RESEARCH ARTICLE The H3K4 methyltransferase Setd1b is essential for hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell homeostasis in mice Kerstin Schmidt1, Qinyu Zhang2, Alpaslan Tasdogan3,4, Andreas Petzold5, Andreas Dahl5, Borros M Arneth6, Robert Slany7, Hans Jo¨ rg Fehling3, Andrea Kranz2*, Adrian Francis Stewart2*, Konstantinos Anastassiadis1* 1Stem Cell Engineering, Biotechnology Center, Technische Universita¨ t Dresden, Dresden, Germany; 2Genomics, Biotechnology Center, Technische Universita¨ t Dresden, Dresden, Germany; 3Institute of Immunology, University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany; 4Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany; 5Deep Sequencing Group, DFG - Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden, Dresden, Germany; 6Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiochemistry, Molecular Diagnostics, Hospital of the Universities Giessen and Marburg, Giessen, Germany; 7Department of Genetics, Friedrich Alexander Universita¨ t Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany Abstract Hematopoietic stem cells require MLL1, which is one of six Set1/Trithorax-type histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methyltransferases in mammals and clinically the most important leukemia gene. Here, we add to emerging evidence that all six H3K4 methyltransferases play essential roles in the hematopoietic system by showing that conditional mutagenesis of Setd1b in adult mice provoked *For correspondence: aberrant homeostasis of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Using both ubiquitous
[email protected] (AK); and hematopoietic-specific deletion strategies, the loss of Setd1b resulted in peripheral thrombo-
[email protected] and lymphocytopenia, multilineage dysplasia, myeloid-biased extramedullary hematopoiesis in the (AFS); spleen, and lethality. By transplantation experiments and expression profiling, we determined that konstantinos.anastassiadis@tu- Setd1b is autonomously required in the hematopoietic lineages where it regulates key lineage dresden.de (KA) specification components, including Cebpa, Gata1, and Klf1.