A Negative Feedback Loop of Transcription Factors Specifies Alternative Dendritic Cell Chromatin States
MOLECULAR CELL
Authors: Bornstein, Chamutal; Winter, Deborah; Barnett-Itzhaki, Zohar; David, Eyal; Kadri, Sabah; Garber, Manuel; Amit, Ido
Abstract
During hematopoiesis, cells originating from the same stem cell reservoir differentiate into distinct cell types. The mechanisms enabling common progenitors to differentiate into alternative cell fates are not fully understood. Here, we identify cell-fate-determining transcription factors (TFs) governing dendritic cell (DC) development by annotating the enhancer landscapes of the DC lineage. Combining these analyses with detailed overexpression, knockdown, and ChIP-Seq studies, we show that Irf8 functions as a plasmacytoid DC epigenetic and fate-determining TF, regulating massive, cell-specific chromatin changes in thousands of pDC enhancers. Importantly, Irf8 forms a negative feedback loop with Cebpb, a monocyte-derived DC epigenetic fate-determining TF. We show that using this circuit logic, a pulse of TF expression can stably define epigenetic and transcriptional states, regardless of the microenvironment. More broadly, our study proposes a general paradigm that allows closely related cells with a similar set of signal-dependent factors to generate differential and persistent enhancer landscapes.
The interplay between critical transcription factors and microRNAs in the control of normal and malignant myelopoiesis
CANCER LETTERS
Authors: Stavast, Christiaan J.; Leenen, Pieter J. M.; Erkeland, Stefan J.
Abstract
Myelopoiesis is a complex process driven by essential transcription factors, including C/EBP alpha, PU.1, RUNX1, KLF4 and IRF8. Together, these factors are critical for the control of myeloid progenitor cell expansion and lineage determination in the development of granulocytes and monocytes/macrophages. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are expressed in a cell type and lineage specific manner. There is increasing evidence that miRNAs fine-tune the expression of hematopoietic lineage-specific transcription factors and drive the lineage decisions of hematopoietic progenitor cells. In this review, we discuss recently discovered self-activating and feed-back mechanisms in which transcription factors and miRNAs interact during myeloid cell development. Furthermore, we delineate how some of these mechanisms are affected in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and how disrupted transcription factor-miRNA interplays contribute to leukemogenesis. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.