The Epigenomic Basis of Common Diseases Euan J

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Epigenomic Basis of Common Diseases Euan J Rodger and Chatterjee Clinical Epigenetics (2017) 9:5 DOI 10.1186/s13148-017-0313-y SHORT REPORT Open Access The epigenomic basis of common diseases Euan J. Rodger1,2* and Aniruddha Chatterjee1,2* Abstract A report of the 6th Epigenomics of Common Diseases Conference held at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridge, UK, on 1–4 November 2016. Introduction to investigate a large number of CpGs across large num- Epigenetic modification provides a stable mechanism by bers of patients and controls to detect aberrant methyla- which cells with the same genotype can modulate their tion signals at a population level [1]. Further, EWASs are gene expression and exhibit different phenotypes. In the an ideal platform to tap into large international resources past two decades, excellent progress has been made to and compare multiple datasets with custom-generated profile these modifications and our understanding of EWAS data. Examples of well-curated epigenomic data- epigenetic marks has surpassed beyond the basic sets include the International Human Epigenome Consor- phenomenon of cellular heterogeneity. It is now estab- tium (IHEC), the EU-funded BLUEPRINT project, and lished that epigenetic marks are altered in almost all the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). common human diseases. The Epigenomics of Common Although EWASs have been in use for several years now Diseases meeting, 1–4 November 2016, provided an and thousands of datasets and several analytical tools have account of the progress made in this area and also indi- been reported, there is still a need to understand the po- cated future areas that are yet to be addressed. Although tential biases and the nature of factors that could influence disease focussed, several other aspects were discussed the interpretation of results. More sophisticated tools need that are relevant to epigenetics as a field, including cellu- to be developed to account for these factors. One observa- lar heterogeneity, epigenomic association studies, emer- tion to come out of this meeting, based on the commen- ging concepts in cancer epigenetics and new innovative tary of multiple speakers, was that EWASs require robust techniques of broad application (such as single-cell ana- analytical tools to detect epigenetic variants of interest lysis and epigenomic editing approaches). Here, we pro- and to adjust for confounding factors such as genetic vide a brief report of some of the key ideas and themes effects and cellular heterogeneity. discussed in this meeting and based on these, we specu- Several speakers presented vignettes of many interest- late on future research directions. ing EWAS findings, including Stephan Beck (University College London, UK) who shared some “new twists” in EWAS analytics and started off with a plea for authors A needle in the haystack: insights from epigenome-wide and editors alike to ensure EWAS papers include CpG association studies numbers. This oversight, he suggested, was akin to pub- Recent advances in high-throughput DNA analysis now lishing a genome-wide association study without includ- enable researchers to examine epigenetic modifications ing rs numbers for single-nucleotide polymorphisms. across the genome, primarily DNA methylation marks, Methylation of a CpG site and its relationship to the for association with numerous disease phenotypes. As expression of a corresponding or nearby gene is very such, epigenome-wide association studies (EWASs) have context specific. For example, the methylation of a par- been fruitful in their findings but they also harbour their ticular gene promoter is likely to be very different to the own unique challenges. EWASs provide an opportunity methylation of the gene body. Methylation in either of * Correspondence: [email protected]; these elements could have a different function for the [email protected] specificity of the corresponding transcription [2]. There- 1Department of Pathology, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, fore, providing the methylation of a gene as a whole is Hanover Street, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand Full list of author information is available at the end of the article almost meaningless if the context (i.e. the CpG number) © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Rodger and Chatterjee Clinical Epigenetics (2017) 9:5 Page 2 of 6 is not described. In their analysis of >700 haemopoietic known risk factors. The genes associated with three of these effector cell methylomes from monozygotic twins dis- loci (TXNIP, ABCG1,andSREBF1) have biological plausi- cordant for type 1 diabetes, Beck and colleagues were bility in the context of type 2 diabetes. In an EWAS investi- only able to identify a single significant differentially gating adiposity, methylation markers at 187 loci were methylated CpG position (DMP). Undeterred, they found to be associated with body mass index (BMI) [10]. shifted their focus from differences in mean methylation These loci were enriched for functional regulatory elements and used a novel approach to detect differentially vari- and gene promoters that mapped to biologically plausible able positions (DVPs). The diabetes-associated DVPs pathways. However, Mendelian randomisation to test for were temporally stable and mapped onto regulatory cir- causal relationships indicated that the changes in methyla- cuits involved in cell cycle and immune cell metabolism. tion were more likely to be a consequence rather than a Similarly, they also applied this approach to methylomes cause of BMI. from monozygotic twins discordant for rheumatoid arth- ritis and also to the discovery of DNA methylation and Epigenetics in cancer gene expression variability in normal blood cells. Sub- The mechanisms involved in the hallmark properties of stantial DNA methylation and gene expression variation a cancer cell are well described and continue to be heav- in normal blood cells has also been reported in recent ily investigated [11]. Until recently, cancer was often per- genome-wide studies [3–5]. Therefore, it is important to ceived as only a disease of the genome. However, it is consider the normally occurring variation in methylomes now established that epigenetic changes are present in for detecting differential methylation signals. Beck also all human tumours and the fact that cancer is a disease presented several bioinformatic tools for EWAS inter- of both the genome and epigenome is gaining recogni- pretation such as eFORGE (http://eforge.cs.ucl.ac.uk), tion. The analysis of thousands of cancer genomes re- which identifies tissue or cell-type specific signals from vealed that epigenomic regulator genes were often Illumina 450K methylation array data [6], EpiDISH (freely mutated in many cancers [12]. Epigenetic alterations available from https://github.com/sjczheng/EpiDISH), have been shown to cooperate with genetic alterations which can be used for epigenetic dissection of heterogen- to drive the cancer phenotype [13]. These changes can eity within a sample, and CORALINA (comprehensive be used as biomarkers of disease state and the poten- guide RNA library generation through controlled nuclease tially reversible nature of epigenetic aberrations has been activity), a universal method for generating guide RNA an alluring prospect for the field of epigenetic therapies. libraries for large-scale CRISPR-based genomic and epige- In her talk on epigenetics of the cancer microenviron- nomic screening [7]. ment, Susan Clark (Garvan Institute of Medical Re- Bill Cookson (Imperial College London, UK) presented search, Sydney, Australia) began by quoting Stephen an EWAS of total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE), which Paget’s 1889 “soil and seed hypothesis”—“When a plant is a central mediator in asthma and atopy, in peripheral goes to seed, its seeds are carried in all directions; but blood leukocyte methylomes [8]. Of the 36 loci showing they can only live and grow if they fall on congenial an association between methylation and IgE concentration, soil”. The focus of Clark’s investigation was on pro- several loci were annotated to genes related specifically to tumorigenic cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), which eosinophil function (e.g. IL5RA), which is consistent with in vitro studies have shown, were not just transiently ac- the presence of activated eosinophils in atopic subjects. tivated by signalling from tumour cells but they retain Notably, a monoclonal antibody targeted to IL5RA is their phenotype even when tumour cell stimuli were re- currently in phase 3 trials for the treatment of severe moved. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) asthma. Cookson reiterated the point that cell hetero- and RNA-Seq were used on CAFs from prostate cancer geneity and genetic factors need to be accounted for and compared to matched non-malignant prostate fibro- in EWASs. The WCGNA package (freely available blasts (NPFs). This comparison showed a large number of from https://labs.genetics.ucla.edu/horvath/Coexpression
Recommended publications
  • The International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC): a Blueprint for Scientific Collaboration and Discovery
    The International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC): A Blueprint for Scientific Collaboration and Discovery Hendrik G. Stunnenberg1#, Martin Hirst2,3,# 1Department of Molecular Biology, Faculties of Science and Medicine, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 2Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4. 3Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Science Center, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 4S6 #Corresponding authors [email protected] [email protected] Abstract The International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) coordinates the generation of a catalogue of high-resolution reference epigenomes of major primary human cell types. The studies now presented (cell.com/XXXXXXX) highlight the coordinated achievements of IHEC teams to gather and interpret comprehensive epigenomic data sets to gain insights in the epigenetic control of cell states relevant for human health and disease. One of the great mysteries in developmental biology is how the same genome can be read by cellular machinery to generate the plethora of different cell types required for eukaryotic life. As appreciation grew for the central roles of transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms in specification of cellular fates and functions, researchers around the world encouraged scientific funding agencies to develop an organized and standardized effort to exploit epigenomic assays to shed additional light on this process (Beck, Olek et al. 1999, Jones and Martienssen 2005, American Association for Cancer Research Human Epigenome Task and European Union 2008). In March 2009, leading scientists and international health research funding agency representatives were invited to a meeting in Bethesda (MD, USA) to gauge the level of interest in an international epigenomics project and to identify potential areas of focus.
    [Show full text]
  • A Machine Learning Framework for Precise 3D Domain Boundary Prediction at Base-Level Resolution
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.03.282186; this version posted September 29, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC 4.0 International license. preciseTAD: A machine learning framework for precise 3D domain boundary prediction at base-level resolution Spiro C. Stilianoudakis1 ([email protected]), Mikhail G. Dozmorov1* (mikhail.dozmorov@ vcuhealth.org) 1 Dept. of Biostatistics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23298, USA * To whom correspondence should be addressed Abstract The low resolution of high-throughput chromatin conformation capture data limits the precise mapping of boundaries of topologically associating domains and chromatin loops. We developed preciseTAD, an optimized random forest model trained on high-resolution genome annotation data (e.g., CTCF ChIP- seq) to predict the location of domain boundaries at base-level resolution. Distance between boundaries and annotations, random under-sampling, and transcription factor binding sites resulted in best model performance. preciseTAD boundaries were more enriched for CTCF, RAD21, SMC3, and ZNF143, and conserved across cell lines. Using genome annotations, pre-trained models can detect boundaries in cells without Hi-C data. preciseTAD is available at https://bioconductor.org/packages/preciseTAD Keywords Hi-C, TAD, machine learning, random forest, DBSCAN Background The advent of chromosome conformation capture (3C) sequencing technologies, and its successor Hi-C, have revealed a hierarchy of the 3-dimensional (3D) structure of the human genome such as chromatin loops [1], Topologically Associating Domains (TADs) [2,3], and A/B compartments [4].
    [Show full text]
  • Generative Modeling of Multi-Mapping Reads with Mhi-C Advances Analysis of Hi-C Studies Ye Zheng1, Ferhat Ay2,3, Sunduz Keles1,4*
    TOOLS AND RESOURCES Generative modeling of multi-mapping reads with mHi-C advances analysis of Hi-C studies Ye Zheng1, Ferhat Ay2,3, Sunduz Keles1,4* 1Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States; 2La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, United States; 3School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States; 4Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States Abstract Current Hi-C analysis approaches are unable to account for reads that align to multiple locations, and hence underestimate biological signal from repetitive regions of genomes. We developed and validated mHi-C, a multi-read mapping strategy to probabilistically allocate Hi-C multi-reads. mHi-C exhibited superior performance over utilizing only uni-reads and heuristic approaches aimed at rescuing multi-reads on benchmarks. Specifically, mHi-C increased the sequencing depth by an average of 20% resulting in higher reproducibility of contact matrices and detected interactions across biological replicates. The impact of the multi-reads on the detection of significant interactions is influenced marginally by the relative contribution of multi-reads to the sequencing depth compared to uni-reads, cis-to-trans ratio of contacts, and the broad data quality as reflected by the proportion of mappable reads of datasets. Computational experiments highlighted that in Hi-C studies with short read lengths, mHi-C rescued multi-reads can emulate the effect of longer reads. mHi-C also revealed biologically supported bona fide promoter-enhancer interactions and topologically associating domains involving repetitive genomic regions, thereby *For correspondence: unlocking a previously masked portion of the genome for conformation capture studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Next Generation Sequencing: Advances in Characterizing the Methylome
    Genes 2010, 1, 143-165; doi:10.3390/genes1020143 OPEN ACCESS genes ISSN 2073-4425 www.mdpi.com/journal/genes Review Next Generation Sequencing: Advances in Characterizing the Methylome Kristen H. Taylor 1, Huidong Shi 2 and Charles W. Caldwell 1,* 1 University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, Columbia, MO 65212, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] 2 Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA 30912, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-573-882-1283; Fax: +1-573-884-4612. Received: 3 May 2010; in revised form: 22 June 2010 / Accepted: 28 June 2010 / Published: 1 July 2010 Abstract: Epigenetic modifications play an important role in lymphoid malignancies. This has been evidenced by the large body of work published using microarray technologies to generate methylation profiles for numerous types and subtypes of lymphoma and leukemia. These studies have shown the importance of defining the epigenome so that we can better understand the biology of lymphoma. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology have transformed the landscape of epigenomic analysis as we now have the ability to characterize the genome-wide distribution of chromatin modifications and DNA methylation using next-generation sequencing. To take full advantage of the throughput of next-generation sequencing, there are many methodologies that have been developed and many more that are currently being developed. Choosing the appropriate methodology is fundamental to the outcome of next-generation sequencing studies. In this review, published technologies and methodologies applicable to studying the methylome are presented.
    [Show full text]
  • Comprehensive Epigenome Characterization Reveals Diverse Transcriptional Regulation Across Human Vascular Endothelial Cells
    Nakato et al. Epigenetics & Chromatin (2019) 12:77 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13072-019-0319-0 Epigenetics & Chromatin RESEARCH Open Access Comprehensive epigenome characterization reveals diverse transcriptional regulation across human vascular endothelial cells Ryuichiro Nakato1,2† , Youichiro Wada2,3*†, Ryo Nakaki4, Genta Nagae2,4, Yuki Katou5, Shuichi Tsutsumi4, Natsu Nakajima1, Hiroshi Fukuhara6, Atsushi Iguchi7, Takahide Kohro8, Yasuharu Kanki2,3, Yutaka Saito2,9,10, Mika Kobayashi3, Akashi Izumi‑Taguchi3, Naoki Osato2,4, Kenji Tatsuno4, Asuka Kamio4, Yoko Hayashi‑Takanaka2,11, Hiromi Wada3,12, Shinzo Ohta12, Masanori Aikawa13, Hiroyuki Nakajima7, Masaki Nakamura6, Rebecca C. McGee14, Kyle W. Heppner14, Tatsuo Kawakatsu15, Michiru Genno15, Hiroshi Yanase15, Haruki Kume6, Takaaki Senbonmatsu16, Yukio Homma6, Shigeyuki Nishimura16, Toutai Mitsuyama2,9, Hiroyuki Aburatani2,4, Hiroshi Kimura2,11,17* and Katsuhiko Shirahige2,5* Abstract Background: Endothelial cells (ECs) make up the innermost layer throughout the entire vasculature. Their phe‑ notypes and physiological functions are initially regulated by developmental signals and extracellular stimuli. The underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for the diverse phenotypes of ECs from diferent organs are not well understood. Results: To characterize the transcriptomic and epigenomic landscape in the vascular system, we cataloged gene expression and active histone marks in nine types of human ECs (generating 148 genome‑wide datasets) and carried out a comprehensive analysis with chromatin interaction data. We developed a robust procedure for comparative epigenome analysis that circumvents variations at the level of the individual and technical noise derived from sample preparation under various conditions. Through this approach, we identifed 3765 EC‑specifc enhancers, some of which were associated with disease‑associated genetic variations.
    [Show full text]
  • Survey of Epigenomic Landscapes in ES Cells and Differentiated Cells
    The NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program: Sequencing Human Epigenomes from Head to Toe Joseph F. Costello UCSF Funded by NIH Common Fund NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program Program Goal: Understand how epigenetic mechanisms contribute to disease NIEHS: Lisa Chadwick, Fred Tyson NIDA:, Joni Rutter, John Satterlee NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program Novel Marks UCSF UCSD Mapping Broad Centers UW New Health and Technologies Disease EDACC Baylor NCBI Reference Epigenome Mapping Centers Goal: Create high quality epigenome maps of human cells and tissues Matching maps to diseases Reference Map Complex Disease Immune system Asthma Airway cells Autoimmune disease Monocytes Atheroslerosis Breast Breast Cancer Muscle, smooth, skeletal Cardiopulmonary disease Pancreatic islets, Adipocytes Diabetes, Obesity Liver Schizophrenia Brain regions Autism Neural progenitors Dementia Human Epigenome Assays DNA methylation (shotgun bisulfite, RRBS, MeDIP/MRE) HistoneStatus modifications on November by ChIP8, 2012-seq: (6 core marks, plus others) H3K4me1 334 Tissues/Cell types H3K4me3 Chromatin2092 Epigenome accessibility/Transcriptome by DNAseI assays hypersensitivity H3K9me3 H3K27me3 RNA by ssRNA-seq H3K36me3 miRNA by miRNA-seqH3K27Ac* BE Bernstein et al, Nat Biotech 2010; Zhou, Nature Methods, 2011 Sequencing Epigenomes from Head to Toe Oocyte Fertilized egg Morula Sperm Blastocyst Trophoblast Development of specialized cells S. Yamanaka cells Panceatic islets Intestinal cells Epigenomic analysis of multi-lineage differentiation of hESCs Mapping of DNA methylation
    [Show full text]
  • Profiling Single-Cell Histone Modifications Using Indexing Chromatin Immunocleavage Sequencing
    Downloaded from genome.cshlp.org on October 3, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Method Profiling single-cell histone modifications using indexing chromatin immunocleavage sequencing Wai Lim Ku,1 Lixia Pan,1 Yaqiang Cao, Weiwu Gao, and Keji Zhao Laboratory of Epigenome Biology, Systems Biology Center, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1674, USA Recently, multiple single-cell assays were developed for detecting histone marks at the single-cell level. These techniques are either limited by the low cell throughput or sparse reads which limit their applications. To address these problems, we in- troduce indexing single-cell immunocleavage sequencing (iscChIC-seq), a multiplex indexing method based on TdT terminal transferase and T4 DNA ligase-mediated barcoding strategy and single-cell ChIC-seq, which is capable of readily analyzing histone modifications across tens of thousands of single cells in one experiment. Application of iscChIC-seq to profiling H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 in human white blood cells (WBCs) enabled successful detection of more than 10,000 single cells for each histone modification with 11 K and 45 K nonredundant reads per cell, respectively. Cluster analysis of these data allowed identification of monocytes, T cells, B cells, and NK cells from WBCs. The cell types annotated from H3K4me3 single-cell data are specifically correlated with the cell types annotated from H3K27me3 single-cell data. Our data indicate that iscChIC-seq is a reliable technique for profiling histone modifications in a large number of single cells, which may find broad applications in studying cellular heterogeneity and differentiation status in complex developmental and disease systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Integrated Analysis of Tissue-Specific Promoter Methylation and Gene
    International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article Integrated Analysis of Tissue-Specific Promoter Methylation and Gene Expression Profile in Complex Diseases 1, 1, 1 1 1 Kibaick Lee y, Sanghoon Moon y, Mi-Jin Park , In-Uk Koh , Nak-Hyeon Choi , Ho-Yeong Yu 1, Young Jin Kim 1, Jinhwa Kong 1, Hee Gyung Kang 2 , Song Cheol Kim 3,* and Bong-Jo Kim 1,* 1 Division of Genome Research, Center for Genome Science, Korea National Institute of Health, Chungcheongbuk-do 28519, Korea; [email protected] (K.L.); [email protected] (S.M.); [email protected] (M.-J.P.); [email protected] (I.-U.K.); [email protected] (N.-H.C.); [email protected] (H.-Y.Y.); [email protected] (Y.J.K.); [email protected] (J.K.) 2 Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 03080, Korea; [email protected] 3 Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, AMIST, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 05505, Korea * Correspondence: [email protected] (S.C.K.); [email protected] (B.-J.K.) These authors contributed equally to this work. y Received: 8 June 2020; Accepted: 16 July 2020; Published: 17 July 2020 Abstract: This study investigated whether the promoter region of DNA methylation positively or negatively regulates tissue-specific genes (TSGs) and if it correlates with disease pathophysiology. We assessed tissue specificity metrics in five human tissues, using sequencing-based approaches, including 52 whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), 52 RNA-seq, and 144 chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) data. A correlation analysis was performed between the gene expression and DNA methylation levels of the TSG promoter region.
    [Show full text]
  • Epigenomic Analysis Reveals DNA Motifs Regulating Histone Modifications in Human and Mouse
    Epigenomic analysis reveals DNA motifs regulating histone modifications in human and mouse Vu Ngoa,1, Zhao Chenb,1, Kai Zhanga, John W. Whitakerb, Mengchi Wanga, and Wei Wanga,b,c,2 aGraduate Program of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0359; bDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0359; and cDepartment of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0359 Edited by Steven Henikoff, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, and approved January 3, 2019 (received for review August 6, 2018) Histones are modified by enzymes that act in a locus, cell-type, and An analogy is that a transcription factor (TF) recognizes the same developmental stage-specific manner. The recruitment of enzymes DNA motif but its binding sites are cell-type–dependent. However, if to chromatin is regulated at multiple levels, including interaction we identify all motifs enriched in the TF binding sites across a large with sequence-specific DNA-binding factors. However, the DNA- and diverse set of cell types, the most common motif is likely the one binding specificity of the regulatory factors that orchestrate spe- recognized by the TF. Histone modifications are more complicated cific histone modifications has not been broadly mapped. We have than a single TF binding and one histone mark can be regulated by analyzed 6 histone marks (H3K4me1, H3K4me3, H3K27ac, H3K27me3, K3H9me3, H3K36me3) across 121 human cell types and tissues from multiple factors recognizing different motifs. Therefore, a compar- the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Project as well as 8 histone marks ative analysis across diverse cell types/tissues is critical.
    [Show full text]
  • Chromatin Features Constrain Structural Variation Across Evolutionary Timescales
    Chromatin features constrain structural variation across evolutionary timescales Geoff Fudenberga,1 and Katherine S. Pollarda,b,c,d,e,f,1 aGladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, San Francisco, CA 94158; bDepartment of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158; cInstitute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158; dQuantitative Biology Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158; eInstitute for Computational Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158; and fChan-Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA 94158 Edited by Jasper Rine, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved December 10, 2018 (received for review May 23, 2018) The potential impact of structural variants includes not only the with autism and developmental delay, where deletions occur re- duplication or deletion of coding sequences, but also the pertur- markably uniformly across the genome, and in cancer, where dele- bation of noncoding DNA regulatory elements and structural tions in fact show a slight enrichment for disrupting otherwise chromatin features, including topological domains (TADs). Struc- important features. Together our analyses uncover a genome- tural variants disrupting TAD boundaries have been implicated wide pattern of negative selection against deletions that could po- both in cancer and developmental disease; this likely occurs via tentially alter chromatin structure and lead to enhancer hijacking. “enhancer hijacking,” whereby
    [Show full text]
  • Analysis of Normal Human Mammary Epigenomes Reveals Cell-Specific
    Resource Analysis of Normal Human Mammary Epigenomes Reveals Cell-Specific Active Enhancer States and Associated Transcription Factor Networks Graphical Abstract Authors Davide Pellacani, Misha Bilenky, Nagarajan Kannan, ..., Samuel Aparicio, Martin Hirst, Connie J. Eaves Correspondence [email protected] (M.H.), [email protected] (C.J.E.) In Brief Pellacani et al. present comprehensive histone and DNA modification profiles for four cell types in normal human breast tissue and three immortalized human mammary epithelial cell lines. Analysis of activated enhancers place luminal progenitors in between bipotent progenitor-containing basal cells and nonproliferative luminal cells. Explore consortium data at the Cell Press IHEC webportal at http://www.cell.com/ consortium/IHEC. Highlights d Epigenomes of four normal human breast cell fractions and three cell lines are reported d Luminal progenitor and mature luminal cell epigenomes differ greatly d Enhancers define luminal progenitors as intermediate between basal and luminal cells d Transcription factor binding sites in active enhancers point to distinct regulators Pellacani et al., 2016, Cell Reports 17, 2060–2074 November 15, 2016 ª 2016 The Author(s). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2016.10.058 Cell Reports Resource Analysis of Normal Human Mammary Epigenomes Reveals Cell-Specific Active Enhancer States and Associated Transcription Factor Networks Davide Pellacani,1 Misha Bilenky,2 Nagarajan Kannan,1 Alireza Heravi-Moussavi,2 David J.H.F. Knapp,1 Sitanshu Gakkhar,2 Michelle Moksa,3 Annaick Carles,3 Richard Moore,2 Andrew J. Mungall,2 Marco A. Marra,2 Steven J.M. Jones,2 Samuel Aparicio,4,5 Martin Hirst,2,3,* and Connie J.
    [Show full text]
  • Functions of DNA Methylation: Islands, Start Sites, Gene Bodies and Beyond
    REVIEWS Functions of DNA methylation: islands, start sites, gene bodies and beyond Peter A. Jones Abstract | DNA methylation is frequently described as a ‘silencing’ epigenetic mark, and indeed this function of 5‑methylcytosine was originally proposed in the 1970s. Now, thanks to improved genome-scale mapping of methylation, we can evaluate DNA methylation in different genomic contexts: transcriptional start sites with or without CpG islands, in gene bodies, at regulatory elements and at repeat sequences. The emerging picture is that the function of DNA methylation seems to vary with context, and the relationship between DNA methylation and transcription is more nuanced than we realized at first. Improving our understanding of the functions of DNA methylation is necessary for interpreting changes in this mark that are observed in diseases such as cancer. CpG islands Two key papers in 1975 independently suggested that CpGs is due to deamination of methylated sequences CpG-rich regions of DNA that methylation of cytosine residues in the context of CpG in the germline; CGIs are thought to exist because they are often associated with the dinucleotides could serve as an epigenetic mark in ver- are probably never or only transiently methylated in the transcription start sites of tebrates1,2. These papers proposed that sequences could germline6. However, there is a lot of discussion as to genes and that are also found 7 in gene bodies and intergenic be methylated de novo, that methylation can be inher- exactly what the definition of the CGI should be , and regions. ited through somatic cell divisions by a mechanism although the CpG density of promoters in mammalian involving an enzyme that recognizes hemimethylated genomes has a bimodal distribution, regions with inter- Bisulphite-treated DNA CpG palindromes, that the presence of methyl groups mediate CpG densities also exist8.
    [Show full text]