Cell type-specific epigenetic signatures accompany late stages of mouse retina development

Chromatin Remodeling Enzyme Snf2h Is Essential for Retinal Cell Proliferation and Photoreceptor Maintenance

Chromatin remodeling complexes are required for many distinct nuclear processes such as transcription, DNA replication, and DNA repair. However, the contribution of these complexes to the development of complex tissues within an organism is poorly characterized. Imitation switch (ISWI) proteins are among the most evolutionarily conserved ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling factors and are represented by yeast Isw1/Isw2, and their vertebrate counterparts Snf2h (Smarca5) and Snf2l (Smarca1). In this study, we focused on the role of the Snf2h gene during the development of the mammalian retina. We show that Snf2h is expressed in both retinal progenitors and post-mitotic retinal cells. Using Snf2h conditional knockout mice (Snf2h cKO), we found that when Snf2h is deleted, the laminar structure of the adult retina is not retained, the overall thickness of the retina is significantly reduced compared with controls, and the outer nuclear layer (ONL) is completely missing. The depletion of Snf2h did not influence the ability of retinal progenitors to generate all the differentiated retinal cell types. Instead, the Snf2h function is critical for the proliferation of retinal progenitor cells. Cells lacking Snf2h have a defective S-phase, leading to the entire cell division process impairments. Although all retinal cell types appear to be specified in the absence of the Snf2h function, cell-cycle defects and concomitantly increased apoptosis in Snf2h cKO result in abnormal retina lamination, complete destruction of the photoreceptor layer, and consequently, a physiologically non-functional retina.

Chromatin remodeling enzyme Snf2h is essential for retinal cell proliferation and photoreceptor maintenance

Chromatin remodeling complexes are required for many distinct nuclear processes such as transcription, DNA replication and DNA repair. However, how these complexes contribute to the development of complex tissues within an organism is poorly characterized. Imitation switch (ISWI) proteins are among the most evolutionarily conserved ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling factors and are represented by yeast Isw1/Isw2, and their vertebrate counterparts Snf2h (Smarca5) and Snf2l (Smarca1). In this study, we focused on the role of the Snf2h gene during development of the mammalian retina. We show that Snf2h is expressed in both retinal progenitors and post-mitotic retinal cells. Using Snf2h conditional knockout mice ( Snf2h cKO), we found that when Snf2h is deleted the laminar structure of the adult retina is not retained, the overall thickness of the retina is significantly reduced compared with controls, and the outer nuclear layer (ONL) is completely missing. Depletion of Snf2h did not influence the ability of retinal progenitors to generate all of the differentiated retinal cell types. Instead, Snf2h function is critical for proliferation of retinal progenitor cells. Cells lacking Snf2h have a defective S-phase, leading to the entire cell division process impairments. Although, all retinal cell types appear to be specified in the absence of Snf2h function, cell cycle defects and concomitantly increased apoptosis in Snf2h cKO result in abnormal retina lamination, complete destruction of the photoreceptor layer and, consequently, in a physiologically non-functional retina.

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Assay in Mouse Retinal Tissue

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is one of the most widely used methods for investigating interactions between proteins and DNA sequences. ChIP plays an important role in the transcriptional regulation study, which can locate the target genes of transcription factors and cofactors or monitor the sequence-specific genomic regions of histone modification. To analyze the interaction between transcription factors and several candidate genes, ChIP coupled with quantitative PCR (ChIP-PCR) assay is a basic tool. With the development of next-generation sequencing technology, ChIP-coupled sequencing (ChIP-seq) can provide the protein-DNA interaction information in a genome-wide dimension, which helps a lot in identifying new target genes. This chapter describes a protocol for performing ChIP-seq of transcription factors from retinal tissues.

DNA demethylation is a driver for chick retina regeneration

Cellular reprogramming resets the epigenetic landscape to drive shifts in transcriptional programmes and cell identity. The embryonic chick can regenerate a complete neural retina, after retinectomy, via retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) reprogramming in the presence of FGF2. In this study, we systematically analysed the reprogramming competent chick RPE prior to injury, and during different stages of reprogramming. In addition to changes in the expression of genes associated with epigenetic modifications during RPE reprogramming, we observed dynamic changes in histone marks associated with bivalent chromatin (H3K27me3/H3K4me3) and intermediates of the process of DNA demethylation including 5hmC and 5caC. Comprehensive analysis of the methylome by whole-genome bisulphite sequencing (WGBS) confirmed extensive rearrangements of DNA methylation patterns including differentially methylated regions (DMRs) found at promoters of genes associated with chromatin organization and fibroblast growth factor production. We also identified Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 3 (TET3) as an important factor for DNA demethylation and retina regeneration, capable of reprogramming RPE in the absence of exogenous FGF2. In conclusion, we demonstrate that injury early in RPE reprogramming triggers genome-wide dynamic changes in chromatin, including bivalent chromatin and DNA methylation. In the presence of FGF2, these dynamic modifications are further sustained in the commitment to form a new retina. Our findings reveal active DNA demethylation as an important process that may be applied to remove the epigenetic barriers in order to regenerate retina in mammals.

ABBREVIATIONS

bp: Base pair; DMR: Differentially methylated region; DMC: Differentially methylated cytosines; GFP: Green fluorescent protein; PCR: Polymerase chain reaction. TET: Ten-eleven translocation; RPE: retinal pigment epithelium.

Immunohistochemical Detection of 5-Methylcytosine and 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine in Developing and Postmitotic Mouse Retina

The epigenetics of retinal development is a well-studied research field, which promises to bring a new level of understanding about the mechanisms of a variety of human retinal degenerative diseases and pinpoint new treatment approaches. The nuclear architecture of mouse retina is organized in two different patterns: conventional and inverted. Conventional pattern is universal where heterochromatin is localized to the periphery of the nucleus, while active euchromatin resides in the nuclear interior. In contrast, inverted nuclear pattern is unique to the adult rod photoreceptor cell nuclei where heterochromatin localizes to the nuclear center, and euchromatin resides in the nuclear periphery. DNA methylation is predominantly observed in chromocenters. DNA methylation is a dynamic covalent modification on the cytosine residues (5-methylcytosine, 5mC) of CpG dinucleotides that are enriched in the promoter regions of many genes. Three DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B) participate in methylation of DNA during development. Detecting 5mC with immunohistochemical techniques is very challenging, contributing to variability in results, as all DNA bases including 5mC modified bases are hidden within the double-stranded DNA helix. However, detailed delineation of 5mC distribution during development is very informative. Here, we describe a reproducible technique for robust immunohistochemical detection of 5mC and another epigenetic DNA marker 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), which colocalizes with the "open", transcriptionally active chromatin in developing and postmitotic mouse retina.

Polycomb repression complex 2 is required for the maintenance of retinal progenitor cells and balanced retinal differentiation

Polycomb repressive complexes maintain transcriptional repression of genes encoding crucial developmental regulators through chromatin modification. Here we investigated the role of Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) in retinal development by inactivating its key components Eed and Ezh2. Conditional deletion of Ezh2 resulted in a partial loss of PRC2 function and accelerated differentiation of Müller glial cells. In contrast, inactivation of Eed led to the ablation of PRC2 function at early postnatal stage. Cell proliferation was reduced and retinal progenitor cells were significantly decreased in this mutant, which subsequently caused depletion of Müller glia, bipolar, and rod photoreceptor cells, primarily generated from postnatal retinal progenitor cells. Interestingly, the proportion of amacrine cells was dramatically increased at postnatal stages in the Eed-deficient retina. In accordance, multiple transcription factors controlling amacrine cell differentiation were upregulated. Furthermore, ChIP-seq analysis showed that these deregulated genes contained bivalent chromatin (H3K27me3⁺ H3K4me3⁺). Our results suggest that PRC2 is required for proliferation in order to maintain the retinal progenitor cells at postnatal stages and for retinal differentiation by controlling amacrine cell generation.

Next generation sequencing technology and genomewide data analysis: Perspectives for retinal research

The advent of high throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) has accelerated the pace of discovery of disease-associated genetic variants and genomewide profiling of expressed sequences and epigenetic marks, thereby permitting systems-based analyses of ocular development and disease. Rapid evolution of NGS and associated methodologies presents significant challenges in acquisition, management, and analysis of large data sets and for extracting biologically or clinically relevant information. Here we illustrate the basic design of commonly used NGS-based methods, specifically whole exome sequencing, transcriptome, and epigenome profiling, and provide recommendations for data analyses. We briefly discuss systems biology approaches for integrating multiple data sets to elucidate gene regulatory or disease networks. While we provide examples from the retina, the NGS guidelines reviewed here are applicable to other tissues/cell types as well.

Ezh2 maintains retinal progenitor proliferation, transcriptional integrity, and the timing of late differentiation

Epigenetic regulation, including histone modification, is a critical component of gene regulation, although precisely how this contributes to the development of complex tissues such as the neural retina is still being explored. We show that during retinal development in mouse, there are dynamic patterns of expression of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) catalytic subunit EZH2 in retinal progenitors and some differentiated cells, as well as dynamic changes in the histone modification H3K27me3. Using conditional knockout of Ezh2 using either Pax6-αCre or Six3-Cre, we find selective reduction in postnatal retinal progenitor proliferation, disruption of retinal lamination, and enhanced differentiation of several late born cell types in the early postnatal retina, including photoreceptors and Müller glia, which are ultimately increased in number and become reactive. RNA-seq identifies many non-retinal genes upregulated with loss of Ezh2, including multiple Hox genes and the cell cycle regulator Cdkn2a, which are established targets of EZH2-mediated repression. ChIP analysis confirms loss of the H3K27me3 modification at these loci. Similar gene upregulation is observed in retinal explants treated with an EZH2 chemical inhibitor. There is considerable overlap with EZH2-regulated genes reported in non-neural tissues, suggesting that EZH2 can regulate similar genes in multiple lineages. Our findings reveal a conserved role for EZH2 in constraining the expression of potent developmental regulators to maintain lineage integrity and retinal progenitor proliferation, as well as regulating the timing of late differentiation.