RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Variants of DNMT3A cause transcript-specific DNA methylation patterns and affect hematopoiesis JF Life Science Alliance JO Life Sci. Alliance FD Life Science Alliance LLC SP e201800153 DO 10.26508/lsa.201800153 VO 1 IS 6 A1 Tanja Božić A1 Joana Frobel A1 Annamarija Raic A1 Fabio Ticconi A1 Chao-Chung Kuo A1 Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach A1 Tamme W Goecke A1 Martin Zenke A1 Edgar Jost A1 Ivan G Costa A1 Wolfgang Wagner YR 2018 UL https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/1/6/e201800153.abstract AB De novo DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) plays pivotal roles in hematopoietic differentiation. In this study, we followed the hypothesis that alternative splicing of DNMT3A has characteristic epigenetic and functional sequels. Specific DNMT3A transcripts were either down-regulated or overexpressed in human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and this resulted in complementary and transcript-specific DNA methylation and gene expression changes. Functional analysis indicated that, particularly, transcript 2 (coding for DNMT3A2) activates proliferation and induces loss of a primitive immunophenotype, whereas transcript 4 interferes with colony formation of the erythroid lineage. Notably, in acute myeloid leukemia expression of transcript 2 correlates with its in vitro DNA methylation and gene expression signatures and is associated with overall survival, indicating that DNMT3A variants also affect malignancies. Our results demonstrate that specific DNMT3A variants have a distinct epigenetic and functional impact. Particularly, DNMT3A2 triggers hematopoietic differentiation and the corresponding signatures are reflected in acute myeloid leukemia.