Project description:Clusters of enhancers called super-enhancers are associated with gene activation. Broad trimethyl histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4me3) often defines actively transcribed tumor suppressor genes. However, how these epigenetic signatures are regulated for tumor suppression is poorly understood. Here, we show that brain-specific knockout of the H3K4 methyltransferase MLL4 (aka KMT2D) in mice spontaneously induces cerebellar tumors in brain while indirectly increasing expression of oncogenic programs, such as Ras activators and Notch pathway components. Mll4 loss caused widespread impairment of super-enhancers and broad H3K4me3. Notably, Mll4 loss reduced super-enhancer and broad H3K4me3 signals in tumor suppressor genes co-marked by both signatures, including Dnmt3a and Bcl6. MLL4 upregulates DNMT3A-mediated DNA methylation to downregulate expression of Ras activators and increases Bcl6 expression to suppress the Notch pathway. These findings suggest an unanticipated epigenetic tumor-suppressive mechanism in which MLL4 is required for establishing super-enhancers and broad H3K4me3 for anti-tumor programs in normal cells.
Project description:Mediator complex regulates transcription by connecting enhancers to promoters. High Mediator binding density defines super enhancers, which regulate cell-identity genes and oncogenes. Protein interactions of Mediator may explain its role in these processes but have not been identified comprehensively. Here we purify Mediator from neural stem cells (NSCs) and identify 75 protein-protein interaction partners. We identify super enhancers in NSCs and show that Mediator-interacting chromatin modifiers colocalise with Mediator at enhancers and super enhancers. Transcription factor families with high affinity for Mediator dominate enhancers and super enhancers and can explain genome-wide Mediator localization. We identify E-box transcription factor Tcf4 as a key regulator of NSCs. Tcf4 interacts with Mediator, colocalises with Mediator at super enhancers and regulates neurogenic transcription factor genes with super enhancers and broad H3K4me3 domains. Our data suggest that high binding-affinity for Mediator is an important organizing feature in the transcriptional network that determines NSC identity.
Project description:Tumor suppressors are mostly defined by inactivating somatic mutations in tumors, yet little is known about their epigenetic features in normal cells. Here, through integrative analysis of 1,134 genome-wide epigenetic profiles and mutations from >8,200 tumor-normal pairs, we discovered broad H3K4me3 (wider than 4 kb) as the first epigenetic signature for tumor suppressors in normal cells. Broad H3K4me3 is associated with increased transcription elongation and enhancer activity together leading to exceptionally high gene expression, and is distinct from other broad epigenetic features, such as super enhancers. Broad H3K4me3 conserved across normal cells represents core tumor suppressors, such as P53 and PTEN, whereas cell-type-specific broad H3K4me3 may indicate cell-identity genes and cell-type-specific tumor suppressors. Furthermore, widespread shortening of broad H3K4me3 in cancers is strongly associated with repression of tumor suppressors. Together, the broad H3K4me3 epigenetic signature we reported here may provide a new direction for the discovery and characterization of novel tumor suppressors. H3K4me3 ChIP-Seq was conducted in 1) liver tumor and matched tissue, 2) lung tumor and matched tissue, 3) cell line A549 grown under normal and flavopiridol treatment conditions.
Project description:Transcriptional enhancers instruct spatiotemporal gene expression and their dysfunction has long been known as one of the primary mechanisms that drive tumorigenesis and confer malignant tumor cell behaviors. However, it is largely unknown about whether tumor cell enhancer regulation plays a role in tumor immune evasion and anti-tumor immune response. Here, we demonstrate that tumor cell deletion of Mll3 and Mll4, two members of COMPASS family for enhancer H3K4 mono-methylation, increases tumor cell immunogenicity and promotes anti-tumor immune response. Loss of Mll4 potentiates therapeutic response to anti-Pd1 blockade in the murine melanoma model. Mechanistically, Mll4 loss leads to the widespread decrease of epigenetic signatures at both typical and super-enhancers, including the super-enhancer for Ago2 subunit of RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and the enhancers for DNA methyltransferases Dnmt3a and Dnmt1. Downregulation of Ago2 expression leads to double-stranded RNA (dsRNAs) stress to elicit interferon response while decreased expression of Dnmt3a and Dnmt1 derepresses Gsdmd and inflammatory caspases to trigger Gsdmd-mediated pyroptosis in Mll4-deficient tumor cells. Notably, transcriptional induction of interferon signaling and Gsdmd-mediated tumor cell pyroptotic death is crucial for the increased anti-tumor immunity and the improved immunotherapeutic efficacy in Mll4-deficient tumors. These findings reveal an important immune regulatory role of tumor cell enhancer regulation and provide molecular insights into the immunotherapeutic vulnerabilities of tumors bearing MLL3/MLL4 deficiency or loss of function mutations.
Project description:Histone H3K4me1/2 methyltransferases MLL3/MLL4 and H3K27 acetyltransferases CBP/p300 are major enhancer epigenomic writers. To understand how these epigenomic writers orchestrate enhancer landscapes during cell differentiation, we have profiled genomic binding of MLL4, CBP, lineage-determining transcription factors, as well as transcriptome and epigenome during adipogenesis of immortalized preadipocytes derived from mouse brown adipose tissue (BAT). We show that MLL4 and CBP drive the dynamic enhancer epigenome, which correlates with the dynamic transcriptome. MLL3/MLL4 are required for CBP/p300 binding on enhancers activated during adipogenesis. Further, we show that MLL4 and CBP identify super-enhancers of adipogenesis and that MLL3/MLL4 are required for the formation of super-enhancers. Finally, in brown adipocytes differentiated in culture, MLL4 identifies primed super-enhancers of genes fully activated in BAT such as the thermogenic Ucp1. Comparison of MLL4-defined super-enhancers in brown and white adipogenesis predicted a list of brown-specific super-enhancers SEs associated genes that are likely to be important to BAT functions. These results establish MLL3/MLL4 and CBP/p300 as master enhancer epigenomic writers and suggest that enhancer-priming by MLL3/MLL4 followed by enhancer-activation by CBP/p300 sequentially shape dynamic enhancer landscapes during cell differentiation. Our data also provide a rich resource for understanding epigenomic regulation of brown adipogenesis.
Project description:Tumor suppressors are mostly defined by inactivating somatic mutations in tumors, yet little is known about their epigenetic features in normal cells. Here, through integrative analysis of 1,134 genome-wide epigenetic profiles and mutations from >8,200 tumor-normal pairs, we discovered broad H3K4me3 (wider than 4 kb) as the first epigenetic signature for tumor suppressors in normal cells. Broad H3K4me3 is associated with increased transcription elongation and enhancer activity together leading to exceptionally high gene expression, and is distinct from other broad epigenetic features, such as super enhancers. Broad H3K4me3 conserved across normal cells represents core tumor suppressors, such as P53 and PTEN, whereas cell-type-specific broad H3K4me3 may indicate cell-identity genes and cell-type-specific tumor suppressors. Furthermore, widespread shortening of broad H3K4me3 in cancers is strongly associated with repression of tumor suppressors. Together, the broad H3K4me3 epigenetic signature we reported here may provide a new direction for the discovery and characterization of novel tumor suppressors.
Project description:Enhancers play a central role in cell-type-specific gene expression and are marked by H3K4me1/2. Active enhancers are further marked by H3K27ac. However, the methyltransferases responsible for the deposition of H3K4me1/2 on enhancers remain elusive. Furthermore, the functions of these methyltransferases on enhancers and associated cell-type-specific gene expression are poorly understood. Here, we identify MLL4 (KMT2D) as a major H3K4 mono- and di-methyltransferase in mammalian cells. Using adipogenesis and myogenesis as model systems, we show that MLL4 exhibits cell-type- and differentiation-stage-specific genomic binding and is predominantly localized on enhancers. MLL4 co-localizes with lineage-determining transcription factors (TFs) on active enhancers during differentiation. Deletion of MLL4 dramatically decreases H3K4me1/2 and H3K27ac on enhancers and leads to severe defects in cell-type-specific gene expression and cell differentiation. Finally, we provide evidence that lineage-determining TFs recruit and require MLL4 to establish enhancers critical for cell-type-specific gene expression. Together, these results identify MLL4 as an H3K4 mono-/di-methyltransferase required for enhancer activation during cell differentiation. ChIP-Seq analyses of histone modifications (H3K4me1, H3K4me2, H3K4me3, and H3K27ac) at D0 (day 0) and D2 (day 2) of adipogenesis in WT (MLL3-/-) and MLL4 KO (MLL3-/-;MLL4-/-) brown preadipocytes.
Project description:Enhancers play a central role in cell-type-specific gene expression and are marked by H3K4me1/2. Active enhancers are further marked by H3K27ac. However, the methyltransferases responsible for the deposition of H3K4me1/2 on enhancers remain elusive. Furthermore, the functions of these methyltransferases on enhancers and associated cell-type-specific gene expression are poorly understood. Here, we identify MLL4 (KMT2D) as a major H3K4 mono- and di-methyltransferase in mammalian cells. Using adipogenesis and myogenesis as model systems, we show that MLL4 exhibits cell-type- and differentiation-stage-specific genomic binding and is predominantly localized on enhancers. MLL4 co-localizes with lineage-determining transcription factors (TFs) on active enhancers during differentiation. Deletion of MLL4 dramatically decreases H3K4me1/2 and H3K27ac on enhancers and leads to severe defects in cell-type-specific gene expression and cell differentiation. Finally, we provide evidence that lineage-determining TFs recruit and require MLL4 to establish enhancers critical for cell-type-specific gene expression. Together, these results identify MLL4 as an H3K4 mono-/di-methyltransferase required for enhancer activation during cell differentiation. ChIP-Seq of MyoD, MLL4 and histone modifications (H3K4me1, H3K4me3, and H3K27ac) in adenoviral GFP- or Cre-infected MLL3-/-;MLL4-flox/flox cells. Preadipocytes: brown preadipocytes before differentiation. D5 myocytes: 5 days after MyoD-induced myogenesis of brown preadipocytes.
Project description:Super-enhancers are large clusters of transcriptional enhancers that drive expression of genes that control and define cell identity. Improved understanding of the roles super-enhancers play in biology would be afforded by knowing the constellation of factors that constitute these domains and by identifying super-enhancers across the spectrum of human cell types. We describe here the population of transcription factors, cofactors, chromatin regulators and core transcription apparatus that occupy super-enhancers in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and evidence that super-enhancers are highly transcribed. We then use epigenomic data to produce a catalogue of super-enhancers in a broad range of human cell types. These super-enhancer domains are associated with genes encoding master transcription factors and other components that play important roles in the biology of these cells. Interestingly, sequence variation associated with a broad spectrum of diseases is especially enriched in the super-enhancers of disease-relevant cell types. Furthermore, we find that cancer cells generate super-enhancers at oncogenes and other genes that play important roles in tumor pathogenesis. We discuss these insights and their implications for future study of human health and disease. ChIP-Seq for transcription factors in mouse embryonic stem cells and H3K27ac in Jurkat T-ALL cell line RNA-Seq for mouse embryonic stem cells
Project description:Super-enhancers are an emerging sub-class of regulatory regions controlling cell identity and disease genes. However, their biological function and impact on miRNA networks are unclear. Here we report that super-enhancers drive the biogenesis of master miRNAs crucial for cell identity by enhancing both transcription and Drosha/DGCR8-mediated primary miRNA processing. Super-enhancers, together with broad H3K4me3 domains, shape a tissue-specific and evolutionarily conserved atlas of miRNA expression and function. CRISPR/Cas9 genomics revealed that super-enhancer constituents act cooperatively and facilitate Drosha/DGCR8 recruitment and pri-miRNA processing to boost cell-specific miRNA production. BET-bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 preferentially inhibited super-enhancer-directed cotranscriptional pri-miRNA processing. Furthermore, super-enhancers are characterized by pervasive interaction with DGCR8/Drosha and DGCR8/Drosha-regulated mRNA stability control, suggesting unique RNA regulation at super-enhancers. Finally, super-enhancers mark multiple miRNAs associated with cancer hallmark traits. This study presents a principle underlying miRNA biology in health and disease and a unrecognized higher-order property of super-enhancers in RNA processing beyond transcription.