AID stabilizes a stem cell phenotype by removing epigenetic memory of secondary pluripotency network genes
The activation-induced cytidine deaminase enzyme (AID) is required in germinal center (GC) B cells for somatic hyper-mutation and class switch recombination at the immunoglobulin locus. In GC-B cells, AID is highly expressed, with inherent mutator activity that helps generate antibody diversity. However, AID may also regulate gene expression epigenetically, irrespective of mutator activity, by directly deaminating 5-methylcytosine (5mC) in concert with base excision repair glycosylases to exchange unmethylated cytosine. This pathway promotes gene demethylation, thereby removing epigenetic memory. For example, AID promotes active demethylation of the genome in primordial germ cells. However, the range and mechanism by which AID promotes pluripotency is not known. Different studies have suggested either a requirement or a lack of function for promoting pluripotency in somatic nuclei following fusion with embryonic stem cells (ESC). Here we tested directly whether AID regulates epigenetic memory, by comparing the relative ability of cells lacking AID to reprogram from a differentiated cell type to an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC). We show that loss of AID impacts two distinct steps of reprogramming: First, AID-null cells are transiently hyper-responsive to the reprogramming process. Second, although they initiate expression of pluripotency genes, they fail to stabilize the pluripotent state. The genome of AID-null cells remains hypermethylated in reprogramming cells, and hypermethylated genes associated with pluripotency fail to be stably up-regulated. MYC target genes are highly enriched in the set of genes hypermethylated and under-expressed in reprogramming cells lacking AID. Recent studies identified a distinctive late step of reprogramming associated with methylation status. AID appears to regulate this step to stabilize the pluripotent state, removing epigenetic memory to promote expression of secondary pluripotency network genes. Overall design: Transcriptome sequencing of AID-null tail fibroblasts, wildtype tail fibroblasts, AID-null and wildtype tail fibroblasts reprogrammed for three weeks by ectopic expression of  transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, KLf4 and cMyc. Methylation profiling by reduced representation bisulphite seuencing of AID-null tail fibroblasts, wildtype tail fibroblasts, AID-null and wildtype tail fibroblasts reprogrammed for three weeks and AID-null and wildtype clones after three weeks of reprogramming (Picked at two weeks)