Expression data from glucocorticoid-treated acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line, RS4;11

Precise nucleosome positioning is an increasingly recognized feature of promoters and enhancers, reflecting complex contributions of DNA sequence, nucleosome positioning, histone modification and transcription factor binding to enhancer activity and regulation of gene expression. Changes in nucleosome position and occupancy, histone variants and modifications, and chromatin remodeling are also critical elements of dynamic transcriptional regulation, but poorly understood at enhancers. We investigated glucocorticoid receptor-associated (GR) nucleosome dynamics at enhancers in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. For the first time, we demonstrate functionally distinct modes of nucleosome remodeling upon chromatin binding by GR, which we term central, non-central, phased, and minimal. Central and non-central remodeling reflect nucleosome eviction by GR and cofactors, respectively. Phased remodeling involves nucleosome repositioning and is associated with rapidly activated enhancers and induction of gene expression. Minimal remodeling sites initially have low levels of enhancerassociated histone modification, but the majority of these regions gain H3K4me2 or H3K27Ac to become de novo enhancers. Minimal remodeling regions are associated with gene ontologies specific to decreased B cell number and mTOR inhibition and may make unique contributions to glucocorticoid-induced leukemia cell death. Our findings form a novel framework for understanding the dynamic interplay between transcription factor binding, nucleosome remodeling, enhancer function, and gene expression in the leukemia response to glucocorticoids. We used microarrays to measure changes in gene expression following treatment of cells with dexamethasone for 0, 8, or 24 hours. RS4;11 acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells were first starved of hormone exposure for 48 hours, then treated with 10 nM dexamethasone for 0, 8, or 24 hours. RNA was extracted and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.