Frédéric Bantignies

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Institut de Génétique Humaine - Montpellier - France

Regulatory landscapes drive complex developmental gene expression, but it remains unclear how their integrity is maintained when incorporating novel genes and functions during evolution. Here, we investigated how a placental mammal-specific gene, Zfp42, emerged in an ancient vertebrate topologically associated domain (TAD) without adopting or disru...

Polycomb (Pc) group proteins are transcriptional regulators with key roles in development, cell identity and differentiation. Pc-bound chromatin regions form repressive domains that interact in 3D to assemble repressive nuclear compartments. Here, we used multiplexed chromatin imaging to investigate whether Pc compartments involve the clustering of...

Gene duplications and transcriptional enhancer emergence/modifications are thought having greatly contributed to phenotypic innovations during animal evolution. Nevertheless, little is known about how enhancers evolve after gene duplication and how regulatory information is rewired between duplicated genes. The Drosophila melanogaster bric-a-brac (...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl44JjA--2k&t=8s Synopsis of the YouTube video: this short video recapitulates our current understanding of genome organization in the three-dimensional space of the cell nucleus, starting from nucleosomes, which wrap 146 base pairs of DNA, all the way to entire chromosome territories that may contain hundreds of mi...

Cohesin loop extrusion facilitates precise gene expression by continuously driving promoters to sample all enhancers located within the same topologically-associated domain (TAD). However, many TADs contain multiple genes with divergent expression patterns, thereby indicating additional forces further refine how enhancer activities are utilised. He...

During animal evolution, de novo emergence and modifications of pre-existing transcriptional enhancers have contributed to biological innovations, by implementing gene regulatory networks. The Drosophila melanogaster bric-a-brac ( bab ) complex, comprising the tandem paralogous genes bab1 - 2 , provides a paradigm to address how enhancers contribut...

A comprehensive analysis of the tridimensional (3D) organization of the genome is crucial to understand gene regulation. Three-dimensional DNA fluorescent in situ hybridization (3D-FISH) is a method of choice to study nuclear organization at the single-cell level. The labeling of DNA loci of interest provides information on their spatial arrangemen...

The genome folds into a hierarchy of three-dimensional structures within the nucleus. At the sub-megabase scale, chromosomes form topologically associating domains (TADs)1–4. However, how TADs fold in single cells is elusive. Here, we reveal TAD features inaccessible to cell population analysis by using super-resolution microscopy. TAD structures a...

To understand the role of the extensive senescence-associated 3D genome reorganization, we generated genome-wide chromatin interaction maps, epigenome, replication-timing, whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, and gene expression profiles from cells entering replicative senescence (RS) or upon oncogene-induced senescence (OIS). We identify senescence-...

How chromosomes are organized within the tridimensional space of the nucleus and how can this organization affect genome function have been long-standing questions on the path to understanding genome activity and its link to diseases. In the last decade, high-throughput chromosome conformation capture techniques, such as Hi-C, have facilitated the...

Understanding the mechanisms that underlie chromosome folding within cell nuclei is essential to determine the relationship between genome structure and function. The recent application of “chromosome conformation capture” techniques has revealed that the genome of many species is organized into domains of preferential internal chro- matin interact...

L’épigénétique, à savoir l’ensemble des modifications héritables étroitement liées au génome mais sans être basées sur des modifications de séquences de l’ADN, a émergé ces dernières années comme une discipline incontournable pour la compréhension des processus biologiques. Les avancées considérables des techniques de séquençage permettent aujourd’...

Deciphering the rules of genome folding in the cell nucleus is essential to understand its functions. Recent chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) studies have revealed that the genome is partitioned into topologically associating domains (TADs), which demarcate functional epigenetic domains defined by combinations of specific chromatin marks. How...

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are key players of epigenetic processes, such as Hox gene regulation, X chromosome inactivation, genomic imprinting, stem-cell pluripotency, cell fate determination, reprogramming, and cancer development. PcG proteins repress numerous genes and exert their action through chromatin binding, deposition of specific histon...

At the kilo- to megabase pair scales, eukaryotic genomes are partitioned into self-interacting modules or topologically associated domains (TADs) that associate to form nuclear compartments. Here, we combine high-content super-resolution microscopies with state-of-the-art DNA-labeling methods to reveal the variability in the multiscale organization...

At the kilo- to mega-base pair scales, eukaryotic genomes are partitioned into self-interacting modules or topologically associated domains (TADs) that associate to form nuclear compartments. Here, we combined high-content super-resolution microscopies with state-of-the-art DNA labeling methods to reveal the variability in the multiscale organizati...

Supplementary Table 1 contains the list of the putative epiline-specific events after gDNA sequencing analysis. Supplementary Table 2 contains the parameters used in the microcosm experiment. Supplementary Table 3 contains the parameters used in the abiotic variables experiment. Supplementary Table 4 contains the full list of the oligonucleotides u...

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI) describes the transmission of alternative functional states through multiple generations in the presence of the same genomic DNA sequence. Very little is known about the principles and the molecular mechanisms governing this type of inheritance. Here, by transiently enhancing 3D chromatin interactions,...

4C methods are useful to investigate dependencies between regulatory mechanisms and chromatin structures by revealing the frequency of chromatin contacts between a locus of interest and remote sequences on the chromosome. In this chapter we describe a protocol for the data analysis of microarray-based 4C experiments, presenting updated versions of...

Initially discovered as repressors of homeotic gene expression in Drosophila, Polycomb group (PcG) proteins have now been shown to be involved in a plethora of biological processes. Indeed, by repressing a large number of target genes, including specific lineage genes, these chromatin factors play major roles in a multitude of cellular functions, s...

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a powerful single-cell technique for studying nuclear structure and organization. Here we report two advances in FISH-based imaging. We first describe the in situ visualization of single-copy regions of the genome using two single-molecule super-resolution methodologies. We then introduce a robust and re...

DNA fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) is the method of choice to study genomic organization at the single-cell level. It has been recently used to study the topological organization of the homeotic bithorax complex (BX-C) in Drosophila as well as to describe long-range genomic interactions between the BX-C and the Antennapedia complex (ANT-C...

As more and more genomes are being explored and annotated, important features of three-dimensional (3D) genome organization are just being uncovered. In the light of what we know about Polycomb group (PcG) proteins, we will present the latest findings on this topic. The PcG proteins are well-conserved chromatin factors that repress transcription of...

Chromosomes are the physical realization of genetic information and thus form the basis for its readout and propagation. Here we present a high-resolution chromosomal contact map derived from a modified genome-wide chromosome conformation capture approach applied to Drosophila embryonic nuclei. The data show that the entire genome is linearly parti...

In interphase nuclei, chromosomes and chromatin domains fold into three-dimensional structures which are still poorly understood. Currently, high-throughput derivatives of the Chromosome Conformation Capture (3C) method are intensively developed to study such structures and their link with genome regulation. Among these derivatives, the 3C on Chip...

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are well-conserved chromatin factors that repress the transcription of their target genes. They bind to the genome at specific sites and act on chromatin through the regulation of both post-translational histone modifications and higher-order chromatin structure. Recent work has revealed that PcG-bound regulatory regio...

The organization of chromatin within the nucleus influences gene expression during cell differentiation and development. Recent work took advantage of the genome-wide localization of molecular marks on chromosomes to analyze their linear distributions at different length scales. Moreover, chromosome conformation capture techniques detect spatial pr...

In Drosophila melanogaster, Hox genes are organized in an anterior and a posterior cluster, called Antennapedia complex and bithorax complex, located on the same chromosome arm and separated by 10 Mb of DNA. Both clusters are repressed by Polycomb group (PcG) proteins. Here, we show that genes of the two Hox complexes can interact within nuclear Pc...

Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are highly conserved chromatin factors that repress transcription of particular target genes in animals and plants. PcG proteins form multimeric complexes that act on their target genes through the regulation of post-translational histone modifications, the modulation of chromatin structure and chromosome organization....

The chromosome conformation capture (3C) technique and its genome-wide applications ('4C') have identified a plethora of distal DNA sequences that are frequently in close spatial proximity. In many cases, these have been correlated with transcriptional regulation of the interacting genes, but the functional significance of many of the extreme long-...

In Drosophila, the function of the Polycomb group genes (PcGs) and their target sequences (Polycomb response elements (PREs)) is to convey mitotic heritability of transcription programmes--in particular, gene silencing. As part of the mechanisms involved, PREs are thought to mediate this transcriptional memory function by building up higher-order s...

Insulators play important roles in controlling gene activity and maintaining regulatory independence between neighbouring genes. In this article, we show that the enhancer-blocking activity of the insulator present within the LTR retrotransposon Idefix can be abolished if two copies of the region containing the insulator—specifically, the long term...

Epigenetic components drive the inheritance of transcriptional programs. This cellular memory is crucial for the stable maintenance of cell fates throughout development. Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are central players in various epigenetic phenomena, such as the maintenance of Hox expression patterns from fruit flies to humans, X chromosome inact...

The conditions of the chromosomes inside the nucleus in the Rabl configuration have been modelled as self-avoiding polymer chains under restraining conditions. To ensure that the chromosomes remain stretched out and lined up, we fixed their end points to two opposing walls. The numbers of segments N , the distances d 1 and d 2 between the fixpoints...

Drosophila Polycomb group (PcG) proteins silence homeotic genes through binding to Polycomb group response elements (PREs). Fab-7 is a PRE-containing regulatory element from the homeotic gene Abdominal-B. When present in multiple copies in the genome, Fab-7 can induce long-distance gene contacts that enhance PcG-dependent silencing. We show here th...

Polycomb group (PcG) and trithorax group (trxG) proteins are well known for their role in the maintenance of silent and active expression states of homeotic genes. However, PcG proteins may also be required for the control of cellular proliferation in vertebrates. In Drosophila, PcG factors act by associating with specific DNA regions termed PcG re...

The conditions of the chromosomes inside the nucleus in the Rabl configuration have been modelled as self-avoiding polymer chains under restraining conditions. To ensure that the chromosomes remain stretched out and lined up, we fixed their end points to two opposing walls. The numbers of segments $N$, the distances $d_1$ and $d_2$ between the fixp...

To date, few natural cases of RNA-silencing-mediated regulation have been described. Here, we analyzed repression of testis-expressed Stellate genes by the homologous Suppressors of Stellate [Su(Ste)] repeats that produce sense and antisense short RNAs. The Stellate promoter is dispensable for suppression, but local disturbance of complementarity b...

Maintenance of cell identity is a complex task that involves multiple layers of regulation, acting at all levels of chromatin packaging, from nucleosomes to folding of chromosomal domains in the cell nucleus. Polycomb-group (PcG) and trithorax-group (trxG) proteins maintain memory of chromatin states through binding at cis-regulatory elements named...

The development of Drosophila requires the function of the CREB-binding protein, dCBP. In flies, dCBP serves as a coactivator for the transcription factors Cubitus interruptus, Dorsal, and Mad, and as a cosuppressor of Drosophila T cell factor. Current models propose that CBP, through its intrinsic and associated histone acetyltransferase activitie...

CREB-binding protein (CBP) is a coactivator for multiple transcription factors that transduce a variety of signaling pathways. Current models propose that CBP enhances gene expression by bridging the signal-responsive transcription factors with components of the basal transcriptional machinery and by augmenting the access of transcription factors t...

cdc2 gene expression is under the control of multiple factors. Although E2F/DP proteins have been reported to play a central role, they cannot account for all aspects of the fine modulation of cdc2 gene expression during cell cycle and embryonic development. To characterize the transcription factors that control cdc2 gene expression during nerve ce...

Infection by HTLV-1 has been correlated with the appearance of various proliferative or degenerative diseases. Some of these disorders have been observed in transgenic mice expressing the Tax protein, which is known to transactivate various viral and cellular promoters through interactions with several transcription factors. In this study we show t...

On Dec 20, 2000 this sequence version replaced gi:2613001.

The Tax transactivator of the human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) exhibits oncogenic properties. A screen for proteins interacting with Tax yielded a complementary DNA (cDNA) encoding the human Int-6 protein. In mice, the Int-6 gene can be converted into a putative dominant negative oncogene after retroviral insertion. Here, Int-6 was local...

On May 25, 1997 this sequence version replaced gi:1518791.

The viral Tax protein, which is encoded by human T-cell leukaemia virus HTLV-I, activates nuclear translocation of the NF-kappa B/Rel transcription factors and relieves cytoplasmic sequestration of RelA and Rel by heterodimerization with NF-kappa B1/p1O5 (refs 1,2). Proteolytic maturation of this precursor protein is performed by the proteasome com...

To achieve a better understanding of the mechanism of transactivation by Tax of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 Tax-responsive element 1 (TRE-1), we developed a genetic approach with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We constructed a yeast reporter strain containing the lacZ gene under the control of the CYC1 promoter associated with three copies of TRE...