An EOMES induced epigenetic deflection initiates lineage commitment at mammalian gastrulation

Abstract

Different cell types are determined by cell lineage-specific transcriptional programmes and by epigenetic regulation of chromatin. Yet, the functional relationships between dynamically expressed transcription factors (TFs) and chromatin changes guiding lineage specification often remain elusive. First mammalian embryonic lineages segregate when pluripotent cells become committed to either Mesoderm and Endoderm (ME) or Neuroectoderm (NE). NE forms by default in the absence of signalling-induced ME specification, resulting from global asymmetries in chromatin state favouring NE gene programme activation as recently demonstrated. In this study, we unravel the initiation of ME lineage specification by the genome-wide, de novo formation of chromatin accessibility at ME enhancers that epigenetically deflects pluripotent cells from default NE differentiation. The Tbx TF Eomes, previously considered a transcriptional regulator, acts as global chromatin organizer that establishes ME lineage competence. EOMES recruits the canonical ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling complex SWI/SNF to broadly generate the chromatin-accessible ME enhancer landscape. This lineage competence is generated independently of ME gene transcription that fully depends on ME-inducing signalling pathways including Wnts and TGFβ/NODAL. This study thus resolves the successive steps of ME lineage differentiation by globally establishing chromatin accessibility for lineage competence, followed by signal-encoded transcriptional regulation of different ME lineage-defining gene programmes.