Nucleation of DNA repair factors by FOXA1 links DNA demethylation to transcriptional pioneering

Yongfeng Shang and colleagues report that the pioneering factor FOXA1 associates with DNA repair complexes and regulates DNA demethylation at its genomic targets in a DNA polymerase β–dependent manner. They show that FOXA1-associated DNA demethylation is coupled with genomic targeting of estrogen receptor α and estrogen responsiveness in a breast cancer cell line.