The zinc finger protein CLAMP promotes long-range chromatin interactions that mediate dosage compensation of the Drosophila male X-chromosome [Hi-C seq]

Hi-C and 4C-seq anlaysis of Drosophila S2 cells Drosophila dosage compensation is an important model system for defining how active chromatin domains are formed. The Male-specific lethal dosage compensation complex (MSLc) increases transcript levels of genes along the length of the single male X-chromosome to equalize with that on the two female X-chromosomes. The strongest binding sites for MSLc cluster together in three-dimensional space independent of MSLc because clustering occurs in both sexes. CLAMP, a non-sex specific, ubiquitous zinc finger protein, binds synergistically with MSLc to enrich the occupancy of both factors on the male X-chromosome. Here, we demonstrate that CLAMP promotes the observed clustering of MSLc bindings sites. Genome-wide, CLAMP promotes interactions between active chromatin regions and represses interactions between inactive chromatin regions. Moreover, the X-enriched CLAMP protein promotes longer-range interactions on the active X-chromosome than autosomes. Overall, we define how long-range interactions, mediated by a locally-enriched ubiquitous transcription factor, generate a three-dimensional active chromatin domain. Overall design: Biological duplicated Hi-C experiments of Drosophila S2 cells after RNAi of gfp (control) or clamp.