title: Identification of a variant-specific phosphorylation of TH2A during spermiogenesis.
abstract: Tissue-specific histone variant incorporation into chromatin plays dynamic and important roles in tissue development. Testis is one such tissue, and a number of testis-specific histone variants are expressed that have unique roles. While it is expected that such variants acquire post-transcriptional modifications to be functional, identification of variant-specific histone modifications is challenging because of the high similarity of amino acid sequences between canonical and variant versions. Here we identified a novel phosphorylation on TH2A, a germ cell-specific histone H2A variant. TH2A-Thr127 is unique to the variant and phosphorylated concomitant with chromatin condensation including spermiogenesis and early embryonic mitosis. In sperm chromatin, phosphorylated TH2A-Thr127 (=pTH2A) is co-localized with H3.3 at transcriptional starting sites of the genome, and subsequently becomes absent from the paternal genome upon fertilization. Notably, pTH2A is recurrent and accumulated in the pericentromeric heterochromatin of both paternal and maternal chromosomes in the first mitosis of embryos, suggesting its unique regulation during spermiogenesis and early embryogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathology and Development, Research Center for Epigenetic Disease, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.|Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hada
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of genome structure and function, Research Center for Epigenetic Disease, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathology and Development, Research Center for Epigenetic Disease, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.|Graduate School of Art and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Kosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of genome structure and function, Research Center for Epigenetic Disease, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shirahige
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathology and Development, Research Center for Epigenetic Disease, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005306:Fertilization; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D016678:Genome; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008938:Mitosis; D010766:Phosphorylation; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013087:Spermatids / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D013091:Spermatogenesis; D024363:Transcription Initiation Site
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D006657:Histones