Clinical and Translational Research Center of Shanghai First Maternity & Infant Hospital, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cells, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan Province 453003, China.
Clinical and Translational Research Center of Shanghai First Maternity & Infant Hospital, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cells, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Key Laboratory of Animal Bioengineering and Disease Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Shandong, 271018, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Clinical and Translational Research Center of Shanghai First Maternity & Infant Hospital, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cells, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address: lerongrong@tongji.edu.cn.
Clinical and Translational Research Center of Shanghai First Maternity & Infant Hospital, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cells, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address: gaoshaorong@tongji.edu.cn.
Clinical and Translational Research Center of Shanghai First Maternity & Infant Hospital, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cells, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address: yanpingzhang@tongji.edu.cn.
Multiple chromatin modifiers associated with H3K9me3 play important roles in the transition from embryonic stem cells to 2-cell (2C)-like cells. However, it remains elusive how H3K9me3 is remodeled and its association with totipotency. Here, we integrated transcriptome and H3K9me3 profiles to conduct a detailed comparison of 2C embryos and 2C-like cells. Globally, H3K9me3 is highly preserved and H3K9me3 dynamics within the gene locus is not associated with gene expression change during 2C-like transition. Promoter-deposited H3K9me3 plays non-repressive roles in the activation of genes during 2C-like transition. In contrast, transposable elements, residing in the nearby regions of up-regulated genes, undergo extensive elimination of H3K9me3 and are tended to be induced in 2C-like transitions. Furthermore, a large fraction of trophoblast stem cell-specific enhancers undergo loss of H3K9me3 exclusively in MERVL+/Zscan4+ cells. Our study therefore reveals the unique H3K9me3 profiles of 2C-like cells, facilitating the further exploration of totipotency.
Keywords: H3K9me3; pluripotency; totipotency; transposable elements (TEs)
