Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 119, Issue 40, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209471119
Keywords
epigenetic inheritance; gene regulation; H3K27me3; C. elegans; transgenerational
Categories
Funding
- NIH [T32GM008646, F31GM120882, R01GM34059]
- NIH Office of Infrastructure Programs [P40 OD010440]
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The transmission of chromatin states from parent cells to daughter cells is important for preserving cell identity. A study on Caenorhabditis elegans showed that alleles inherited without a specific chromatin mark were more likely to be up-regulated in offspring cells, and the tissue context played a role in determining which genes were up-regulated. This study also demonstrated the transgenerational epigenetic transmission of chromatin states in C. elegans.
The transmission of chromatin states from parent cells to daughter cells preserves cell-specific transcriptional states and thus cell identity through cell division. The mechanism that underpins this process is not fully understood. The role that chromatin states serve in transmitting gene expression information across generations via sperm and oocytes is even less understood. Here, we utilized a model in which Caenorhabditis elegans sperm and oocyte alleles were inherited in different states of the repressive mark H3K27me3. This resulted in the alleles achieving different transcriptional states within the nuclei of offspring. Using this model, we showed that sperm alleles inherited without H3K27me3 were sensitive to up-regulation in offspring somatic and germline tissues, and tissue context determined which genes were up-regulated. We found that the subset of sperm alleles that were up-regulated in offspring germlines retained the H3K27me3(-) state and were transmitted to grandoffspring as H3K27me3(-) and up-regulated epialleles, demonstrating that H3K27me3 can serve as a transgenerational epigenetic carrier in C. elegans.
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