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Taylor BC, Steinthal LH, Dias M, Yalamanchili HK, Ochsner SA, Zapata GE, Mehta NR, McKenna NJ, Young NL, Nuotio-Antar AM. Histone proteoform analysis reveals epigenetic changes in adult mouse brown adipose tissue in response to cold stress. Epigenetics Chromatin 2024; 17:12. [PMID: 38678237 PMCID: PMC11055387 DOI: 10.1186/s13072-024-00536-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/29/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Regulation of the thermogenic response by brown adipose tissue (BAT) is an important component of energy homeostasis with implications for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. Our preliminary analyses of RNA-Seq data uncovered many nodes representing epigenetic modifiers that are altered in BAT in response to chronic thermogenic activation. Thus, we hypothesized that chronic thermogenic activation broadly alters epigenetic modifications of DNA and histones in BAT. RESULTS Motivated to understand how BAT function is regulated epigenetically, we developed a novel method for the first-ever unbiased top-down proteomic quantitation of histone modifications in BAT and validated our results with a multi-omic approach. To test our hypothesis, wildtype male C57BL/6J mice were housed under chronic conditions of thermoneutral temperature (TN, 28°C), mild cold/room temperature (RT, 22°C), or severe cold (SC, 8°C) and BAT was analyzed for DNA methylation and histone modifications. Methylation of promoters and intragenic regions in genomic DNA decrease in response to chronic cold exposure. Integration of DNA methylation and RNA expression datasets suggest a role for epigenetic modification of DNA in regulation of gene expression in response to cold. In response to cold housing, we observe increased bulk acetylation of histones H3.2 and H4, increased histone H3.2 proteoforms with di- and trimethylation of lysine 9 (K9me2 and K9me3), and increased histone H4 proteoforms with acetylation of lysine 16 (K16ac) in BAT. CONCLUSIONS Our results reveal global epigenetically-regulated transcriptional "on" and "off" signals in murine BAT in response to varying degrees of chronic cold stimuli and establish a novel methodology to quantitatively study histones in BAT, allowing for direct comparisons to decipher mechanistic changes during the thermogenic response. Additionally, we make histone PTM and proteoform quantitation, RNA splicing, RRBS, and transcriptional footprint datasets available as a resource for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bethany C Taylor
- Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Loic H Steinthal
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nutrition, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Michelle Dias
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Hari Krishna Yalamanchili
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nutrition, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Jan and Dan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Scott A Ochsner
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Gladys E Zapata
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nutrition, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Nitesh R Mehta
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nutrition, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Neil J McKenna
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Nicolas L Young
- Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
- Center for Precision Environmental Health, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
| | - Alli M Nuotio-Antar
- USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nutrition, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
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Wangler MF, Hu Y, Shulman JM. Drosophila and genome-wide association studies: a review and resource for the functional dissection of human complex traits. Dis Model Mech 2017; 10:77-88. [PMID: 28151408 PMCID: PMC5312009 DOI: 10.1242/dmm.027680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified thousands of susceptibility loci for common diseases with complex genetic etiologies. Although the susceptibility variants identified by GWAS usually have only modest effects on individual disease risk, they contribute to a substantial burden of trait variation in the overall population. GWAS also offer valuable clues to disease mechanisms that have long proven to be elusive. These insights could lead the way to breakthrough treatments; however, several challenges hinder progress, making innovative approaches to accelerate the follow-up of results from GWAS an urgent priority. Here, we discuss the largely untapped potential of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, for functional investigation of findings from human GWAS. We highlight selected examples where strong genomic conservation with humans along with the rapid and powerful genetic tools available for flies have already facilitated fine mapping of association signals, elucidated gene mechanisms, and revealed novel disease-relevant biology. We emphasize current research opportunities in this rapidly advancing field, and present bioinformatic analyses that systematically explore the applicability of Drosophila for interrogation of susceptibility signals implicated in more than 1000 human traits, based on all GWAS completed to date. Thus, our discussion is targeted at both human geneticists seeking innovative strategies for experimental validation of findings from GWAS, as well as the Drosophila research community, by whom ongoing investigations of the implicated genes will powerfully inform our understanding of human disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael F Wangler
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Yanhui Hu
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Joshua M Shulman
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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