ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20766-0 OPEN GATA2 regulates mast cell identity and responsiveness to antigenic stimulation by promoting chromatin remodeling at super- enhancers Yapeng Li1, Junfeng Gao 1, Mohammad Kamran1, Laura Harmacek2, Thomas Danhorn 2, Sonia M. Leach1,2, ✉ Brian P. O’Connor2, James R. Hagman 1,3 & Hua Huang 1,3 1234567890():,; Mast cells are critical effectors of allergic inflammation and protection against parasitic infections. We previously demonstrated that transcription factors GATA2 and MITF are the mast cell lineage-determining factors. However, it is unclear whether these lineage- determining factors regulate chromatin accessibility at mast cell enhancer regions. In this study, we demonstrate that GATA2 promotes chromatin accessibility at the super-enhancers of mast cell identity genes and primes both typical and super-enhancers at genes that respond to antigenic stimulation. We find that the number and densities of GATA2- but not MITF-bound sites at the super-enhancers are several folds higher than that at the typical enhancers. Our studies reveal that GATA2 promotes robust gene transcription to maintain mast cell identity and respond to antigenic stimulation by binding to super-enhancer regions with dense GATA2 binding sites available at key mast cell genes. 1 Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO 80206, USA. 2 Center for Genes, Environment and Health, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO 80206, USA. 3 Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, ✉ CO 80045, USA. email: [email protected] NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2021) 12:494 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20766-0 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1 ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20766-0 ast cells (MCs) are critical effectors in immunity that at key MC genes. The number and density of GATA2 bound sites Moriginally evolved to protect against parasitic infections. were higher at these super-enhancers relative to typical enhan- In modern living conditions, MCs are much more cers. We found that the super-enhancers had higher scores pre- frequently associated with allergic inflammation1,2. MCs reside in dicting their regulatory potential versus typical enhancers. The the skin, mucosal linings of the lung and gut, and connective key MCs genes with higher regulatory potential scores express tissues surrounding blood vessels. In these tissue contexts MCs much higher levels of mRNA than genes with typical enhancers. are among the first cells to encounter antigens, which can be We demonstrate that GATA2 promotes chromatin accessibility, captured by IgE antibodies. MCs express the high-affinity which correlates with H3K4me1 and H3K27ac modifications at receptor for IgE (FcεRI). Aggregation of FcεRI bound with IgE the super-enhancers of key MC genes. Our studies reveal that the and their cognate antigens leads to MC activation and rapid increased frequency of GATA2 binding sites within super- degranulation to release pre-existing inflammatory mediators enhancers at key MC genes promotes robust gene transcription including histamine, heparin, and proteases. MC activation also that maintains MC identity and the response to antigenic directs de novo gene transcription of additional inflammatory stimulation. mediators, including cytokine and chemokine genes. Transcription factors (TFs) GATA binding protein 2 (GATA2) and Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) play Results critical roles in the differentiation of MC progenitor cells into the Super-enhancers are enriched in the mast cell identity genes. MC lineage3,4. GATA2 is critical for survival and proliferation of To identify enhancers of MC lineage genes, we performed hematopoietic stem cells4,5, granulocyte-monocyte progenitor H3K4me1 and H3K27ac ChIP-seq on two biological replicates of differentiation6, and basophil and MC differentiation4,7. Sponta- resting bone marrow-derived MCs (BMMCs). We defined neous mutations in the Mitf gene lead to the failure of MC potential enhancers as regions of chromatin marked by H3K4me1 progenitor cells to differentiate into mature MCs3,8,9. GATA2 is together with H3K27ac modifications. We identified an average also essential in maintaining the MC identity once MCs are fully total of 20801 potential enhancers (Supplementary Data 1). committed to the MC lineage. We and others demonstrated that Super-enhancers are essential for the regulation of genes that MC-specific deletion of the Gata2 gene results in the failure of control cell differentiation17. Using the software Ranking Of MCs to maintain the MC identity10,11. We have demonstrated Super Enhancer (ROSE)17, we localized super-enhancers as that the Mitf gene is highly expressed in MCs but not in baso- regions of chromatin that were at least 12.5 kb long and asso- phils12 and that overexpression of the Mitf gene is sufficient to ciated with significant H3K27ac modification. We identified an drive the differentiation of pre-BMPs into MCs12. Together, this average of total 9,517 typical enhancers and 667 super-enhancers evidence supports a model in which GATA2 and MITF are found in two replicates (Fig. 1a, Supplementary Data 2). The lineage-determining TFs (LDTFs) in MCs and GATA2 is average length of the super-enhancers was 13-fold greater than required for MC identity maintenance. the typical enhancers (Fig. 1a). The genomic distributions of the Little is known concerning how GATA2 and MITF regulate typical and super-enhancers were quite different. Typical target gene transcription in MCs. Notably, enhancers that drive enhancers were mostly located in distal intergenic regions MC-specific transcription have not been localized. Generally, (36.5%), whereas the majority of super-enhancers were localized enhancers are regulatory modules of a few hundred base pairs in near promoters (55.8%) and overlapped with gene body exons length located within genes or in intergenic regions. They typi- and introns (16.2%) (Fig. 1b). The genomic locations of the cally comprise clusters of TF-binding sites that bind sequence- super-enhancers suggest that the close proximity of super- specific DNA-binding TFs and associated factors13. Enhancers enhancers to promoters makes their interplay more efficient, activate gene transcription by mediating the assembly of higher- although many enhancers occur at distances up to several order functional domains with promoters14. Enhancers also megabases from their interacting promoters28. Representative provide binding hubs for signal-dependent TFs (SDTFs) that tracks from one of the two biological replicates for the typical and respond to the stimulation of receptors by external ligands. super-enhancers are shown in Fig. 1c. Reproducibility of our NGS Together, signals triggered by ligand-bound receptors modulate sequencing data generated from biological replicates is docu- activities of enhancers, which in turn drive gene transcription mented in Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2. necessary for cell development and function15. MC identity (ID) genes have been defined by the Immunolo- Super-enhancers differ from typical enhancers in multiple gical Genome Project Consortium as those that are expressed at ways16,17. Super-enhancers comprise larger tracts of genomic higher or the same levels in MCs relative to basophils, but at low DNA that include multiple smaller constituent enhancers. Super- levels or insignificantly expressed in other blood cell types enhancers are often associated with genes that confer cell including T cells, B cells, eosinophils, macrophages, dendritic cells identities17,18 and are enriched in genetic variants that may and neutrophils29. We compiled a list of 230 MC ID genes from a contribute to disease progression and severity. Originally, the dataset published by our group12, merged with the dataset concept of super-enhancers was developed in embryonic stem published by the Immunological Genome Project Consortium29. cells17. Since then, super-enhancers have been described in In the list of 230 MC ID genes, we also included genes that are T cells19, B cells20,21 and macrophages22 as well as in many other not necessarily MC-specific or -enhanced but play critical roles in cell systems23. However, it has not been determined whether MC development and function including GATA2 and LYN. We super-enhancers play similar pivotal roles in regulating tran- denoted the 230 genes (Supplementary Data 3) as MC ID genes. scription and cell identity in MCs. We defined the other genes expressed in MCs (but not included Remarkable progress has been made in identifying putative in the list of MC ID genes) as the non-ID genes (Supplementary enhancers genome-wide. Epigenomic studies have demonstrated Data 3). We found that 36% of the ID genes were associated with that monomethylation of lysine residue 4 on histone 3 super-enhancers, as compared with 4.3% of non-ID genes (H3K4me1) marks genes that are poised to be transcribed, while (Fig. 1d). This frequency represents a striking 8-fold enrichment acetylation of lysine residue 27 on histone 3 (H3K27ac) identifies of super-enhancers at these genes. Because of the reported genes that are actively being transcribed24–27. In this study, we association of super-enhancers with lineage determining genes, used histone modifications to identify typical and super- we refer to the 84 ID genes with super-enhancers as the key ID enhancers in MCs. We found that super-enhancers are enriched genes (Supplementary Data 3). Examples