Whole-genome cartography of estrogen receptor α binding sites

Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation-paired end diTag cloning and sequencing strategy, we mapped estrogen receptor alpha ( ER alpha) binding sites in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We identified 1,234 high confidence binding clusters of which 94% are projected to be bona fide ERa binding regions. Only 5% of the mapped estrogen receptor binding sites are located within 5 kb upstream of the transcriptional start sites of adjacent genes, regions containing the proximal promoters, whereas vast majority of the sites are mapped to intronic or distal locations (>5 kb from 59 and 39 ends of adjacent transcript), suggesting transcriptional regulatory mechanisms over significant physical distances. Of all the identified sites, 71% harbored putative full estrogen response elements (EREs), 25% bore ERE half sites, and only 4% had no recognizable ERE sequences. Genes in the vicinity of ER alpha binding sites were enriched for regulation by estradiol in MCF-7 cells, and their expression profiles in patient samples segregate ER alpha-positive from ER alpha-negative breast tumors. The expression dynamics of the genes adjacent to ER alpha binding sites suggest a direct induction of gene expression through binding to ERE-like sequences, whereas transcriptional repression by ERa appears to be through indirect mechanisms. Our analysis also indicates a number of candidate transcription factor binding sites adjacent to occupied EREs at frequencies much greater than by chance, including the previously reported FOXA1 sites, and demonstrate the potential involvement of one such putative adjacent factor, Sp1, in the global regulation of ERa target genes. Unexpectedly, we found that only 22%-24% of the bona fide human ER alpha binding sites were overlapping conserved regions in whole genome vertebrate alignments, which suggest limited conservation of functional binding sites. Taken together, this genome- scale analysis suggests complex but definable rules governing ER alpha binding and gene regulation.