Project description:FOXA1 is a pioneer factor that is important in hormone dependent cancer cells to stabilise nuclear receptors, such as estrogen receptor (ER) to chromatin. FOXA1 binds to enhancers regions that are enriched in H3K4mono- and dimethylation (H3K4me1, H3K4me2) histone marks and evidence suggests that these marks are requisite events for FOXA1 to associate with enhancers to initate subsequent gene expression events. However, exogenous expression of FOXA1 has been shown to induce H3K4me1 and H3K4me2 signal at enhancer elements and the order of events and the functional importance of these events is not clear. We performed a FOXA1 Rapid Immunoprecipitation Mass Spectrometry of Endogenous Proteins (RIME) screen in ERα-positive MCF-7 breast cancer cells in order to identify FOXA1 interacting partners and we found histone-lysine N-methyltransferase (MLL3) as the top FOXA1 interacting protein. MLL3 is typically thought to induce H3K4me3 at promoter regions, but recent findings suggest it may contribute to H3K4me1 deposition, in line with our observation that MLL3 associates with an enhancer specific protein. We performed MLL3 ChIP-seq in breast cancer cells and unexpectedly found that MLL3 binds mostly at non-promoter regions enhancers, in contrast to the prevailing hypothesis. MLL3 was shown to occupy regions marked by FOXA1 occupancy and as expected, H3K4me1 and H3K4me2. MLL3 binding was dependent on FOXA1, indicating that FOXA1 recruits MLL3 to chromatin. Motif analysis and subsequent genomic mapping revealed a role for Grainy head like protein-2 (GRHL2) which was shown to co-occupy regions of the chromatin with MLL3. Regions occupied by all three factors, namely FOXA1, MLL3 and GRHL2, were most enriched in H3K4me1. MLL3 silencing decreased H3K4me1 at enhancer elements, but had no appreciable impact on H3K4me3 at enhancer elements. We identify a complex relationship between FOXA1, MLL3 and H3K4me1 at enhancers in breast cancer and propose a mechanism whereby the pioneer factor FOXA1 can interact with a chromatin modifier MLL3, recruiting it to chromatin to facilitate the deposition of H3K4me1 histone marks, subsequently demarcating active enhancer elements.

Project description:Using the estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) as a model ligand inducible transcription factor, we sought to explicitly define parameters that determine transcription factor binding site selection on a genomic scale in an inducible system that minimizes confounding chromatin effects by the transcription factor itself. By examining several genetic and epigenetic parameters, we find that an energetically favorable estrogen response element (ERE) motif sequence, evidence of occupancy of a "pioneering" transcription factor FOXA1, the presence of the enhancer mark, H3K4me1, and an open chromatin configuration (FAIRE) at the pre-ligand state provide specificity for ER binding. Genome-wide ChIP-sequencing was done in MCF-7 cancer cell line for the following histone H3 modifications: monomethylation H3K4me1, trimethylation H3K4me3, H3K9me3, H3K27me3, acetylation H3K9ac, H3K14ac. In addition sequencing of RNA Pol II was done at same treatment conditions (E2 and DMSO). In addition, we assessed the chromatin configuration of ERα binding sites by deeply sequencing fragments isolated by Formaldehyde-Assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements (FAIRE) (Giresi et al, 2007) which enriches for nucleosome free genomic DNA in the aqueous phase of a phenol extraction. The analysis histone modifications in MCF-7 cancer cells was done by ChIP-seq data obtained either with E2 stimulation or without stimulation using vehicle as a control. Using the ERα binding sites defined by ChIP-seq (separate submission), we analyzed the population characteristics of the chromatin configuration of the ERα binding sites. To this end, we performed ChIP-seq analysis for the occupancy configuration of each of the following marks before and after E2 exposure: RNA Pol II, the activation marks H3K4me1, H3K4me3, H3K9ac and H3K14ac, and the repression marks H3K9me3 and H3K27me3. We assessed the chromatin configuration of ERα binding sites by deeply sequencing fragments isolated by Formaldehyde-Assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements (FAIRE) (Giresi et al, 2007) which enriches for nucleosome free genomic DNA in the aqueous phase of a phenol extraction. The tag count of FAIRE fragments reflects the nucleosome depletion at any given site. RNA Pol II - Cat# ab5408, Abcam; H3K9me3 - Cat# ab8898, Abcam; H3K27me3 - Cat# 07-449, Upstate Biotechnology Inc.; H3K4me1 - Cat# ab8895, Abcam; H3K4me3 - Cat# ab8580, Abcam; H3K9ac - Cat# 07-352, Upstate Biotechnology Inc.; H3K14ac - Cat# 07-353, Upstate Biotechnology Inc.

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Homo sapiens

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