Control of 5mC and 5hmC by TET dioxygenases in human embryonic carcinoma cells [Microarray]

The TET family of dioxygenases catalyze conversion of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), but their involvement in establishing normal 5mC patterns during mammalian development and their contributions to aberrant control of 5mC during cellular transformation remains largely unknown. We depleted TET1, TET2, and TET3 by siRNA in a pluripotent embryonic carcinoma cell model and examined the impact on genome-wide 5mC and 5hmC patterns. TET1 depletion yielded widespread reduction of 5hmC, while depletion of TET2 and TET3 reduced 5hmC at a subset of TET1 targets suggesting functional co-dependence. TET2 or TET3-depletion also caused increased 5hmC, suggesting they play a major role in 5hmC removal. All TETs prevent hypermethylation throughout the genome, a finding dramatically illustrated in CpG island shores, where TET depletion resulted in prolific hypermethylation. Surprisingly, TETs also promote methylation, as hypomethylation was associated with 5hmC reduction. TET function was highly specific to chromatin environment: 5hmC maintenance by all TETs occurred at polycomb-marked chromatin and genes expressed at moderate levels; 5hmC removal by TET2 is associated with highly transcribed genes enriched for H3K4me3 and H3K36me3. Importantly, genes prone to hypermethylation in cancer become depleted of 5hmC with TET deficiency, suggesting the TETs normally promote 5hmC at these loci, and all three TETs are required for 5hmC enrichment at enhancers, a condition necessary for expression of adjacent genes. These results provide novel insight into the division of labor among TET proteins and reveal an important connection of TET activity with chromatin landscape and gene expression.

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Putiri EL, Tiedemann RL, Thompson JJ, Liu C, Ho T, Choi JH, Robertson KD