Publications by Julien Paul André Pontis

Statistical learning quantifies transposable element-mediated cis-regulation

Didier Trono, Julien Léonard Duc, Alexandre Coudray, Cyril David Son-Tuyên Pulver, Shaoline Sheppard, Evaristo Jose Planet Letschert, Raphaël Gérard Théodore Michel Marie de Deloÿe et Fourcade de Fondeville, Julien Paul André Pontis, Delphine Yvette L Grun

Background: Transposable elements (TEs) have colonized the genomes of most metazoans, and many TE-embedded sequences function as cis-regulatory elements (CREs) for genes involved in a wide range of biological processes from early embryo- genesis to innate ...

2023

Human reproduction is regulated by retrotransposons derived from ancient Hominidae-specific viral infections

Didier Trono, Julien Paul André Pontis, Yu Tao

The transcription factor network required for primordial germ cell (PGC) specification is known to diverge in mammals. Here the authors show that hominidae-specific transposable element (TE) LTR5Hs becomes transcriptionally active during PGC specification, ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Primate-specific transposable elements shape transcriptional networks during human development

Matthias Lütolf, Didier Trono, Julien Léonard Duc, Sandra Eloise Kjeldsen, Cyril David Son-Tuyên Pulver, Evaristo Jose Planet Letschert, Andrea Manfrin, Julien Paul André Pontis, Delphine Yvette L Grun, Christopher James Playfoot

The human genome harbors more than 4.5 million transposable element (TE)-derived insertions, the result of recurrent waves of invasion and internal propagation. Here they show that TEs belonging to evolutionarily recent subfamilies go on to regulate later ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Primate-restricted KRAB zinc finger proteins and target retrotransposons control gene expression in human neurons

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Julien Léonard Duc, Bart Deplancke, Charlène Mireille Raymonde Raclot, Alexandre Coudray, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball, Julien Paul André Pontis, Evgeniia Pankevich, Delphine Yvette L Grun, Christopher James Playfoot

In the first days of embryogenesis, transposable element-embedded regulatory sequences (TEeRS) are silenced by Kruppel-associated box (KRAB) zinc finger proteins (KZFPs). Many TEeRS are subsequently co-opted in transcription networks, but how KZFPs influen ...

2020

Hominoid-Specific Transposable Elements and KZFPs Facilitate Human Embryonic Genome Activation and Control Transcription in Naive Human ESCs

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Julien Léonard Duc, Sandra Eloise Kjeldsen, Julien Duc, Alexandre Coudray, Evaristo Jose Planet Letschert, Julien Paul André Pontis

Expansion of transposable elements (TEs) coincides with evolutionary shifts in gene expression. TEs frequently harbor binding sites for transcriptional regulators, thus enabling coordinated genome-wide activation of species- and context-specific gene expre ...

2019

The H3K9 Methylation Writer SETDB1 and Its Reader MPP8 Cooperate to Silence Satellite DNA Repeats in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Julien Paul André Pontis

SETDB1 (SET Domain Bifurcated histone lysine methyltransferase 1) is a key lysine methyltransferase (KMT) required in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), where it silences transposable elements and DNA repeats via histone H3 lysine 9 tri-methylation (H3K9me3), in ...

2019

The interactome of KRAB zinc finger proteins reveals the evolutionary history of their functional diversification

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Ruedi Aebersold, Julien Léonard Duc, Michaël Imbeault, Cécile Piot, Andrea Coluccio, Pierre-Yves Joseph Laurent Helleboid, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball, Julien Paul André Pontis

Krüppel‐associated box (KRAB)‐containing zinc finger proteins (KZFPs) are encoded in the hundreds by the genomes of higher vertebrates, and many act with the heterochromatin‐inducing KAP1 as repressors of transposable elements (TEs) during early embryogene ...

2019

KAP1 facilitates reinstatement of heterochromatin after DNA replication

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Annamaria Kauzlaric, Julien Léonard Duc, Sandra Eloise Kjeldsen, Benjamin Rauwel, Andrea Coluccio, Suk Min Jang, Julien Paul André Pontis, Geneviève Almouzni

During cell division, maintenance of chromatin features from the parental genome requires their proper establishment on its newly synthetized copy. The loss of epigenetic marks within heterochromatin, typically enriched in repetitive elements, endangers ge ...

2018

Evolutionarily recent transposable elements and their controllers regulate human early embryonic transcriptional networks

Didier Trono, Julien Paul André Pontis

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC2018

Molecular Criteria for Defining the Naive Human Pluripotent State

Didier Trono, Julien Léonard Duc, Marc Samuel Friedli, Alexandra Iouranova, Michaël Imbeault, Evaristo Jose Planet Letschert, Julien Paul André Pontis, Haoyi Wang

Recent studies have aimed to convert cultured human pluripotent cells to a naive state, but it remains unclear to what extent the resulting cells recapitulate in vivo naive pluripotency. Here we propose a set of molecular criteria for evaluating the naive ...

Cell Press2016