While constitutive CTCF-binding sites are needed to maintain relatively invariant chromatin structures, such as topologically associating domains, the precise roles of CTCF to control cell type-specific transcriptional regulation remain poorly explored. We examined CTCF occupancy in different types of primary blood cells derived from the same donor to elucidate a new role for CTCF in gene regulation during blood cell development. We identified dynamic, cell type-specific binding sites for CTCF that colocalize with lineage-specific transcription factors. These dynamic sites are enriched for single nucleotide polymorphisms that are associated with blood cell traits in different linages, and they coincide with the key regulatory elements governing hematopoiesis. CRISPR/Cas9-based perturbation experiments demonstrated that these dynamic CTCF-binding sites play a critical role in red blood cell development. Furthermore, precise deletion of CTCF-binding motifs in dynamic sites abolished interactions of erythroid genes, such as RBM38, with their associated enhancers and led to abnormal erythropoiesis. These results suggest a novel, cell type-specific function for CTCF in which it may serve to facilitate interaction of distal regulatory emblements with target promoters. Our study of the dynamic, cell type-specific binding and function of CTCF provides new insights into transcriptional regulation during hematopoiesis.
CTCF-mediated transcriptional regulation through cell type-specific chromosome organization in the β-globin locus
