Control of embryonic stem cell identity by BRD4-dependent transcriptional elongation of super-enhancer associated pluripotency genes

BET-regulated transcriptome and BRD4, BRD2, BRD3 and Pol II ChIP-seq datasets in human ESCs before and after BET inhibition.Transcription factors and chromatin remodeling complexes are key determinants of embryonic stem cell (ESC) identity. In this study, we investigate the role of BRD4, a member of the bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) family of epigenetic reader proteins, in control of ESC identity. We performed RNA-seq analyiss in the presense of small molecule inhibitors of BET proteins to show that BRD4 positively regulates the ESC transcriptome. We also integrated RNA-seq analysis with ChIP-sequencing datasets s for BRD4 (and for other BRD2 and BRD3) to demonstrate that BRD4 binds SEs and regulates the expression of SE-associated pluripotency genes. We have also conducted ChIP-seq analysis for Pol II binding to demonstrate that SE-associated genes depend on BRD4-dependent Pol II binding at TSS and gene body for their productive transcriptional elongation.