Antigen-driven EGR2 expression is required for exhausted CD8+ T cell stability and maintenance [CHIP-seq]

In this study, we examined the role of the transcriptional regulator EGR2 in CD8+ T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infection. Flow cytometric and RNAseq analysis indicated that EGR2 deficient CD8+ T cells had a block in differentiation and failed to undergo terminal exhaustion. To examine the direct gene targets of EGR2 during exhaustion, we conducted ChIPseq analysis on enriched bulk splenic CD8+ T cells isolated at day 20 post-infection with chronic LCMV-Cl13 from C57BL/6J mice. The resulting data demonstrated that EGR2 directly controls expression of key gene targets, including Pdcd1, Tigit, Cxcr5, Tcf7, Bach2 and Bcl6. The genome-wide binding pattern of EGR2 was examined wtihin exhausted CD8+ T cells by ChIPseq.