Genomewide occupancy of the synovial sarcoma-associated SYT-SSX2 oncoprotein in C2C12 myoblasts

Synovial sarcoma is a rare malignancy that is characterized by the presence of a chromosomal translocation t(X;18). This genetic abnormality results in the fusion of 2 transcriptional co-regulators, SYT and SSX, which have been shown to mediate transcriptional activation and repression, respectively. Although the fusion protein does not bind DNA directly, SYT-SSX2 is known to function through interaction with chromatin-modifying complexes. In this study, we wanted to determine the SYT-SSX2 occupancy across the whole genome in order to further characterize its function by identifying genes that may be deregulated by this protein. Overall design: C2C12 myoblasts were infected with retrovirus carrying SYT-SSX2-HA-FLAG expression vector. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was performed on cell lysates with either control IgG antibody (Abcam) or anti-FLAG antibody (Sigma). Lysates from 2 independent infections were pooled and used to isolate control ChIP DNA (IgG). DNA from 2 independent FLAG ChIP experiments (each using lysates from 2 independent infections) was pooled for SYT-SSX2 ChIP.