Skip to main content
Log in

Genome-wide Kdm4 histone demethylase transcriptional regulation in Drosophila

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Molecular Genetics and Genomics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The histone lysine demethylase 4 (Kdm4/Jmjd2/Jhdm3) family is highly conserved across species and reverses di- and tri-methylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) and lysine 36 (H3K36) at the N-terminal tail of the core histone H3 in various metazoan species including Drosophila, C.elegans, zebrafish, mice and humans. Previous studies have shown that the Kdm4 family plays a wide variety of important biological roles in different species, including development, oncogenesis and longevity by regulating transcription, DNA damage response and apoptosis. Only two functional Kdm4 family members have been identified in Drosophila, compared to five in mammals, thus providing a simple model system. Drosophila Kdm4 loss-of-function mutants do not survive past the early 2nd instar larvae stage and display a molting defect phenotype associated with deregulated ecdysone hormone receptor signaling. To further characterize and identify additional targets of Kdm4, we employed a genome-wide approach to investigate transcriptome alterations in Kdm4 mutants versus wild-type during early development. We found evidence of increased deregulated transcripts, presumably associated with a progressive accumulation of H3K9 and H3K36 methylation through development. Gene ontology analyses found significant enrichment of terms related to the ecdysteroid hormone signaling pathway important in development, as expected, and additionally previously unidentified potential targets that warrant further investigation. Since Kdm4 is highly conserved across species, our results may be applicable more widely to other organisms and our genome-wide dataset may serve as a useful resource for further studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agger K, Miyagi S, Pedersen MT, Kooistra SM, Johansen JV, Helin K (2016) Jmjd2/Kdm4 demethylases are required for expression of Il3ra and survival of acute myeloid leukemia cells. Genes Dev 30:1278–1288

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Apger J, Reubens M, Henderson L, Gouge CA, Ilic N, Zhou HH, Christensen TW (2010) Multiple functions for Drosophila mcm10 suggested through analysis of two Mcm10 mutant alleles. Genetics 185:1151–1165

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Awwad SW, Ayoub N (2015) Overexpression of KDM4 lysine demethylases disrupts the integrity of the DNA mismatch repair pathway. Biol Open. 4:498–504

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bechstead RB, Lam G, Thummel CS (2005) The genomic response to 20-hydroxyecdysone at the onset of Drosophila metamorphosis. Genome Biol 6:R99

    Google Scholar 

  • Bitterman KJ, Medvedik O, Sinclair DA (2003) Longevity regulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: linking metabolism, genome stability, and heterochromatin. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 67:376–399

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Black JC, Allen A, Van Rechem C, Forbes E, Longworth M, Tschop K, Rinehart C, Quiton J, Walsh R, Smallwood A, Dyson NJ, Whetstine JR (2010) Conserved antagonism between JMJD2A/KDM4A and HP1gamma during cell cycle progression. Mol Cell 40:736–748

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Black JC, Van Rechem C, Whetstine JR (2012) Histone lysine methylation dynamics: establishment, regulation, and biological impact. Mol Cell 48:491–507

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chin YW, Han SY (2015) KDM4 histone demethylase inhibitors for anti-cancer agents: a patent review. Expert Opin Ther Pat 25:135–144

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coffey K, Rogerson L, Ryan-Munden C, Alkharaif D, Stockley J, Heer R, Sahadevan K, O’Neill D, Jones D, Darby S, Staller P, Mantilla A, Gaughan L, Robson CN (2013) The lysine demethylase, KDM4B, is a key molecule in androgen receptor signalling and turnover. Nucleic Acids Res 41:4433–4446

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Colmenares SU, Swenson JM, Langley SA, Kennedy C, Costes SV, Karpen GH (2017) Drosophila histone demethylase KDM4A has enzymatic and non-enzymatic roles in controlling heterochromatin integrity. Dev Cell 42:156–169

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cosgrove M, Ding Y, Rennie WA, Lane M, Hanes SD (2012) The Bin3 RNA methyltransferase (MePCE) targets 7SK RNA to control transcription and translation. Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA 3:633–647

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Crona F, Dahlberg O, Lundberg LE, Larsson J, Mannervik M (2013) Gene regulation by the lysine demethylase KDM4A in Drosophila. Dev Biol. 373:453–463

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davis MB, Li T (2013) Genomic analysis of the ecdysone steroid signal at metamorphosis onset using ecdysoneless and EcRnull Drosophila melanogaster mutants. Genes Genomics. 35:21–46

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dennis G Jr, Sherman BT, Hosack DA, Yang J, Gao W, Lane HC, Lempicki RA (2003) DAVID: Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery. Genome Biol 4:P3

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duan L, Rai G, Roggero C, Zhang QJ, Wei Q, Ma SH, Zhou Y, Santoyo J, Martinez ED, Xiao G, Raj GV, Jadhav A, Simeonov A, Maloney DJ, Rizo J, Hsieh JT, Liu ZP (2015) KDM4/JMJD2 histone demethylase inhibitors block prostate tumor growth by suppressing the expression of AR and BMYB-regulated genes. Chem Biol 22:1185–1196

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gaughan L, Stockley J, Coffey K, O’Neill D, Jones DL, Wade M, Wright J, Moore M, Tse S, Rogerson L, Robson CN (2013) KDM4B is a master regulator of the estrogen receptor signalling cascade. Nucleic Acids Res 41:6892–6904

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gauhar Z, Sun LV, Hua S, Mason CE, Fuchs F, Li TR, Boutros M, White KP (2009) Genomic mapping of binding regions for the Ecdysone receptor protein complex. Cold Spring Harb Lab Press. 19:1006–1013

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gautier L, Moller M, Friis-Hansen L, Knudsen S (2004) Alternative mapping of probes to genes for Affymetrix chips. BMC Bioinform 5:111

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentleman RC, Carey VJ, Bates DM, Bolstad B, Dettling M, Dudoit S, Ellis B, Gautier L, Ge Y, Gentry J, Hornik K, Hothorn T, Huber W, Iacus S, Irizarry R, Leisch F, Li C, Maechler M, Rossini AJ, Sawitzki G, Smith C, Smyth G, Tierney L, Yang JY, Zhang J (2004) Bioconductor: open software development for computational biology and bioinformatics. Genome Biol 5:R80

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gonsalves SE, Neal SJ, Kehoe AS, Westwood JT (2011) Genome-wide examination of the transcriptional response to ecdysteroids 20-hydroxyecdysone and ponasterone A in Drosophila melanogaster. BMC Genomics. 12:475

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gray SG, Iglesias AH, Lizcano F, Villanueva R, Camelo S, Jingu H, Teh BT, Koibuchi N, Chin WW, Kokkotou E, Dangond F (2005) Functional characterization of JMJD2A, a histone deacetylase- and retinoblastoma-binding protein. J Biol Chem 280:28507–28518

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hernández G, Vázquez-Pianzola P, Zurbriggen A, Altmann M, Sierra J, Rivera-pomar (2004) Two functionally redundant isoforms of Drosophila melanogaster eukaryotic initiation factor 4B are involved in cap-dependent translation, cell survival, and proliferation. FEBS 271:2923–2936

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillringhaus L, Yue WW, Rose NR, Ng SS, Gileadi C, Loenarz C, Bello SH, Bray JE, Schofield CJ, Oppermann U (2011) Structural and evolutionary basis for the dual substrate selectivity of human KDM4 histone demethylase family. J Biol Chem 286:41616–41625

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers MHJ, Pflanz R, Riedel D, Kawelke S, Feussner I, Schuh R (2014) The fatty acyl-CoA reductase waterproof mediates airway clearence in Drosophila. Dev Biol 385:23–31

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jha DK, Strahl BD (2014) An RNA polymerase II-coupled function for histone H3K36 methylation in checkpoint activation and DSB repair. Nat Commun. 5:3965

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Johmura Y, Sun J, Kitagawa K, Nakanishi K, Kuno T, Naiki-Ito A, Sawada Y, Miyamoto T, Okabe A, Aburatani H, Li SF, Miyoshi I, Takahashi S, Kitagawa M, Nakanishi M (2016) SCFFbxo22-KDM4A targets methylated p53 for degradation and regulates senescence. Nature Comm. 7:10574

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Katoh M, Katoh M (2004) Identification and characterization of JMJD2 family genes in silico. Int J Oncol 24:1623–1628

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim TD, Fuchs JR, Schwartz E, Abdelhamid D, Etter J, Berry WL, Li C, Ihnat MA, Li PK, Janknecht R (2014) Pro-growth role of the JMJD2C histone demethylase in HCT-116 colon cancer cells and identification of curcuminoids as JMJD2 inhibitors. Am J Transl Res. 6:236–247

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Klose RJ, Yamane K, Bae Y, Zhang D, Erdjument-Bromage H, Tempst P, Wong J, Zhang Y (2006) The transcriptional repressor JHDM3A demethylates trimethyl histone H3 lysine 9 and lysine 36. Nature 442:312–316

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LaLonde M, Janssens H, Yun S, Crosby J, Redina O, Olive V, Altshuller YM, Choi S-Y, Du G, Gergen JP, Frohman MA (2006) A role for Phospholipase D in Drosopihla embryonic cellularization. BMC Dev Biol 6:60

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Larschan E, Alekseyenko AA, Gortchakov AA, Peng S, Li B, Yang P, Workman JL, Park PJ, Kuroda M (2007) MSL complex is attracted to genes marked by H3K36 trimethylation using a sequence-independent mechanism. Mol Cell 28:121–133

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Larson K, Yan SJ, Tsurumi A, Liu J, Zhou J, Gaur K, Guo D, Eickbush TH, Li WX (2012) Heterochromatin formation promotes longevity and represses ribosomal RNA synthesis. PLoS Genet 8:e1002473

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Leshko-Lindsay L, Corces VG (1997) The role of selectins in Drosophila eye and bristle development. Development. 124:169–180

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liang Y, Vogel JL, Arbuckle JH, Rai G, Jadhav A, Simeonov A, Maloney DJ, Kristie TM (2013) Targeting the JMJD2 histone demethylases to epigenetically control herpesvirus infection and reactivation from latency. Sci Transl Med 5:167ra5

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lin CH, Li B, Swanson S, Zhang Y, Florens L, Washburn MP, Abmayr SM, Workman JL (2008) Heterochromatin protein 1a stimulates histone H3 lysine 36 demethylation by the Drosophila KDM4A demethylase. Mol Cell 32:696–706

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lloret-Llinares M, Carre C, Vaquero A, de Olano N, Azorin F (2008) Characterization of Drosophila melanogaster JmjC + N histone demethylases. Nucleic Acids Res 36:2852–2863

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Loh YH, Zhang W, Chen X, George J, Ng HH (2007) Jmjd1a and Jmjd2c histone H3 Lys 9 demethylases regulate self-renewal in embryonic stem cells. Genes Dev 21:2545–2557

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lohse B, Kristensen JL, Kristensen LH, Agger K, Helin K, Gajhede M, Clausen RP (2011) Inhibitors of histone demethylases. Bioorg Med Chem 19:3625–3636

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lorbeck MT, Singh N, Zervos A, Dhatta M, Lapchenko M, Yang C, Elefant F (2010) The histone demethylase Dmel\Kdm4A controls genes required for life span and male-specific sex determination in Drosophila. Gene 450:8–17

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lu F, Cui X, Zhang S, Jenuwein T, Cao X (2011) Arabidopsis REF6 is a histone H3 lysine 27 demethylase. Nat Genet 43:715–719

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard JC, Pham T, Zheng T, Jockheck-Clark A, Rankin HB, Negward C, Spana EP, Nicchitta CV (2010) Gp93, the Drosophila GRP94 ortholog, is required for gut epithelial homeostasis and nutrient assimilation-coupled growth control. Dev Biol 339:295–306

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Meister P, Schott S, Bedet C, Xiao Y, Rohner S, Bodennec S, Hudry B, Molin L, Solari F, Gasser SM, Palladino F (2011) Caenorhabditis elegans Heterochromatin protein 1 (HPL-2) links developmental plasticity, longevity and lipid metabolism. Genome Biol 12:R123

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • modEncode Consortium, Roy S, Ernst J, Kharchenko PV, Kheradpour P, Negre N, Eaton ML, Landolin JM, Bristow CA, Ma L et al (2010) Identification of functional elements and regulatory circuits by Drosophila modENCODE. Science 330:1787–1797

    Google Scholar 

  • Ocorr K, Reeves NL, Wessells RJ, Fink M, Chen H-SV, Akasaka T, Yasuda S, Metzger JM, Giles W, Posakony JW, Bodmer R (2007) KCNQ potassium channel mutations cause cardiac arrhythmias in Drosophila that mimic the effects of aging. Genetics 104:3943–3948

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ono H, Rewitz KF, Shinoda T, Itoyama K, Petryk A, Rybczynoski R, Jarcho M, Warren JT, Marqués G, Shimell MJ, Gilbert LI, O’Connor MB (2006) Spook and Spookier code for stage-specific components of the ecdysone biosynthetic pathway in Diptera. Dev Biol 298:550–570

    Google Scholar 

  • Palomera-Sanchez Z, Bucio-Mendez A, Valadez-Graham V, Reynaud E, Zurita M (2010) Drosophila p53 is required to increase the levels of the dKDM4B demethylase after UV-induced DNA damage to demethylate histone H3 lysine 9. J Biol Chem 285:31370–31379

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pedersen MT, Kooistra SM, Radzisheuskaya A, Laugesen A, Johansen JV, Hayward DG, Nilsson J, Agger K, Helin K (2016) Continual removal of H3K9 promoter methylation by Jmjd2 demethylases is vital for ESC self-renewal and early development. EMBO J 35:1550–1564

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rai G, Kawamura A, Tumber A, Liang Y, Vogel JL, Arbuckle JH, Rose NR, Dexheimer TS, Foley TL, King ON, Quinn A, Mott BT, Schofield CJ, Oppermann U, Jadhav A, Simeonov A, Kristie TM, Maloney DJ (2010) Discovery of ML324, a JMJD2 demethylase inhibitor with demonstrated antiviral activity. Probe Reports from the NIH Molecular Libraries Program, Bethesda (MD)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schittenhelm RB, Chaleckis R, Lehner C (2009) Intrakinetochore localization and essential functional domains of Drosophila Spc105. EMBO J 28:2374–2386

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schwed G, May N, Pechersky Y, Calvi BR (2001) Drosophila minichromosome maintenance 6 is required for chorion gene amplification and genomic replication. MBoC. 13:607–620

    Google Scholar 

  • Servant N, Gravier E, Gestraud P, Laurent C, Paccard C, Biton A, Brito I, Mandel J, Asselain B, Barillot E, Hupe P (2010) EMA—a R package for easy microarray data analysis. BMC Res Notes. 3:277

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shin S, Janknecht R (2007) Activation of androgen receptor by histone demethylases JMJD2A and JMJD2D. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 359:742–746

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shtorch A, Werczberger R, Segal D (1995) Genetic and molecular studies of apterous: a gene implicated in the juvenile hormone system Drosophila. Arch Insect Biochem Physiol 30:195–209

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sorenson MR, Jha DK, Ucles SA, Flood DM, Strahl BD, Stevens SW, Kress TL (2016) Histone H3K36 methylation regulates pre-mRNA splicing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. RNA Biol 13:412–426

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Strobl-Mazzulla PH, Sauka-Spengler T, Bronner-Fraser M (2010) Histone demethylase JmjD2A regulates neural crest specification. Dev Cell 19:460–468

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sun Q, Zhou DX (2008) Rice jmjC domain-containing gene JMJ706 encodes H3K9 demethylase required for floral organ development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:13679–13684

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Technau M, Roth S (2008) The Drosophila KASH domain proteins Msp-300 and Klarsicht and the SUN domain protein Klaroid have no essential function during oogenesis. Fly 2:82–91

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Torroja L, Ortuño-Sahagún D, Ferrús A, Hämmerle B, Barbas JA (1998) scully, an essential gene of Drosophila, is homologous to mammalian mitochondrial type II l-3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase/amyloid-β peptide-binding protein. J Cell Biol 141:1009–1017

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tsurumi A, Dutta P, Shang R, Yan SJ, Li WX (2013) Drosophila Kdm4 demethylases in histone H3 lysine 9 demethylation and ecdysteroid signaling. Sci Rep. 3:2894

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wang B, Sullivan KMC, Beckingham K (2003) Drosophila calmodulin mutants with specific defects in the musculature or in the nervous system. Genetics 165:1255–1268

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Whetstine JR, Nottke A, Lan F, Huarte M, Smolikov S, Chen Z, Spooner E, Li E, Zhang G, Colaiacovo M, Shi Y (2006) Reversal of histone lysine trimethylation by the JMJD2 family of histone demethylases. Cell 125:467–481

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wissmann M, Yin N, Muller JM, Greschik H, Fodor BD, Jenuwein T, Vogler C, Schneider R, Gunther T, Buettner R, Metzger E, Schule R (2007) Cooperative demethylation by JMJD2C and LSD1 promotes androgen receptor-dependent gene expression. Nat Cell Biol 9:347–353

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wu Z, Irizarry RA, Gentleman RC, Martinez-Murillo F, Spencer F (2004) A Model-Based Background Adjustment for Oligonucleotide Expression Arrays. J Am Stat Assoc 99:909–917

    Google Scholar 

  • Xing Y, Li WX (2015) Heterochromatin components in germline stem cell maintenance. Sci Rep 5:17463

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ye L, Fan Z, Yu B, Chang J, Al Hezaimi K, Zhou X, Park NH, Wang CY (2012) Histone demethylases KDM4B and KDM6B promotes osteogenic differentiation of human MSCs. Cell Stem Cell 11:50–61

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ye Q, Holowatyj A, Wu J, Liu H, Zhang L, Suzuki T, Yang ZQ (2015) Genetic alterations of KDM4 subfamily and therapeutic effect of novel demethylase inhibitor in breast cancer. Am J Cancer Res. 5:1519–1530

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Young LC, Hendzel MJ (2013) The oncogenic potential of Jumonji D2 (JMJD2/KDM4) histone demethylase overexpression. Biochem Cell Biol 91:369–377

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, Ward RE IV (2010) uninflatable encodes a novel ectodermal apical surface protein required for tracheal inflation in Drosophila. Dev Biol 15:201–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X, Wen H, Shi X (2012) Lysine methylation: beyond histones. Acta Biochim Biophys Sin 44:14–27

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu B, Pennack JA, McQuilton P, Forero MG, Mizuguchi K, Sutcliffe B, Gu C-J, Fenton JC, Hidalgo A (2008) Drosophila neurotrophins reveal a common mechanism for nervous system formation. PLoS Biol 6:e286

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by an NIH Grant (R01CA131326) to WXL. AT was supported by the Shriners Hospitals Research Fellowship #84293. We would like to acknowledge Laura Goodfield, Yashoda Dhole, Paris Karniadakis, Jacqueline Baba and Ved Dhole for their input.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy Tsurumi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by S. Hohmann.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsurumi, A., Xue, S., Zhang, L. et al. Genome-wide Kdm4 histone demethylase transcriptional regulation in Drosophila. Mol Genet Genomics 294, 1107–1121 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-019-01561-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-019-01561-z

Keywords

Navigation