Cited by 1,646Genomics and Chromatin DynamicsEpigenetics and DNA MethylationChromatin Remodeling and Cancer

Chromatin architecture reorganization during stem cell differentiation

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Dixon, Jesse R., Jung, Inkyung, Selvaraj, Siddarth, Shen, Yin, Antosiewicz-Bourget, Jessica E., Lee, Ah Young, Ye, Zhen, Kim, Audrey +9 more·2015·Nature

Abstract

Higher-order chromatin structure is emerging as an important regulator of gene expression. Although dynamic chromatin structures have been identified in the genome, the full scope of chromatin dynamics during mammalian development and lineage specification remains to be determined. By mapping genome-wide chromatin interactions in human embryonic stem (ES) cells and four human ES-cell-derived lineages, we uncover extensive chromatin reorganization during lineage specification. We observe that although self-associating chromatin domains are stable during differentiation, chromatin interactions both within and between domains change in a striking manner, altering 36% of active and inactive chromosomal compartments throughout the genome. By integrating chromatin interaction maps with haplotype-resolved epigenome and transcriptome data sets, we find widespread allelic bias in gene expression correlated with allele-biased chromatin states of linked promoters and distal enhancers. Our results therefore provide a global view of chromatin dynamics and a resource for studying long-range control of gene expression in distinct human cell lineages. An analysis of genome-wide chromatin interactions during human embryonic stem cell differentiation reveals changes in chromatic organization and simultaneously identifies allele-resolved chromatin structure and differences in gene expression during differentiation. Higher-order chromatin structures are among the factors influencing gene expression, although how these structures evolve during differentiation and lineage specification in mammalian systems is still unclear. Bing Ren and colleagues have mapped the differences in genome-wide chromatin interactions between human embryonic stem cells and their differentiated progeny. They delineate biases in allelic gene expression that correlate with allele-biased chromatin interactions between distal enhancers and proximal promoters.

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  • Standard Hi-C cannot discriminate whether an interacting fragment originated from the same or the other allele, while allele-specific interaction maps can separate cis-allele from trans-allele interactions, improving analysis of chromatin dynamics and gene regulation.

    “While standard Hi-C cannot discriminate whether an interacting fragment originated from the same or the other allele, allele-specific interaction maps can separate cis-allele from trans-allele interactions, thereby greatly improving the analysis of chromatin dynamics and gene regulation 20, 21.”

    From SNPsplit: Allele-specific splitting of alignments between genomes with known SNP genotypes (2016) · cites this paper as [20]

    Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

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  • The classic model is that enhancers recruit cell- and condition-specific TFs and then loop in 3D space to interact with their target promoter.

    “The classic model is that enhancers recruit cell- and condition-specific TFs and then loop in 3D space to interact with their target promoter90.”

    From Towards a comprehensive catalogue of validated and target-linked human enhancers (2020) · cites this paper as [90]

    The Results (Chromatin state and dynamic interactions; Allelic imbalances in gene expression, page not available) describe cell-type-specific enhancer looping and interactions between enhancers and target promoters. The Discussion (page not available) mentions transcription-factor binding sites at cell-type-specific interaction regions, but our copy does not say that enhancers recruit cell- and condition-specific transcription factors as a step preceding those loops. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • In mammalian differentiation models, extensive remodelling of enhancer-promoter contacts is typically observed consistently with enhancer activation.

    “In mammalian differentiation models, in contrast, extensive remodelling of enhancer–promoter contacts is typically observed consistently with enhancer activation [141, 394–397].”

    From Transcriptional enhancers and their communication with gene promoters (2021) · cites this paper as [397]

    The Results section, ‘Chromatin state and dynamic interactions’ (page unavailable), reports changing long-range interactions during lineage specification associated with H3K4me1 and enhancer density. It does not establish that the extensively remodelled contacts are specifically enhancer–promoter contacts or that their remodelling consistently accompanies enhancer activation. The separate ‘Allelic imbalances in gene expression’ results link enhancer activity to promoter contacts, but examine allelic differences rather than contact remodelling during differentiation. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • These methods have been used to decipher pathological evolution in tumors and somatic mosaicism in healthy tissues and in non-cancerous disease.

    “These methods have been used to decipher pathological evolution in tumors11,15,195–197 and somatic mosaicism198 in healthy tissues and in non-cancerous disease199–203.”
  • Fundamentally different chromosome topologies have so far primarily been observed when comparing different developmental lineages.

    “Fundamentally different chromosome topologies have so far primarily been observed when comparing different developmental lineages (Dixon et al., 2015, Krijger et al., 2016).”

    From The cohesin release factor WAPL restricts chromatin loop extension (2017) · cites this paper as Dixon et al., 2015

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Authors
Dixon, J. R., Jung, I., Selvaraj, S., Shen, Y., Antosiewicz-Bourget, J. E., Lee, A. Y., Ye, Z., Kim, A., Rajagopal, N., Xie, W., Diao, Y., Liang, J., Zhao, H., Lobanenkov, V. V., Ecker, J. R., Thomson, J. A., & Ren, B.
Affiliations
  • Ludwig Cancer Research (BE)
  • Peking University (CN)
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Salk Institute for Biological Studies (US)
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
Corresponding author
Ren, Bing
Venue
Nature
Published
2015-02-18
Volume
518
Issue
7539
Pages
331-336
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2080477348
Cited by
1,646
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 76 · 2025: 101 · 2024: 112 · 2023: 132 · 2022: 141 · 2021: 202 · 2020: 181 · 2019: 186 · 2018: 186 · 2017: 133 · 2016: 130 · 2015: 63 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
FWCI
74.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
Funders
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (RN2-00905)
  • Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007198)
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (U01ES017166, R01ES024984)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Chromatin Remodeling and Cancer
Keywords
chromatin structure, chromatin interactions, human embryonic stem cells, stem cell differentiation, lineage specification, chromatin domains, distal enhancers, enhancer-promoter interactions, long-range gene regulation, epigenome, transcriptome
MeSH terms
Alleles, Cell Differentiation, Chromatin, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Humans, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Reproducibility of Results, Cell Lineage, Allelic Imbalance, Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly, Epigenesis, Genetic, Gene Regulatory Networks, Embryonic Stem Cells, Epigenomics

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