Protein and histone binding profiles from mouse ES cells during differentiation and after Kdm6a RNAi treatment.. Mus musculus

Here we show binding and occupancy profiles for KDM6A, H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 to address the epigenetic regulation of a subset of Rhox genes, Rhox6 and 9, in female and male ES cells during differentiation. To further address a functional role for KDM6A in the epigenetic regulation of Rhox6 and 9, binding profiles for female ES cells treated with a control siRNA and siRNA specific for Kdm6a are shown. We report that two members of the Rhox cluster, Rhox6 and 9, are regulated by de-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 by KDM6A, a histone demethylase with female-biased expression. Our results are consistent with other homeobox genes in that Rhox6 and 9 are in bivalent domains prior to embryonic stem cell differentiation and thus poised for activation. In female mouse ES cells KDM6A is specifically recruited to Rhox6 and 9 for gene activation, a process inhibited by Kdm6a knockdown. In contrast, KDM6A occupancy at Rhox6 and 9 is low in male ES cells and knockdown has no effect on expression. Our study implicates Kdm6a, a gene that escapes X inactivation, in the regulation of genes important in reproduction, suggesting that KDM6A may play a role in the etiology of developmental and reproduction-related effects of X chromosome anomalies. Overall design: ChIP-chip was used to analyze the binding profiles of KDM6A, H3K27me3, and H3K4me3 during differentiation in female and male ES cells. Additionally, ChiP-chip of KDM6A binding in control treated and siRNA treated ES cells is presented.