Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE89767: Enhancer and transcription factor dynamics within the granulocytic-monocytic lineage reveal an early differentiation block in Cebpa null progenitors

Bulk RNA sequencing

Myeloid cells of the granulocytic-monocytic (GM) lineage develop in a process orchestrated mainly by the transcription factors PU.1 and CEBPA, but how these factors collaborate on a global scale during GM-lineage differentiation remains uncharacterized. To address this question we have combined epigenetic profiling, transcription factor binding and gene expression analyses of successive stages of murine GM-lineage differentiation and show that PU.1 and CEBPA binds to GM enhancers with distinct kinetics. Surprisingly, we find no evidence of a pioneering function of PU.1 during GM-lineage differentiation but instead delineate a set of GM enhancers that appears to open in a CEBPA-dependent manner. Analyses of Cebpa null bone marrow demonstrate that CEBPA controls PU.1 levels and, unexpectedly, that the loss of CEBPA results in a very early differentiation block. These data are consistent with a model involving an extensive functional interplay between PU.1 and CEBPA in driving GM-lineage differentiation. SOURCE: Bo,Torben,Porse (bo.porse@finsenlab.dk) - Porse laboratory University of Copenhagen