CpG Methylation Directly Regulates Transcriptional Activity of the Human Endogenous Retrovirus Family HERV-K(HML-2)

Overview

Journal J Virol

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Date 2004 Dec 23

PMID 15613316

Citations 100

Authors

Laurence Lavie

Milena Kitova

Esther Maldener

Eckart Meese

Jens Mayer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A significant proportion of the human genome consists of stably inherited retroviral sequences. Most human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) became defective over time. The HERV-K(HML-2) family is exceptional because of its coding capacity and the possible involvement in germ cell tumor (GCT) development. HERV-K(HML-2) transcription is strongly upregulated in GCTs. However, regulation of HERV-K(HML-2) transcription remains poorly understood. We investigated in detail the role of CpG methylation on the transcriptional activity of HERV-K(HML-2) long terminal repeats (LTRs). We find that CpG sites in various HERV-K(HML-2) proviral 5' LTRs are methylated at different levels in the cell line Tera-1. Methylation levels correlate with previously observed transcriptional activities of these proviruses. CpG-mediated silencing of HERV-K(HML-2) LTRs is further corroborated by transcriptional inactivity of in vitro-methylated 5' LTR reporter plasmids. However, CpG methylation levels do not solely regulate HERV-K(HML-2) 5' LTR activity, as evidenced by different LTR activities in the cell line T47D. A significant number of mutated CpG sites in evolutionary old HERV-K(HML-2) 5' LTRs suggests that CpG methylation had already silenced HERV-K(HML-2) proviruses millions of years ago. Direct silencing of HERV-K(HML-2) expression by CpG methylation enlightens upregulated HERV-K(HML-2) expression in usually hypomethylated GCT tissue.

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