Our research is focused on various aspects of specification and development of the immortal germline. We study how epigenetic barriers are virtually wiped out upon specification and how the epigenetic landscape is faithfully re-established in every generation towards the acquisition of the totipotent state and eventually for full-term development.
However, there are some loci that retain relics of epigenetic information of the cells from which they are derived. These reminiscent epigenetic information or “escapees” suggest that epigenetic inheritance is an exception rather than a rule. We are also interested to understand how these resistant loci can serve as the candidates of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and how these escapes can be susceptible to various environmental factors.
Our previous work has demonstrated how epigenetic stress acts a driver of oncogene-induced senescence, which is a major fail-safe mechanism that counteracts tumorigenesis. We are now interested to learn lesson that would be emanated from our work on immortal germline to ameliorate developmental and age-related disorders.
Publications:
- Muniz L, Deb MK, Aguirrebengoa M, Lazorthes S, Trouche D, Nicolas E. (2017) Control of gene expression in senescence through transcriptional read-through of protein-coding convergent genes. Cell Reports 21; 2433-2446.
- Deb S, Felix DA, Koch P, Deb MK, Szafranski K, Buder K, Sannai M,Kirkpatrick J, Pietsch S, Riemenschneider P, Gollowitzer A, Koeberle A,González-Estévez C, Rudolph KL. (2020) Tnfaip2/exoc3-driven lipid metabolism is essential for stem cell differentiation and organ homeostasis. EMBO Reports e49328.