Original Article

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GLP inhibits heterochromatin clustering and myogenic differentiation by repressing MeCP2 Free
Min Hee Choi 1,2 , Monica Palanichamy Kala 1 , Jin Rong Ow 1,2 , Vinay Kumar Rao 1 ,Sudha Suriyamurthy 1 , and Reshma Taneja 1,2, *
1Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 117597, Singapore
2NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117456, Singapore
*Correspondence to:Reshma Taneja, E-mail: phsrt@nus.edu.sg
J Mol Cell Biol, Volume 10, Issue 2, April 2018, 161-174,  https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjx038
Keyword: myogenic differentiation, chromatin, methylation

Myogenic differentiation is accompanied by alterations in the chromatin states, which permit or restrict the transcriptional machinery and thus impact distinctive gene expression profiles. The mechanisms by which higher-order chromatin remodeling is associated with gene activation and silencing during differentiation is not fully understood. In this study, we provide evidence that the euchromatic lysine methyltransferase GLP regulates heterochromatin organization and myogenic differentiation. Interestingly, GLP represses expression of the methyl-binding protein MeCP2 that induces heterochromatin clustering during differentiation. Consequently, MeCP2 and HP1γ localization at major satellites are altered upon modulation of GLP expression. In GLP knockdown cells, depletion of MeCP2 restored both chromatin organization and myogenic differentiation. These results identify a novel regulatory axis between a histone methylation writer and DNA methylation reader, which is important for heterochromatin organization during differentiation.