Histone variant H2A.Z.2 mediates proliferation and drug sensitivity of malignant melanoma (expression)

Here we report a novel role for H2A.Z.2 (H2AFV) as a mediator of cell proliferation and sensitivity to targeted therapies in malignant melanoma. While both H2A.Z.1 and H2A.Z.2 are highly expressed in metastatic melanoma and correlate with decreased patient survival, only H2A.Z.2 deficiency results in impaired cellular proliferation of melanoma cells, which occurs via a G1/S arrest. Integrated gene expression and ChIP-seq analyses revealed that H2A.Z.2 positively regulates E2F target genes, and that such genes acquire a distinct H2A.Z occupancy signature over the promoter and gene body in metastatic melanoma cells. We further identified the BET family member BRD2 as an H2A.Z-interacting protein in melanoma cells, and demonstrate that H2A.Z.2 silencing cooperates with BET inhibition to induce cell death.

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Vardabasso C, Gaspar-Maia A, Hasson D, Pünzeler S, Valle-Garcia D, Straub T, Keilhauer EC, Strub T, Dong J, Panda T, Chung CY, Yao JL, Singh R, Segura MF, Fontanals-Cirera B, Verma A, Mann M, Hernando E, Hake SB, Bernstein E