Abstract
Maternal-effect mutations in NLRP7 cause rare biparentally inherited hydatidiform moles (BiHMs), abnormal pregnancies containing hypertrophic vesicular trophoblast but no embryo. BiHM trophoblasts display abnormal DNA methylation patterns affecting maternally methylated germline differentially methylated regions (gDMRs), suggesting that NLRP7 plays an important role in reprogramming imprinted gDMRs. How NLRP7-a component of the CATERPILLAR family of proteins involved in innate immunity and apoptosis-causes these specific DNA methylation and trophoblast defects is unknown. Because rodents lack NLRP7, we used human embryonic stem cells to study its function and demonstrate that NLRP7 interacts with YY1, an important chromatin-binding factor. Reduced NLRP7 levels alter DNA methylation and accelerate trophoblast lineage differentiation. NLRP7 thus appears to function in chromatin reprogramming and DNA methylation in the germline or early embryonic development, functions not previously associated with members of the NLRP family.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | ddt457 |
| Pages (from-to) | 706-716 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Human molecular genetics |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported in part by NIH grants R21HD058081, R01HD045970, 5P01GM081627 and by grant 6250-51000-055 from the USDA/ARS to I.B.V. The project was also supported by the BCM IDDRC grant number 5P30HD024064 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and grant number C06RR029965 from the National Center for Research Resources. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.