TAF4 promotes pre-initiation complex formation and HNF4A occupancy of regulatory elements required to activation post-natal gene expression programme in hepatocytes (RNA-seq). Mus musculus

The nuclear receptor HNF4A regulates embryonic and post-natal hepatocyte gene expression. Using hepatocyte-specific inactivation in mice, we show that the TAF4 subunit of TFIID acts as a cofactor for HNF4A in vivo and that HNF4A interacts directly with the TAF4-TAF12 heterodimer in vitro. In vivo, TAF4 is required to maintain HNF4A-directed embryonic gene expression at post-natal stages and for HNF4A-directed activation of post-natal gene expression. TAF4 promotes HNF4A occupancy of functional cis-regulatory elements located adjacent to the transcription start sites of post-natal expressed genes and for pre-initiation complex formation required for their expression. Promoter-proximal HNF4A-TFIID interactions are therefore required for pre-initiation complex formation and stable HNF4A occupancy of regulatory elements as two concomitant mutually dependent processes. Overall design: RNA profiles in wild-type and Taf4-/- livers by deep sequencing