Histone modifications are implicated in influencing gene expression. We have generated high-resolution maps for the genome-wide distribution of 20 histone lysine and arginine methylations as well as histone variant H2A.Z, RNA polymerase II, and the insulator binding protein CTCF across the human genome using the Solexa 1G sequencing technology. Typical patterns of histone methylations exhibited at promoters, insulators, enhancers, and transcribed regions are identified. The monomethylations of H3K27, H3K9, H4K20, H3K79, and H2BK5 are all linked to gene activation, whereas trimethylations of H3K27, H3K9, and H3K79 are linked to repression. H2A.Z associates with functional regulatory elements, and CTCF marks boundaries of histone methylation domains. Chromosome banding patterns are correlated with unique patterns of histone modifications. Chromosome breakpoints detected in T cell cancers frequently reside in chromatin regions associated with H3K4 methylations. Our data provide new insights into the function of histone methylation and chromatin organization in genome function.

Histones are characterized by numerous posttranslational modifications that influence gene transcription. However, because of the lack of global distribution data in higher eukaryotic systems, the extent to which gene-specific combinatorial patterns of histone modifications exist remains to be determined. Here, we report the patterns derived from the analysis of 39 histone modifications in human CD4(+) T cells. Our data indicate that a large number of patterns are associated with promoters and enhancers. In particular, we identify a common modification module consisting of 17 modifications detected at 3,286 promoters. These modifications tend to colocalize in the genome and correlate with each other at an individual nucleosome level. Genes associated with this module tend to have higher expression, and addition of more modifications to this module is associated with further increased expression. Our data suggest that these histone modifications may act cooperatively to prepare chromatin for transcriptional activation.

The positioning of nucleosomes with respect to DNA plays an important role in regulating transcription. However, nucleosome mapping has been performed for only limited genomic regions in humans. We have generated genome-wide maps of nucleosome positions in both resting and activated human CD4+ T cells by direct sequencing of nucleosome ends using the Solexa high-throughput sequencing technique. We find that nucleosome phasing relative to the transcription start sites is directly correlated to RNA polymerase II (Pol II) binding. Furthermore, the first nucleosome downstream of a start site exhibits differential positioning in active and silent genes. TCR signaling induces extensive nucleosome reorganization in promoters and enhancers to allow transcriptional activation or repression. Our results suggest that H2A.Z-containing and modified nucleosomes are preferentially lost from the -1 nucleosome position. Our data provide a comprehensive view of the nucleosome landscape and its dynamic regulation in the human genome.

Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) function antagonistically to control histone acetylation states that are crucial to many cellular processes. We describe here genome-wide mapping experiments that reveal that both HATs (CBP, p300, PCAF, Tip60, MOF) and HDACs (HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, HDAC6) on chromatin are positively correlated with gene expression and histone acetylation. We provide evidence that Tip60 and HDAC6 are targeted to transcribed regions of active genes by phosphorylated RNA Pol II. Our results indicate that MLL-mediated H3K4 methylation primes chromatin to facilitate histone acetylation. Our data suggest that the majority of HDACs in the human genome function to reset chromatin by removing acetylation in active genes; the dynamic cycle of acetylation and deacetylation by transient HAT/HDAC binding prevents Pol II from binding to the genes primed by H3K4 methylation and poises them for future activation.

SUMMARY Multipotential naïve CD4+ T cells differentiate into distinct lineages including T helper 1 (Th1), Th2, Th17, and inducible T regulatory (iTreg) cells. The remarkable diversity of CD4+ T cells begs the question whether the observed changes reflect terminal differentiation with heritable epigenetic modifications or plasticity in T cell responses. We generated genome-wide histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) and lysine 27 (H3K27) trimethylation maps in naïve, Th1, Th2, Th17, iTreg, and natural (n)Treg cells. We found that although modifications of signature cytokine genes (Ifng, Il4, and Il17) partially conform to the expectation of lineage commitment, critical transcription factors such as Tbx21 exhibit a broad spectrum of epigenetic states, consistent with our demonstration of T-bet and IFNγ induction in nTreg cells. Our data suggest an epigenetic mechanism underlying the specificity and plasticity of effector and regulatory T cells and also provide a framework for understanding complexity of CD4+ T helper cell differentiation.

Summary The c-Myc HLH-bZIP protein has been implicated in physiological or pathological growth, proliferation, apoptosis, metabolism and differentiation at the cellular, tissue or organismal levels via regulation of numerous target genes. No principle yet unifies Myc action due partly to an incomplete inventory and functional accounting of Myc’s targets. To observe Myc target expression and function in a system where Myc is temporally and physiologically regulated, the transcriptomes and the genome-wide distributions of Myc, RNA polymerase II and chromatin modifications were compared during lymphocyte activation and in ES cells as well. A remarkably simple rule emerged from this quantitative analysis: Myc is not an on-off specifier of gene activity, but is a non-linear amplifier of expression, acting universally at active genes, except for immediate early genes that are strongly induced before Myc. This rule of Myc action explains the vast majority of Myc biology observed in literature.

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

To understand how chromatin structure is organized by different histone variants, we have measured the genome-wide distribution of NCPs (nucleosome core particles) containing the histone variants H3.3 and H2A.Z. We find a special class of NCPs containing both variants, enriched at ‘nucleosome-free regions’ of active promoters, enhancers and insulator regions. We show that previous preparative methods resulted in loss of these unstable double variant NCPs. This instability should facilitate the accessibility of transcription factors to promoters and other regulatory sites in vivo. Other combinations of variants have different distributions, consistent with distinct roles for the histone variants in modulation of gene expression.