SMARCB1-mediated SWI/SNF complex function is essential for enhancer regulation [cell line_RNA-seq]

SMARCB1 (SNF5/INI1/BAF47), a core subunit of the SWI/SNF (BAF) chromatin remodeling complex, is inactivated in nearly all pediatric rhabdoid tumors. These aggressive cancers are among the most genomically stable, suggesting an epigenetic mechanism by which SMARCB1 loss drives transformation. Here, we show that despite indistinguishable mutational landscapes, human RTs show distinct enhancer H3K27ac signatures, which reveal remnants of differentiation programs. We show that SMARCB1 is required for the integrity of SWI/SNF complexes and that its loss alters enhancer targeting markedly impairing SWI/SNF binding to typical enhancers, particularly those required for differentiation, while maintaining SWI/SNF binding at super-enhancers. We show that these retained super-enhancers are essential for rhabdoid tumor survival, including some that are shared across all subtypes, such as SPRY1, and other lineage-specific super-enhancers like SOX2 in brain-derived RTs. Taken together, our findings reveal a novel chromatin-based epigenetic mechanism underlying the tumor suppressive activity of SMARCB1. Overall design: RNA-seq in six Smarcb1 deficient rhabdoid tumor cell lines, before and after Smarcb1 re-expression.

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Wang X, Lee RS, Alver BH, Haswell JR, Wang S, Mieczkowski J, Drier Y, Gillespie SM, Archer TC, Wu JN, Tzvetkov EP, Troisi EC, Pomeroy SL, Biegel JA, Tolstorukov MY, Bernstein BE, Park PJ, Roberts CW