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Developmental biology; Gene regulation; Transcription factor Biologia del desenvolupament; Regulació gènica; Factor de transcripció Biología del desarrollo; Regulación génica; Factor de transcripción Here, we describe how the speed of C/EBPα-induced B cell to macrophage transdifferentiation (BMT) can be regulated, using both mouse and human models. The identification of a mutant of C/EBPα (C/EBPαR35A) that greatly accelerates BMT helped to illuminate the mechanism. Thus, incoming C/EBPα binds to PU.1, an obligate partner expressed in B cells, leading to the release of PU.1 from B cell enhancers, chromatin closing and silencing of the B cell program. Released PU.1 redistributes to macrophage enhancers newly occupied by C/EBPα, causing chromatin opening and activation of macrophage genes. All these steps are accelerated by C/EBPαR35A, initiated by its increased affinity for PU.1. Wild-type C/EBPα is methylated by Carm1 at arginine 35 and the enzyme’s perturbations modulate BMT velocity as predicted from the observations with the mutant. Increasing the proportion of unmethylated C/EBPα in granulocyte/macrophage progenitors by inhibiting Carm1 biases the cell’s differentiation toward macrophages, suggesting that cell fate decision velocity and lineage directionality are closely linked processes. TG was supported by the Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, (Plan Estatal PID2019-109354GB-100), AGAUR (SGR 006713) and the 4D-Genome European Research Council Synergy grant. KSZ was supported by the NIH grant R01GM36477. We have used ChatGPT to improve parts of the text.

Lineage-instructive transcription factors orchestrate cell fate decisions by regulating gene expression programs. However, how their function is regulated throughout development is poorly understood. C/EBPα is a transcription factor that has been shown to play a key role in several cell fate decisions of several tissues, including myelopoiesis, adipogenesis and early embryo development. The protein arginine methyltransferase Carm1 has also been described to play a role in cell specification during various developmental processes, but a connection to C/EBPα has not been established. In this Thesis, we investigated the link between the two proteins in cell fate decisions. We found that arginine 35 of C/EBPα is a key target of Carm1 methylation, and that this post-translational modification alters the biological properties of the factor and acts as a cell fate switch during myelopoiesis, adipogenesis and the first cell fate decision between pluripotency and trophectoderm in early embryos. Los factores de transcripción instructores de linaje orquestan decisiones de identidad celular a través de la regulación de programas de expresión génica. Sin embargo, cómo su función está regulada durante el desarrollo todavía se desconoce. C/EBPα es un factor de transcripción que juega un papel clave en varias decisiones de identidad celular, incluyendo mielopoiesis, adipogénesis y el desarrollo embrionario temprano. La metiltransferasa de argininas Carm1 también está involucrada en los mismos procesos, pero todavía no se ha descrito una posible conexión con C/EBPα. En esta Tesis, hemos investigado la conexión entre éstas dos proteínas en decisiones de identidad celular. Hemos descubierto que la arginina 35 de C/EBPα es un blanco clave para la metilación por Carm1, y está modificación postraduccional altera las propiedades biológicas del factor y actúa como un interruptor de identidad celular en mielopoiesis, adipogénesis y en la primera decisión entre pluripotencia y trofectodermo en el embrión.