The steroid hormone ecdysone regulates insect development via its nuclear receptor (the EcR protein), which functions as a ligand-dependent transcription factor. The EcR regulates target gene expression by binding to ecdysone response elements (EcREs) in their promoter or enhancer regions. Its role in epigenetic regulation and, particularly, in histone acetylation remains to be clarified. Here, we analyzed the dynamics of histone acetylation and demonstrated that the acetylation of histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27) at enhancers was required for the transcriptional activation of ecdysone-responsive genes. Western blotting and ChIP-qPCR revealed that ecdysone altered the acetylation of H3K27. For E75B and Hr4, ecdysone-responsive genes, enhancer activity, and transcription required the histone acetyltransferase activity of the CBP. EcR binding was critical in inducing enhancer activity and H3K27 acetylation. The CREB-binding protein (CBP) HAT domain catalyzed H3K27 acetylation and CBP coactivation with EcR, independent of the presence of ecdysone. Increased H3K27 acetylation promoted chromatin accessibility, with the EcR and CBP mediating a local chromatin opening in response to ecdysone. Hence, epigenetic mechanisms, including the modification of acetylation and chromatin accessibility, controlled ecdysone-dependent gene transcription.
Keywords: chromatin regulation; cisregulatory elements; ecdysone receptor; gene transcription; histone modification.