Comparison of endogenous and overexpressed MyoD shows enhanced binding of physiologically bound sites.

Background: Transcription factor overexpression is common in biological experiments and transcription factor amplification is associated with many cancers, yet few studies have directly compared the DNA-binding profiles of endogenous versus overexpressed transcription factors.

Methods: We analyzed MyoD ChIP-seq data from C2C12 mouse myotubes, primary mouse myotubes, and mouse fibroblasts differentiated into muscle cells by overexpression of MyoD and compared the genome-wide binding profiles and binding site characteristics of endogenous and overexpressed MyoD.

Results: Overexpressed MyoD bound to the same sites occupied by endogenous MyoD and possessed the same E-box sequence preference and co-factor site enrichments, and did not bind to new sites with distinct characteristics.

Conclusions: Our data demonstrate a robust fidelity of transcription factor binding sites over a range of expression levels and that increased amounts of transcription factor increase the binding at physiologically bound sites.