Effects of early-life stress on peripheral and central mitochondria in male mice across ages.

Exposure to early-life stress (ES) increases the vulnerability to develop metabolic diseases as well as cognitive dysfunction, but the specific biological underpinning of the ES-induced programming is unknown. Metabolic and cognitive disorders are often comorbid, suggesting possible converging underlying pathways. Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in both metabolic diseases and cognitive dysfunction and chronic stress impairs mitochondrial functioning. However, if and how mitochondria are impacted by ES and whether they are implicated in the ES-induced programming remains to be determined. ES was applied by providing mice with limited nesting and bedding material from postnatal day (P)2-P9, and metabolic parameters, cognitive functions and multiple aspects of mitochondria biology (i.e. mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) complex activity, mitochondrial DNA copy number, expression of genes relevant for mitochondrial function, and the antioxidant capacity) were studied in muscle, hypothalamus and hippocampus at P9 and late adulthood (10-12 months of age). We show that ES altered bodyweight (gain), adiposity and glucose levels at P9, but not in late adulthood. At this age, however, ES exposure led to cognitive impairments. ES affected peripheral and central mitochondria in an age-dependent manner. At P9, both muscle and hypothalamic ETC activity were affected by ES, while in hippocampus, ES altered the expression of genes involved in fission and antioxidant defence. In adulthood, alterations in ETC complex activity were observed in the hypothalamus specifically, whereas in muscle and hippocampus ES affected the expression of genes involved in mitophagy and fission, respectively. Our study demonstrates that ES affects peripheral and central mitochondria biology throughout life, thereby uncovering a converging mechanism that might contribute to the ES-induced vulnerability for both metabolic diseases and cognitive dysfunction, which could serve as a novel target for intervention.

Effects of early-life stress on cognitive function and hippocampal structure in female rodents.

We tested the effect of early-life stress (ELS) - 24h maternal deprivation (MD) at postnatal day (PND) 3 - on cognitive performance and hippocampal structure in 12-17-week-old female rats. Behavioral performance was examined in: the Elevated Plus Maze, as an index for general anxiety; the rodent Iowa gambling test, probing reward-based decision making; and the object recognition and object-in-location task, to assess non-stressful contextual memory performance. We further determined hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) volume and cell density as well as adult proliferation and neurogenesis rates. Half of the rats was treated with the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone during a critical pre-pubertal developmental window (PNDs 26-28), in an attempt to ameliorate the potentially adverse behavioral consequences of ELS. Neither MD nor treatment with the glucocorticoid antagonist affected behavioral performance of the females in any of the tasks. Also, DG structure, proliferation and neurogenesis were not different between the groups. Lack of structural differences and a behavioral phenotype in non-stressful hippocampus dependent learning tasks fits with the lack of phenotype generally reported after ELS in female but less so in male rodents. As evident from an extensive literature review, female and male animals appear to respond more similarly to early-life adversity when tested in anxiety-related tasks. This agrees with recent findings in humans suggesting that females may be relatively resilient to the structural/hippocampal effects of childhood maltreatment, but not to the anxiety and mood-related psychopathology for which childhood maltreatment is considered a risk factor.

Differential expression of human Polycomb group proteins in various tissues and cell types.

Polycomb group proteins are involved in the maintenance of cellular identity. As multimeric complexes they repress cell type-specific sets of target genes. One model predicts that the composition of Polycomb group complexes determines the specificity for their target genes. To study this hypothesis, we analyzed the expression of Polycomb group genes in various human tissues using Northern blotting and immunohistochemistry. We found that Polycomb group expression varies greatly among tissues and even among specific cell types within a particular tissue. Variations in mRNA expression ranged from expression of all analyzed Polycomb group genes in the heart and testis to no detectable Polycomb group expression at all in bone marrow. Furthermore, each Polycomb group gene was expressed in a different number of tissues. RING1 was expressed in practically all tissues, while HPH1 was expressed in only a few tissues. Also within one tissue the level of Polycomb group expression varied greatly. Cell type-specific Polycomb group expression patterns were observed in thyroid, pancreas, and kidney. Finally, in various developmental stages of fetal kidney, different Polycomb group expression patterns were observed. We conclude that Polycomb group expression can vary depending on the tissue, cell type, and development stage. Polycomb group complexes can only be composed of the Polycomb group proteins that are expressed. This implies that with cell type-specific Polycomb group expression patterns, cell type-specific Polycomb group complexes exist. The fact that there are cell type-specific Polycomb group targets and cell type-specific Polycomb group complexes fits well with the hypothesis that the composition of Polycomb group complexes may determine their target specificity. J. Cell. Biochem. Suppl. 36: 129-143, 2001.

Transcriptional repression mediated by polycomb group proteins and other chromatin-associated repressors is selectively blocked by insulators.

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins repress gene activity over a considerable distance, possibly by spreading along the chromatin fiber. Insulators or boundary elements, genetic elements within the chromatin, may serve to terminate the repressing action of PcG proteins. We studied the ability of insulators to block the action of chromatin-associated repressors such as PcG proteins, HP1, and MeCP2. We found that the Drosophila special chromatin structure insulator completely blocks transcriptional repression mediated by all of the repressors we tested. The Drosophila gypsy insulator was able to block the repression mediated by the PcG proteins Su(z)2 and RING1, as well as mHP1, but not the repression mediated by MeCP2 and the PcG protein HPC2. The 5'-located DNase I-hypersensitive site in the chicken beta-globin locus displayed a limited ability to block repression, and a matrix or scaffold attachment region element was entirely unable to block repression mediated by any repressor tested. Our results indicate that insulators can block repression mediated by PcG proteins and other chromatin-associated repressors, but with a high level of selectivity. This high degree of specificity may provide a useful assay to define and characterize distinct classes of insulators.

Characterization of interactions between the mammalian polycomb-group proteins Enx1/EZH2 and EED suggests the existence of different mammalian polycomb-group protein complexes.

In Drosophila melanogaster, the Polycomb-group (PcG) and trithorax-group (trxG) genes have been identified as repressors and activators, respectively, of gene expression. Both groups of genes are required for the stable transmission of gene expression patterns to progeny cells throughout development. Several lines of evidence suggest a functional interaction between the PcG and trxG proteins. For example, genetic evidence indicates that the enhancer of zeste [E(z)] gene can be considered both a PcG and a trxG gene. To better understand the molecular interactions in which the E(z) protein is involved, we performed a two-hybrid screen with Enx1/EZH2, a mammalian homolog of E(z), as the target. We report the identification of the human EED protein, which interacts with Enx1/EZH2. EED is the human homolog of eed, a murine PcG gene which has extensive homology with the Drosophila PcG gene extra sex combs (esc). Enx1/EZH2 and EED coimmunoprecipitate, indicating that they also interact in vivo. However, Enx1/EZH2 and EED do not coimmunoprecipitate with other human PcG proteins, such as HPC2 and BMI1. Furthermore, unlike HPC2 and BMI1, which colocalize in nuclear domains of U-2 OS osteosarcoma cells, Enx1/EZH2 and EED do not colocalize with HPC2 or BMI1. Our findings indicate that Enx1/EZH2 and EED are members of a class of PcG proteins that is distinct from previously described human PcG proteins.

Identification and characterization of interactions between the vertebrate polycomb-group protein BMI1 and human homologs of polyhomeotic.

In Drosophila melanogaster, the Polycomb-group (PcG) genes have been identified as repressors of gene expression. They are part of a cellular memory system that is responsible for the stable transmission of gene activity to progeny cells. PcG proteins form a large multimeric, chromatin-associated protein complex, but the identity of its components is largely unknown. Here, we identify two human proteins, HPH1 and HPH2, that are associated with the vertebrate PcG protein BMI1. HPH1 and HPH2 coimmunoprecipitate and cofractionate with each other and with BMI1. They also colocalize with BMI1 in interphase nuclei of U-2 OS human osteosarcoma and SW480 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. HPH1 and HPH2 have little sequence homology with each other, except in two highly conserved domains, designated homology domains I and II. They share these homology domains I and II with the Drosophila PcG protein Polyhomeotic (Ph), and we, therefore, have named the novel proteins HPH1 and HPH2. HPH1, HPH2, and BMI1 show distinct, although overlapping expression patterns in different tissues and cell lines. Two-hybrid analysis shows that homology domain II of HPH1 interacts with both homology domains I and II of HPH2. In contrast, homology domain I of HPH1 interacts only with homology domain II of HPH2, but not with homology domain I of HPH2. Furthermore, BMI1 does not interact with the individual homology domains. Instead, both intact homology domains I and II need to be present for interactions with BMI1. These data demonstrate the involvement of homology domains I and II in protein-protein interactions and indicate that HPH1 and HPH2 are able to heterodimerize.

Polycomb and bmi-1 homologs are expressed in overlapping patterns in Xenopus embryos and are able to interact with each other.

The Polycomb group genes in Drosophila are involved in the stable and inheritable repression of gene expression. The Polycomb group proteins probably operate as multimeric complexes that bind to chromatin. To investigate molecular mechanisms of stable repression of gene activity in vertebrates we have begun to study Xenopus homologs of Polycomb group genes. We identified the Xenopus homologs of the Drosophila Polycomb gene and the bmi-1 gene. bmi-1 is a proto-oncogene which has sequence homology with the Polycomb group gene Posterior Sex Combs. We show that the XPolycomb and Xbmi-1 genes are expressed in overlapping patterns in the central nervous system of Xenopus embryos. However, XPolycomb is also expressed in the somites, whereas Xbmi-1 is not. We further demonstrate that the XPolycomb and Xbmi-1 proteins are able to interact with each other via conserved sequence motifs. These data suggest that also vertebrate Polycomb group proteins form multimeric complexes.

Binding of matrix attachment regions to lamin polymers involves single-stranded regions and the minor groove.

Chromatin in eukaryotic nuclei is thought to be partitioned into functional loop domains that are generated by the binding of defined DNA sequences, named MARs (matrix attachment regions), to the nuclear matrix. We have previously identified B-type lamins as MAR-binding matrix components (M. E. E. Ludérus, A. de Graaf, E. Mattia, J. L. den Blaauwen, M. A. Grande, L. de Jong, and R. van Driel, Cell 70:949-959, 1992). Here we show that A-type lamins and the structurally related proteins desmin and NuMA also specifically bind MARs in vitro. We studied the interaction between MARs and lamin polymers in molecular detail and found that the interaction is saturable, of high affinity, and evolutionarily conserved. Competition studies revealed the existence of two different types of interaction related to different structural features of MARs: one involving the minor groove of double-stranded MAR DNA and one involving single-stranded regions. We obtained similar results for the interaction of MARs with intact nuclear matrices from rat liver. A model in which the interaction of nuclear matrix proteins with single-stranded MAR regions serves to stabilize the transcriptionally active state of chromatin is discussed.

Binding of matrix attachment regions to lamin B1.

Eukaryotic chromatin is organized into topologically constrained loops that are attached to the nuclear matrix. The regions of DNA that interact with the matrix are called matrix attachment regions (MARs). We studied the spatial distribution of MAR-binding sites in the nuclear matrix from rat liver cells, following a combined biochemical and ultrastructural approach. We found that MAR-binding sites are distributed equally over the internal fibrogranular network and the peripheral nuclear lamina. Internal and peripheral binding sites have similar binding characteristics: both sets of binding sites show specific and saturable binding of MARs from different organisms. By means of a DNA-binding protein blot assay and in vitro binding studies, we identified lamin B1 as a MAR-binding protein, which provides evidence for a specific interaction of DNA with the nuclear lamina.

Regulation of cyclic AMP synthesis by enzyme IIIGlc of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system in crp strains of Salmonella typhimurium.

We investigated the claim (J. Daniel, J. Bacteriol. 157:940-941, 1984) that nonphosphorylated enzyme IIIGlc of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system is required for full synthesis of bacterial cyclic AMP (cAMP). In crp strains of Salmonella typhimurium, cAMP synthesis by intact cells was regulated by the phosphorylation state of enzyme IIIGlc. Introduction of either a pstHI deletion mutation or a crr::Tn10 mutation resulted in a low level of cAMP synthesis. In contrast, crp strains containing a leaky pstI mutation exhibited a high level of cAMP synthesis which was inhibited by phosphotransferase system carbohydrates. From these results, we conclude that phosphorylated enzyme IIIGlc rather than nonphosphorylated enzyme IIIGlc is required for full cAMP synthesis.