Architecture of the human regulatory network derived from ENCODE data.

Transcription factors bind in a combinatorial fashion to specify the on-and-off states of genes; the ensemble of these binding events forms a regulatory network, constituting the wiring diagram for a cell. To examine the principles of the human transcriptional regulatory network, we determined the genomic binding information of 119 transcription-related factors in over 450 distinct experiments. We found the combinatorial, co-association of transcription factors to be highly context specific: distinct combinations of factors bind at specific genomic locations. In particular, there are significant differences in the binding proximal and distal to genes. We organized all the transcription factor binding into a hierarchy and integrated it with other genomic information (for example, microRNA regulation), forming a dense meta-network. Factors at different levels have different properties; for instance, top-level transcription factors more strongly influence expression and middle-level ones co-regulate targets to mitigate information-flow bottlenecks. Moreover, these co-regulations give rise to many enriched network motifs (for example, noise-buffering feed-forward loops). Finally, more connected network components are under stronger selection and exhibit a greater degree of allele-specific activity (that is, differential binding to the two parental alleles). The regulatory information obtained in this study will be crucial for interpreting personal genome sequences and understanding basic principles of human biology and disease.

A highly integrated and complex PPARGC1A transcription factor binding network in HepG2 cells.

PPARGC1A is a transcriptional coactivator that binds to and coactivates a variety of transcription factors (TFs) to regulate the expression of target genes. PPARGC1A plays a pivotal role in regulating energy metabolism and has been implicated in several human diseases, most notably type II diabetes. Previous studies have focused on the interplay between PPARGC1A and individual TFs, but little is known about how PPARGC1A combines with all of its partners across the genome to regulate transcriptional dynamics. In this study, we describe a core PPARGC1A transcriptional regulatory network operating in HepG2 cells treated with forskolin. We first mapped the genome-wide binding sites of PPARGC1A using chromatin-IP followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) and uncovered overrepresented DNA sequence motifs corresponding to known and novel PPARGC1A network partners. We then profiled six of these site-specific TF partners using ChIP-seq and examined their network connectivity and combinatorial binding patterns with PPARGC1A. Our analysis revealed extensive overlap of targets including a novel link between PPARGC1A and HSF1, a TF regulating the conserved heat shock response pathway that is misregulated in diabetes. Importantly, we found that different combinations of TFs bound to distinct functional sets of genes, thereby helping to reveal the combinatorial regulatory code for metabolic and other cellular processes. In addition, the different TFs often bound near the promoters and coding regions of each other's genes suggesting an intricate network of interdependent regulation. Overall, our study provides an important framework for understanding the systems-level control of metabolic gene expression in humans.

Physachenolide C induces complete regression of established murine melanoma tumors via apoptosis and cell cycle arrest.

Melanoma is an aggressive skin cancer that metastasizes to other organs. While immune checkpoint blockade with anti-PD-1 has transformed the treatment of advanced melanoma, many melanoma patients fail to respond to anti-PD-1 therapy or develop acquired resistance. Thus, effective treatment of melanoma still represents an unmet clinical need. Our prior studies support the anti-cancer activity of the 17ß-hydroxywithanolide class of natural products, including physachenolide C (PCC). As single agents, PCC and its semi-synthetic analog demonstrated direct cytotoxicity in a panel of murine melanoma cell lines, which share common driver mutations with human melanoma; the IC50 values ranged from 0.19-1.8 µM. PCC treatment induced apoptosis of tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. In vivo treatment with PCC alone caused the complete regression of established melanoma tumors in all mice, with a durable response in 33% of mice after discontinuation of treatment. T cell-mediated immunity did not contribute to the therapeutic efficacy of PCC or prevent tumor recurrence in YUMM2.1 melanoma model. In addition to apoptosis, PCC treatment induced G0-G1 cell cycle arrest of melanoma cells, which upon removal of PCC, re-entered the cell cycle. PCC-induced cycle cell arrest likely contributed to the in vivo tumor recurrence in a portion of mice after discontinuation of treatment. Thus, 17ß-hydroxywithanolides have the potential to improve the therapeutic outcome for patients with advanced melanoma.

Genome-wide occupancy of SREBP1 and its partners NFY and SP1 reveals novel functional roles and combinatorial regulation of distinct classes of genes.

The sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) family member SREBP1 is a critical transcriptional regulator of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism and has been implicated in insulin resistance, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases. We globally identified the promoters occupied by SREBP1 and its binding partners NFY and SP1 in a human hepatocyte cell line using chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with genome tiling arrays (ChIP-chip). We find that SREBP1 occupies the promoters of 1,141 target genes involved in diverse biological pathways, including novel targets with roles in lipid metabolism and insulin signaling. We also identify a conserved SREBP1 DNA-binding motif in SREBP1 target promoters, and we demonstrate that many SREBP1 target genes are transcriptionally activated by treatment with insulin and glucose using gene expression microarrays. Finally, we show that SREBP1 cooperates extensively with NFY and SP1 throughout the genome and that unique combinations of these factors target distinct functional pathways. Our results provide insight into the regulatory circuitry in which SREBP1 and its network partners coordinate a complex transcriptional response in the liver with cues from the diet.