DDB1 prepares brown adipocytes for cold-induced thermogenesis

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a key role in thermogenesis during acute cold exposure. However, it remains unclear how BAT is prepared to rapidly turn on thermogenic genes. Here, we show that damage-specific DNA binding protein 1 (DDB1) mediates the rapid transcription of thermogenic genes upon acute cold exposure. Adipose- or BAT-specific Ddb1 knockout mice show severely whitened BAT and significantly decreased expression of thermogenic genes. These mice develop hypothermia when subjected to acute cold exposure at 4 °C and partial lipodystrophy on a high-fat diet due to deficiency in fatty acid oxidation. Mechanistically, DDB1 binds the promoters of Ucp1 and Ppargc1a and recruits positive transcriptional elongation factor b (P-TEFb) to release promoter-proximally paused RNA polymerase II (Pol II), thereby enabling rapid and synchronized transcription of thermogenic genes upon acute cold exposure. Our findings have thus provided a regulatory mechanism of how BAT is prepared to respond to acute cold challenge.