Polycomb group proteins (PcG) are transcriptional repressors that control cell identity and development. In mammals, five different CBX proteins associate with the core Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1). In mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), CBX6 and CBX7 are the most highly expressed CBX family members. CBX7 has been recently characterized, but little is known regarding the function of CBX6. Here, we show that CBX6 is essential for ESC identity. Its depletion destabilizes the pluripotency network and triggers differentiation. Mechanistically, we find that CBX6 is physically and functionally associated to both canonical PRC1 (cPRC1) and non-canonical PRC1 (ncPRC1) complexes. Notably, in contrast to CBX7, CBX6 is recruited to chromatin independently of H3K27me3. Taken together, our findings reveal that CBX6 is an essential component of ESC biology that contributes to the structural and functional complexity of the PRC1 complex.

This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BFU2016-75008-P), Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013-2017 (SEV-2012-0208), AGAUR, Fundació “La Marató de TV3,” CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, and EU FP7 Programs 4DCellFate (277899) to L.D.C. This work aided by collaboration with the National Center for Dynamic Interactome Research and the National Resource for the Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Biological Macromolecules, supported in part by NIH grant P41 GM109824 to Michael P. Rout and grant P41 GM103314 to Brian T. Chait. This paper is subject to the NIH Public Access Policy.