Dynamic changes in the chromatin of the chicken lysozyme gene domain during differentiation of multipotent progenitors to macrophages

The chicken lysozyme locus is regulated in oviduct and macrophages by a complex set of well-characterized cis-regulatory DNA elements. We determined the DNase I hypersensitive chromatin site pattern of the chromatin of the lysozyme locus in retrovirally transformed cell lines representing different stages of myelomonocytic cell differentiation. In the transformed multipotent progenitor stage and in erythroblasts, only a DNase I hypersensitive chromatin site at a silencer element located -2.4 kb upstream of the transcriptional start site is present. At the myeloblast stage DNase I hypersensitive chromatin sites are formed both at the distal enhancer located at -6.1 kb and at the promoter. Later in differentiation, at the monocytic stage, a second DNase I hypersensitive chromatin site appears at the medial enhancer located at -2.7 kb. Parallel with DNase I hypersensitive chromatin site formation at the medial enhancer, the DNase I hypersensitive chromatin site at the silencer element disappears. These chromatin rearrangements correlate with the mRNA expression of the gene that is undetectable in multipotent progenitors and maximal in a lipopolysaccharide-stimulated monocyte cell line. Our results show that the chromatin structure and the transcriptional activity of the gene are tightly coupled during commitment and maturation of the myelomonocytic lineage.