Maternally inherited H4K16 acetylation primes zygotic gene activation in Drosophila
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ternally inherited H4K16 acetylation primes zygotic gene activation in Drosophila 1
Lei Qiu , Xueqin Liu
1,2
1*
& Junhong Han
1
Research Laboratory of Tumor Epigenetics and Genomics, Department of General Surgery, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related
Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China 2
Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Department of Clinical Research Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China Received October 6, 2020; accepted November 4, 2020; published online December 1, 2020
Citation:
Qiu, L., Liu, X., and Han, J. (2020). Maternally inherited H4K16 acetylation primes zygotic gene activation in Drosophila. Sci China Life Sci 63, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1845-4
In a recent study published in Cell, Samata et al. demonstrated a novel mechanism that guided the genomic reprogramming. They showed that the acetylation of histone H4 at Lysine 16 (H4K16ac) was intergenerationally maintained from the mother’s oocyte to the young embryo and primed zygotic gene activation in Drosophila (Samata et al., 2020). Embryonic development is initially directed by maternal gene products. Then gradually, developmental control is handed to the zygotic genome during the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). The MZT encompasses two major molecular activities, maternal clearance and zygotic genome activation (ZGA). Two ZGA waves have been distinguished, a minor wave that occurs during the cleavage divisions and a major wave that coincides with cell cycle lengthening. During genome activation, 35% of all genes in the Drosophila genome are transcribed. Abe et al. demonstrated in mouse that minor ZGA must precede major ZGA to execute successful MZT, and that the opportune occurrence of minor ZGA was critical for preimplantation development to continue beyond the two-cell stage (Abe et al., 2018). In Drosophila, the first zygotic transcripts are detected in cell cycle 8 or even earlier, whereas ZGA does not happen until cycle 14. X chromosome dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster is achieved by doubling the transcription of most genes on the single X chromosome in male flies. This *Corresponding author (email: [email protected])
dosage compensation is mediated by the male-specific lethal (MSL) complex containing a core of five protein subunits (MSL1, MSL2, MSL3, MOF, and MLE) together with two long non-coding RNAs, RNA on the X 1 and 2 (roX1, roX2). MOF (males absent on the first, also called KAT8) is a member of the MYST (MOZ, Ybf2, Sas2 and Tip60) family of histone acetyltransferases. The MSL complex binds to the male X chromosome and acetylates H4K16, leading to enhanced transcription (Singh et al., 2020). The acetylase activity of MOF is essential for male viability. Chromatin condensation is thought to be promoted by the association between a basic segment constituted by amino acids 16–20 of histone H4 tail with an acidic patch formed by an H2A/ H2
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