ChIP-seq experiment of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), assessing beta-catenin DNA binding in wild type mESCs and TCF/LEF quadruple knock-out mESCs.. ChIP-seq experiment of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), assessing beta-catenin DNA binding in wild type mESCs and TCF/LEF quadruple knock-out mESCs.

Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), derived from pre-implantation blastocyst cells, can be maintained in vitro in defined N2B27 medium supplemented with two chemical inhibitors for GSK3 and MEK (2i) and the cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), which act synergistically to promote self-renewal and pluripotency. Many efforts have been devoted to identify genes that promote exit from the pluripotent state and the transition to a primed state of differentiation. One of the first identified players in this process was the Wnt/b-catenin effector TCF7L1 (previously referred to as TCF3), belonging to the family of four TCF/LEF transcription factors, which acts as pro-differentiation factor by repressing pluripotency genes. Of note, there is little evidence that the genetic abrogation of the mechanisms required for the exit from the pluripotent state is sufficient to enable self-renewal in the absence of 2iL. Here, we found that complete loss-of-function of Tcf7, Lef1, Tcf7l1 and Tcf7l2, the genes encoding for the four TCF/LEF transcription factors, (refered to as qKO) allows mESCs to become fully 2iL-independent and to propagate in basal N2B27. In addition to RNA-seq data deposited under accession number E-MTAB-10564, chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) has been performed in CHIR-stimulated mESCs. Here, the DNA binding landscape of β-catenin has been analyzed to assess its possible connection to TCF/LEF-mediated pluripotency.