RUNX1 induces DNA replication independent active DNA demethylation at SPI1 regulatory regions

SPI1 is an essential transcription factor (TF) for the hematopoietic lineage, in which its expression is tightly controlled through a -17-kb upstream regulatory region and a promoter region. Both regulatory regions are demethylated during hematopoietic development, although how the change of DNA methylation status is performed is still unknown.

We found that the ectopic overexpression of RUNX1 (another key TF in hematopoiesis) in HEK-293T cells induces almost complete DNA demethylation at the -17-kb upstream regulatory region and partial but significant DNA demethylation at the proximal promoter region. This DNA demethylation occurred in mitomycin-C-treated nonproliferating cells at both regulatory regions, suggesting active DNA demethylation. Furthermore, ectopic RUNX1 expression induced significant endogenous SPI1 expression, although its expression level was much lower than that of natively SPI1-expressing monocyte cells.

These results suggest the novel role of RUNX1 as an inducer of DNA demethylation at the SPI1 regulatory regions, although the mechanism of RUNX1-induced DNA demethylation remains to be explored.