Polycomb chromatin topology enables long-range enhancer recruitment during craniofacial development.

Abstract

Little is known about how three-dimensional chromatin topology shapes mammalian craniofacial development. In mouse cranial neural crest cells, a Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2)-dependent chromatin architecture is established before migration. This configuration maintains craniofacial gene promoters poised and connects them with distal Polycomb tethering elements, positioning promoters in spatial proximity to future long-range enhancers. Deletion of Ezh2 disrupts this early topology, causing inappropriate gene derepression in post-migratory craniofacial subpopulations where these genes are normally silenced, and failure of long-range enhancer recruitment where activation is required, thereby impairing proper gene expression. We further identify a distal Polycomb tethering element essential for Hoxa2 enhancer recruitment across topologically associating domains. Thus, Polycomb acts not only as a transcriptional repressor, but also as a chromatin-folding organizer that prepares developmental genes for later activation, by facilitating subsequent recruitment of distal active enhancers previously not in contact. Polycomb-mediated topology therefore orchestrates the transition from progenitor plasticity to precise spatiotemporal control of morphogenetic gene programs during neural crest development and face formation.