Identification of five patterns of nucleosome positioning that globally describe transcription factor function

Following the binding of transcription factors (TF) to specific regions, chromatin remodeling including alterations in nucleosome positioning (NP) occurs. These changes in NP cause selective gene expression to determine cell function. However whether specific NP patterns upon TF binding determine the transcriptional regulation such as gene activation or suppression is unclear. Here we identified five patterns of NP around TF binding sites (TFBSs) using fixed MNase-Seq analysis. The most frequently observed NP pattern described the transcription state. The five patterns explained approximately 80% of the whole NP pattern on the genome in mouse C2C12 cells. We further performed ChIP-Seq using the input obtained from the fixed MNase-Seq. The result showed that a single trial of ChIP-Seq could visualize the NP patterns around the TFBS and predict the function of the transcriptional regulation at the same time. These findings indicate that NP can directly predict the function of TFs.