| First Author | Gu B | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | J Cell Biol | Volume | 185 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 811-26 |
| PubMed ID | 19487454 | Mgi Jnum | J:163218 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4821247 | Doi | 10.1083/jcb.200810133 |
| Citation | Gu B, et al. (2009) Pygo2 expands mammary progenitor cells by facilitating histone H3 K4 methylation. J Cell Biol 185(5):811-26 |
| abstractText | Recent studies have unequivocally identified multipotent stem/progenitor cells in mammary glands, offering a tractable model system to unravel genetic and epigenetic regulation of epithelial stem/progenitor cell development and homeostasis. In this study, we show that Pygo2, a member of an evolutionarily conserved family of plant homeo domain-containing proteins, is expressed in embryonic and postnatal mammary progenitor cells. Pygo2 deficiency, which is achieved by complete or epithelia-specific gene ablation in mice, results in defective mammary morphogenesis and regeneration accompanied by severely compromised expansive self-renewal of epithelial progenitor cells. Pygo2 converges with Wnt/beta-catenin signaling on progenitor cell regulation and cell cycle gene expression, and loss of epithelial Pygo2 completely rescues beta-catenin-induced mammary outgrowth. We further describe a novel molecular function of Pygo2 that is required for mammary progenitor cell expansion, which is to facilitate K4 trimethylation of histone H3, both globally and at Wnt/beta-catenin target loci, via direct binding to K4-methyl histone H3 and recruiting histone H3 K4 methyltransferase complexes. |
