CNVs, chromatin accessibility, and 3D chromatin structure in preadipocytes provide mechanistic insight into sheep...

Excessive fat accumulation in the sheep tail is no longer aligned with modern breeding objectives. While genome-wide association studies have identified associated loci, revealing the causal variants remains challenging. To address this gap, we report an epigenetic multi-omics atlas from fat-tailed and thin-tailed sheep, focusing on functional elements, chromatin states, and their associated functions. Alterations in A/B compartments, topologically associating domains, and chromatin-specific loops were discovered. Particularly, we detected differentially expressed genes in altered compartments, modifications in contact domains, and loop formation related to adipogenesis, such as ADAMTS1, ELOVL6, BMPER, PDGFD, and VEGFA. Among these genes, we confirmed a novel enhancer-promoter loop at the ADAMTS1 locus in fat-tailed sheep. Disruption of this regulatory element reduces ADAMTS1 expression, thereby promoting adipogenesis in preadipocytes. In addition, a downstream copy number deletion (chr20: 17301600-17,302,600) near VEGFA in conjunction with an enhancer region (chr20:17302162-17,302,561). Functional validation using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of this enhancer significantly suppressed VEGFA expression, whereas dCas9-P300-mediated activation enhanced its transcriptional activity. Furthermore, transcription factor KLF15 binds to the promoter and enhancer regions of VEGFA, thereby promoting preadipocyte differentiation. During this critical process, KLF15 facilitated interaction between its direct transcriptional targets and the coactivator P300, thereby recruiting P300 to the promoter region. Our findings emphasize multiscale 3D epigenome reprogramming during fat tail formation and unveil intricate transcriptional control mechanisms, encompassing cooperative regulation by enhancers, transcription factors, and co-activator factors. This study presents novel insights into the intrinsic molecular mechanisms of the "Enhancer-TFs-Promoter" complex, which underlies adipogenesis, the fat tail trait, and obesity-related human diseases.