Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are a heterogeneous group of cells with expansion, differentiation, and repopulation capacities. How HSPCs orchestrate the stemness state with diverse lineage differentiation at steady condition or acute stress remains largely unknown. Here, we show that zebrafish mutants that are deficient in an epigenetic regulator Atf7ip or Setdb1 methyltransferase undergo excessive myeloid differentiation with impaired HSPC expansion, manifesting a decline in T cells and erythroid lineage. We find that Atf7ip regulates hematopoiesis through Setdb1-mediated H3K9me3 modification and chromatin remodeling. During hematopoiesis, the interaction of Atf7ip and Setdb1 triggers H3K9me3 depositions in hematopoietic regulatory genes including cebpβ and cdkn1a, preventing HSPCs from loss of expansion and premature differentiation into myeloid lineage. Concomitantly, loss of Atf7ip or Setdb1 derepresses retrotransposons that instigate the viral sensor Mda5/Rig-I like receptor (RLR) signaling, leading to stress-driven myelopoiesis and inflammation. We find that ATF7IP or SETDB1 depletion represses human leukemic cell growth and induces myeloid differentiation with retrotransposon-triggered inflammation. These findings establish that Atf7ip/Setdb1-mediated H3K9me3 deposition constitutes a genome-wide checkpoint that impedes the myeloid potential and maintains HSPC stemness for diverse blood cell production, providing unique insights into potential intervention in hematological malignancy.
Keywords: HSPC; epigenetics; leukemia; myeloid differentiation; retrotransposon.