Genome-wide Profiling of Progesterone Receptor and GATA2 Binding in the Mouse Uterus [ChIP-Seq]

Progesterone (P4) signaling through its nuclear transcription factor, the progesterone receptor (PR), is essential for normal uterine function. Although deregulation of PR mediated signaling is known to underscore uterine dysfunction and a number of endometrial pathologies, the early molecular mechanisms of this deregulation are unclear. To address this issue, we have defined the genome-wide PR and GATA2 cistrome in the murine uterus using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by massively parallel sequencing (ChIP-seq). In uteri of ovariectomized mice, we identified 6367 PR binding sites in the absence of P4 ligand; however, this number increased at nearly three fold (18,432) following acute P4 exposure. Sequence analysis revealed that approximately 73% of these binding sites contain a progesterone response element (PRE) or a half-site motif recognized by the PR. Many previously identified P4 target genes known to regulate uterine function were found to contain PR binding sites, confirming the validity of our methodology. In addition we identified 46,183 GATA2 binding sites in P4 treatment conditions with 7,954 binding sites overlapping that of the PR. Examination of PR and Gata2 binding in whole or epithelial isolated mouse uterine tissue upon acute vehicle/P4 treatement