Dynamics of poised enhancer connectivity upon the naive-to-primed transition of human pluripotent stem cells

In contrast, these poised enhancers (PEs) are scarce in naive hPSCs that model pre-implantation epiblast. PEs form abundant chromosomal contacts with developmental genes, but when these contacts emerge, how their formation relates to enhancer poising and their functional significance remains incompletely understood.

We devised high-resolution, PE-targeted Capture Hi-C and generate a comprehensive atlas of PE chromosomal contacts in the time course of hPSC transition from the naive to primed state. A subset of PE contacts persist after developmental activation and can mediate long-range gene induction.