Project description:Hox protein transcription factors specify segmental diversity along the anterior-posterior body axis in metazoans. Understanding the basis of Hox function has long faced the problem that, while the different members of the Hox family show clear functional specificity in vivo, they all show very similar binding specificity in vitro. Based on in vitro studies, Hox cofactors may increase Hox binding selectivity but a satisfactory understanding of in vivo Hox target selectivity is still lacking. We have carried out a systematic analysis of the in vivo genomic binding profiles of all eight Drosophila Hox proteins using transient transfection in Kc167 cells to examine Hox protein targeting. We find that Hox proteins show considerable binding selectivity in vivo in the absence of the canonical Hox cofactors Extradenticle and Homothorax. Hox binding selectivity is strongly associated with chromatin accessibility; binding sites in less accessible chromatin show the highest selectivity and the different Hox proteins exhibit different propensities to bind less accessible chromatin. High Hox binding selectivity is also associated with high affinity binding regions, leading to a model where Hox proteins derive binding selectivity through an affinity-based competition with nucleosomes. Provision of the Extradenticle/Homothorax cofactors generally leads to an increase in the number of Hox binding regions and promotes the binding to regions in less accessible chromatin, however the provision of these cofactors has little effect on the overall selectivity of Hox targeting. These studies indicate that chromatin accessibility plays a key role in Hox selectivity and we propose that relative chromatin accessibility provides a basis for subtle differences in binding specificity and affinity to generate significantly different sets of genomic targets for different Hox proteins. We suggest that this mechanism may also be relevant to other transcription factor families. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Project description:We have carried out a systematic analysis of the in vivo genomic binding profiles of all eight Drosophila Hox proteins using transient transfection in Kc167 cells to examine Hox protein targeting. In addition, we have examined Hox protein binding in cells transfected with both Hox and the cofactor, Homothorax. Provision of Homothorax also recruits the cofactor Extradenticle.
Project description:We have used stable cell lines expressing selected Hox proteins, Hox cofactors and the pioneer factor Glial cells missing, singly or in combination, to investigate the effects on chromatin accessibility genome-wide using ATAC-Seq.
Project description:Regulation of specific target genes by transcription factors is central to gene network control in development. How target specificity is achieved in eukaryotic genomes is poorly understood, as exemplified by the Hox family, which show limited in vitro DNA-binding specificity but clear functional specificity in vivo. We generated genome-wide binding profiles for three Hox proteins, Ubx, Abd-A and Abd-B, in Drosophila Kc167 cells, revealing clear target specificity and a striking influence of chromatin accessibility. Ubx and Abd-A bind to similar target sites in accessible chromatin whereas Abd-B binds additional specific targets. Provision of the TALE class cofactors, Exd and Hth, alters the Ubx binding profile, enabling binding to additional targets in the genome. Both the Abd-B specific targets and the cofactor-dependent Ubx targets are in relatively DNase1 inaccessible chromatin, suggesting that competition with nucleosomes is a key factor determining Hox protein target specificity. This ChIP-Seq study performed on Kc167 cells involves two experiments and 6 ChIP samples. In Experiment 1, we generated genome-wide binding profiles for Ubx, Abd-A and Abd-B. An equal volume of input chromatin was retained from each of the Hox samples and combined to represent the input, which was purified alongside the ChIP samples. We performed two biological replicates for each sample. Sequencing was performed using the Illumina MiSeq platform. In Experiment 2, we generated genome-wide binding profiles for Ubx, mutant Ubx and Ubx in the presence of Hth. We performed two biological replicates for each sample except Ubx where we performed just one. Sequencing was performed using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. For all samples, Experiment 1 input chromatin was used as the reference control to assay ChIP enrichment.
Project description:Mapping genomic binding sites of Drosophila Hox proteins and Hox cofactors, Extradenticle and Homothorax, in Kc167 cells with transient expression [ChIP-seq_Transient]
Project description:Regulation of specific target genes by transcription factors is central to gene network control in development. How target specificity is achieved in eukaryotic genomes is poorly understood, as exemplified by the Hox family, which show limited in vitro DNA-binding specificity but clear functional specificity in vivo. We generated genome-wide binding profiles for three Hox proteins, Ubx, Abd-A and Abd-B, in Drosophila Kc167 cells, revealing clear target specificity and a striking influence of chromatin accessibility. Ubx and Abd-A bind to similar target sites in accessible chromatin whereas Abd-B binds additional specific targets. Provision of the TALE class cofactors, Exd and Hth, alters the Ubx binding profile, enabling binding to additional targets in the genome. Both the Abd-B specific targets and the cofactor-dependent Ubx targets are in relatively DNase1 inaccessible chromatin, suggesting that competition with nucleosomes is a key factor determining Hox protein target specificity.
Project description:Deep Sequencing of Kc167 mRNA. For data usage terms and conditions, please refer to http://www.genome.gov/27528022 and http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Research/ENCODE/ENCODEDataReleasePolicyFinal2008.pdf Seq of Poly-A+ RNA from D. melanogaster Kc167
Project description:Deep Sequencing of Kc167 small RNAs. For data usage terms and conditions, please refer to http://www.genome.gov/27528022 and http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Research/ENCODE/ENCODEDataReleasePolicyFinal2008.pdf Seq of small RNAs from D. melanogaster Kc167