Fig. 7.

Asf1a mediates nucleosome disassembly at lineage-specific gene promoter. (A and B) Nucleosome occupancy at two pluripotent genes (Nanog and Oct4, A) and two lineage-specific genes (Gata4 and Gata6, B) during EB formation. H3 ChIP was performed by using chromatin from Asf1a-KO ES cells and day 7 (D7) EBs expressing EV, WT, or mutant Asf1a. Quantitative PCR was performed targeting each of three nucleosomes upstream of TSSs of two pluripotent genes (A) and two lineage-specific genes (B). (C) Nucleosome occupancy at two bivalent gene (Sox21 and Zfpm2) promoters and two pluripotent gene (Nanog and Oct4) promoters during neural differentiation. The H3 ChIP enrichment was normalized against its enrichment at the gene body of GAPDH, and the nucleosome occupancy of ES cells in each line was set as 1. Results are from three different experiments, and error bars represent mean ± SEM (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01). (D) A working model depicting that Asf1a mediates nucleosome disassembly at lineage-specific gene promoters and facilitates subsequent association of TFs.