MeCP2 regulates gene expression through direct interaction with H3K27me3 [Targeted_BS_seq: DMSO_vs_GSK343]

MeCP2 plays a multifaceted role in gene expression regulation and chromatin organization. Interaction between MeCP2 and methylated DNA to regulate gene expression is well established. However, the widespread MeCP2 distribution suggests its additional interactions with chromatin. Here we show, by both biochemical and ChIP-seq analyses, that MeCP2 directly binds to nucleosome subunit proteins and is recruited to distinct chromatin regions where H3K27me3 is enriched. We further observed that the impact of MeCP2 on transcriptional changes is correlated with histone post-translational modification patterns. Our findings indicate that MeCP2 can be recruited to genomic loci via indirect binding and that interaction between MeCP2 and histone proteins plays a significant role in gene expression regulation. To analyze the effect of GSK343 ​​treatment on DNA methylation, targeted bisulfite sequencing was performed using the SureSelectXT Methyl-Seq Target Enrichment System of Illumina Multiplexed Sequencing (Agilent Technologies).