JARID2 is involved in transforming growth factor-beta-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition of lung and colon cancer cell lines.

Histone methylation plays a crucial role in various biological and pathological processes including cancer development. In this study, we discovered that JARID2, an interacting component of Polycomb repressive complex-2 (PRC2) that catalyzes methylation of lysine 27 of histone H3 (H3K27), was involved in Transforming Growth Factor-beta (TGF-ß)-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of A549 lung cancer cell line and HT29 colon cancer cell line. The expression of JARID2 was increased during TGF-ß-induced EMT of these cell lines and knockdown of JARID2 inhibited TGF-ß-induced morphological conversion of the cells associated with EMT. JARID2 knockdown itself had no effect in the expression of EMT-related genes but antagonized TGF-ß-dependent expression changes of EMT-related genes such as CDH1, ZEB family and microRNA-200 family. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that JARID2 was implicated in TGF-ß-induced transcriptional repression of CDH1 and microRNA-200 family genes through the regulation of histone H3 methylation and EZH2 occupancies on their regulatory regions. Our study demonstrated a novel role of JARID2 protein, which may control PRC2 recruitment and histone methylation during TGF-ß-induced EMT of lung and colon cancer cell lines.