Retinoic acid activates HOXA1 chromatin

Stable Identifier
R-HSA-5617431
Type
Reaction [omitted]
Species
Homo sapiens
Compartment
nucleoplasm
ReviewStatus
5/5
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Retinoic acid activates HOXA1 chromatin
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As inferred from mouse embryos and cell lines, retinoic acid binds the RARA or RARG receptor in a RAR:RXR dimer bound to the 3' region of HOXA1. Ligand binding by retinoic acid receptors causes dismissal of corepressors such as NCOR1 (Klein et al. 2000), recruitment of coactivators such as NCOA3, and alteration of chromatin at the HOXA1 gene to an active conformation. Similar activation of HOXA1 is also observed in vitro in human breast cancer cells (Chariot et al. 1995). In mouse and Xenopus Hoxa1 acts in a feedback loop to maintain retinoic acid synthesis by directly binding and activating the promoter of the Raldh2 gene.
In addition to recruiting transcription coactivators, retinoic acid also appears to affect histone modifications and DNA methylation. In human embryonal carcinoma cells, KDM6A (UTX) binds the HOXA1 gene upon retinoic acid treatment and demethylates trimethylated lysine-27 of histone H3 (H3K27me3) (Lee et al. 2007). Reduced H3K27me3 is also observed at HOXA1 in lung fibroblasts (Lan et al. 2007). Experiments with mouse embryos lacking Kdm6a and Kdm6b indicate other factors also participate in demethylation of H3K27me3 (Shpargel et al. 2014). Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), which binds H3K27me3, is also lost during activation by retinoic acid (inferred from mouse cells and also observed in human embryonal carcinoma cells, Lee et al. 2007, Sessa et al. 2007). KDM6A forms complexes with the histone methyltransferases KMT2C,D (MLL2,3) (Lee et al. 2007) which may participate in methylating histone H3 at lysine-4 (H3K4me3), an activating chromatin modification. At the 3' end of the HOXA cluster 5-methylcytosine in CG-rich regions is converted to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine by TET2 during retinoic acid induced differentiation of embryonal carcinoma cells (Bocker et al. 2012). During retinoic acid activation of HOXA genes in human monocytic leukemia cells the HOXA cluster is unfolded and its chromosomal domain is repositioned within the nucleus (Rousseau et al. 2014). Similar large-scale rearrangements may occur during embryogenesis.
In mouse embryos, expression of Hoxa1 occurs in the neural tube, adjacent mesenchyme, paraxial mesoderm, somites, and gut epithelium from rhombomere 4 to the caudal-most region of the embryo. (Rhombomeres are transiently formed segments in the neural tube that will eventually form the hindbrain.)
Literature References
PubMed ID Title Journal Year
24174538 Hox in motion: tracking HoxA cluster conformation during differentiation

Rousseau, M, Crutchley, JL, Miura, H, Suderman, M, Blanchette, M, Dostie, J

Nucleic Acids Res. 2014
17851529 A histone H3 lysine 27 demethylase regulates animal posterior development

Lan, F, Bayliss, PE, Rinn, JL, Whetstine, JR, Wang, JK, Chen, S, Iwase, S, Alpatov, R, Issaeva, I, Canaani, E, Roberts, TM, Chang, HY, Shi, Y

Nature 2007
22569366 Hydroxylation of 5-methylcytosine by TET2 maintains the active state of the mammalian HOXA cluster

Bocker, MT, Tuorto, F, Raddatz, G, Musch, T, Yang, FC, Xu, M, Lyko, F, Breiling, A

Nat Commun 2012
10777502 Recruitment of nuclear receptor corepressor and coactivator to the retinoic acid receptor by retinoid ligands. Influence of DNA-heterodimer interactions

Klein, ES, Wang, JW, Khalifa, B, Gavigan, SA, Chandraratna, RA

J. Biol. Chem. 2000
25101834 KDM6 demethylase independent loss of histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation during early embryonic development

Shpargel, KB, Starmer, J, Yee, D, Pohlers, M, Magnuson, T

PLoS Genet. 2014
17185360 Noncoding RNA synthesis and loss of Polycomb group repression accompanies the colinear activation of the human HOXA cluster

Sessa, L, Breiling, A, Lavorgna, G, Silvestri, L, Casari, G, Orlando, V

RNA 2007
7488013 Retinoic acid induces three newly cloned HOXA1 transcripts in MCF7 breast cancer cells

Chariot, A, Moreau, L, Senterre, G, Sobel, ME, Castronovo, V

Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1995
17761849 Demethylation of H3K27 regulates polycomb recruitment and H2A ubiquitination

Lee, MG, Villa, R, Trojer, P, Norman, J, Yan, KP, Reinberg, D, Di Croce, L, Shiekhattar, R

Science 2007
Participants
Input
Output
Participates
as an event of
Catalyst Activity

histone H3K27me2/H3K27me3 demethylase activity of MLL3,4 complex [nucleoplasm]

Physical Entity
MLL3,4 complex [nucleoplasm] (Homo sapiens)
Activity
histone H3K27me2/H3K27me3 demethylase activity (GO:0071558)
Inferred From
Retinoic acid activates Hoxa1 chromatin (Mus musculus)
Authored
May, B  (2014-08-08)
Rezsohazy, R  (2015-11-15)
Reviewed
Blasi, F  (2015-05-13)
Created
May, B  (2014-08-08)
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