa. These data are compatible with a role for Polycomb in repressing somatic determinants across generations, potentially in a variegating manner.

Genetic vasectomy-overexpression of Prm1-EGFP fusion protein in elongating spermatids causes dominant male sterility in mice.

Transgenic mice are vital tools in both basic and applied research. Unfortunately, the transgenesis process as well as many other assisted reproductive techniques involving embryo transfer rely on vasectomized males to induce pseudopregnancy in surrogate mothers. Vasectomy is a surgical procedure associated with moderate pain and must be carried out under full anaesthesia by qualified personnel. Eliminating the need for vasectomy would be beneficial from the economic and animal welfare point of view. Our aim was to develop a transgene-based alternative to the surgical vasectomy procedure. We generated several transgenic mouse lines expressing a Protamine-1 (Prm1) EGFP fusion protein under the transcriptional and translational regulatory control of Prm1. Male mice from lines showing moderate transgene expression were fully fertile whereas strong overexpression of the Prm1-EGFP fusion protein resulted in complete and dominant male sterility without affecting the ability to mate and to produce copulatory plugs. Sterility was due to impaired spermatid maturation affecting sperm viability and motility. Furthermore, sperm having high Prm1-EGFP levels failed to support preimplantation embryonic development following Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). The "genetic vasectomy system" was further improved by genetically linking the dominant male sterility to ubiquitous EGFP expression in the soma as an easy phenotypic marker enabling rapid genotyping of transgenic males and females. This double transgenic approach represents a reliable and cost-effective "genetic vasectomy" procedure making the conventional surgical vasectomy methodology obsolete.

Impaired function of primitive hematopoietic cells in mice lacking the Mixed-Lineage-Leukemia homolog MLL5.

The human Mixed-Lineage-Leukemia-5 (MLL5) gene is located in a genomic region frequently deleted in patients with myeloid malignancies and encodes a widely expressed nuclear protein most closely related to MLL1, a Trithorax transcriptional regulator with established involvement in leukemogenesis. Although the physiologic function of MLL5 is completely unknown, domain structure and homology to transcriptional regulators with histone methyltransferase activity suggest a role in epigenetic gene regulation. To investigate physiologic functions of Mll5, we have generated a knockout mouse mutant using Cre/loxP technology. Adult homozygous Mll5-deficient mice are obtained at reduced frequency because of postnatal lethality. Surviving animals display a variety of abnormalities, including male infertility, retarded growth, and defects in multiple hematopoietic lineages. Interestingly, Mll5(-/-) mice die of sublethal whole-body irradiation but can be rescued with wild-type bone marrow grafts. Flow cytometric ana-lysis, bone marrow reconstitution, and in vivo BrdU-labeling experiments reveal numerical, functional, and cell-cycle defects in the lineage-negative Sca-1(+), Kit(+) (LSK) population, which contains short- and long-term hematopoietic stem cells. Together, these in vivo findings establish several nonredundant functions for Mll5, including an essential role in regulating proliferation and functional integrity of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells.

PRC1 and Suv39h specify parental asymmetry at constitutive heterochromatin in early mouse embryos.

In eukaryotes, Suv39h H3K9 trimethyltransferases are required for pericentric heterochromatin formation and function. In early mouse preimplantation embryos, however, paternal pericentric heterochromatin lacks Suv39h-mediated H3K9me3 and downstream marks. Here we demonstrate Ezh2-independent targeting of maternally provided polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) components to paternal heterochromatin. In Suv39h2 maternally deficient zygotes, PRC1 also associates with maternal heterochromatin lacking H3K9me3, thereby revealing hierarchy between repressive pathways. In Rnf2 maternally deficient zygotes, the PRC1 complex is disrupted, and levels of pericentric major satellite transcripts are increased at the paternal but not the maternal genome. We conclude that in early embryos, Suv39h-mediated H3K9me3 constitutes the dominant maternal transgenerational signal for pericentric heterochromatin formation. In absence of this signal, PRC1 functions as the default repressive back-up mechanism. Parental epigenetic asymmetry, also observed along cleavage chromosomes, is resolved by the end of the 8-cell stage--concurrent with blastomere polarization--marking the end of the maternal-to-embryonic transition.