Investigating the role of an unknown gene in germ cell epigenetic reprogramming

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26460367
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General medical chemistry
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: TASHIRO Fumi 大阪大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 助教 (40136213)
• Research Collaborator: UEDA Hironori 大阪大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 特任准教授 (90543463) ; MATSUURA Takumi
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ノックアウトマウス / 胎仔発生 / 生殖細胞 / エピジェネティック制御 / ヒストンメチル化 / ヘテロクロマチン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Zfp296 has been implicated in stem cell pluripotency and tumor pathogenesis. However, its mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrated that a Zfp296 deficiency in mice impairs germ-cell development and embryonic growth. Zfp296 was intracellularly localized to heterochromatin in embryos. In addition, we showed that Zfp296 interacts with epigenetic regulator proteins in vitro. We observed that the H3K9 methylation levels in Zfp296-/- embryonic cells increase and that Zfp296 deficiency affects the H3K9me3 levels at major satellite repeats. Our results demonstrate that Zfp296 is a component of constitutive heterochromatin that affects embryonic development by negatively regulating H3K9 methylation.

Free Research Field

分子生物学、発生生物学