Kaeser-Pebernard, Stéphanie Müller, Fritz Wicky, Chantal 2014-04-08 Throughout their journey to forming new individuals, germline stem cells must remain totipotent, particularly by maintaining a specific chromatin structure. However, the place epigenetic factors occupy in this process remains elusive. So far, “sensitization” of chromatin by modulation of histone arrangement and/or content was believed to facilitate transcription-factor-induced germ cell reprogramming. Here, we demonstrate that the combined reduction of two epigenetic factors suffices to reprogram C. elegans germ cells. The histone H3K4 demethylase SPR-5/LSD1 and the chromatin remodeler LET-418/Mi2 function together in an early process to maintain germ cell status and act as a barrier to block precocious differentiation. This epigenetic barrier is capable of limiting COMPASS-mediated H3K4 methylation, because elevated H3K4me3 levels correlate with germ cell reprogramming in spr-5; let-418 mutants. Interestingly, germ cells deficient for spr-5 and let-418 mainly reprogram as neurons, suggesting that neuronal fate might be the first to be derepressed in early embryogenesis. application/pdf https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/303835 https://folia.unifr.ch/documents/303835/files/mue_lsc.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.stemcr.2014.02.007 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess License undefined Stem Cell Reports. - 2014, vol. 2, no. 4, p. 547–559 info:eu-repo/classification/udc/57 LET-418/Mi2 and SPR-5/LSD1 cooperatively prevent somatic reprogramming of C. elegans germline stem cells http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501