Abstract
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a hematopoietic malignancy comprised of molecular subtypes largely characterized by aneuploidy or recurring chromosomal rearrangements. Despite extensive information on the ALL transcriptome and methylome, there is limited understanding of the ALL chromatin landscape. We therefore mapped accessible chromatin in 24 primary ALL cell biospecimens comprising three common molecular subtypes (DUX4/ERG, ETV6-RUNX1 and hyperdiploid) from patients treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Our findings highlight extensive chromatin reprogramming in ALL, including the identification ALL subtype-specific chromatin landscapes that are additionally modulated by genetic variation. Chromatin accessibility differences between ALL and normal B-cells implicate the activation of B-cell repressed chromatin domains and detail the disruption of normal B-cell development in ALL. Among ALL subtypes, we uncovered roles for basic helix-loop-helix, homeodomain and activator protein 1 transcription factors in promoting subtype-specific chromatin accessibility and distinct gene regulatory networks. In addition to chromatin subtype-specificity, we further identified over 3500 DNA sequence variants that alter the ALL chromatin landscape and contribute to inter-individual variability in chromatin accessibility. Collectively, our data suggest that subtype-specific chromatin landscapes and gene regulatory networks impact ALL biology and contribute to transcriptomic differences among ALL subtypes.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Hartwell Center at St. Jude for ATAC-seq and RNA-seq library preparation and next-generation sequencing, and the Center for Advanced Genome Engineering (CAGE) at St. Jude for CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in ALL cell lines. We would also like to thank Jeremy Hunt for technical support. This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (R01CA234490, P30CA021765), the National Institute of General Medical Studies (P50GM115279) and the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC).
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Diedrich, J.D., Dong, Q., Ferguson, D.C. et al. Profiling chromatin accessibility in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia identifies subtype-specific chromatin landscapes and gene regulatory networks. Leukemia 35, 3078–3091 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-021-01209-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-021-01209-1
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