Temporal inhibition of chromatin looping and enhancer accessibility during neuronal remodeling

Dahong Chen, Catherine E. McManus, Behram Radmanesh, Leah H. Matzat and Elissa P. Lei ()
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Dahong Chen: Nuclear Organization and Gene Expression Section
Catherine E. McManus: Nuclear Organization and Gene Expression Section
Behram Radmanesh: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Leah H. Matzat: Nuclear Organization and Gene Expression Section
Elissa P. Lei: Nuclear Organization and Gene Expression Section

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract During development, looping of an enhancer to a promoter is frequently observed in conjunction with temporal and tissue-specific transcriptional activation. The chromatin insulator-associated protein Alan Shepard (Shep) promotes Drosophila post-mitotic neuronal remodeling by repressing transcription of master developmental regulators, such as brain tumor (brat), specifically in maturing neurons. Since insulator proteins can promote looping, we hypothesized that Shep antagonizes brat promoter interaction with an as yet unidentified enhancer. Using chromatin conformation capture and reporter assays, we identified two enhancer regions that increase in looping frequency with the brat promoter specifically in pupal brains after Shep depletion. The brat promoters and enhancers function independently of Shep, ruling out direct repression of these elements. Moreover, ATAC-seq in isolated neurons demonstrates that Shep restricts chromatin accessibility of a key brat enhancer as well as other enhancers genome-wide in remodeling pupal but not larval neurons. These enhancers are enriched for chromatin targets of Shep and are located at Shep-inhibited genes, suggesting direct Shep inhibition of enhancer accessibility and gene expression during neuronal remodeling. Our results provide evidence for temporal regulation of chromatin looping and enhancer accessibility during neuronal maturation.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26628-7

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