Transcribed enhancers lead waves of coordinated transcription in transitioning mammalian cells.

Arner E, Daub CO, Vitting-Seerup K, Andersson R, Lilje B, Drabløs F, Lennartsson A, Rönnerblad M, Hrydziuszko O, Vitezic M, Freeman TC, Alhendi AM, Arner P, Axton R, Baillie JK, Beckhouse A, Bodega B, Briggs J, Brombacher F, Davis M, Detmar M, Ehrlund A, Endoh M, Eslami A, Fagiolini M, Fairbairn L, Faulkner GJ, Ferrai C, Fisher ME, Forrester L, Goldowitz D, Guler R, Ha T, Hara M, Herlyn M, Ikawa T, Kai C, Kawamoto H, Khachigian LM, Klinken SP, Kojima S, Koseki H, Klein S, Mejhert N, Miyaguchi K, Mizuno Y, Morimoto M, Morris KJ, Mummery C, Nakachi Y, Ogishima S, Okada-Hatakeyama M, Okazaki Y, Orlando V, Ovchinnikov D, Passier R, Patrikakis M, Pombo A, Qin XY, Roy S, Sato H, Savvi S, Saxena A, Schwegmann A, Sugiyama D, Swoboda R, Tanaka H, Tomoiu A, Winteringham LN, Wolvetang E, Yanagi-Mizuochi C, Yoneda M, Zabierowski S, Zhang P, Abugessaisa I, Bertin N, Diehl AD, Fukuda S, Furuno M, Harshbarger J, Hasegawa A, Hori F, Ishikawa-Kato S, Ishizu Y, Itoh M, Kawashima T, Kojima M, Kondo N, Lizio M, Meehan TF, Mungall CJ, Murata M, Nishiyori-Sueki H, Sahin S, Nagao-Sato S, Severin J, de Hoon MJ, Kawai J, Kasukawa T, Lassmann T, Suzuki H, Kawaji H, Summers KM, Wells C, FANTOM Consortium , Hume DA, Forrest AR, Sandelin A, Carninci P, Hayashizaki Y

Science 347 (6225) 1010-1014 [2015-02-27; online 2015-02-12]

Although it is generally accepted that cellular differentiation requires changes to transcriptional networks, dynamic regulation of promoters and enhancers at specific sets of genes has not been previously studied en masse. Exploiting the fact that active promoters and enhancers are transcribed, we simultaneously measured their activity in 19 human and 14 mouse time courses covering a wide range of cell types and biological stimuli. Enhancer RNAs, then messenger RNAs encoding transcription factors, dominated the earliest responses. Binding sites for key lineage transcription factors were simultaneously overrepresented in enhancers and promoters active in each cellular system. Our data support a highly generalizable model in which enhancer transcription is the earliest event in successive waves of transcriptional change during cellular differentiation or activation.

Affiliated researcher

PubMed 25678556

DOI 10.1126/science.1259418

Crossref 10.1126/science.1259418

pii: science.1259418
pmc: PMC4681433
mid: NIHMS743206


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