Transcription factor MITF and remodeller BRG1 define chromatin organisation at regulatory elements in melanoma cells

  1. Patrick Laurette
  2. Thomas Strub
  3. Dana Koludrovic
  4. Céline Keime
  5. Stéphanie Le Gras
  6. Hannah Seberg
  7. Eric Van Otterloo
  8. Hana Imrichova
  9. Robert Siddaway
  10. Stein Aerts
  11. Robert A Cornell
  12. Gabrielle Mengus
  13. Irwin Davidson  Is a corresponding author
  1. Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, France
  2. Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS/INSERM/UDS, France

Abstract

Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is the master regulator of the melanocyte lineage. To understand how MITF regulates transcription, we used tandem affinity purification and mass spectrometry to define a comprehensive MITF interactome identifying novel cofactors involved in transcription, DNA replication and repair and chromatin organisation. We show that MITF interacts with a PBAF chromatin remodelling complex comprising BRG1 and CHD7. BRG1 is essential for melanoma cell proliferation in vitro and for normal melanocyte development in vivo. MITF and SOX10 actively recruit BRG1 to a set of MITF-associated regulatory elements (MAREs) at active enhancers. Combinations of MITF, SOX10, TFAP2A and YY1 bind between two BRG1-occupied nucleosomes thus defining both a signature of transcription factors essential for the melanocyte lineage and a specific chromatin organisation of the regulatory elements they occupy. BRG1 also regulates the dynamics of MITF genomic occupancy. MITF-BRG1 interplay thus plays an essential role in transcription regulation in melanoma.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Patrick Laurette

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Thomas Strub

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Dana Koludrovic

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Céline Keime

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Stéphanie Le Gras

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS/INSERM/UDS, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Hannah Seberg

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Eric Van Otterloo

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  8. Hana Imrichova

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  9. Robert Siddaway

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  10. Stein Aerts

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  11. Robert A Cornell

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  12. Gabrielle Mengus

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS/INSERM/UDS, Strasbourg, France
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  13. Irwin Davidson

    Department of Functional Genomics and Cancer, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France
    For correspondence
    irwin@igbmc.fr
    Competing interests
    Irwin Davidson, Reviewing editor, eLife.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Animal experiments were performed in compliance with National Animal Care Guidelines (European Commission directive 86/609/CEE; French decree no. 87-848).

Copyright

© 2015, Laurette et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 5,057
    views
  • 1,205
    downloads
  • 144
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Patrick Laurette
  2. Thomas Strub
  3. Dana Koludrovic
  4. Céline Keime
  5. Stéphanie Le Gras
  6. Hannah Seberg
  7. Eric Van Otterloo
  8. Hana Imrichova
  9. Robert Siddaway
  10. Stein Aerts
  11. Robert A Cornell
  12. Gabrielle Mengus
  13. Irwin Davidson
(2015)
Transcription factor MITF and remodeller BRG1 define chromatin organisation at regulatory elements in melanoma cells
eLife 4:e06857.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06857

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06857

Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
    Alejandro J Brenes, Eva Griesser ... Angus I Lamond
    Research Article

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have great potential to be used as alternatives to embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in regenerative medicine and disease modelling. In this study, we characterise the proteomes of multiple hiPSC and hESC lines derived from independent donors and find that while they express a near-identical set of proteins, they show consistent quantitative differences in the abundance of a subset of proteins. hiPSCs have increased total protein content, while maintaining a comparable cell cycle profile to hESCs, with increased abundance of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins required to sustain high growth rates, including nutrient transporters and metabolic proteins. Prominent changes detected in proteins involved in mitochondrial metabolism correlated with enhanced mitochondrial potential, shown using high-resolution respirometry. hiPSCs also produced higher levels of secreted proteins, including growth factors and proteins involved in the inhibition of the immune system. The data indicate that reprogramming of fibroblasts to hiPSCs produces important differences in cytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins compared to hESCs, with consequences affecting growth and metabolism. This study improves our understanding of the molecular differences between hiPSCs and hESCs, with implications for potential risks and benefits for their use in future disease modelling and therapeutic applications.

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Jie Luo, Jeff Ranish
    Tools and Resources

    Dynamic conformational and structural changes in proteins and protein complexes play a central and ubiquitous role in the regulation of protein function, yet it is very challenging to study these changes, especially for large protein complexes, under physiological conditions. Here, we introduce a novel isobaric crosslinker, Qlinker, for studying conformational and structural changes in proteins and protein complexes using quantitative crosslinking mass spectrometry. Qlinkers are small and simple, amine-reactive molecules with an optimal extended distance of ~10 Å, which use MS2 reporter ions for relative quantification of Qlinker-modified peptides derived from different samples. We synthesized the 2-plex Q2linker and showed that the Q2linker can provide quantitative crosslinking data that pinpoints key conformational and structural changes in biosensors, binary and ternary complexes composed of the general transcription factors TBP, TFIIA, and TFIIB, and RNA polymerase II complexes.