Mitotic genome bookmarking by nuclear receptor VDR advocates transmission of cellular transcriptional memory to progeny cells

Mitosis is an essential process for the self-renewal of cells that is accompanied by dynamic changes in nuclear architecture and chromatin organization. Despite all the changes, the cell manages to re-establish all the parental epigenetic marks, post-mitotically. Recent reports suggest that some sequence-specific transcription factors remain attached to mitotic chromatin during cell division to ensure timely reactivation of a subset of transcription factors necessary to maintain cell identity. These mitotically associated factors are suggested to act as 'genome bookmarking factors' and the phenomenon is termed 'genome bookmarking'. Here, we studied this phenomenon with Vitamin D Receptor (VDR), a key regulator of calcium and phosphate homeostasis and a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily. This study, for the first time, has confirmed VDR as a mitotic bookmarking factor that may be playing a crucial role in the maintenance of cell identity and genome bookmarking. Full 'DNA binding domain (DBD)' present in VDR was identified as essential for enrichment of VDR on mitotic chromatin. Furthermore, the study also demonstrates that VDR evokes mitotic chromatin binding behaviour in its heterodimeric partner Retinoid X receptor (RXR). Interestingly, for promoting bookmarking behaviour in RXR, both DBD and/or ligand-binding domain (LBD) in conjunction with hinge region of VDR were required. Additionally, ChIP analysis showed that VDR remains associated with DR3 (direct repeat 3) region of its specific target gene promoter CYP24A1(Cytochrome P450 family 24 subfamily A member1), during mitosis. Altogether, our study illustrates a novel function of VDR in the epigenetic transmission and control of expression of target proteome for maintenance of cell identity and traits in progeny cells.

Automated summary

Mitosis is a crucial process for cell self-renewal, and recent studies have shown that some transcription factors remain attached to chromatin during cell division, ensuring the reactivation of necessary transcription factors. This study confirms Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) as a mitotic bookmarking factor that plays a crucial role in maintaining cell identity and genome bookmarking.