DNA bendability regulates transcription factor binding to nucleosomes [PIONEAR-seq and SELEX-seq]
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ABSTRACT: Cell fates are controlled by ‘pioneers’, sequence-specific transcription factors (TFs) that bind recognition motifs on nucleosomes (‘pioneer binding’). Pioneers occupy a minority of their recognition sequences in the genome, suggesting that the sequence context regulates their binding. Here, we developed PIONEAR-seq, a high-throughput biochemical assay to characterize pioneer binding to nucleosomes. We used PIONEAR-seq to assay 11 human TFs for binding to nucleosomes based on Widom 601 versus genomic sequences. We found that pioneer binding, while mediated primarily by TFs' recognition motifs, senses the broader nucleosome sequence context and that TFs previously found to be dyad or periodic binders on nucleosomes assembled on synthetic sequences exhibit exclusively end binding to nucleosomes based on genomic sequences. We propose a model where the nucleosome exploits the local bendability of the DNA sequence to position pioneer binding, revealing another cis-regulatory layer in eukaryotes.
ORGANISM(S): synthetic construct
PROVIDER: GSE293487 | GEO | 2025/05/01
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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