Manipulating GATA2 and ERG in bulk ME-1 cells and normal CD34⁺ HSPCs leads to altered heptad expression and can push cells toward the ery-like state. (A) The branching phenotype within ME-1 cells indicating relative expression of key heptad genes highlighted in Figure 4. (B) Effect of knocking down GATA2, TAL1, or ERG on heptad genes in ME-1 cells (error bars show 95% confidence interval [CI]). (C) Effect of overexpressing GATA2 on heptad genes in ME-1 cells (RNAseq) (left). GSEA plots showing enrichment of genes associated with the ery-precursor/ery-precursor–like state in response to overexpressing GATA2 in ME-1 cells (right). (D) Effect of knocking down ERG on heptad genes in CD34⁺ HSPCs (RNAseq) (left). GSEA plots showing enrichment of genes associated with the ery-precursor/ery-precursor–like state in response to knocking down ERG in CD34⁺ HSPCs (right). False discovery rate q value for GSEA plots = 0, except where indicated by *q value = 0.02. (E) Effect of knocking down ERG on heptad genes in CD34⁺ HSPCs using 2 different shRNAs (error bars, 95% CI). (F) Colony forming capacity of CD34⁺ cells transduced with control (shCON) or ERG (shERG, shERG-2) shRNAs (left). CD34⁺ cells produce colonies derived from granulocyte and/or macrophage progenitor cells (CFU-GM; gray), multipotential progenitor cells (CFU-GEMM; dark blue), and erythroid progenitor cells (blast forming unit-erythroid [BFU-E]; red). Proportion of total colonies that are erythroid (BFU-E) (right). NES, normalized enrichment score.