Cited by 50Genomics and Chromatin DynamicsDevelopmental Biology and Gene RegulationPluripotent Stem Cells Research

Pro-neuronal activity of Myod1 due to promiscuous binding to neuronal genes

Lee, Qian Yi, Mall, Moritz, Chanda, Soham, Zhou, Bo, Sharma, Kylesh S., Schaukowitch, Katie, Adrian-Segarra, Juan M., Grieder, Sarah D. +7 more·2020·Nature Cell Biology

Abstract

The on-target pioneer factors Ascl1 and Myod1 are sequence-related but induce two developmentally unrelated lineages-that is, neuronal and muscle identities, respectively. It is unclear how these two basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) factors mediate such fundamentally different outcomes. The chromatin binding of Ascl1 and Myod1 was surprisingly similar in fibroblasts, yet their transcriptional outputs were drastically different. We found that quantitative binding differences explained differential chromatin remodelling and gene activation. Although strong Ascl1 binding was exclusively associated with bHLH motifs, strong Myod1-binding sites were co-enriched with non-bHLH motifs, possibly explaining why Ascl1 is less context dependent. Finally, we observed that promiscuous binding of Myod1 to neuronal targets results in neuronal reprogramming when the muscle program is inhibited by Myt1l. Our findings suggest that chromatin access of on-target pioneer factors is primarily driven by the protein-DNA interaction, unlike ordinary context-dependent transcription factors, and that promiscuous transcription factor binding requires specific silencing mechanisms to ensure lineage fidelity.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41556-020-0490-3

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Authors
Lee, Q. Y., Mall, M., Chanda, S., Zhou, B., Sharma, K. S., Schaukowitch, K., Adrian-Segarra, J. M., Grieder, S. D., Kareta, M. S., Wapinski, O. L., Ang, C. E., Li, R., Südhof, T. C., Chang, H. Y., & Wernig, M.
Affiliations
  • Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG)
  • German Cancer Research Center (DE)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (US)
  • Sanford Research (US)
Corresponding author
Wernig, Marius
Venue
Nature Cell Biology
Published
2020-03-30
Volume
22
Issue
4
Pages
401-411
ISSN
  • 1465-7392 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4679
OpenAlex
W3013883054
Cited by
50
References
70
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 3
FWCI
2.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature Cell Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (1s10od018220-01)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P20GM103548)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Pluripotent Stem Cells Research
Keywords
MyoD, ASCL1, pioneer transcription factors, bHLH transcription factors, chromatin binding, chromatin remodeling, neuronal reprogramming, lineage fidelity, MYT1L, protein-DNA interactions, fibroblasts
MeSH terms
Animals, Binding Sites, Chromatin, Embryo, Mammalian, Fibroblasts, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Transgenic, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Neurons, Protein Binding, Transcription Factors, Transcription, Genetic, Signal Transduction, MyoD Protein, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Cell Lineage, Mice, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins, Nucleotide Motifs, Cellular Reprogramming

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