BOD1L mediates chromatin binding and non-canonical function of H3K4 methyltransferase SETD1A (RNA-seq)

The H3K4 methyltransferase SETD1A plays an essential role in both development and cancer. However, essential components involved in SETD1A chromatin binding remain unclear. Here, we discovered that BOD1L exhibits the highest correlated co-dependency with SETD1A in human cancer cell lines. BOD1L knockout reduces leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo, and mimics the transcriptional profiles observed in SETD1A knockout cells. The loss of BOD1L immediately reduced SETD1A distribution at transcriptional start sites (TSS) and induces transcriptional elongation defect along with the increasing of RNA polymerase II at TSS, but did not cause the reduction of H3K4me3. The Shg1 domain of BOD1L has a DNA binding ability, and recruit SETD1A to chromatin through the association with SETD1A FLOS domain. In addition, the BOD1L-SETD1A complex associates with transcriptional regulators, including E2Fs. These results reveal that BOD1L mediates chromatin and SETD1A, and regulates the non-canonical function of SETD1A in transcription.