Regulation of DNA methylation activity through Dnmt3L promoter methylation by Dnmt3 enzymes in embryonic development.
The genomic DNA is methylated by de novo methyltransferases Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b during early embryonic development. The establishment of appropriate methylation patterns depends on a fine regulation of the methyltransferase activity. The activity of both enzymes increases in the presence of Dnmt3L, a Dnmt3a/3b-like protein. However, it is unclear how the function of Dnmt3L is regulated. We found here that the expression of Dnmt3L is controlled via its promoter methylation during embryonic development. Genetic studies showed that Dnmt3a, Dnmt3b and Dnmt3L are all involved in the methylation of the Dnmt3L promoter. Disruption of both Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b genes in mouse rendered the Dnmt3L promoter devoid of methylation, causing incomplete repression of the Dnmt3L transcription in embryonic stem cells and embryos. Disruption of either Dnmt3a or Dnmt3b led to reduced methylation and increased transcription of Dnmt3L, but severe hypomethylation occurred only when Dnmt3b was deficient. Consistent with the major contribution of Dnmt3b in the Dnmt3L promoter methylation, methylation of Dnmt3L was significantly reduced in mouse models of the human ICF syndrome carrying point mutations in Dnmt3b. Interestingly, Dnmt3L also contributes to the methylation of its own promoter in embryonic development. We thus propose an auto-regulatory mechanism for the control of DNA methylation activity whereby the activity of the Dnmt3L promoter is epigenetically modulated by the methylation machinery including Dnmt3L itself. Insufficient methylation of the DNMT3L promoter during embryonic development due to deficiency in DNMT3B might be implicated in the pathogenesis of the ICF syndrome.
The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China.
Ye-Guang
YG
Hu
Ryutaro
R
Hirasawa
Jia-Lei
JL
Hu
Kenichiro
K
Hata
Chun-Liang
CL
Li
Ying
Y
Jin
Taiping
T
Chen
En
E
Li
Muriel
M
Rigolet
Evani
E
Viegas-Péquignot
Hiroyuki
H
Sasaki
Guo-Liang
GL
Xu
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D000090205:DNA Methyltransferase 3A; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D010064:Embryo Implantation; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells; D006801:Humans; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000196:embryology*; D051379:Mice; D017354:Point Mutation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D000097584:DNA Methyltransferase 3B
D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases; D000090205:DNA Methyltransferase 3A; D000097584:DNA Methyltransferase 3B; C000717967:DNMT3A protein, human; C000715535:Dnmt3a protein, mouse; C498796:Dnmt3l protein, mouse