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 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.
Project description:The master transcription factors Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog bind enhancer elements and recruit the Mediator co-activator to activate much of the gene expression program of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We report here that the ESC master transcription factors and Mediator form “super-enhancers” at most genes known to control the pluripotent state, including those encoding the master transcription factors themselves. These super-enhancers consist of extraordinarily large genomic domains occupied by exceptional amounts of Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, Klf4, Esrrb and Mediator. Super-enhancers stimulate considerably higher transcription than typical enhancers in vivo and in reporter vectors. Reduced levels of Oct4 or Mediator cause preferential loss of expression of super-enhancer-associated genes relative to other genes, suggesting how changes in gene expression programs might be accomplished during development. In other more differentiated cells, super-enhancers containing cell-type-specific master transcription factors are also found at genes that define cell identity. These results implicate super-enhancers in the control of mammalian cell identity and differentiation. ChIP-Seq and controls associated with Super-Enhancers in murine cell types
Project description:The master transcription factors Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog bind enhancer elements and recruit the Mediator co-activator to activate much of the gene expression program of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We report here that these ESC master transcription factors and Mediator form M-bM-^@M-^\super-enhancersM-bM-^@M-^] at most genes that are known to control the pluripotent state, including those encoding the master transcription factors themselves. These super-enhancers consist of extraordinarily large genomic domains occupied by exceptional amounts of Oct4 and Mediator. Super-enhancers stimulate considerably higher transcription than typical enhancers in reporter vectors. ESC differentiation causes preferential loss of expression of super-enhancer -associated genes. Super-enhancers are also found at key cell identity genes in differentiated cells. These results implicate super-enhancers in the control of mammalian cell identity and differentiation and suggest that these elements might generally be used to identify genes that control cell-type specific gene expression programs in many mammalian cells. ChIP-Seq and RNA-seq of Med1 in ZHBTc4 ES during treatment with doxycycline. ChIP-Seq data of Med1 in 38B9 pro-B cells.
Project description:The master transcription factors Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog bind enhancer elements and recruit the Mediator co-activator to activate much of the gene expression program of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We report here that the ESC master transcription factors and Mediator form M-bM-^@M-^\super-enhancersM-bM-^@M-^] at most genes known to control the pluripotent state, including those encoding the master transcription factors themselves. These super-enhancers consist of extraordinarily large genomic domains occupied by exceptional amounts of Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, Klf4, Esrrb and Mediator. Super-enhancers stimulate considerably higher transcription than typical enhancers in vivo and in reporter vectors. Reduced levels of Oct4 or Mediator cause preferential loss of expression of super-enhancer-associated genes relative to other genes, suggesting how changes in gene expression programs might be accomplished during development. In other more differentiated cells, super-enhancers containing cell-type-specific master transcription factors are also found at genes that define cell identity. These results implicate super-enhancers in the control of mammalian cell identity and differentiation. Time-course of gene expression following shRNA knockdown of Oct4 and Med12.
Project description:Super-enhancers and stretch enhancers (SEs) drive expression of genes that play prominent roles in normal and disease cells, but the functional importance of these clustered enhancer elements is poorly understood, so it is not clear why genes key to cell identity have evolved regulation by such elements. Here we show that super-enhancers consist of functional constituent units that concentrate multiple developmental signaling pathways at key pluripotency genes in embryonic stem cells and confer responsiveness to signaling of their associated genes. Cancer cells frequently acquire SEs at genes that promote tumorigenesis, and we show that these genes are especially sensitive to perturbation of oncogenic signaling pathways. Super-enhancers thus provide a platform for signaling pathways to regulate genes that control cell identity during development and tumorigenesis. ChIP-Seq for H3K27ac and RNA Pol II in mouse embryonic stem cells with CRISPR-deleted enhancers
Project description:Super-enhancers may regulate target genes through chromatin looping. We connected super-enhancers in the K562 chronic myelogenous leukemia cell line with chromatin interactions identified from Chromatin Interaction Analysis with Paired-End Tag (ChIA-PET) data. Gene expression at proximal elements that are connected with distal super-enhancers showed significantly higher cell-type specificity than at proximal elements connected with other elements or not involved in interaction. 4C and Episwitch analysis of chromatin interactions showed that certain chromatin interactions are cell-specific, but others are more general. While super-enhancers upstream of c-MYC at the MYC-335 element can be found in other cancers, only super-enhancers downstream of c-MYC can be found in K562. 4C analysis of the c-MYC promoter revealed no chromatin interactions that are directed upstream of c-MYC, but only downstream of c-MYC, in the PVT1 long non-coding RNA gene. Cell-specific usage of super-enhancers could explain why the MYC-335 element that is associated with many solid cancers such as colorectal cancer and breast cancer, but not with leukemia. Surprisingly, we found that a chromatin interaction between c-MYC and a c-MYC super-enhancer is lost in chronic myelogenous leukemia patient blood as compared with blood from individuals without the disease through Oxford Biodynamicsâ?? Episwitch analysis. These results provide evidence for fine-tuning of expression patterns, such as cell-specific regulation of target genes by distal super-enhancers through chromatin interactions and an association between chromatin interactions and disease, and highlight that super-enhancers are more complex than previously described. Examination of several chromatin interactions involving super-enhancers using 4C-Seq and Episwitch (TM)
Project description:The master transcription factors Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog bind enhancer elements and recruit the Mediator co-activator to activate much of the gene expression program of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We report here that the ESC master transcription factors and Mediator form “super-enhancers” at most genes known to control the pluripotent state, including those encoding the master transcription factors themselves. These super-enhancers consist of extraordinarily large genomic domains occupied by exceptional amounts of Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, Klf4, Esrrb and Mediator. Super-enhancers stimulate considerably higher transcription than typical enhancers in vivo and in reporter vectors. Reduced levels of Oct4 or Mediator cause preferential loss of expression of super-enhancer-associated genes relative to other genes, suggesting how changes in gene expression programs might be accomplished during development. In other more differentiated cells, super-enhancers containing cell-type-specific master transcription factors are also found at genes that define cell identity. These results implicate super-enhancers in the control of mammalian cell identity and differentiation.
Project description:The master transcription factors Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog bind enhancer elements and recruit the Mediator co-activator to activate much of the gene expression program of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We report here that the ESC master transcription factors and Mediator form “super-enhancers” at most genes known to control the pluripotent state, including those encoding the master transcription factors themselves. These super-enhancers consist of extraordinarily large genomic domains occupied by exceptional amounts of Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, Klf4, Esrrb and Mediator. Super-enhancers stimulate considerably higher transcription than typical enhancers in vivo and in reporter vectors. Reduced levels of Oct4 or Mediator cause preferential loss of expression of super-enhancer-associated genes relative to other genes, suggesting how changes in gene expression programs might be accomplished during development. In other more differentiated cells, super-enhancers containing cell-type-specific master transcription factors are also found at genes that define cell identity. These results implicate super-enhancers in the control of mammalian cell identity and differentiation.
Project description:The proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) plays a central role in low-grade adipose tissue inflammation and development of insulin resistance during obesity. In this context, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NFkB), is directly involved and required for the acute activation of the inflammatory gene program. Here we show that the major transactivating subunit of NF?B, v-rel avian reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog A (RELA), is also required for acute TNF-induced suppression of adipocyte genes. Notably, this repression does not involve RELA binding to the associated enhancers but rather loss of cofactors and enhancer RNA (eRNA) selectively from high occupancy sites within super-enhancers. Based on these data we have developed models that with high accuracy predict which enhancers and genes are repressed by TNF in adipocytes. We show that these models are applicable to other cell types where TNF represses genes associated with super-enhancers in a highly cell type-specific manner. Our results propose a novel paradigm for NF?B-mediated repression, whereby NF?B selectively redistributes cofactors from high occupancy enhancers, thereby specifically repressing super-enhancer-associated cell identity genes. Genome-wide assesment of the acute transcriptional response to TNF in human SGBS adipocytes using RNA- ChIP- and DHS-seq. Total RNA-seq and RNAPII-ChIP seq for vehicle and TNF treated adipocytes are available under GSE60462