Project description:We report a method for high throughput mapping of transcriptional enhancers, genomic regulatory regions that activate lineage-specific transcription. Since tissue-specific enhancers are bound by the transcriptional co-activator p300, we developed murine knock-in alleles that permit Cre-dependent, lineage-specific p300 in vivo biotinylation and high affinity pulldown on immobilized streptavidin. Subsequent next generation sequencing of p300-bound genomic DNA identified lineage-specific enhancers. By driving this system with lineage-specific Cre transgenes, we mapped enhancers active in embryonic endothelial cells/blood or skeletal muscle. Analysis of these enhancer sequences identified new transcription factor heterodimer motifs that likely regulate transcription in these lineages. Furthermore, we identified candidate enhancers that regulate adult heart- or lung- specific endothelial cell specialization.
Project description:Signaling pathways are intimately involved in cellular differentiation, allowing cells to respond to their environment by regulating gene expression. While enhancers are recognized as key elements that regulate selective gene expression, the interplay between signaling pathways and actively used enhancer elements is not clear. Here, we use CD4+ T cells as a model of differentiation, mapping the acquisition of cell-type-specific enhancer elements in T-helper 1 (Th1) and Th2 cells. Our data establish that STAT proteins have a major impact on the acquisition of lineage-specific enhancers and the suppression of enhancers associated with alternative cell fates. Transcriptome analysis further supports a functional role for enhancers regulated by STATs. Importantly, expression of lineage-defining master regulators in STAT-deficient cells fails to fully recover the chromatin signature of STAT-dependent enhancers. Thus, these findings point to a critical role of STATs as environmental sensors in dynamically molding the specialized enhancer architecture of differentiating cells. Active enhancer elements were defined as p300-high/H3K4me1-high. Using ChIP-seq, we mapped active enhancer landscapes of two CD4+ T helper cells, Th1 and Th2. To investigate the effect of STAT proteins on this landscape, we profiled active enhancers in the absence of STATs. Overall, STATs deficiency had a major impact on recruitment of p300. In addition, ectopic expression of master regulators T-bet and GATA3 in STAT-deficient cells failed to recover most active enhancers.
Project description:Enhancers determine tissue-specific gene expression programs. Enhancers are marked by high histone H3 lysine 4 mono-methylation (H3K4me1) and by the acetyl-transferase p300, which has allowed genome-wide enhancer identification. However, the regulatory principles by which subsets of enhancers become active in specific developmental and/or environmental contexts are unknown. We exploited inducible p300 binding to chromatin to identify, and then mechanistically dissect, enhancers controlling endotoxin-stimulated gene expression in macrophages. In these enhancers, binding sites for the lineage-restricted and constitutive Ets protein PU.1 coexisted with those for ubiquitous stress-inducible transcription factors such as NF-kappaB, IRF, and AP-1. PU.1 was required for maintaining H3K4me1 at macrophage-specific enhancers. Reciprocally, ectopic expression of PU.1 reactivated these enhancers in fibroblasts. Thus, the combinatorial assembly of tissue- and signal-specific transcription factors determines the activity of a distinct group of enhancers. We suggest that this may represent a general paradigm in tissue-restricted and stimulus-responsive gene regulation. Chromatin immuno-precipitations of p300, PU.1 and mono-methylated H3 lysine 4 followed by multiparallel sequencing were performed in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Experiments for p300 and PU.1 were also carried out in cells treated for 2hrs with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In case of p300, reads obtained from two different biological replicates were merged.
Project description:Determining the spatial and temporal activity patterns of enhancers remains a challenge in the functional annotation of the human genome. Here, we performed genome-wide mapping of tissue-specific in vivo binding sites for the enhancer-associated protein p300 and assessed in transgenic mice the utility of this information in identifying enhancers and predicting their activity patterns. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by massively-parallel sequencing was used to identify p300-enriched sites in mouse embryonic day 11.5 (e11.5) forebrain, midbrain, and limb. In total, 4,686 genomic regions were enriched for p300 in vivo in at least one of these tissues. To determine whether p300-binding accurately identifies enhancers and predicts their activity patterns, we tested 86 of these regions in a transgenic mouse enhancer assay at e11.5. In 88% of the cases, p300-enriched sequences were reproducible enhancers, and in 91% of these cases p300 enrichment correctly predicted the tissues in which in vivo activity was observed. Our results indicate that in vivo mapping of p300 binding to non-coding DNA is a highly effective means for identifying enhancers and their associated spatial activity patterns. Examination of p300 binding in 3 embryonic stage 11.5 mouse tissues
Project description:Enhancers provide critical information directing cell-type specific transcriptional programs, regulated by binding of signal-dependent transcription factors and their associated cofactors. Here we report that the most strongly activated estrogen (E2)-responsive enhancers are characterized by trans-recruitment and in situ assembly of a large 1-2MDa complex of diverse DNA-binding transcription factors by ERα at ERE-containing enhancers. We refer to enhancers recruiting these factors as mega transcription factor-bound in trans (MegaTrans) enhancers. The MegaTrans complex is a signature of the most potent functional enhancers and is required for activation of enhancer RNA transcription and recruitment of coactivators, including p300 and Med1. The MegaTrans complex functions, in part, by recruiting specific enzymatic machinery, exemplified by DNA-dependent protein kinase. Thus, MegaTrans-containing enhancers represent a cohort of functional enhancers that mediate a broad and important transcriptional program and provide a molecular explanation for transcription factor clustering and hotspots noted in the genome. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay followed by high throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq)
Project description:Determining the spatial and temporal activity patterns of enhancers remains a challenge in the functional annotation of the human genome. Here, we performed genome-wide mapping of tissue-specific in vivo binding sites for the enhancer-associated protein p300 and assessed in transgenic mice the utility of this information in identifying enhancers and predicting their activity patterns. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by massively-parallel sequencing was used to identify p300-enriched sites in mouse embryonic day 11.5 (e11.5) forebrain, midbrain, and limb. In total, 4,686 genomic regions were enriched for p300 in vivo in at least one of these tissues. To determine whether p300-binding accurately identifies enhancers and predicts their activity patterns, we tested 86 of these regions in a transgenic mouse enhancer assay at e11.5. In 88% of the cases, p300-enriched sequences were reproducible enhancers, and in 91% of these cases p300 enrichment correctly predicted the tissues in which in vivo activity was observed. Our results indicate that in vivo mapping of p300 binding to non-coding DNA is a highly effective means for identifying enhancers and their associated spatial activity patterns.
Project description:Enhancers provide critical information directing cell-type specific transcriptional programs, regulated by binding of signal-dependent transcription factors and their associated cofactors. Here we report that the most strongly activated estrogen (E2)-responsive enhancers are characterized by trans-recruitment and in situ assembly of a large 1-2MDa complex of diverse DNA-binding transcription factors by ERα at ERE-containing enhancers. We refer to enhancers recruiting these factors as mega transcription factor-bound in trans (MegaTrans) enhancers. The MegaTrans complex is a signature of the most potent functional enhancers and is required for activation of enhancer RNA transcription and recruitment of coactivators, including p300 and Med1. The MegaTrans complex functions, in part, by recruiting specific enzymatic machinery, exemplified by DNA-dependent protein kinase. Thus, MegaTrans-containing enhancers represent a cohort of functional enhancers that mediate a broad and important transcriptional program and provide a molecular explanation for transcription factor clustering and hotspots noted in the genome. Global Run On (GRO) assay followed by high throughput sequencing (GRO-seq)
Project description:Identification of cell-type specific enhancers is important for understanding the regulation of programs controlling cellular development and differentiation. Enhancers are typically marked by the co-transcriptional activator protein p300 or by groups of cell-expressed transcription factors. We hypothesized that a unique set of enhancers regulates gene expression in human erythroid cells, a highly specialized cell type evolved to provide adequate amounts of oxygen throughout the body. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by massively parallel sequencing, genome-wide maps of candidate enhancers were constructed for p300 and four transcription factors, GATA1, NF-E2, KLF1, and SCL, using primary human erythroid cells. These data were combined with gene expression analyses and candidate enhancers identified. Consistent with their predicted function as candidate enhancers, there was statistically significant enrichment of p300 and combinations of co-localizing erythroid transcription factors within 1-50 kb of the TSS of genes highly expressed in erythroid cells. Candidate enhancers were also enriched near genes with known erythroid cell function or erythroid cell phenotypes. Candidate enhancers exhibited only moderate conservation with mouse and minimal conservation with nonplacental vertebrates. Candidate enhancers were mapped to a data set of erythroid-associated, biologically relevant, SNPs from the GWAS catalog of the NHGRI. Fourteen candidate enhancers, representing 10 genetic loci, mapped to sites associated with biologically relevant erythroid traits. Fragments from these loci directed statistically significant expression in reporter gene assays. Identification of enhancers in human erythroid cells will allow a better understanding of erythroid cell development, differentiation, structure, and function, and provide insights into inherited and acquired hematologic disease. CD34+-selected stem and progenitor cells were expanded for three days in the absence of EPO. The cells were further cultured in the presence of EPO, and formaldehyde crosslinked chromatin was isolated after cells differentiated into R3/R4 nucleated erythroid cells. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (chIP-seq) was performed using antibodies against GATA1, KLF1, NFE2, TAL1, p300, H3K4me2 and H3K4me3, along with a total input control. Raw data (fastq, SRA) is missing for the TAL1 chIP-seq dataset
Project description:CD4+ T cells differentiate into phenotypically distinct T-helper cells upon antigenic stimulation. Regulation of plasticity between these CD4+ T-cell lineages is critical for immune homeostasis and prevention of autoimmune diseases. However, the factors that regulate lineage stability are largely unknown. Here we investigate a role for retinoic acid (RA) in the regulation of lineage stability using T helper 1 (Th1) cells, traditionally considered the most phenotypically stable Th subset. We found that RA, through its receptor RARa, sustains stable expression of Th1 lineage specifying genes as well as repressing genes that instruct Th17 cell fate. RA signaling is essential for limiting Th1 cell conversion into Th17 effectors and for preventing pathogenic Th17 responses in vivo. Our studies identify RA-RARa as a key component of the regulatory network governing Th1 cell fate and define a new paradigm for the development of pathogenic Th17 cells. These findings have important implications for autoimmune diseases in which dysregulated Th1-Th17 responses are observed. Identification of RARa binding in wild-type Th1 cells and mapping of enhancers using chromatin IP against p300, H3k4me1, H3k4me3, and H3k27ac in wild-type and dnRara Th1 cells.
Project description:Enhancers determine tissue-specific gene expression programs. Enhancers are marked by high histone H3 lysine 4 mono-methylation (H3K4me1) and by the acetyl-transferase p300, which has allowed genome-wide enhancer identification. However, the regulatory principles by which subsets of enhancers become active in specific developmental and/or environmental contexts are unknown. We exploited inducible p300 binding to chromatin to identify, and then mechanistically dissect, enhancers controlling endotoxin-stimulated gene expression in macrophages. In these enhancers, binding sites for the lineage-restricted and constitutive Ets protein PU.1 coexisted with those for ubiquitous stress-inducible transcription factors such as NF-kappaB, IRF, and AP-1. PU.1 was required for maintaining H3K4me1 at macrophage-specific enhancers. Reciprocally, ectopic expression of PU.1 reactivated these enhancers in fibroblasts. Thus, the combinatorial assembly of tissue- and signal-specific transcription factors determines the activity of a distinct group of enhancers. We suggest that this may represent a general paradigm in tissue-restricted and stimulus-responsive gene regulation.