Enhancers are upstream genetic elements that promote transcription, and their activation is marked by several epigenetic changes, including monomethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 and binding of the acetyltransferase p300. Genome-wide analyses of enhancer activation in T helper 1 (TH1) and TH2 cells revealed very distinct profiles. Interestingly, analyses in T helper cells deficient for key signal transducer and activation of transcription (STAT) proteins showed that STATs bind to subset-specific enhancers and control the recruitment of p300 and, thereby, enhancer activation. Overexpression of the master transcriptional regulators T-bet and GATA3 in STAT-deficient TH1 and TH2 cells, respectively, was not sufficient to restore the profile of enhancer activation. Thus, STATs seem to link cytokine signals to transcriptional regulation.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Vahedi, G. et al. STATs shape the active enhancer landscape of T cell populations. Cell 151, 981–993 (2012)
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Papatriantafyllou, M. STATs control subset-specific enhancer activation. Nat Rev Immunol 13, 7 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3381
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3381