Using mouse embryonic development as an experimental model, our long-term interest is to understand how epigenetic information is propagated during development and erased in the context of the germ line cycle (zygotic and germline reprogramming). We have contributed fundamental insights regarding the mechanisms of global DNA demethylation, the connection to chromatin remodelling and the role of Tet enzymes in both zygotic and germline reprogramming events (Amouroux et al, Nat Cell Biol 2016, Hill et al, Nature 2018, Huang et al, Nature 2021).
One of our core research interests is the epigenetic resetting that occurs in the gonadal foetal germ cells. In the course of this process, post-migratory primordial germ cells (PGCs) undergo a near complete erasure of DNA methylation, reshape their repressive histone modification and profoundly change their nuclear morphology and chromatin 3D structure. I will present our latest results addressing the molecular regulation at this epigenetically naïve state and our understanding of the potential mechanistic links between the germline epigenetic resetting and the meiotic competence.