Enhancer-promoter interactions are reconfigured through the formation of long-range multiway chromatin hubs as mouse ES cells exit pluripotency
Enhancers are genomic DNA sequences that bind transcription factors, chromatin regulators and non-coding transcripts to modulate the expression of target genes. They have been found to act from different locations relative to a gene and to modulate the activity of promoters up to [~]1 Mb away. Here we report the first 3D genome structures of single mouse ES cells as they are induced to exit pluripotency, transition through a formative stage and undergo neuroectodermal differentiation. In order to directly study how interactions between enhancers and promoters are reconfigured genome wide we have determined 3D structures of haploid cells using single cell Hi-C, where we can unambiguously map the contacts to particular chromosomes. We find that there is a remarkable reorganisation of 3D genome structure where inter-chromosomal intermingling increases dramatically in the formative state. This intermingling is associated with the formation of a large number of multiway hubs that bring together enhancers and promoters with similar chromatin states from typically 5-8 distant chromosomal sites that are often separated by many Mb from each other. Genes important for pluripotency exit establish contacts with emerging enhancers within multiway chromatin hubs as cells enter the formative state, consistent with these structural changes playing an important role in establishing new cell identities. Furthermore, we find that different multiway chromatin hubs, and thus different enhancer-promoter interactions, are formed in different individual cells. Our results suggest that studying genome structure in single cells will be important to identify key changes in enhancer-promoter interactions that occur as cells undergo developmental transitions.