Tissue-resident macrophage enhancer landscapes are shaped by the local microenvironment [RNA-seq]

Macrophages are hematopoietic cells critical for innate immune defense, but also control organ homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner. Tissue-resident macrophages, therefore, provide a well-defined model to study the impact of ontogeny and microenvironment on chromatin state. Here, we profile the dynamics of four histone modifications across seven tissue-resident macrophage populations, as well as monocytes and neutrophils. We identify 12,743 macrophage-specific enhancers and establish that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct enhancer landscapes. Our work suggests that a combination of tissue and lineage-specific transcription factors form the regulatory networks controlling chromatin specification in tissue-resident macrophages. The environment has the capacity to alter the chromatin landscape of macrophages derived from transplanted adult bone marrow in vivo and even differentiated macrophages are reprogramed when transferred into a new tissue. Altogether, these data provide a comprehensive view of macrophage regulation and highlight the importance of microenvironment along with pioneer factors in orchestrating macrophage identity and plasticity.