Han Kun, Ren Ruimin, Cao Jianhua, Zhao Shuhong, Yu Mei
Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
Front Genet. 2019 Mar 29;10:277. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00277. eCollection 2019.
Development of placental folds is a critical event affecting placental function in pigs because it can increase surface area for improvement in capillary density as gestation advances. However, the molecular mechanisms of the event are not well defined. Histone modifications have important roles in gene regulation. To investigate their effects on regulation of genes controlling porcine placental development, RNA-seq and ChIP-seq of porcine placental tissues from gestational days 50 (establishment stage of placental folds) and 95 (expanding stage of placental folds) were carried out in this study. The differentially expressed genes were identified and of which the down- and up-regulated genes are related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and angiogenesis, respectively. In addition, we mapped the genome-wide profiles of histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), which are associated with transcriptional activation. A number of differential modification regions between the 2 gestational stages were identified and majority of them are those with increased signals of H3K4me3 (14,576 out of 16,931). Furthermore, we observed that the increase of H3K4me3 is significantly correlated with the elevated expression levels of the neighboring genes, and notably, these genes were enriched in pathways related to blood vessel formation and microvascular permeability. Taken together, the findings suggest important roles of histone modifications on placental remolding in response to developmental changes.
胎盘褶皱的形成是影响猪胎盘功能的关键事件，因为随着妊娠期的推进，它可以增加表面积以提高毛细血管密度。然而，这一事件的分子机制尚未明确。组蛋白修饰在基因调控中具有重要作用。为了研究它们对控制猪胎盘发育的基因调控的影响，本研究对妊娠第50天（胎盘褶皱形成阶段）和第95天（胎盘褶皱扩展阶段）的猪胎盘组织进行了RNA测序和染色质免疫沉淀测序。鉴定出差异表达基因，其中下调和上调基因分别与内质网应激和血管生成有关。此外，我们绘制了与转录激活相关的组蛋白H3赖氨酸4三甲基化（H3K4me3）和组蛋白H3赖氨酸27乙酰化（H3K27ac）的全基因组图谱。鉴定出两个妊娠阶段之间的一些差异修饰区域，其中大多数是H3K4me3信号增加的区域（16931个中的14576个）。此外，我们观察到H3K4me3的增加与相邻基因表达水平的升高显著相关，值得注意的是，这些基因在与血管形成和微血管通透性相关的通路中富集。综上所述，这些发现表明组蛋白修饰在响应发育变化的胎盘重塑中起重要作用。
