Analysis of the DNA accessibility upon multiple histone H1 variants by ATAC-seq

Combined depletion of H1.2 and H1.4 has a strong deleterious effect in the cancer cells examined, and induces a strong interferon (IFN) response with up-regulation of many IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), which is not seen in individual H1 knock-downs. Although H1 participates to repress ISG promoters, its activation upon H1 KD is mainly generated by the activation of the IFN response through cytosolic nucleic acids receptors, IFN synthesis and JAK-STAT pathway activation. The IFN response may be triggered by the expression of noncoding dsRNAs generated from heterochromatic repeats or endogenous retroviruses upon H1 KD. H1 KD promotes the appearance of accessibility sites genome wide and, particularly, at satellites and other repeats. Overall design: 4 samples