The advent of transcription profiling technologies has provided researchers with an unprecedented ability to study biological processes. Accordingly, a custom-made Affymetrix GeneChip, constituting >86% of the Staphylococcus aureus genome, was used to identify open reading frames that are regulated by agr and/or SarA, the two best-studied regulators of the organism's virulence response. RNA extracted from wild-type cells and agr, sarA, and agr sarA mutant cells in the early-, mid-, and late-log and stationary phases of growth was analyzed. Open reading frames with transcription patterns expected of genes either up-or downregulated in an agrand/or SarA-dependent manner were identified. Oligonucleotide microarray and Northern blot analyses confirmed that the transcription of several known virulence genes, including hla (alpha-toxin) and spa (protein A), is regulated by each effector and provided insights about the regulatory cascades involved in both alpha-hemolysin and protein A expression. Several putative virulence factors were also identified as regulated by agr and/or SarA. In addition, genes that are involved in several biological processes but which are difficult to reconcile as playing a direct role in the organism's pathogenesis also appeared to be regulated by each effector, suggesting that products of both the agr and the sarA locus are more-global transcription regulators than previously realized.Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of human disease. The organism causes a variety of clinical manifestations, ranging from localized skin infections to severe sepsis, and is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infection (3). Despite advances in antibacterial chemotherapy, S. aureus strains have demonstrated resistance to all currently available antibiotics. Due in part to the immense clinical importance of this organism, an enormous amount of effort has been directed toward identifying the genes and regulatory mechanisms associated with S. aureus pathogenesis. Collectively, this work has demonstrated that the organism's pathogenesis can be attributed to its capacity to produce a variety of virulence factors (29).The identification of virulence factors and the regulatory networks that influence their expression has been facilitated by the observation(s) that many, if not most, virulence genes are expressed in laboratory cultures. While there is currently a substantial list of staphylococcal virulence factors, it is likely that this list is incomplete and is skewed by the limitations of the experiments used to identify them. Virulence factors that have already been identified generally include (i) bacterial surface proteins that are involved in processes such as adhesion and evasion of the host immune response and (ii) secreted exoproteins that degrade host tissue(s) and inactivate host defensive mechanisms (29).The genes encoding most virulence factors belong to an extensive regulon that is coordinately regulated in response to a variety of intra-and extracellular signals (1,5,21). Octapeptide signaling m...

How regeneration cues are converted into the epigenetic information that controls gene expression in adult stem cells is currently unknown. We identified a novel inflammation-activated signalling in muscle stem (satellite) cells, by which the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) represses Pax7 expression during muscle regeneration. TNF-activated p38alpha kinase promotes the interaction between YY1 and PRC2, via threonine 372 phosphorylation of EzH2, the enzymatic sub-unit of the complex, leading to the formation of repressive chromatin on Pax7 promoter. Anti-TNF antibodies stimulate satellite cell proliferation in regenerating muscles of dystrophic or normal mice. Genetic knockdown or pharmacological inhibition of the enzymatic components of the p38/PRC2 signalling – p38alpha and EzH2 - invariably promote Pax7 expression and expansion of satellite cells that retain their differentiation potential upon signalling resumption. Genetic knockdown of Pax7 impaired satellite cell proliferation in response to p38 inhibition, thereby establishing the biological link between p38/PRC2 signalling to Pax7 and satellite cell decision to proliferate or differentiate.

During muscle regeneration, the mechanism integrating environmental cues at the chromatin of muscle progenitors is unknown. We show that inflammation-activated MKK6-p38 and insulin growth factor 1 (IGF1)-induced PI3K/AKT pathways converge on the chromatin of muscle genes to target distinct components of the muscle transcriptosome. p38 alpha/beta kinases recruit the SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complex; AKT1 and 2 promote the association of MyoD with p300 and PCAF acetyltransferases, via direct phosphorylation of p300. Pharmacological or genetic interference with either pathway led to partial assembly of discrete chromatin-bound complexes, which reflected two reversible and distinct cellular phenotypes. Remarkably, PI3K/AKT blockade was permissive for chromatin recruitment of MEF2-SWI/SNF complex, whose remodeling activity was compromised in the absence of MyoD and acetyltransferases. The functional interdependence between p38 and IGF1/PI3K/AKT pathways was further established by the evidence that blockade of AKT chromatin targets was sufficient to prevent the activation of the myogenic program triggered by deliberate activation of p38 signaling.

Reduction of lamin A/C, which is evolutionarily required for the modulation of Polycomb group (PcG) protein–dependent transcriptional repression by sustaining PcG protein nuclear architecture, leads to PcG protein diffusion and to muscle differentiation.

This review focuses on our current knowledge of the epigenetic changes regulating gene expression at the chromatin and DNA level, independently on the primary DNA sequence, to reprogram the nuclei of muscle precursors during developmental myogenesis and muscle regeneration. These epigenetic marks provide the blueprint by which the extra-cellular cues are interpreted at the nuclear level by the transcription machinery to select the repertoire of tissue-specific genes to be expressed. The reversibility of some of these changes necessarily reflects the dynamic nature of skeletal myogenesis, which entails the progression through two antagonistic processes-proliferation and differentiation. Other epigenetic modifications are instead associated to events conventionally considered as irreversible-e.g. maintenance of lineage commitment and terminal differentiation. However, recent results support the possibility that these events can be reversed, at least upon certain experimental conditions, thereby revealing a dynamic nature of many of the epigenetic modifications underlying skeletal myogenesis. The elucidation of the epigenetic network that regulates transcription during developmental myogenesis and muscle regeneration might provide the information instrumental to devise pharmacological interventions toward selective manipulation of gene expression to promote regeneration of skeletal muscles and possibly other tissue.

BackgroundEmbryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a pediatric soft-tissue sarcoma derived from myogenic precursors that is characterized by a good prognosis in patients with localized disease. Conversely, metastatic tumors often relapse, leading to a dismal outcome. The histone methyltransferase EZH2 epigenetically suppresses skeletal muscle differentiation by repressing the transcription of myogenic genes. Moreover, de-regulated EZH2 expression has been extensively implied in human cancers. We have previously shown that EZH2 is aberrantly over-expressed in RMS primary tumors and cell lines. Moreover, it has been recently reported that EZH2 silencing in RD cells, a recurrence-derived embryonal RMS cell line, favors myofiber-like structures formation in a pro-differentiation context. Here we evaluate whether similar effects can be obtained also in the presence of growth factor-supplemented medium (GM), that mimics a pro-proliferative microenvironment, and by pharmacological targeting of EZH2 in RD cells and in RD tumor xenografts.MethodsEmbryonal RMS RD cells were cultured in GM and silenced for EZH2 or treated with either the S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase inhibitor 3-deazaneplanocin A (DZNep) that induces EZH2 degradation, or with a new class of catalytic EZH2 inhibitors, MC1948 and MC1945, which block the catalytic activity of EZH2. RD cell proliferation and myogenic differentiation were evaluated both in vitro and in vivo.ResultsHere we show that EZH2 protein was abnormally expressed in 19 out of 19 (100%) embryonal RMS primary tumors and cell lines compared to their normal counterparts. Genetic down-regulation of EZH2 by silencing in GM condition reduced RD cell proliferation up-regulating p21Cip1. It also resulted in myogenic-like differentiation testified by the up-regulation of myogenic markers Myogenin, MCK and MHC. These effects were reverted by enforced over-expression of a murine Ezh2, highlighting an EZH2-specific effect. Pharmacological inhibition of EZH2 using either DZNep or MC inhibitors phenocopied the genetic knockdown of EZH2 preventing cell proliferation and restoring myogenic differentiation both in vitro and in vivo.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence that EZH2 function can be counteracted by pharmacological inhibition in embryonal RMS blocking proliferation even in a pro-proliferative context. They also suggest that this approach could be exploited as a differentiation therapy in adjuvant therapeutic intervention for embryonal RMS.

During development, gene activation is stringently regulated to restrict expression only to the correct cell type and correct developmental stage. Here, we present mechanistic evidence that suggests DNA methylation contributes to this regulation by suppressing premature gene activation. Using the mouse Myogenin promoter as an example of the weak CpG island class of promoters, we find that it is initially methylated but becomes demethylated as development proceeds. Full hypersensitive site formation of the Myogenin promoter requires both the MEF2 and SIX binding sites, but binding to only one site can trigger the partial chromatin opening of the nonmethylated promoter. DNA methylation markedly decreases hypersensitive site formation that now occurs at a detectable level only when binding to both MEF2 and SIX binding sites is possible. This suggests that the probability of activating the methylated promoter is low until two of the factors are coexpressed within the same cell. Consistent with this, the single-cell analysis of developing somites shows that the coexpression of MEF2A and SIX1, which bind the MEF2 and SIX sites, correlates with the fraction of cells that demethylate the Myogenin promoter. Taken together, these studies imply that DNA methylation helps to prevent inappropriate gene activation until sufficient activating factors are coexpressed.The development of multicellular organisms requires a highly specific, spatially, and temporally restricted pattern of gene expression. Remarkably, this is achieved from a relatively limited set of transcription factors, many of which are expressed in more than one lineage but which nevertheless activate distinct programs of gene expression within individual lineages. One way in which these distinct expression programs are achieved is via cooperation with lineage-specific coactivators or corepressors. For example, during murine hematopoiesis, individual stem cells are primed to express genes that are typical of a number of different lineages (17), but lineagespecific corepressors then restrict this expression to cause commitment to a single lineage (21).A second tool that could restrict inappropriate developmental gene activation is DNA methylation. The established correlations between DNA methylation and gene inactivity (11), together with the fact that DNA methylation can be stably inherited (47), gave support to an attractive model in which DNA methylation represses gene activity in nonexpressing tissues (15, 34). Despite the attractiveness of the model, direct evidence that DNA methylation regulates gene activation during development has been elusive. Evidence favoring this hypothesis includes the observation that the loss of the maintenance methyltransferase, DNMT1, in Xenopus (xDNMT1) triggered premature gene activation (39); likewise, the conditional knockout of Dnmt1 in mouse fibroblasts resulted in the upregulation of 10% of genes (18). In contrast, an analysis of Dnmt1 knockout mice showed that the expression of certain lineage-specific genes was unaltere...

The Polycomb group (PcG) proteins regulate stem cell differentiation via the repression of gene transcription, and their deregulation has been widely implicated in cancer development. The PcG protein Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 (EZH2) works as a catalytic subunit of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) by methylating lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3), a hallmark of PRC2-mediated gene repression. In skeletal muscle progenitors, EZH2 prevents an unscheduled differentiation by repressing muscle-specific gene expression and is downregulated during the course of differentiation. In rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a pediatric soft-tissue sarcoma thought to arise from myogenic precursors, EZH2 is abnormally expressed and its downregulation in vitro leads to muscle-like differentiation of RMS cells of the embryonal variant. However, the role of EZH2 in the clinically aggressive subgroup of alveolar RMS, characterized by the expression of PAX3-FOXO1 oncoprotein, remains unknown. We show here that EZH2 depletion in these cells leads to programmed cell death. Transcriptional derepression of F-box protein 32 (FBXO32) (Atrogin1/MAFbx), a gene associated with muscle homeostasis, was evidenced in PAX3-FOXO1 RMS cells silenced for EZH2. This phenomenon was associated with reduced EZH2 occupancy and H3K27me3 levels at the FBXO32 promoter. Simultaneous knockdown of FBXO32 and EZH2 in PAX3-FOXO1 RMS cells impaired the pro-apoptotic response, whereas the overexpression of FBXO32 facilitated programmed cell death in EZH2-depleted cells. Pharmacological inhibition of EZH2 by either 3-Deazaneplanocin A or a catalytic EZH2 inhibitor mirrored the phenotypic and molecular effects of EZH2 knockdown in vitro and prevented tumor growth in vivo. Collectively, these results indicate that EZH2 is a key factor in the proliferation and survival of PAX3-FOXO1 alveolar RMS cells working, at least in part, by repressing FBXO32. They also suggest that the reducing activity of EZH2 could represent a novel adjuvant strategy to eradicate high-risk PAX3-FOXO1 alveolar RMS.Oncogene ( Keywords: EZH2; FBXO32; histone methyltransferases; PAX3-FOXO1; rhabdomyosarcoma; Polycomb proteins INTRODUCTION Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) are heterogeneous highly malignant tumors, which account for 7-8% of all pediatric malignancies and over half of the soft-tissue sarcomas in children. RMS are classically subdivided in two major histotypes: embryonal (around 70-80%) and alveolar (around 20-30%), the latter often metastatic at diagnosis and showing a high risk of recurrence. 1 In 70% of cases, alveolar RMS is characterized by the chromosomal translocation t(2;13) or t(1;13), resulting in