Dynamic transformations of genome-wide epigenetic marking and transcriptional control establish T cell identity.

ABSTRACT: T cell development comprises a stepwise process of commitment from a multipotent precursor. To define molecular mechanisms controlling this progression, we probed five stages spanning the commitment process using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq to track genome-wide shifts in transcription, cohorts of active transcription factor genes, histone modifications at diverse classes of cis-regulatory elements, and binding repertoire of GATA-3 and PU.1, transcription factors with complementary roles in T cell development. The results highlight potential promoter-distal cis-regulatory elements in play and reveal both activation sites and diverse mechanisms of repression that silence genes used in alternative lineages. Histone marking is dynamic and reversible, and though permissive marks anticipate, repressive

SUBMITTER: Zhang JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3336965 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature