A transcriptional and open chromatin landscape and the role of ONECUT1 in human pancreas differentiation [ATAC-seq]

Pancreatic differentiation and specification of lineages is a tightly controlled process involving a interconnected network of transcriptional regulation. Although more knowledge on human pancreatic development is accumulating, the precise role of many transcription factors is only described in mouse. Therefore, it is of great interest to expand our knowledge using alternative model systems such as pancreatic in vitro differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. Here, we provide stage-specific data from RNA-, ChIP-, and ATAC-sequencing to dissect transcriptional and regulatory mechanisms during pancreatic development. Transcriptome and open chromatin maps of pancreas differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells provide a stage-specific pattern of known pancreas transcription factors and determine ONECUT1 as a crucial regulator in pancreas progenitors. Moreover, our data suggest that ONECUT1 is also involved in preparing pancreatic progenitors for later endocrine specification.Our approach of dissecting the transcriptional and regulatory mechanisms revealed an important role for the specific key player ONECUT1 and will help to better understand human development and disease. Overall design: The human embryonic stem cell line HUES8 differentiated to definitive endoderm, gut tube, pancreatic endoderm and pancreatic progenitor cells was used for ATAC sequencing.