Chromatin Remodeling and Immediate Early Gene Activation by SLFN11 in Response to Replication Stress [microarray]

Schlafen 11 (SLFN11) has recently arisen as a novel cellular restriction factor against replication stress. Here we show that SLFN11 increases chromatin accessibility genome-wide, dominantly at promoters in response to replication stress induced by the CHK1 inhibitor prexasertib and the topoisomerase I inhibitor, camptothecin. Concomitantly SLFN11 selectively activates cellular stress response pathways by inducing the transcription of the Immediate Early Genes (IEGs) including JUN, FOS, EGR1, NFKB2 and ATF3. Both chromatin opening and IEG activation require the putative helicase activity of SLFN11 whereas extrinsic IEG activation by serum induction is SLFN11-independent. SLFN11-dependent IEG activation is also observed across 55 non-isogenic NCI-60 cell lines by comparing transcriptome data before and after camptothecin treatment. We conclude that SLFN11 acts as a global regulator of chromatin structure and an intrinsic IEG activator with the potential to engage the native immune activation in response to replicative stress. SLFN11-positive parent cells (prostate DU145 and leukemia CCRF-CEM) and their SLFN11-knockout cell lines were treated with camptothecin (CPT) a DNA damaging agents, and their transcriptome were compared to the basal transcriptome.