bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.10.443359; this version posted May 10, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.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 4.0 International license. Pioneer transcription factors are associated with the modulation of DNA methylation patterns across cancers Roza Berhanu Lemma1, Thomas Fleischer2, Emily Martinsen1,3, Vessela N. Kristensen4,5, Ragnhild Eskeland3, Odd Stokke Gabrielsen6, and Anthony Mathelier1,4,* 1 Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM), Nordic EMBL Partnership, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 2 Department of Cancer Genetics, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 3 Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Molecular Medicine, and Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 4 Department of Medical Genetics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 5 Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 6 Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. * To whom correspondence should be addressed; email:
[email protected] Abstract Methylation of cytosines on DNA is a prominent modification associated with gene expression regulation. Aberrant DNA methylation patterns have recurrently been linked to dysregulation of the regulatory program in cancer cells. To shed light on the underlying molecular mechanism driving this process, we hypothesized that aberrant methylation patterns could be controlled by the binding of specific transcription factors (TFs) across cancer types. By combining DNA methylation arrays and gene expression data with TF binding sites (TFBSs), we explored the interplay between TF binding and DNA methylation in 19 cancer cohorts.