Background: UTX/KDM6A is known to interact and influence multiple different chromatin modifiers to promote an open chromatin environment to facilitate gene activation, but its molecular activities in developmental gene regulation remain unclear.
Results: We report that in human neural stem cells, UTX binding correlates with both promotion and suppression of gene expression. These activities enable UTX to modulate neural stem cell self-renewal, promote neurogenesis, and suppress gliogenesis. In neural stem cells, UTX has a less influence over histone H3 lysine 27 and lysine 4 methylation but more predominantly affects histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation and chromatin accessibility. Furthermore, UTX suppresses components of AP-1 and, in turn, a gliogenesis program.
Conclusions: Our findings revealed that UTX coordinates dualistic gene regulation to govern neural stem cell properties and neurogenesis-gliogenesis switch.