Dataset Information

RNA expression changes in HOXA9/MEIS1 leukemia cells

ABSTRACT: Aberrant expression of homeobox transcription factor HOXA9 is a central component of the leukemogenic program driven by diverse oncogenes. Here we show that HOXA9 overexpression in myeloid progenitor cells and pro-B cells leads to significant rearrangement of the epigenetic landscape with prominent emergence of cancer specific de novo enhancers. HOXA9 acts as a pioneer factor at the de novo enhancers and is required for recruitment of transcription factor CEBP/a and the histone H3K4 methyltransferase MLL3/MLL4 complex. HOXA9 function at the de novo enhancer is distinct from its physiological role at distal enhancers during normal hematopoietic development. Genetic deletion of MLL3/4 specifically affects the active enhancer signatures at de novo enhancers and inhibits HOXA9/MEIS1-mediated leukemogenesis. Our study reveals a previously uncharacterized role of HOXA9 and the MLL3/4 complex in leukemogenesis and provide mechanistic insights in epigenetic deregulation during malignant transformation.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE103447 | GEO | 2018/09/05

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:FOXA1 is a pioneer factor that is important in hormone dependent cancer cells to stabilise nuclear receptors, such as estrogen receptor (ER) to chromatin. FOXA1 binds to enhancers regions that are enriched in H3K4mono- and dimethylation (H3K4me1, H3K4me2) histone marks and evidence suggests that these marks are requisite events for FOXA1 to associate with enhancers to initate subsequent gene expression events. However, exogenous expression of FOXA1 has been shown to induce H3K4me1 and H3K4me2 signal at enhancer elements and the order of events and the functional importance of these events is not clear. We performed a FOXA1 Rapid Immunoprecipitation Mass Spectrometry of Endogenous Proteins (RIME) screen in ERα-positive MCF-7 breast cancer cells in order to identify FOXA1 interacting partners and we found histone-lysine N-methyltransferase (MLL3) as the top FOXA1 interacting protein. MLL3 is typically thought to induce H3K4me3 at promoter regions, but recent findings suggest it may contribute to H3K4me1 deposition, in line with our observation that MLL3 associates with an enhancer specific protein. We performed MLL3 ChIP-seq in breast cancer cells and unexpectedly found that MLL3 binds mostly at non-promoter regions enhancers, in contrast to the prevailing hypothesis. MLL3 was shown to occupy regions marked by FOXA1 occupancy and as expected, H3K4me1 and H3K4me2. MLL3 binding was dependent on FOXA1, indicating that FOXA1 recruits MLL3 to chromatin. Motif analysis and subsequent genomic mapping revealed a role for Grainy head like protein-2 (GRHL2) which was shown to co-occupy regions of the chromatin with MLL3. Regions occupied by all three factors, namely FOXA1, MLL3 and GRHL2, were most enriched in H3K4me1. MLL3 silencing decreased H3K4me1 at enhancer elements, but had no appreciable impact on H3K4me3 at enhancer elements. We identify a complex relationship between FOXA1, MLL3 and H3K4me1 at enhancers in breast cancer and propose a mechanism whereby the pioneer factor FOXA1 can interact with a chromatin modifier MLL3, recruiting it to chromatin to facilitate the deposition of H3K4me1 histone marks, subsequently demarcating active enhancer elements.

Dataset Information

RNA expression changes in HOXA9/MEIS1 leukemia cells

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure