An insulator element located at the cyclin B1 interacting protein 1 gene locus is highly conserved among mammalian species

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 25;10(6):e0131204. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131204. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Insulators are cis-elements that control the direction of enhancer and silencer activities (enhancer-blocking) and protect genes from silencing by heterochromatinization (barrier activity). Understanding insulators is critical to elucidate gene regulatory mechanisms at chromosomal domain levels. Here, we focused on a genomic region upstream of the mouse Ccnb1ip1 (cyclin B1 interacting protein 1) gene that was methylated in E9.5 embryos of the C57BL/6 strain, but unmethylated in those of the 129X1/SvJ and JF1/Ms strains. We hypothesized the existence of an insulator-type element that prevents the spread of DNA methylation within the 1.8 kbp segment, and actually identified a 242-bp and a 185-bp fragments that were located adjacent to each other and showed insulator and enhancer activities, respectively, in reporter assays. We designated these genomic regions as the Ccnb1ip1 insulator and the Ccnb1ip1 enhancer. The Ccnb1ip1 insulator showed enhancer-blocking activity in the luciferase assays and barrier activity in the colony formation assays. Further examination of the Ccnb1ip1 locus in other mammalian species revealed that the insulator and enhancer are highly conserved among a wide variety of species, and are located immediately upstream of the transcriptional start site of Ccnb1ip1. These newly identified cis-elements may be involved in transcriptional regulation of Ccnb1ip1, which is important in meiotic crossing-over and G2/M transition of the mitotic cell cycle.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / genetics*
  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / genetics*
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / metabolism
  • Cells, Cultured
  • DNA Methylation*
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Genetic Loci
  • Insulator Elements*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases

Substances

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing
  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • CCNB1IP1 protein, human
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellows [08J11563 to W.Y.]; by the Grant from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan [H25-Jisedai-Ippan-007 to K.N.]; and by a CREST Program of JST [Epigenomic analysis of the human placenta and endometrium constituting the fetal-maternal interface to K.H]. Funding for open access charge: H25-Jisedai-Ippan-007. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.