ERG promotes the maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells by restricting their differentiation.

The balance between self-renewal and differentiation is crucial for the maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Whereas numerous gene regulatory factors have been shown to control HSC self-renewal or drive their differentiation, we have relatively few insights into transcription factors that serve to restrict HSC differentiation. In the present work, we identify ETS (E-twenty-six)-related gene (ERG) as a critical factor protecting HSCs from differentiation. Specifically, loss of Erg accelerates HSC differentiation by >20-fold, thus leading to rapid depletion of immunophenotypic and functional HSCs. Molecularly, we could demonstrate that ERG, in addition to promoting the expression of HSC self-renewal genes, also represses a group of MYC targets, thereby explaining why Erg loss closely mimics Myc overexpression. Consistently, the BET domain inhibitor CPI-203, known to repress Myc expression, confers a partial phenotypic rescue. In summary, ERG plays a critical role in coordinating the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of HSCs.

Transcription factor-driven coordination of cell cycle exit and lineage-specification in vivo during granulocytic differentiation : In memoriam Professor Niels Borregaard.

Differentiation of multipotent stem cells into mature cells is fundamental for development and homeostasis of mammalian tissues, and requires the coordinated induction of lineage-specific transcriptional programs and cell cycle withdrawal. To understand the underlying regulatory mechanisms of this fundamental process, we investigated how the tissue-specific transcription factors, CEBPA and CEBPE, coordinate cell cycle exit and lineage-specification in vivo during granulocytic differentiation. We demonstrate that CEBPA promotes lineage-specification by launching an enhancer-primed differentiation program and direct activation of CEBPE expression. Subsequently, CEBPE confers promoter-driven cell cycle exit by sequential repression of MYC target gene expression at the G1/S transition and E2F-meditated G2/M gene expression, as well as by the up-regulation of Cdk1/2/4 inhibitors. Following cell cycle exit, CEBPE unleashes the CEBPA-primed differentiation program to generate mature granulocytes. These findings highlight how tissue-specific transcription factors coordinate cell cycle exit with differentiation through the use of distinct gene regulatory elements.

Driving gradual endogenous c-myc overexpression by flow-sorting: intracellular signaling and tumor cell phenotype correlate with oncogene expression.

Insulin-exposed rat mammary cancer cells were flow sorted based on a c-myc reporter plasmid encoding a destabilized green fluorescent protein. Sorted cells exhibited gradual increases in c-myc levels. Cells overexpressing c-myc by only 10% exhibited phenotypic changes attributable to c-myc overexpression, such as cell cycle disturbances, increased cell size, and overexpression of the S6 ribosomal protein. Cells overexpressing c-myc by 70% exhibited additional phenotypic changes typical of c-myc overexpression, such as increased histone H3 phosphorylation, and reduced adherence. Sorted cells also exhibited overexpression of the IGF-1R, and slightly elevated expression of the IR. Increased susceptibility to the mitogenic effect of insulin was seen in a small proportion of the sorted cells, and insulin was more effective in activating the p44/42 MAPK pathway, but not the PI3K pathway, in the sorted cells than in the nonsorted cell population. To our knowledge, this is the first in vitro system allowing functional coupling between mitogenic signaling by a well-defined growth factor and gradual overexpression of the normal, endogenous c-myc gene. Thus, our flow-sorting approach provides an alternative modeling of the receptor-mediated carcinogenic process, compared to the currently used approaches of recombinant constitutive or conditional overexpression of oncogenic transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinases or oncogenic transcription factors.