ABSTRACT
We recently identified angiogenin (ANG) as a candidate susceptibility gene for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by adult-onset loss of motor neurons. We now report the finding of seven missense mutations in 15 individuals, of whom four had familial ALS and 11 apparently 'sporadic' ALS. Our findings provide further evidence that variations in hypoxia-inducible genes have an important role in motor neuron degeneration.
Subject(s)
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/genetics , Mutation, Missense , Ribonuclease, Pancreatic/genetics , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Models, Molecular , Pedigree , Protein Conformation , Ribonuclease, Pancreatic/chemistryABSTRACT
Changes in chromatin structure underlie the activation or silencing of genes during development. The chromatin remodeler Mi-2beta is highly expressed in thymocytes and is presumed to be a transcriptional repressor because of its presence in the nucleosome remodeling deacetylase (NuRD) complex. Using conditional inactivation, we show that Mi-2beta is required at several steps during T cell development: for differentiation of beta selected immature thymocytes, for developmental expression of CD4, and for cell divisions in mature T cells. We further show that Mi-2beta plays a direct role in promoting CD4 gene expression. Mi-2beta associates with the CD4 enhancer as well as the E box binding protein HEB and the histone acetyltransferase (HAT) p300, enabling their recruitment to the CD4 enhancer and causing histone H3-hyperacetylation to this regulatory region. These findings provide important insights into the regulation of CD4 expression during T cell development and define a role for Mi-2beta in gene activation.
