Citation

Zhou Y, Dogiparthi VR, Harris HL, Ray S, Choudhuri A, Yang S, Zhou Y, Zon LI, Rowley MJ, Hewitt KJ. 2025. Regeneration alters open chromatin and -regulatory landscape of erythroid precursors. Genome research. 35(7):1518-1529. Pubmed: 40456602 DOI:10.1101/gr.279949.124

Abstract

Stress erythropoiesis elevates the rate of red blood cell (RBC) production as a physiological response to stressors such as anemia or hypoxia. In acute anemia, RBC progenitors and precursors temporarily rewire their transcriptome, up- and downregulating hundreds of genes to accelerate the production of mature RBCs. Effective regeneration requires communication between critical cytokine signals (e.g., BMP4) and -regulatory elements on chromatin which coordinate transcriptional changes. To identify -regulatory changes that underlie anemia-specific gene expression and cellular responses, we analyzed chromatin accessibility in populations of cells enriched for red blood cell precursors isolated from mice at a range of time points after anemia induction. Early in the anemia response, chromatin is transiently open at AP-1-containing regions, correlated with increased and transcript/protein levels. knockdown ex vivo decreases the percentage of KIT erythroid precursors after anemia induction. We observe a second rewiring event at time points consistent with anemia resolution, involving repression of GATA factor-accessible regions and activation of ETS factor-accessible regions. In both mouse in vivo models and human CD34 cells stimulated with BMP4, accessibility changes at regions with prior associations to human blood phenotypes. Dozens of BMP4- and anemia-activated loci are sensitive to natural human variation. The representation of red blood cell trait-associated loci in ATAC-seq data remains durably elevated more than 1 month after anemia resolution. Together, these findings provide a framework to understand the early establishment and late resolution of a regeneration-dependent transcriptome in RBC precursors.
© 2025 Zhou et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

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Photo of Len Zon

The Zon laboratory aims to dissect how assaults to the hematopoietic system cause severe diseases such as leukemias, lymphomas, and anemias. They investigate hematopoietic development and disease using chemical screens, genetic screens, and analysis of novel transgenic lines in zebrafish.

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