Reviewer #3 (Public Review):
First of all, I enjoyed the manuscript by Horton et al. In the manuscript, they first re-analyzed published ChIP-seq data for STAT1 binding in INF-activated macrophages and found that a fourth of the >20,000 STAT1 binding sites were in transposable elements. Especially, about 10% of the total STAT1 binding sites were in B2_Mm2, a murine-specific SINE. They showed that these B2 elements are associated with H3K27ac signal upon INF treatment, thus likely serve as an INF-inducible enhancer through STAT1 binding. The authors then focus on the STAT1-bound B2_Mm2 in the Dicer1 gene (designated as B2_Mm2.Dicer1), and demonstrated that deletion of this B2 in a macrophage-like murine cell line resulted in loss of STAT1 binding, H3K27ac, and Dicer1 upregulation upon INF treatment. Their findings suggest that B2 transposition events has altered the transcriptional regulatory network in the innate immune response in the mouse.
The manuscript is well organized, and the findings are potentially interesting in terms of the evolution of species-specific regulatory networks of the innate immune response. But, I am not convinced with the enhancer role of the B2_Mm2.Dicer1 copy for the Dicer1 expression (see below).
Major Comments:
(1) In Fig. 4, the degree of Dicer1 induction by INF was small (1.2-fold or so), and accordingly the effect of the B2 deletion on the Dicer1 induction was also small. In addition, this B2 binds to CTCF, and its deletion should also eliminate CTCF binding. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude from the presented data that this B2 serve as an enhancer for Dicer1. The B2 may increase the frequency of transcription (as suggested by the authors), may serve as an obstacle for transcriptional elongation (via binding to CTCF), or may regulate the splicing efficiency. In Fig.5C, promoter acetylation level does not seem to be affected in KO1. Pol II either does not seem to be affected if the Pol II peak is compared to the background level. Taken together, the enhancer role is not supported by strong evidence.
(2) On the other hand, the authors discovered that the B2 deletion resulted in the decrease of Serpina3h, Serpina3g, Serpina3i and Serpina3f by >100-fold, which are 500 kb apart from the B2 locus. This is also interesting, and could be evidence for the B2 enhancer. Given that this B2 binds to both STAT1 and CTCF, the locus could interact with the Serpina3 locus to act as an enhancer. Were there STAT1 CUT&TAG peaks around the Serpina3 genes? Did H3K27ac and Pol II ChIP peaks in the Serpina3 promoters disappear in the KO cells? It would be interesting to see the IGV snapshots for H3K27ac, POLR2A and STAT1 ChIP-seq data around Serpina3 genes. In addition, HiC data for activated macrophages, if available, could be supportive evidence for the interaction between B2_Mm2.Dicer1 and the Serpina3 locus.
Minor Comments:
(3) Regarding Fig.1C, the authors calculated the B2 expression levels by mRNA-seq and DESeq2 analysis. But it does not accurately give the B2 transcription level, because the method does not discriminate B2 RNAs and B2-containing mRNA (and lncRNA as well). I wonder that the apparent upregulation of STAT1-binding B2 loci is due to the increase of Pol II transcription around the loci, rather than Pol III-mediated B2 transcription. This possibility should be discussed in page 6 after "Taken together, these data indicate that thousands of B2_Mm2 elements show epigenetic and transcriptional evidence of IFNG-inducible regulatory activity in primary murine bone marrow derived macrophages."
(4) Fig. 2B shows that about 70-80% of B2_Mm2 loci carry the STAT1 motif, whereas only a limited number (2-3%) of B2_Mm2 bind to STAT1. Is this because of differences in their motif sequences, in genomic locations, or in epigenomic environments? For example, do these STAT1-binding loci have a C-to-A mutation at the second last position in the GAS motif (TTCNNGGAA), like B2_Mm2.Dicer1 (shown in Fig. S4)? Can the authors discuss about it? In addition, although the consensus sequence of B2_mm2 has a GAS motif with only a single mismatch, the presence of the STAT1 motif in >70% of B2_Mm2 is surprising, given that their average divergence to the consensus sequence is about 10% (ref. 26 of the manuscript). Is the binding site significantly conserved in compare to the other regions of the B2 sequence?