title: Conserved, developmentally regulated mechanism couples chromosomal looping and heterochromatin barrier activity at the homeobox gene A locus.
abstract: Establishment and segregation of distinct chromatin domains are essential for proper genome function. The insulator protein CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is involved in creating boundaries that segregate chromatin and functional domains and in organizing higher-order chromatin structures by promoting chromosomal loops across the vertebrate genome. Here, we investigate the insulation properties of CTCF at the human and mouse homeobox gene A (HOXA) loci. Although cohesin loading at the CTCF binding site is required for looping, we found that cohesin is dispensable for chromatin barrier activity at that site. Using mouse embryonic stem cells in both a pluripotent and differentiated neuronal progenitor state, we determined that embryonic stem cell pluripotency factor OCT4 antagonizes cohesin loading at the CTCF binding site. Loss of OCT4 in the committed and differentiated neuronal progenitor cells results in loading of cohesin and chromosome looping, which contributes to heterochromatin partitioning and selective gene activation across the HOXA locus. Our analysis reveals that chromatin barrier activity of CTCF is evolutionarily conserved and is responsible for the coordinated establishment of chromatin structure, higher-order architecture, and developmental expression of the HOXA locus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8005, USA.
authors.forename: Yoon Jung
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Katharine R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Cecchini
authors.forename: Tae Hoon
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000076246:CCCTC-Binding Factor; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002460:Cell Line; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism*; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D000097722:Cohesins
chemical_list: D000076246:CCCTC-Binding Factor; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002843:Chromatin; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D017931:DNA Primers; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D000097722:Cohesins; C000619697:CTCF protein, human; C000619698:Ctcf protein, mouse; C494174:Pou5f1 protein, mouse; C088144:HoxA protein