Kras induces changes in chromatin territories that differentially impact early nuclear reprogramming in pancreatic cells.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma initiation is most frequently caused by Kras mutations.

Results: Here, we apply biological, biochemical, and network biology methods to validate GEMM-derived cell models using inducible Kras expression. We describe the time-dependent, chromatin remodeling program that impacts function during early oncogenic signaling. We find that the Kras-induced transcriptional response is dominated by downregulated expression concordant with layers of epigenetic events. More open chromatin characterizes the ATAC-seq profile associated with a smaller group of upregulated genes and epigenetic marks. RRBS demonstrates that promoter hypermethylation does not account for the silencing of the extensive gene promoter network. Moreover, ChIP-Seq reveals that heterochromatin reorganization plays little role in this early transcriptional program. Notably, both gene activation and silencing primarily depend on the marking of genes with a combination of H3K27ac, H3K4me3, and H3K36me3. Indeed, integrated modeling of all these datasets shows that Kras regulates its transcriptional program primarily through unique super-enhancers and enhancers, and marking specific gene promoters and bodies. We also report chromatin remodeling across genomic areas that, although not contributing directly to cis-gene transcription, are likely important for Kras functions.

Conclusions: In summary, we report a comprehensive, time-dependent, and coordinated early epigenomic program for Kras in pancreatic cells, which is mechanistically relevant to understanding chromatin remodeling events underlying transcriptional outcomes needed for the function of this oncogene.