Cistromic and epigenomic changes in Prdm16 knock-out brown adipose tissue

Prdm16 is a transcription factor that drives a complete program of brown adipocyte differentiation, but the mechanism by which Prdm16 activates gene transcription remains unknown. Utilizing ChIP-seq teqhnique, we found that Prdm16 binds to chromatin at/near many brown fat-selective genes in BAT. Interestingly, Prdm16-deficiency dramatically reduced the binding of Med1 to Prdm16-target sites. Indeed, Prdm16 binds and recruits Med1 to BAT-enriched genes and the loss of Prdm16 caused a fundamental change in chromatin architecture at key BAT-selective genes and also reduced transcirptional activity. Moreover, Prdm16, through its interaction with Med1, defines and regulates the activity of super-enhancers that drive the expression of cell identity genes. Together, these data demonstrate that Prdm16 drives gene transcription by recruiting Med1 to control chromatin architecture and super-enhancers. Overall design: Brown adipose tissues were collected from Prdm16 knockout and wiletype 9-month-old mice and ChIP-seq was performed for Prdm16, PolII, Med1, and H3K27ac.