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The origin of aberrant DNA methylation in cancer remains largely unknown. In the present study, we elucidated the DNA methylome in primary acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and the role of promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor α (PML-RARα) in establishing these patterns. Cells from APL patients showed increased genome-wide DNA methylation with higher variability than healthy CD34(+) cells, promyelocytes, and remission BM cells. A core set of differentially methylated regions in APL was identified. Age at diagnosis, Sanz score, and Flt3-mutation status characterized methylation subtypes. Transcription factor-binding sites (eg, the c-myc-binding sites) were associated with low methylation. However, SUZ12- and REST-binding sites identified in embryonic stem cells were preferentially DNA hypermethylated in APL cells. Unexpectedly, PML-RARα-binding sites were also protected from aberrant DNA methylation in APL cells. Consistent with this, myeloid cells from preleukemic PML-RARα knock-in mice did not show altered DNA methylation and the expression of PML-RARα in hematopoietic progenitor cells prevented differentiation without affecting DNA methylation. Treatment of APL blasts with all-trans retinoic acid also did not result in immediate DNA methylation changes. The results of the present study suggest that aberrant DNA methylation is associated with leukemia phenotype but is not required for PML-RARα-mediated initiation of leukemogenesis.

Polycomb Repressive Complex (PRC) 1 and PRC2 regulate genes involved in differentiation and development. However, the mechanism for how PRC1 and PRC2 are recruited to genes in mammalian cells is unclear. Here we present evidence for an interaction between the transcription factor REST, PRC1, and PRC2 and show that RNF2 and REST co-regulate a number of neuronal genes in human teratocarcinoma cells (NT2-D1). Using NT2-D1 cells as a model of neuronal differentiation, we furthermore showed that retinoic-acid stimulation led to displacement of PRC1 at REST binding sites, reduced H3K27Me3, and increased gene expression. Genome-wide analysis of Polycomb binding in Rest-/- and Eed-/- mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells showed that Rest was required for PRC1 recruitment to a subset of Polycomb regulated neuronal genes. Furthermore, we found that PRC1 can be recruited to Rest binding sites independently of CpG islands and the H3K27Me3 mark. Surprisingly, PRC2 was frequently increased around Rest binding sites located in CpG-rich regions in the Rest-/- mES cells, indicating a more complex interplay where Rest also can limit PRC2 recruitment. Therefore, we propose that Rest has context-dependent functions for PRC1- and PRC2- recruitment, which allows this transcription factor to act both as a recruiter of Polycomb as well as a limiting factor for PRC2 recruitment at CpG islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]