MeCP2 regulates genome-wide gene expression through recognition of H3K27me3 [ChIP_mouse]

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. Examination of three epigenetic markers from the olfactory epithelium in two biological samples