Glycosylation of IgG regulates the effector function of this antibody in the immune response. Glycosylated IgG is a potent therapeutic used for both research and clinical purposes. While there is ...ample research on how different cell culture conditions affect IgG glycosylation, the data are missing on the stability of IgG glycome during long cell passaging, i.e., cell “aging”. To test this, we performed three independent time course experiments in FreeStyle 293-F cells, which secrete IgG with a human-like glycosylation pattern and are frequently used to generate defined IgG glycoforms. During long-term cell culturing, IgG glycome stayed fairly stable except for galactosylation, which appeared extremely variable. Cell transcriptome analysis revealed no correlation in galactosyltransferase B4GALT1 expression with galactosylation change, but with expression of EEF1A1 and SLC38A10, genes previously associated with IgG galactosylation through GWAS. The FreeStyle 293-F cell-based system for IgG production is a good model for studies of mechanisms underlying IgG glycosylation, but results from the present study point to the utmost importance of the need to control IgG galactosylation in both in vitro and in vivo systems. This is especially important for improving the production of precisely glycosylated IgG for therapeutic purposes, since IgG galactosylation affects the inflammatory potential of IgG.
Fluorochrome banding (chromomycin, Hoechst, and DAPI) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) are excellent molecular cytogenetic tools providing various possibilities in the study of ...chromosomal evolution and genome organization. The constitutive heterochromatin and rRNA genes are the most widely used FISH markers. The rDNA is organized into two distinct gene families (18S-5.8S-26S and 5S) whose number and location vary within the complex of closely related species. Therefore, they are widely used as chromosomal landmarks to provide valuable evidence concerning genome evolution at chromosomal levels.
Epigenetic variation in natural populations with contrasting habitats might be an important element, in addition to the genetic variation, in plant adaptation to environmental stress. Here, we ...assessed genetic, epigenetic, and cytogenetic structure of the three Lilium bosniacum populations growing on distinct habitats. One population was growing under habitual ecological conditions for this species and the other two were growing under stress associated with high altitude and serpentine soil. Amplified fragment length polymorphism and methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism analyses revealed that the three populations did not differentiate genetically, but were clearly separated in three distinct clusters according to DNA methylation profiles. Principal coordinate analysis showed that overall epigenetic variation was closely related to habitat conditions. A new methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism scoring approach allowed identification of mainly unmethylated (φST = 0.190) and fully CpG methylated (φST = 0.118) subepiloci playing a role in overall population differentiation, in comparison with hemimethylated sites (φST = 0.073). In addition, unusual rDNA repatterning and the presence of B chromosomes bearing 5S rDNA loci were recorded in the population growing on serpentine soil, suggesting dynamic chromosome rearrangements probably linked to global genome demethylation, which might have reactivated some mobile elements. We discuss our results considering our earlier data on morphology and leaf anatomy of several L. bosniacum populations, and suggest a possible role of epigenetics as a key element in population differentiation associated with environmental stress in these particular lily populations.
Around 2200 copies of genes encoding ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in pedunculate oak, Quercus robur, are organized into two rDNA loci, the major (NOR-1) and the minor (NOR-2) locus. We present the first ...cytogenetic evidence indicating that the NOR-1 represents the active nucleolar organizer responsible for rRNA synthesis, while the NOR-2 probably stays transcriptionally silent and does not participate in the formation of the nucleolus in Q. robur, which is a situation resembling the well-known phenomenon of nucleolar dominance. rDNA chromatin topology analyses in cycling root tip cells by light and electron microscopy revealed the minor locus to be highly condensed and located away from the nucleolus, while the major locus was consistently associated with the nucleolus and often exhibited different levels of condensation. In addition, silver precipitation was confined exclusively to the NOR-1 locus. Also, NOR-2 was highly methylated at cytosines and rDNA chromatin was marked with histone modifications characteristic for repressive state. After treatment of the root cells with the methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine, we observed an increase in the total level of rRNA transcripts and a decrease in DNA methylation level at the NOR-2 locus. Also, NOR-2 sites relocalized with respect to the nuclear periphery/nucleolus, however, the relocation did not affect the contribution of this locus to nucleolar formation, nor did it affect rDNA chromatin decondensation, strongly suggesting that NOR-2 has lost the function of rRNA synthesis and nucleolar organization.
Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 alpha (HNF1A), hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4A), and forkhead box protein A2 (FOXA2) are key transcription factors that regulate a complex gene network in the ...liver, creating a regulatory transcriptional loop. The Encode and ChIP-Atlas databases identify the recognition sites of these transcription factors in many glycosyltransferase genes. Our in silico analysis of HNF1A, HNF4A, and FOXA2 binding to the ten candidate glyco-genes studied in this work confirms a significant enrichment of these transcription factors specifically in the liver. Our previous studies identified HNF1A as a master regulator of fucosylation, glycan branching, and galactosylation of plasma glycoproteins. Here, we aimed to functionally validate the role of the three transcription factors on downstream glyco-gene transcriptional expression and the possible effect on glycan phenotype. We used the state-of-the-art clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/dead Cas9 (CRISPR/dCas9) molecular tool for the downregulation of the HNF1A, HNF4A, and FOXA2 genes in HepG2 cells—a human liver cancer cell line. The results show that the downregulation of all three genes individually and in pairs affects the transcriptional activity of many glyco-genes, although downregulation of glyco-genes was not always followed by an unambiguous change in the corresponding glycan structures. The effect is better seen as an overall change in the total HepG2 N-glycome, primarily due to the extension of biantennary glycans. We propose an alternative way to evaluate the N-glycome composition via estimating the overall complexity of the glycome by quantifying the number of monomers in each glycan structure. We also propose a model showing feedback loops with the mutual activation of HNF1A–FOXA2 and HNF4A–FOXA2 affecting glyco-genes and protein glycosylation in HepG2 cells.
Significant increases in male infertility and the still unresolved questions on the compatibility and interpretation of current methods in infertility diagnostics call for new protocols. Morphology, ...genome damage, RNA content and quantity are currently in practice as the major parameters in evaluation of sperm quality. However, results of various methods are not always in mutual concordance. In this study, in vivo acridine orange (AO) staining, which is presently in application in the estimation of genome damage in reticulocytes, was adjusted for spermatozoa staining. Ten men suffering from oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT) and 10 healthy fertile men were analysed using in vivo AO staining. Microscopic analysis was performed by fluorescent and confocal fluorescent microscopy. Our results show that this method preserves spermatozoa membranes, which enables new insight into spermatozoa genome damage, RNA content in residual cytoplasm, damage of neck area with mitochondrion and tail pathology. The introduced method explains the difference between results of sperm DNA fragmentation assay and the globally used AO staining and opens new options for the development of automated systems. In conclusion, the results of our study offer (a) an innovative approach to the analysis of spermatozoa pathology, (b) enable localization and quantification of RNA in residual cytoplasm, (c) a significant contribution to research of aetiology of infertility in men, (d) open new perspectives for the automatization of sperm quality estimation and (e) improve the personalized approach in the selection of in vitro fertilization protocols.
Key message
BPM1 interacts with components of the DDR complex and stimulates DNA methylation at CHH sites, suggesting its involvement in the RdDM methylation pathway.
The best-known function of ...MATH-BTB proteins, including
Arabidopsis
BPM proteins, is their role as substrate-specific adaptors of CUL3-based E3 ligases in the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. This paper reports a new CUL3-independent role of BPM1 in RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). Using quantitative and qualitative Y2H, pull down, microscale thermophoresis and FRET-FLIM, we demonstrate that BPM1 interacts with DMS3 and RDM1, components of the chromatin remodeling DDR complex involved in the recruitment of the RdDM methylation machinery. All three proteins colocalized predominantly in the nucleus. The MATH domain, which specifically binds proteins destined for degradation, was not essential for interactions with DMS3 and RDM1. In plants overexpressing BPM1, endogenous DMS3 protein levels were stable, indicating that BPM1 does not induce proteasomal degradation. In RDM1-overexpressing plants, RDM1 was not ubiquitinated. Together, these results suggest that BPM1 does not mediate the degradation of DMS3 and RDM1. Additionally, overexpression of BPM1 caused increased global methylation levels as well as CHH methylation in promoters of two RdDM-regulated genes,
FWA
and
CML41
. Overall, BPM1 seems to have a stimulating effect on RdDM activity, and this role appears to be unrelated to its known function as a Cul3-based E3 ligase adaptor.
Alternative glycosylation of immunoglobulin G (IgG) is functionally important in multiple human physiological and pathological states. Our understanding of molecular mechanisms that regulate IgG ...glycosylation is vague because of the complexity of this process, which involves hundreds of genes. Several genome-wide association (GWA) studies have revealed a network of genes associated with IgG glycosylation that are pleiotropic for a number of diseases. Here, we report a design of a versatile system for IgG production and gene manipulations that can be used for
in vitro
functional follow-up of GWA hits or any gene of interest. The system is based on CRISPR-dCas9, extended by a piggyBac integrase compatible vector, and drives IgG production in HEK-293F cells. We validated our systems that stably express VPR-dCas9 and KRAB-dCas9 by manipulation of four glyco-genes with a known role in IgG glycosylation, and then functionally validated three GWAS hits for IgG glycosylation with an as-yet-unknown role in this process.
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