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Submitted on November 22, 2006
Accepted on June 14, 2007
UMR 6026 CNRS; Université Rennes I; IFR140 GFAS, Equipe Information et Programmation Cellulaire; Equipe Endocrinologie Moléculaire de la Reproduction, Campus de Beaulieu, Bat. 13, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France; International University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gilles.salbert{at}univ-rennes1.fr.
Transcriptional activation of silent genes can require the erasure of epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation at CpGs. Active demethylation events have been observed and associated processes are repeatedly suspected to involve DNA glycosylases such as mCpG binding domain protein 4 (MBD4), thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG), Demeter, and ROS1. A complete characterization of the molecular mechanisms occurring in metazoan is nonetheless awaited. Here, we report that activation of the endogenous vitronectin gene in P19 cells by the nuclear receptor COUP-TFI is observed in parallel with the recruitment of TDG and p68 RNA helicase, two components of a putative demethylation complex. Interestingly, when activated, the vitronectin gene was loaded with DNA methyltransferases 3a and 3b (Dnmt3a/b), and a strand-biased decrease in CpG methylation was detected. Dnmt3a was further found to associate with COUP-TFI and TDG in vivo, and cotransfection experiments demonstrated that Dnmt3a/b can enhance COUP-TFI-mediated activation of a methylated reporter gene. These results suggest that Dnmt3a/b could cooperate with the orphan receptor COUP-TFI to regulate transcription of the vitronectin gene.
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