Distinct transcriptomic profiles and ATAC peaks in Zhx2-deficient NK cells. (A) Chromatin accessibility of Zhx2^+/+ and Zhx2^Δ/Δ NK cells accessed by ATAC-seq. Each row represents one peak (differentially accessible between Zhx2^+/+ and Zhx2^Δ/Δ NK cells; FDR ≤ 0.05). (B) GO enrichment analysis is illustrated. The analysis was performed on the differentially expressed genes by likelihood ratio tests. P ≤ 0.05. (C) Real-time qPCR analysis of indicated gene expression in purified splenic NK cells from Zhx2^+/+ and Zhx2^Δ/Δ mice (representative of two independent experiments). (D) Specific expression of the indicated genes in NK cell development. RNA-seq data are adopted from Gene Expression Omnibus accession no. GSE45842.(E) Western blot analysis of the protein expression of Zhx2 and Zeb2 in the indicated NK cells. Error bars represent SEM per group in one experiment. Data were analyzed using Student’s t test (two-tailed paired t test). ***, P < 0.001.