Histone-methyltransferase MLL2 (KMT2B) is required for memory formation in mice.

The consolidation of long-term memories requires differential gene expression. Recent research has suggested that dynamic changes in chromatin structure play a role in regulating the gene expression program linked to memory formation. The contribution of histone methylation, an important regulatory mechanism of chromatin plasticity that is mediated by the counteracting activity of histone-methyltransferases and histone-demethylases, is, however, not well understood. Here we show that mice lacking the histone-methyltransferase myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia 2 (mll2/kmt2b) gene in adult forebrain excitatory neurons display impaired hippocampus-dependent memory function. Consistent with the role of KMT2B in gene-activation DNA microarray analysis revealed that 152 genes were downregulated in the hippocampal dentate gyrus region of mice lacking kmt2b. Downregulated plasticity genes showed a specific deficit in histone 3 lysine 4 di- and trimethylation, while histone 3 lysine 4 monomethylation was not affected. Our data demonstrates that KMT2B mediates hippocampal histone 3 lysine 4 di- and trimethylation and is a critical player for memory formation.

Break-induced replication underlies formation of inverted triplications and generates unexpected diversity in haplotype structures.

Background: The duplication-triplication/inverted-duplication (DUP-TRP/INV-DUP) structure is a type of complex genomic rearrangement (CGR) hypothesized to result from replicative repair of DNA due to replication fork collapse. It is often mediated by a pair of inverted low-copy repeats (LCR) followed by iterative template switches resulting in at least two breakpoint junctions in cis . Although it has been identified as an important mutation signature of pathogenicity for genomic disorders and cancer genomes, its architecture remains unresolved and is predicted to display at least four structural variation (SV) haplotypes. Results: Here we studied the genomic architecture of DUP-TRP/INV-DUP by investigating the genomic DNA of 24 patients with neurodevelopmental disorders identified by array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) on whom we found evidence for the existence of 4 out of 4 predicted SV haplotypes. Using a combination of short-read genome sequencing (GS), long- read GS, optical genome mapping and StrandSeq the haplotype structure was resolved in 18 samples. This approach refined the point of template switching between inverted LCRs in 4 samples revealing a DNA segment of ∼2.2-5.5 kb of 100% nucleotide similarity. A prediction model was developed to infer the LCR used to mediate the non-allelic homology repair. Conclusions: These data provide experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis that inverted LCRs act as a recombinant substrate in replication-based repair mechanisms. Such inverted repeats are particularly relevant for formation of copy-number associated inversions, including the DUP-TRP/INV-DUP structures. Moreover, this type of CGR can result in multiple conformers which contributes to generate diverse SV haplotypes in susceptible loci .