Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Mol Cell Biol, June 1998, p. 3466-3474, Vol. 18, No. 6
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department
of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
08544
Received 23 January 1998/Returned for modification 18 February
1998/Accepted 6 March 1998
Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic process that results in the
preferential silencing of one of the two parental copies of a gene.
Although the precise mechanisms by which genomic imprinting occurs are
unknown, the tendency of imprinted genes to exist in chromosomal
clusters suggests long-range regulation through shared regulatory
elements. We characterize a 800-kb region on the distal end of mouse
chromosome 7 that contains a cluster of four maternally expressed
genes, H19, Mash2, Kvlqt1, and
p57Kip2, as well as two paternally expressed
genes, Igf2 and Ins2, and assess the expression
and imprinting of Mash2, Kvlqt1, and
p57Kip2 during development in embryonic and
extraembryonic tissues. Unlike Igf2 and Ins2,
which depend on H19 for their imprinting,
Mash2, p57Kip2, and
Kvlqt1 are unaffected by a deletion of the H19
gene region, suggesting that these more telomeric genes are not
regulated by the mechanism that controls H19,
Igf2, and Ins2. Mutations in human
p57Kip2 have been implicated in
Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, a disease that has also been associated
with loss of imprinting of IGF2. We find, however, that a
deletion of the gene has no effect on imprinting within the cluster.
Surprisingly, the three maternally expressed genes are regulated very
differently by DNA methylation; p57Kip2 is
activated, Kvlqt1 is silenced, and Mash2 is
unaffected in mice lacking DNA methyltransferase. We conclude that
H19 is not a global regulator of imprinting on distal
chromosome 7 and that the telomeric genes are imprinted by a separate
mechanism(s).
In mammals, a subset of genes are
preferentially expressed according to their parent of origin. This
phenomenon, variously termed genomic, parental, or gametic imprinting,
has been shown for approximately 20 autosomal genes in mice and humans
(4). A fundamental question about imprinting involves the
mechanism used for distinguishing the maternal and paternal alleles of
a gene. The leading candidate is DNA methylation that is established in
different patterns in the male and female germ lines and is maintained
throughout embryogenesis to regulate the imprinted state. There are
other epigenetic differences between the parental alleles of imprinted
genes, including differential sensitivity of chromatin to nuclease
digestion, asynchronous replication, and differential frequencies of
meiotic recombination (5, 13, 18, 24, 25, 39), but these are
thought to be the consequences of the primary epigenetic mark, not the
causes.
A striking feature of imprinted genes is the frequency with which they
are found in close proximity to another imprinted gene, often one that
is imprinted in the opposite direction. Four clusters have been
characterized, and each contains both maternally and paternally
expressed genes (22, 23, 29, 37, 50, 56, 58, 61). The
importance of clustering in imprinting remains unclear, but it suggests
a role for a cis-regulatory element(s) that acts over a
distance to permit the proper imprinting of genes in the cluster. In
the case of Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, two human diseases
that are associated with a cluster of imprinted genes on chromosome 15, deletions of a small region that spans the promoter of one of the
paternally expressed genes, SNRPN, result in a disruption of
the imprinting of genes hundreds of kilobases away. These observations
imply the existence of an "imprint control element" acting on the
entire cluster (8, 10, 49). Alternatively, clustering could
arise if genes within an imprinted cluster interact functionally; for
example, one gene could act in cis to silence a neighboring
gene in much the same way that the Xist RNA is thought to be
required for silencing the genes on the inactive X chromosome (36,
40). Finally, the integrity of imprinted clusters may also prove
to be important for their regulation. In the case of another human
disease associated with an imprinted gene cluster, Beckwith-Wiedemann
syndrome (BWS), chromosomal rearrangements and translocations on
chromosome 11 appear to be causative factors of the disease, in part by
disrupting the imprinting of the insulin-like growth factor II
(IGF2) gene (7, 20, 55).
In mice, evidence for the importance of imprinted gene clustering comes
from studies of H19 and Igf2. These genes lie on
distal chromosome 7, in a region syntenic to human chromosome 11p15.5, and the maternal silencing of Igf2 requires the presence of
the H19 gene 90 kb away (31, 44). The role of
H19 in the silencing of Igf2 is thought to arise
from its ability to compete with Igf2 for a common set of
endoderm-specific enhancers located downstream of the H19
gene (31). On the maternal chromosome, H19,
because of its position relative to the enhancers, prevents enhancer
activation of Igf2. On the paternal chromosome, however,
allele-specific methylation suppresses the H19 promoter,
allowing activation of Igf2 transcription (5, 13,
32). A similar explanation involving promoter competition has now
been offered for the imprinting of the Igf2r gene on mouse
chromosome 17 (3, 58).
In the last 3 years, several new imprinted genes have been mapped close
to Igf2 and H19, including the placenta-specific
gene Mash2 and the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor gene
p57Kip2, both of which are maternally expressed
(16, 19). A targeted disruption of Mash2 leads to
embryonic death from placental failure in homozygous mutants and in
heterozygous mutants inheriting the null allele maternally
(17). Disruption of p57Kip2 leads to
embryonic or early neonatal death when inherited in the same manner
(60, 62). Interestingly, p57Kip2
mutant mice exhibit some features of BWS, including macroglossia and
omphalocele.
Recently, another maternally expressed imprinted gene,
KvLQT1, has been identified on human chromosome 11p15.5.
KvLQT1 is imprinted in most human fetal tissues in which it
is expressed, except for the heart (28). Mutations in
KvLQT1 cause long-QT syndrome, a heart defect that often
leads to sudden death (53). Consistent with the lack of
KvLQT1 imprinting in the heart, this syndrome is not
inherited in a parent-of-origin-specific manner.
This well-characterized cluster of imprinted genes provides an ideal
opportunity to test experimentally the significance of linkage of
imprinted genes. Toward that goal, we have generated a genetic and
physical map of the region in the mouse, on which we have accurately
placed eight genes. We show that a mutation at the H19 locus
that disrupts imprinting of Igf2 and Ins2 has no
effect on the imprinting of Mash2, Kvlqt1, and
p57Kip2. Likewise, deletion of
p57Kip2 does not affect the imprinting or
expression of the other genes. In contrast, a mutation in the
maintenance DNA methyltransferase gene (Dnmt) has different
effects on imprinting depending on the gene in question.
Genetic and physical mapping.
A total of 78 progeny of an
interspecific (BTBR × M. spretus)F1 × BTBR backcross between Mus spretus and Mus
domesticus were scored by PCR for the MIT markers D7Mit12 and
D7Mit47 (Research Genetics). Restriction fragment length polymorphisms
between the parental strains were detected with the 1.8-kb
Mash2 cDNA fragment, a 2-kb SpeI
p57Kip2 fragment, and a 4-kb
EcoRI-SalI H19 fragment. Genomic DNA
from the N2 progeny was digested with XbaI (Mash2
and p57Kip2) or SphI
(H19), separated on a 1% agarose gel, transferred to a
nitrocellulose membrane (Millipore), and hybridized to the appropriate radiolabeled fragment. The membranes were washed and visualized by
autoradiography.
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Multiple Mechanisms Regulate Imprinting of the
Mouse Distal Chromosome 7 Gene Cluster
![]()
ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Mice. BTBR mice were obtained from William Dove, and C57BL/6J and 129/Sv mice were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory. The BTBR(SPR H19-p57) congenic strain containing distal chromosome 7 sequences from M. spretus and a similar strain which was a hybrid of C57BL/6J and Mus castaneus, B6(CAST H19-p57), were created by continuous backcrossing of F1 hybrids to BTBR and C57BL/6J and selection, respectively, for M. spretus and M. castaneus alleles of H19 and p57Kip2. The Dnmt mutant mice harboring the s allele were obtained from R. Jaenisch (33), and the p57Kip2 mutant mice were obtained from S. Elledge (62).
Mutant genotyping.
Dnmt genotyping was accomplished by
a PCR that detected both the wild-type and targeted loci with primers
5'-CCT TCA GTG TGT ACT GCA GTC G-3' (forward), 5'-AAT GAG ACC GGT GTC
GAC AG-3' (reverse), and 5'-CTT GTG TAG CGC CAA GTG C-3' (reverse). A
20-µl reaction volume containing 100 ng of genomic DNA was prepared,
and the conditions for amplification were 90°C for 30 s, 53°C
for 30 s, and 72°C for 30 s for 35 cycles followed by 4 min
at 72°C for 1 cycle. H19
13 genotyping used
primers 5'-CAG TGT GGG AAA CAG CCT CG-3' (forward) and 5'-CTT GTG TAG
CGC CAA GTG C-3' (reverse, same as the Dnmt genotyping
primer) under the same conditions. p57Kip2
genotyping was performed as described by Zhang et al. (62).
RNA analysis.
Total RNA was isolated from embryonic day 6.5 to 9.5 (e6.5 to e9.5) embryos and ectoplacental cones by guanidine
thiocyanate extraction and from e12.5 embryos and fetal and adult
organs by LiCl-urea extraction (1, 2). The RNA was treated
with DNase I (Stratagene) for 30 min and then extracted with
phenol-chloroform (1:1), precipitated with 2 volumes of ethanol, and
reverse transcribed by use of Superscript II (Gibco/BRL) with oligo(dT)
as the primer as specified by the manufacturer. Analogous reactions
were performed without reverse transcriptase (RT) to control for DNA
contamination. Imprinting of H19 in
Dnmt
/
embryos was assayed by single-strand
conformational polymorphism analysis as described previously
(51). H19 and Igf2 expression in
p57Kip2-deficient mice was detected by
allele-specific RNase protection assays (6, 30). For
Mash2, cDNA was amplified by PCR in the presence of
[33P]dCTP with Mash2-specific primers spanning
intron 2, 5'-TTA GGG GGC TAC TGA GCA TC-3' (forward) and 5'-AAG TCC TGA
TGC TGC AAG GT-3' (reverse). The conditions for amplification were
94°C for 1 min, 55°C for 2 min, and 72°C for 2 min for 35 cycles
followed by 4 min at 72°C for 1 cycle. The products were digested
with BstNI for 1 h at 60°C and run on a 40-cm 8%
acrylamide gel at 50 W for 2 h. The gel was dried and visualized
by autoradiography on BioMax film (Kodak). CD81 cDNA was
amplified by PCR with primers 5'-AGC CAT TGT GGT AGC TGT C-3' (forward)
and 5'-CAT TGA AGG CAT AAC AGG GCT TAC-3' (reverse). The conditions for
amplification were 94°C for 30 s, 55°C for 60 s, and
72°C for 90 s for 35 cycles followed by 4 min at 72°C for 1 cycle. The products were digested with RsaI for 1 h at
37°C and analyzed on a 10% polyacrylamide gel. Kvlqt1
cDNA was amplified by PCR with primers 5'-GAT CAC CAC CCT GTA CAT
TGG-3' (forward) and 5'-CCA GGA CTC ATC CCA TTA TCC-3' (reverse). On
the basis of the structure of the human gene (28), these
primers amplify sequences that span four introns. The conditions for
amplification were 94°C for 30 s, 55°C for 60 s, and
72°C for 90 s for 35 cycles followed by 4 min at 72°C for 1 cycle. The product was digested with PvuII for 1 h at
37°C and analyzed on a 10% 1× TBE polyacrylamide gel.
p57Kip2 cDNA was amplified by PCR with primers
spanning intron 2, 5'-TTC AGA TCT GAC CTC AGA CCC-3' (forward) and
5'-AGT TCT CTT GCG CTT GGC-3' (reverse). The conditions for
amplification were 94°C for 1 min, 57°C for 2 min, and 72°C for 2 min for 35 cycles followed by 4 min at 72°C for 1 cycle. The products
were digested with AvaI for 1 h at 37°C and analyzed
on a 10% polyacrylamide gel.
| |
RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Genetic and physical mapping of the imprinted gene cluster on chromosome 7. To characterize the imprinted domain at distal chromosome 7, we first constructed a genetic and physical map of the region. Previous linkage analysis had positioned p57Kip2 centromeric to H19 on mouse distal chromosome 7, analogous to the orientation of these genes on human chromosome 11p15.5 (19). To confirm this, we carried out a linkage analysis with 78 progeny of the interspecific backcross (BTBR × M. spretus)F1 × BTBR. In contrast to the previous report, our mapping places H19 at the centromeric end and p57Kip2 at the telomeric end of the cluster (Fig. 1A, right). Our gene order is based on results with three recombinant animals, whereas the other study found only one such animal. The recombination frequencies (expressed as mean genetic distance in centimorgans [cM] ± standard error) are D7Mit12-2.6 ± 1.8-H19-2.6 ± 1.8-Mash2-1.3 ± 1.3-p57KIP2-0-D7Mit47.
|
Imprinting of genes within the cluster. To determine the imprinting profile of p57Kip2, Kvlqt1, CD81, and Mash2 during development, we generated progeny from reciprocal crosses between strains of M. domesticus and BTBR(SPR H19-p57), a congenic BTBR strain containing sequence from M. spretus at distal chromosome 7. We identified polymorphisms between alleles from the two species and developed RT-PCR assays to determine which parental allele was expressed in the offspring. For each assay, mixing controls were used to verify that there was no allelic bias in amplification (data not shown). Furthermore, all assays were done with primers that spanned at least one intron, to eliminate the possibility of amplification of genomic DNA.
As shown in Fig. 2A, Kvlqt1 is maternally expressed in extraembryonic tissues at all stages of development analyzed but begins to lose its imprint in embryos after e9.5. This finding is in contrast to studies of human KvLQT1, which showed imprinting in all fetal tissues tested except for the heart (28). Interestingly, there appears to be a 1-day difference in the acquisition of paternal Kvlqt1 expression in 129/Sv M. domesticus × BTBR(SPR H19-p57) and BTBR(SPR H19-p57) × 129/Sv M. domesticus hybrids, suggesting that the M. spretus allele is more readily activated by e9.5. To determine whether the expression pattern of Kvlqt1 in mouse embryos past e8.5 was skewed by biallelic expression in the heart, we compared the expression of Kvlqt1 in the heads with that in the bodies of e13.5 embryos derived from crosses between C57BL/6 mice and a B6(CAST H19-p57) congenic strain (Fig. 2B and data not shown). Fortuitously, the M. castaneus Kvlqt1 allele possesses the same polymorphism as the M. spretus allele. Our results confirmed that Kvlqt1 is biallelically expressed in both embryo heads and bodies at e13.5, suggesting that the biallelic expression we detected in whole embryos was not solely attributable to contamination from heart RNA.
|
Effect of cis mutations on expression and imprinting in
the cluster.
Because Igf2 and Ins2 are known
to depend on the H19 gene for their imprinting, we were
interested in whether H19 could exert its effect further
along distal chromosome 7. The distal genes are expressed on the same
chromosome as H19, and therefore we would not expect a role
for H19 in promoter competition with Mash2, Kvlqt1, and p57Kip2. However, there
is a precedent in the Prader-Willi imprinted gene cluster for a
deletion of SNRPN, a paternally expressed gene, affecting
the expression of linked paternal genes many kilobases away
(45). To address this question, we assayed the imprinting status of Mash2, Kvlqt1, and
p57Kip2 in mice lacking the H19 gene
plus 10 kb of its 5'-flanking DNA (H19
13)
(30). As shown in Fig. 3, all
three genes showed a normal, imprinted expression profile in
H19
13 heterozygous mice irrespective of
whether the mutation was inherited maternally or paternally, suggesting
that Mash2, Kvlqt1, and
p57Kip2 are not regulated by H19.
|
|
Effect of DNA methylation on imprinting in the cluster. DNA methylation has different effects on imprinted genes. For H19 and Snrpn, methylation is required to maintain the silence of the genes, a finding that is consistent with the substantial methylation at their promoters (5, 13, 32, 46). In contrast, Igf2 and Igf2r, both of which are methylated on their expressed allele, are silenced in the absence of DNA methylation (32). It has been suggested that this classification of imprinted genes on the basis of the response to the loss of methylation is a useful way to distinguish genes that are the direct targets for DNA methylation (i.e., H19 and Snrpn) from those that are responding to methylation changes elsewhere (i.e., Igf2 and Igf2r) (3).
To classify the telomeric genes on distal chromosome 7 with regard to their response to methylation, we analyzed their imprinting in mice lacking the DNA methyltransferase gene (Dnmt), whose product is responsible for the maintenance of methylation in the genome (33). To allow us to distinguish the parental alleles of the genes in question, we bred the Dnmts null allele onto a BTBR(SPR H19-p57) background. Dnmt
/
mice die just after e9.5. Therefore,
we studied embryonic and extraembryonic tissues from pools of e9.5
progeny of reciprocal crosses between heterozygous
Dnmt+/
and Dnmt+/
BTBR(SPR H19-p57) mice. As shown in Fig.
5, in the absence of maintenance
methylation, p57Kip2 is biallelically expressed
(lanes 2, 4, 6, and 8), suggesting that DNA methylation is acting
directly on p57Kip2 to repress its expression.
In contrast, the maternal allele of Kvlqt1 is repressed in
the absence of methylation (lanes 10, 12, 14, and 16), suggesting that
this gene is an indirect target of DNA methylation and that methylation
is required for Kvlqt1 expression.
|
/
embryos are biallelic (compare lanes
19 and 20). This difference in the two F1 hybrids most
probably reflects the fact that the DNA methyltransferase mutants are
developmentally delayed about 1 day at e9.5 (33). Thus, when
the expression of Mash2 at e8.5 is used as the appropriate
comparison (Fig. 2C, lane 8), once again there is no impact of the
Dnmt mutation. Given this finding, we wanted to confirm that
DNA methylation had been affected in the
Dnmt
/
embryos. Therefore, we used the same
samples to examine the imprinting status of the H19 gene,
which had previously been shown to become biallelic in the absence of
Dnmt (32). As Fig. 5 illustrates, H19
RNA was detected from both alleles (lanes 22, 24, 26, and 28),
confirming that Dnmt-dependent methylation is reduced in these tissues. Thus, this experiment provides no evidence for methylation playing a role in regulating the imprinting of Mash2.
| |
DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Although the precise mechanisms by which imprinting occurs are unknown, the conserved localization of the imprinted genes on distal chromosome 7 in mice and humans suggests that clustering may be important for mechanistic or functional reasons. Our results show that the linkage of eight genes is conserved between mice and humans, consistent with the integrity of the region being important for proper imprinting of the genes contained therein (28, 41, 42). The synteny among imprinted genes in this region probably extends beyond the region. Recently, another maternally expressed imprinted gene, IPL/Ipl, has been characterized in humans and mice (41). In humans, this gene has been physically mapped centromeric to p57Kip2, and in mice, its genetic linkage places it in an analogous position. We have identified one major difference between the organization of this region in humans and mice in the positions of Th and CD81 relative to Mash2 and Ins2. In humans, TH is within 12 kb of INS (34), whereas in mice, the gene is just 25 kb centromeric of Mash2. In addition, a human P1 clone of the syntenic region of chromosome 11p15.5 (GenBank accession no. AC002536) places CD81 106 kb away from HASH2 (the human homolog of Mash2), whereas we detected CD81 sequences within 24 kb of Mash2. Another difference is the orientation of the cluster relative to the centromere. In humans, H19 is the most telomeric gene at 11p15.5, whereas our genetic analysis in mice places p57Kip2 closest to the telomere.
For the most part, the imprinting of the genes in this cluster is conserved between humans and mice. One difference we uncovered is in the maintenance of imprinting of Kvlqt1 during embryogenesis. In humans, the gene is imprinted in all fetal tissues except the heart (28), whereas in mice, the imprint is lost in all neonatal tissues examined. Species-specific differences in imprinting have been detected for the Igf2r gene as well, but in that case imprinting is relaxed in humans (47, 59).
Gene linkage has clearly been shown to be important for the imprinting of Igf2, H19, and Ins2. The mechanism is probably a transcriptional one, in which the genes require a common set of enhancers (31). DNA methylation on the paternal chromosome, the only epigenetic mark that has been identified, silences the H19 gene and thereby permits Igf2 and Ins2 expression (5, 13, 32). On the maternal chromosome, it is the position of the H19 gene, relative to the enhancers, that determines the preference for H19 transcription (54). This mechanism, however, does not extend to the telomeric genes in the cluster, since mutations that affect Igf2, H19 and Ins2 have no effect on these genes. Therefore, if a single element regulates distal chromosome 7 imprinting, that element does not appear to be the H19 gene.
The most compelling evidence in favor of a mechanistic link between the imprinting of genes throughout this cluster comes from observations in human patients with BWS. Approximately 80% of BWS patients exhibit biallelic IGF2 expression, and overexpression of IGF2 is thought to be responsible for most of the BWS phenotype, particularly the somatic overgrowth (43). Two recent mouse models of BWS, in which overexpression of Igf2 is achieved through transgenesis or genetic manipulation, lend strong support to this conclusion (12, 48). Some BWS patients have chromosomal abnormalities including balanced translocations whose breakpoints map to two regions of chromosome 11p15.5 (20). The first cluster of breakpoints lies in the 3' end of the KvLQT1 gene, and one patient with such a translocation was shown to exhibit biallelic IGF2 expression (7). If this finding holds up with other BWS translocation patients, it strongly suggests that IGF2 imprinting requires linkage not just to H19 but also to sequences downstream of KvLQT1. The other cluster of translocation breakpoints is at least 4 Mb centromeric to p57Kip2, but the allelic expression of IGF2 has not been examined in any of these patients.
One reason for caution in interpreting the human translocations as implying a mechanistic linkage between the two domains of the cluster is that a small percentage of BWS patients have point mutations in the p57Kip2 gene itself (27, 38). It is unknown whether these rare patients display biallelic IGF2. If they do not, it is possible that the translocations are disrupting only p57Kip2 expression. As we have shown in this report, a loss-of-function mutation of p57Kip2 in mice does not result in biallelic Igf2 expression. The mice do exhibit some BWS-like symptoms, such as omphalocele, renal dysplasia, and adrenal cytomegaly, but they lack other features (60, 62). Thus, BWS is very likely to be a genetically complex disorder. Finally, there is indirect evidence for linkage between the genes in the cluster from studies of patients with Wilms' tumor, where a general correlation between the expression of H19 and p57Kip2 has been observed (9).
Since H19 does not appear to be the global regulator of imprinting of the telomeric genes, we considered the possibility that these genes are regulated by a common mechanism involving DNA methylation. By analogy to the paternally expressed genes in the Prader-Willi complex, which are coordinately expressed on the unmethylated paternal chromosome and silenced on the methylated maternal chromosome (for reviews, see references 15 and 26), we expected Mash2, Kvlqt1, and p57Kip2 to respond in the same way to the absence of DNA methylation. Instead, each gene responded differently.
The imprinting of p57Kip2 in all tissues,
coupled with the activation of its paternal allele in
Dnmt
/
embryos, makes it a good candidate for
a direct target of DNA methylation silencing. Indeed, Hatada and Mukai
(19) had identified paternally specific methylation of a
single HhaI site within the p57Kip2
gene itself. That site cannot be required for
p57Kip2 imprinting, however, because it is
deleted in p57Kip2 mutant mice, where the
Neor gene retains imprinted expression (9a).
Nevertheless, by analogy to other genes like H19 and
Snrpn, our findings predict that there should be an imprint
control region very close to the p57Kip2 gene.
They also predict that the imprinting of p57Kip2
may not require the other genes in the cluster.
Kvlqt1, on the other hand, exhibits characteristics of a
gene that is an indirect target of methylation. Like Igf2
and Igf2r, the expression of the active allele is
extinguished in Dnmt
/
embryos. By analogy to
those genes, we would expect that there is a yet-to-be-identified
paternally expressed transcript in the locus that competes with
Kvlqt1 for expression in the placenta. It would be that gene
whose expression is directly silenced by DNA methylation. This is the
first suggestion that maternally specific methylation might exist at
this cluster.
An indirect mechanism for Kvlqt1 imprinting is also consistent with its tissue-specific imprinting. Tissue-specific imprinting can best be explained by considering the case of the Ins2 gene, which is imprinted in extraembryonic tissues but not in the pancreas (14). It has been proposed that the tissue specificity is a consequence of the position of transcriptional enhancers relative to the epigenetic mark at the H19 gene (4, 54). In extraembryonic tissues, Ins2 expression requires the same 3' distal transcriptional enhancers that govern Igf2 and H19 expression, and thus its expression depends on the transcriptional status of the H19 gene. In the pancreas, an enhancer that lies 5' of the gene is activated, and by virtue of its position, it escapes the influence of imprinting (11). For Kvlqt1, the target of the competition would be a placenta-specific enhancer.
The gene whose imprinting does not fit into one of these two categories of imprinted genes is Mash2, which is imprinted and expressed only in the placenta but appears to be unaffected by a loss in DNA methylation. It could be that Mash2 needs only a small amount of methylation to be imprinted. Li et al. (32) had noted that the Igf2r gene was more resistant than H19 to demethylation in mice carrying a hypomorphic allele of Dnmt; however, the gene was affected in animals carrying a null allele. Furthermore, even in mice with a null allele of Dnmt, such as the animals we used in this study, there is residual genomic DNA methylation at a level approximately 5 to 10% of that in wild-type embryos (33). Thus, it is formally possible that another DNA methylase provides the signal for Mash2 imprinting. No differentially methylated sites associated with Mash2 have been detected to date, however (8a). Moreover, we have observed that a 105-kb P1 clone encompassing the Mash2 locus displays biallelic expression in transgenic mice, arguing against local controls governing its imprinting (8a). If methylation is not involved in Mash2 imprinting, we must invoke an entirely novel imprinting control mechanism, such as heritable changes in chromatin structure.
In conclusion, our results with mice did not uncover long-range effects among the genes on distal chromosomes by known imprinting mechanisms as would be expected if the evolutionary conservation of the entire region is being maintained for regulatory reasons. Furthermore, a single mechanism whereby methylation spreads along the chromosome from a nucleating center can be argued against, since methylation is predicted to be on the paternal chromosome at p57Kip2, as it is for Igf2 and H19, but is expected to be on the maternal chromosome to affect Kvlqt1. The question that remains is whether there is any mechanistic link between p57Kip2, Kvlqt1, and Mash2 imprinting. Their common imprinting in the placenta is consistent with such a connection; however, the distinct ways in which they respond to the loss of DNA methylation cannot be readily reconciled. Thus, it is possible that distal chromosome 7 does not contain a single cluster of imprinted genes but, rather, contains multiple clusters, regulated by individual mechanisms.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
We thank Steve Elledge and Pumin Zhang, Baylor College of Medicine, for p57Kip2 mutant mice and the sequence of the p57Kip2 locus, and we thank Rudolph Jaenisch and En Li for the Dnmt mutant mice. We also thank R. S. Ingram for DNA sequencing, B. K. Jones for developing the Dnmt genotyping assay, and members of the laboratory for critical discussion.
This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (GM 51460).
T.C. and M.A.C. contributed equally to this work.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544. Phone: (609) 258-2900. Fax: (609) 258-3345. E-mail: stilghman{at}molbiol.princeton.edu.
| |
REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1. | Auffray, C., and F. Rougeon. 1980. Purification of mouse immunoglobulin heavy-chain messenger RNAs from total myeloma tumor RNA. Eur. J. Biochem. 107:303-314[Medline]. |
| 2. | Ausubel, F. M., R. Brent, R. E. Kingston, D. D. Moore, J. G. Seidman, J. A. Smith, and K. Struhl (ed.). 1988. In Current protocols in molecular biology, vol. 1. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y. |
| 3. |
Barlow, D. P.
1997.
Competition a common motif for the imprinting mechanism?
EMBO J.
16:6899-6905[Medline].
|
| 4. | Bartolomei, M. S., and S. M. Tilghman. 1997. Genomic imprinting in mammals. Annu. Rev. Genet. 31:493-525[Medline]. |
| 5. |
Bartolomei, M. S.,
A. L. Webber,
M. E. Brunkow, and S. M. Tilghman.
1993.
Epigenetic mechanisms underlying the imprinting of the mouse H19 gene.
Genes Dev.
7:1663-1673 |
| 6. | Bartolomei, M. S., S. Zemel, and S. M. Tilghman. 1991. Parental imprinting of the mouse H19 gene. Nature 351:153-155[Medline]. |
| 7. |
Brown, K. W.,
A. J. Villar,
W. Bickmore,
J. Clayton-Smith,
D. Catchpole,
E. R. Maher, and W. Reik.
1996.
Imprinting mutation in the Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome leads to biallelic IGF2 expression through an H19-independent pathway.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
5:2027-2032 |
| 8. | Buiting, K., S. Saitoh, S. Gross, B. Dittrich, S. Schwartz, R. D. Nicholls, and B. Horsthemke. 1995. Inherited microdeletions in the Angelman and Prader-Willi syndromes define an imprinting centre on human chromosome 15. Nat. Genet. 9:395-400[Medline]. |
| 8a. | Caspary, T., and S. M. Tilghman. Unpublished data. |
| 9. |
Chung, W.-Y.,
L. Yuan,
L. Feng,
T. Hensle, and B. Tycko.
1996.
Chromosome 11p15.5 regional imprinting: comparative analysis of KIP2 and H19 in human tissues and Wilms' tumors.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
5:1101-1108 |
| 9a. | Cleary, M. A., and S. M. Tilghman. Unpublished data. |
| 10. | Dittrich, B., K. Buiting, B. Korn, S. Rickard, J. Buxton, S. Saitoh, R. D. Nicholls, A. Poustka, A. Winterpacht, B. Zabel, and B. Horsthemke. 1996. Imprint switching on human chromosome 15 may involve alternative transcripts of the SNRPN gene. Nat. Genet. 14:163-170[Medline]. |
| 11. |
Edlund, T.,
M. D. Walker,
P. J. Barr, and W. J. Rutter.
1985.
Cell-specific expression of the rat insulin gene: evidence for role of two distinct 5' flanking elements.
Science
230:912-916 |
| 12. |
Eggenschwiler, J.,
T. Ludwig,
P. Fisher,
P. A. Leighton,
S. M. Tilghman, and A. Efstratiadis.
1997.
Mouse mutant embryos overexpressing IGF-II exhibit phenotypic features of the Beckwith-Wiedemann and Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndromes.
Genes Dev.
11:3128-3142 |
| 13. | Ferguson-Smith, A. C., H. Sasaki, B. M. Cattanach, and M. A. Surani. 1993. Parental-origin-specific epigenetic modifications of the mouse H19 gene. Nature 362:751-755[Medline]. |
| 14. | Giddings, S. J., C. D. King, K. W. Harman, J. F. Flood, and L. R. Carnaghi. 1994. Allele specific inactivation of insulin 1 and 2, in the mouse yolk sac, indicates imprinting. Nat. Genet. 6:310-313[Medline]. |
| 15. |
Glenn, C. C.,
D. J. Driscoll,
P. Yang, and R. D. Nicholls.
1997.
Genomic imprinting: potential function and mechanisms revealed by the Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes.
Mol. Hum. Reprod.
3:321-332.
|
| 16. | Guillemot, F., T. Caspary, S. M. Tilghman, N. G. Copeland, D. J. Gilbert, N. A. Jenkins, D. J. Anderson, A. L. Joyner, J. Rossant, and A. Nagy. 1995. Genomic imprinting of Mash-2, a mouse gene required for trophoblast development. Nat. Genet. 9:235-241[Medline]. |
| 17. | Guillemot, F., A. Nagy, A. Auerbach, J. Rossant, and A. L. Joyner. 1994. Essential role of Mash-2 in extraembryonic development. Nature 371:333-336[Medline]. |
| 18. |
Gunaratne, P. H.,
M. Nakao,
D. H. Ledbetter,
J. S. Sutcliffe, and A. C. Chinault.
1995.
Tissue-specific and allele-specific replication timing control in the imprinted human Prader-Willi syndrome region.
Genes Dev.
9:808-820 |
| 19. | Hatada, I., and T. Mukai. 1995. Genomic imprinting of p57/KIP2, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, in mouse. Nat. Genet. 11:204-206[Medline]. |
| 20. |
Hoovers, J. M.,
L. M. Kalikin,
L. A. Johnson,
M. Alders,
B. Redeker,
D. J. Law,
J. Bliek,
M. Steenman,
M. Benedict, and J. Wiegant.
1995.
Multiple genetic loci within 11p15 defined by Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome rearrangement breakpoints and subchromosomal transferable fragments.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
92:12456-12460 |
| 21. |
Hu, R.-J.,
M. P. Lee,
L. A. Johnson, and A. P. Feinberg.
1996.
A novel human homologue of yeast nucleosome assembly protein, 65 kb centromeric to the p57KIP2 gene, is biallelically expressed in fetal and adult tissues.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
5:1743-1748 |
| 22. | Kay, G. F., G. D. Penny, D. Patel, A. Ashworth, N. Brockdorff, and S. Rastan. 1993. Expression of Xist during mouse development suggests a role in the initiation of X chromosome inactivation. Cell 72:171-182[Medline]. |
| 23. | Kishino, T., M. Lalande, and J. Wagstaff. 1997. UBE3A/E6-AP mutations cause Angelman syndrome. Nat. Genet. 15:70-73[Medline]. |
| 24. | Kitsberg, D., S. Selig, M. Brandeis, I. Simon, I. Keshet, D. J. Driscoll, R. D. Nicholls, and H. Cedar. 1993. Allele-specific replication timing of imprinted gene regions. Nature 364:459-463[Medline]. |
| 25. | Knoll, J. H., S. D. Cheng, and M. Lalande. 1994. Allele specificity of DNA replication timing in the Angelman/Prader-Willi syndrome imprinted chromosomal region. Nat. Genet. 6:41-46[Medline]. |
| 26. | Lalande, M. 1996. Parental imprinting and disease. Annu. Rev. Genet. 30:173-195. |
| 27. | Lee, M. P., M. DeBaun, G. Randhawa, B. A. Reichard, S. J. Elledge, and A. P. Feinberg. 1997. Low frequency of p57KIP2 mutation in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 61:304-309[Medline]. |
| 28. | Lee, M. P., R. Hu, L. A. Johnson, and A. P. Feinberg. 1997. Human KVLQT1 gene shows tissue-specific imprinting and encompasses Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome chromosomal rearrangements. Nat. Genet. 15:181-185[Medline]. |
| 29. | Leff, S. E., C. I. Brannan, M. L. Reed, T. Ozcelik, U. Francke, N. G. Copeland, and N. A. Jenkins. 1992. Maternal imprinting of the mouse Snrpn gene and conserved linkage homology with the human Prader-Willi syndrome region. Nat. Genet. 2:259-264[Medline]. |
| 30. | Leighton, P. A., R. S. Ingram, J. Eggenschwiler, A. Efstratiadis, and S. M. Tilghman. 1995. Disruption of imprinting caused by deletion of the H19 gene region in mice. Nature 375:34-39[Medline]. |
| 31. |
Leighton, P. A.,
J. R. Saam,
R. S. Ingram,
C. L. Stewart, and S. M. Tilghman.
1995.
An enhancer deletion affects both H19 and Igf2 expression.
Genes Dev.
9:2079-2089 |
| 32. | Li, E., C. Beard, and R. Jaenisch. 1993. The role of DNA methylation in genomic imprinting. Nature 366:362-365[Medline]. |
| 33. | Li, E., T. H. Bestor, and R. Jaenisch. 1992. Targeted mutation of the DNA methyltransferase gene results in embryonic lethality. Cell 69:915-926[Medline]. |
| 34. | Lucassen, A. M., C. Julier, J. P. Beressi, C. Boitard, P. Froguel, M. Lathrop, and J. I. Bell. 1993. Susceptibility to insulin dependent diabetes mellitus maps to a 4.1 kb segment of the DNA spanning the insulin gene and associated VNTR. Nat. Genet. 4:305-310[Medline]. |
| 35. |
Maecker, H. T., and S. Levy.
1997.
Normal lymphocyte development but delayed humoral immune response in CD81-null mice.
J. Exp. Med.
185:1505-1510 |
| 36. |
Marahrens, Y.,
B. Panning,
J. Dausman,
W. Strauss, and R. Jaenisch.
1997.
Xist-deficient mice are defective in dosage compensation but not spermatogenesis.
Genes Dev.
11:156-166 |
| 37. | Matsuura, T., J. S. Sutcliffe, P. Fang, R.-J. Galjaard, Y. Jiang, C. S. Benton, J. M. Rommens, and A. L. Beaudet. 1997. De novo truncating mutations in E6-AP ubiquitin-protein ligase gene (UBE3A) in Angelman syndrome. Nat. Genet. 15:74-77[Medline]. |
| 38. | O'Keefe, D., D. Dao, L. Zhao, R. Sanderson, D. Warburton, L. Weiss, K. Anyane-Yeboa, and B. Tycko. 1997. Coding mutations in p57KIP2 are present in some cases of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome but are rare or absent in Wilms tumors. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 61:295-303[Medline]. |
| 39. | Paldi, A., G. Gyapay, and J. Jami. 1995. Imprinted chromosomal regions of the human genome display sex-specific meiotic recombination frequencies. Curr. Biol. 5:1030-1035[Medline]. |
| 40. | Penny, G. D., G. F. Kay, S. A. Sheardown, S. Rastan, and N. Brockdroff. 1996. Requirement for Xist in X chromosome inactivation. Nature 379:131-137[Medline]. |
| 41. |
Qian, N.,
D. Frank,
D. O'Keefe,
D. Dao,
L. Zhao,
L. Yuan,
Q. Wang,
M. Keating,
C. Walsh, and B. Tycko.
1997.
The IPL gene on chromosome 11p15.5 is imprinted in humans and mice and is similar to TDAG51, implicated in Fas expression and apoptosis.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
6:2021-2029 |
| 42. | Reid, L. H., C. Davies, P. R. Cooper, S. J. Crider-Miller, S. N. J. Sait, N. J. Nowak, G. Evans, E. J. Stanbridge, P. deJong, T. B. Shows, B. E. Weissman, and M. J. Higgins. 1997. A 1-Mb physical map and PAC contig on the imprinted domain in 11p15.5 that contains TAPA1 and the BWSCR1/WT2 region. Genomics 43:366-375[Medline]. |
| 43. | Reik, W., and E. R. Maher. 1997. Imprinting in clusters: lessons from Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Trends Genet. 13:330-334[Medline]. |
| 44. |
Ripoche, M.-A.,
C. Kress,
F. Poirier, and L. Dandolo.
1997.
Deletion of the H19 transcription unit reveals the existence of a putative imprinting control element.
Genes Dev.
11:1596-1604 |
| 45. |
Saitoh, S.,
K. Buiting,
P. K. Rogan,
J. L. Buxton,
D. J. Driscoll,
J. Arnemann,
R. Konig,
S. Malcolm,
B. Horsthemke, and R. D. Nicholls.
1996.
Minimal definition of the imprinting center and fixation of a chromosome 15q11-q13 epigenotype by imprinting mutations.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
93:7811-7815 |
| 46. |
Shemer, R.,
Y. Birger,
A. D. Riggs, and A. Razin.
1997.
Structure of the imprinted mouse Snrpn gene and establishment of its parental-specific methylation pattern.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
94:10267-10272 |
| 47. |
Smrzka, O. W.,
I. Fae,
R. Stoger,
R. Kurzbauer,
G. F. Fischer,
T. Henn,
A. Weith, and D. P. Barlow.
1995.
Conservation of a maternal-specific methylation signal at the human IGF2R locus.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
4:1945-1952 |
| 48. | Sun, F.-L., W. Dean, G. Kelsey, N. D. Allen, and W. Reik. 1997. Transactivation of Igf2 in a mouse model of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Nature 389:809-815[Medline]. |
| 49. | Sutcliffe, J. S., M. Nakao, S. Christian, K. H. Orstavik, N. Tommerup, D. H. Ledbetter, and A. L. Beaudet. 1994. Deletions of a differentially methylated CpG island at the SNRPN gene define a putative imprinting control region. Nat. Genet. 8:52-58[Medline]. |
| 50. | Takagi, N., and M. Sasaki. 1975. Preferential inactivation of the paternally derived X chromosome in the extraembryonic membranes of the mouse. Nature 256:640-642[Medline]. |
| 51. | Tremblay, K. D., J. R. Saam, R. S. Ingram, S. M. Tilghman, and M. S. Bartolomei. 1995. A paternal-specific methylation imprint marks the alleles of the mouse H19 gene. Nat. Genet. 9:407-413[Medline]. |
| 52. |
Tsang, P.,
F. Gilles,
L. Yuan,
Y. H. Kuo,
F. Lupu,
G. Samara,
J. Moosikasuwan,
A. Goye,
A. D. Zelenetz,
L. Selleri, and B. Tycko.
1995.
A novel L23-related gene 40 kb downstream of the imprinted H19 gene is biallelically expressed in mid-fetal and adult human tissues.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
4:1499-1507 |
| 53. | Wang, Q., M. E. Curran, I. Splawski, T. C. Burn, J. M. Millholland, T. J. VanRaay, J. Shen, K. W. Timothy, G. M. Vincent, T. de Jager, P. J. Schwatz, J. A. Towbin, A. J. Moss, D. L. Atkinson, G. M. Landes, T. D. Connors, and M. T. Keating. 1996. Positional cloning of a novel potassium channel gene: KVLQT1 mutations cause cardiac arrhythmias. Nat. Genet. 12:17-23[Medline]. |
| 54. | Webber, A., R. I. Ingram, J. Levorse, and S. M. Tilghman. 1998. Location of enhancers is essential for imprinting of H19 and Igf2. Nature 391:711-715[Medline]. |
| 55. | Weksberg, R., D. R. Shen, Y. L. Fei, Q. L. Song, and J. Squire. 1993. Disruption of insulin-like growth factor 2 imprinting in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Nat. Genet. 5:143-150[Medline]. |
| 56. |
Wevrick, R.,
J. A. Kerns, and U. Francke.
1994.
Identification of a novel paternally expressed gene in the Prader-Willi syndrome region.
Hum. Mol. Genet.
3:1877-1882 |
| 57. |
Willard, H. F.,
C. J. Brown,
L. Carrel,
B. Hendrich, and A. P. Miller.
1993.
Epigenetic and chromosomal control of gene expression: molecular and genetic analysis of X chromosome inactivation.
Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol.
58:315-322 |
| 58. | Wutz, A., O. W. Smrzka, N. Schweifer, K. Schellander, E. F. Wagner, and D. P. Barlow. 1997. Imprinted expression of the Igf2r gene depends on an intronic CpG island. Nature 389:745-749[Medline]. |
| 59. | Xu, Y., C. G. Goodyer, C. Deal, and C. Polychronakos. 1993. Functional polymorphism in the parental imprinting of the human IGF2R gene. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 197:747-754[Medline]. |
| 60. |
Yan, Y.,
J. Frisén,
M.-H. Lee,
J. Massagué, and M. Barbacid.
1997.
Ablation of the CDK inhibitor p57KIP2 results in increased apoptosis and delayed differentiation during mouse development.
Genes Dev.
11:973-983 |
| 61. | Zemel, S., M. S. Bartolomei, and S. M. Tilghman. 1992. Physical linkage of two mammalian imprinted genes. Nat. Genet. 2:61-65[Medline]. |
| 62. | Zhang, P., N. J. Liégeois, C. Wong, M. Finegold, H. Hou, J. C. Thompson, A. Silverman, J. W. Harper, R. A. DePinho, and S. J. Elledge. 1997. Altered cell differentiation and proliferation in mice lacking p57KIP2 indicates a role in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Nature 387:151-158[Medline]. |
| 63. | Zhou, Q.-Y., C. J. Quaife, and R. D. Palmiter. 1995. Targeted disruption of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene reveals that catecholamines are required for mouse fetal development. Nature 374:640-643[Medline]. |
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2010 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»