The silkworm HP1a transcriptionally enhances highly expressed euchromatic genes through associating with their transcription start sites

Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) is an evolutionarily conserved protein across different eukaryotic species, and is crucial for the establishment and maintenance of heterochromatin. The silkworm, Bombyx mori, encodes two HP1 proteins, BmHP1a and BmHP1b. In order to investigate the role of BmHP1a in transcriptional regulation, we performed genome-wide analyses on the transcriptome, transcription start sites (TSSs), chromatin modification states and BmHP1a binding sites of a silkworm ovary-derived BmN4 cell line.