Gavin Kelsey

Research Summary

It is thought that epigenetic information can be programmed by environmental factors, such as diet and early life experiences, and such changes can be perpetuated long after these exposures and potentially to future generations. Such epigenetic programming may contribute to our risk of developing disease in later life. Imprinted genes (whose expression is determined by the parent that contributed them) are a model for how epigenetic events in gametes of one generation dictate gene activity in the next.

Our mapping of methylation of DNA in the egg, sperm and embryo suggests that this epigenetic influence may extend well beyond the small number of known imprinted genes. Using genome-wide approaches, we are tracking the fate of DNA methylation patterns inherited from the egg and sperm, the stability of these marks throughout the lifetime and ageing, and how they affect activity of associated genes. In particular, we are investigating whether DNA methylation in particular populations of neurons in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that senses nutritional status to control metabolism and appetite, is altered by exposure to altered diets and may modify response to nutritional status.

The discovery that gene transcription is essential for DNA methylation and imprint establishment may help to explain how the methylation modifications in the genome of the egg may be modified by adverse environments or how imprinting is disrupted in some imprinted gene disorders.

Latest Publications

scNMT-seq enables joint profiling of chromatin accessibility DNA methylation and transcription in single cells.
Clark SJ, Argelaguet R, Kapourani CA, Stubbs TM, Lee HJ, Alda-Catalinas C, Krueger F, Sanguinetti G, Kelsey G, Marioni JC, Stegle O, Reik W

Parallel single-cell sequencing protocols represent powerful methods for investigating regulatory relationships, including epigenome-transcriptome interactions. Here, we report a single-cell method for parallel chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation and transcriptome profiling. scNMT-seq (single-cell nucleosome, methylation and transcription sequencing) uses a GpC methyltransferase to label open chromatin followed by bisulfite and RNA sequencing. We validate scNMT-seq by applying it to differentiating mouse embryonic stem cells, finding links between all three molecular layers and revealing dynamic coupling between epigenomic layers during differentiation.

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Nature communications, 9, 2041-1723, 781, 2018

PMID: 29472610

MLL2 conveys transcription-independent H3K4 trimethylation in oocytes.
Hanna CW, Taudt A, Huang J, Gahurova L, Kranz A, Andrews S, Dean W, Stewart AF, Colomé-Tatché M, Kelsey G

Histone 3 K4 trimethylation (depositing H3K4me3 marks) is typically associated with active promoters yet paradoxically occurs at untranscribed domains. Research to delineate the mechanisms of targeting H3K4 methyltransferases is ongoing. The oocyte provides an attractive system to investigate these mechanisms, because extensive H3K4me3 acquisition occurs in nondividing cells. We developed low-input chromatin immunoprecipitation to interrogate H3K4me3, H3K27ac and H3K27me3 marks throughout oogenesis. In nongrowing oocytes, H3K4me3 was restricted to active promoters, but as oogenesis progressed, H3K4me3 accumulated in a transcription-independent manner and was targeted to intergenic regions, putative enhancers and silent H3K27me3-marked promoters. Ablation of the H3K4 methyltransferase gene Mll2 resulted in loss of transcription-independent H3K4 trimethylation but had limited effects on transcription-coupled H3K4 trimethylation or gene expression. Deletion of Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b showed that DNA methylation protects regions from acquiring H3K4me3. Our findings reveal two independent mechanisms of targeting H3K4me3 to genomic elements, with MLL2 recruited to unmethylated CpG-rich regions independently of transcription.

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Nature structural & molecular biology, 25, 1545-9985, 73-82, 2018

PMID: 29323282

Cultured bovine embryo biopsy conserves methylation marks from original embryo.
Fonseca Balvís N, Garcia-Martinez S, Pérez-Cerezales S, Ivanova E, Gomez-Redondo I, Hamdi M, Rizos D, Coy P, Kelsey G, Gutierrez-Adan A

A major limitation of embryo epigenotyping by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis is the reduced amount of sample available from an embryo biopsy. We developed an in vitro system to expand trophectoderm cells from an embryo biopsy to overcome this limitation. This work analyzes whether expanded trophectoderm (EX) is representative of the trophectoderm (TE) methylation or adaptation to culture has altered its epigenome. We took a small biopsy from the trophectoderm (30-40 cells) of in vitro produced bovine-hatched blastocysts and cultured it on fibronectin-treated plates until we obtained ∼4 × 104 cells. The rest of the embryo was allowed to recover its spherical shape and, subsequently, TE and inner cell mass were separated. We examined whether there were DNA methylation differences between TE and EX of three bovine embryos using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing. As a consequence of adaptation to culture, global methylation, including transposable elements, was higher in EX, with 5.3% of quantified regions showing significant methylation differences between TE and EX. Analysis of individual embryos indicated that TE methylation is more similar to its EX counterpart than to TE from other embryos. Interestingly, these similarly methylated regions are enriched in CpG islands, promoters and transcription units near genes involved in biological processes important for embryo development. Our results indicate that EX is representative of the embryo in terms of DNA methylation, thus providing an informative proxy for embryo epigenotyping.

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Biology of reproduction, 97, 1529-7268, 189-196, 2017

PMID: 29044423