GEE Seminar - Professor Wolf Reik, Babraham Institute

Academic Host: Nazif Alic
Abstract: Epigenetic information is relatively stable in somatic cells but is reprogrammed on a genome wide scale in germ cells and early embryos. Reprogramming is essential for imprinting, the return to naïve pluripotency, the erasure of epimutations, and for the control of transposons. Following reprogramming, epigenetic marking occurs prior to and during lineage commitment in the embryo. The epigenome changes in a potentially programmed fashion during the ageing process; this epigenetic ageing clock seems to be conserved in mammals. Our work addresses the mechanisms and consequences of global epigenetic reprogramming in the germ line and at zygotic genome activation. Using single cell multi-omics techniques, we are beginning to chart the epigenetic and transcriptional dynamics and heterogeneity during the exit from pluripotency and initial cell fate decisions leading up to gastrulation. We discovered priming of enhancers prior to lineage decisions as well as acute epigenetic remodeling of enhancers at the time of lineage commitment. We are also interested in the programmed degradation of epigenetic information during the ageing process, how this might be coordinated across tissues and individual cells, and how this process potentially could be reversed.