Intrinsic histone acetyltransferase activity of BRD4 is responsible for nucleosome eviction and transcriptional activation

Purpose: BRD4 is a chromatin reader and transcriptional activator of M/G1 genes.We discovered that BRD4 is a novel histone acetyltransferase that acetylates histones and evicts nucleosomes. Here, investigated genome-wide changes in nucleosome occupancy and transcription caused by BRD4 HAT activity . Method: Human U2OS cells were transfected with either wild type BRD4 (WT), a BRD4 HAT mutant (MT) or a empty vector (NT) in biological duplicates, harvested 18 hrs post transfection and subjected to global MNase-seq and RNA-seq analysis. Results: The results show that while wild type BRD4 reduces nucleosome occupancy and increases transcription genome-wide, the BRD4 HAT mutant does not. Conclusion: BRD4 HAT activity is responsible for evicting nucleosomes and activating transcription. Examination of genome-wide nucleosome occupancy and transcript abundance (mRNA) in three (WT,MT, NT) transfected U2OS cell samples in biological duplicates. UPDATE: [07-23-2024] Originally, the MNase-seq Samples were associated with the RNA-seq raw data, and the RNA-seq Samples were associated with the MNase-seq raw data. To correct these misassociations, the titles of the MNase-seq Samples were swapped with the titles of the RNA-seq Samples, and the processed data files were re-associated with the GSMxxx records accordingly. The association of the raw data with the GSMxxx records did not change.