Epigenetic maintenance of topological domains in the rearranged gibbon genome [ChIP-seq]
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: The relationship between evolutionary genome remodeling and the three-dimensional structure of the genome remain largely unexplored. Here we use the heavily rearranged gibbon genome to examine how evolutionary chromosomal rearrangements impact genome-wide chromatin interactions, topologically associating domains (TADs), and their epigenetic landscape. We use high-resolution maps of gibbon-human breaks of synteny (BOS), apply Hi-C in gibbon, measure an array of epigenetic features, and perform cross-species comparisons. We find that gibbon rearrangements occur at TAD boundaries, independent of the parameters used to identify TADs. This overlap is supported by a remarkable genetic and epigenetic similarity between BOS and TAD boundaries, namely presence of CpG islands and SINE elements, and enrichment in CTCF and H3K4me3 binding. Cross-species comparisons reveal that regions orthologous to BOS also correspond with boundaries of large (400-600kb) TADs in human and other mammalian species. The co-localization of rearrangement breakpoints and TAD boundaries may be due to higher chromatin fragility at these locations and/or increased selective pressure against rearrangements that disrupt TAD integrity. We also examine the small portion of BOS that did not overlap with TAD boundaries and gave rise to novel TADs in the gibbon genome. We postulate that these new TADs generally lack deleterious consequences. Lastly, we show that limited epigenetic homogenization occurs across breakpoints, irrespective of their time of occurrence in the gibbon lineage. Overall, our findings demonstrate remarkable conservation of chromatin interactions and epigenetic landscape in gibbons, in spite of extensive genomic shuffling.
Project description:The relationship between evolutionary genome remodeling and the three-dimensional structure of the genome remain largely unexplored. Here we use the heavily rearranged gibbon genome to examine how evolutionary chromosomal rearrangements impact genome-wide chromatin interactions, topologically associating domains (TADs), and their epigenetic landscape. We use high-resolution maps of gibbon-human breaks of synteny (BOS), apply Hi-C in gibbon, measure an array of epigenetic features, and perform cross-species comparisons. We find that gibbon rearrangements occur at TAD boundaries, independent of the parameters used to identify TADs. This overlap is supported by a remarkable genetic and epigenetic similarity between BOS and TAD boundaries, namely presence of CpG islands and SINE elements, and enrichment in CTCF and H3K4me3 binding. Cross-species comparisons reveal that regions orthologous to BOS also correspond with boundaries of large (400-600kb) TADs in human and other mammalian species. The co-localization of rearrangement breakpoints and TAD boundaries may be due to higher chromatin fragility at these locations and/or increased selective pressure against rearrangements that disrupt TAD integrity. We also examine the small portion of BOS that did not overlap with TAD boundaries and gave rise to novel TADs in the gibbon genome. We postulate that these new TADs generally lack deleterious consequences. Lastly, we show that limited epigenetic homogenization occurs across breakpoints, irrespective of their time of occurrence in the gibbon lineage. Overall, our findings demonstrate remarkable conservation of chromatin interactions and epigenetic landscape in gibbons, in spite of extensive genomic shuffling.
Project description:The relationship between evolutionary genome remodeling and the three-dimensional structure of the genome remain largely unexplored. Here we use the heavily rearranged gibbon genome to examine how evolutionary chromosomal rearrangements impact genome-wide chromatin interactions, topologically associating domains (TADs), and their epigenetic landscape. We use high-resolution maps of gibbon-human breaks of synteny (BOS), apply Hi-C in gibbon, measure an array of epigenetic features, and perform cross-species comparisons. We find that gibbon rearrangements occur at TAD boundaries, independent of the parameters used to identify TADs. This overlap is supported by a remarkable genetic and epigenetic similarity between BOS and TAD boundaries, namely presence of CpG islands and SINE elements, and enrichment in CTCF and H3K4me3 binding. Cross-species comparisons reveal that regions orthologous to BOS also correspond with boundaries of large (400-600kb) TADs in human and other mammalian species. The co-localization of rearrangement breakpoints and TAD boundaries may be due to higher chromatin fragility at these locations and/or increased selective pressure against rearrangements that disrupt TAD integrity. We also examine the small portion of BOS that did not overlap with TAD boundaries and gave rise to novel TADs in the gibbon genome. We postulate that these new TADs generally lack deleterious consequences. Lastly, we show that limited epigenetic homogenization occurs across breakpoints, irrespective of their time of occurrence in the gibbon lineage. Overall, our findings demonstrate remarkable conservation of chromatin interactions and epigenetic landscape in gibbons, in spite of extensive genomic shuffling.
Project description:Recent advances enabled by Hi-C technique have unraveled principles of chromosomal folding, which were since linked to many genomic processes. In particular, Hi-C revealed that chromosomes of animals are organized into Topologically Associating Domains (TADs), evolutionary conserved compact chromatin domains that influence gene expression. However, mechanisms that underlie partitioning of the genome into TADs remain poorly understood. To explore principals of TAD folding in Drosophila melanogaster, we performed Hi-C and PolyA+ RNA-seq in four cell lines of various origins (S2, Kc167, DmBG3-c2, and OSC). Contrary to previous studies, we find that regions between TADs (i.e. the inter-TADs and TAD boundaries) in Drosophila are only weakly enriched with the insulator protein dCTCF, while another insulator protein Su(Hw) is preferentially present within TADs. However, Drosophila inter-TADs harbor active chromatin and constitutively transcribed (housekeeping) genes. Accordingly, we find that binding of insulator proteins dCTCF and Su(Hw) predict TAD boundaries much worse than the active chromatin marks (in the minimal case, H3K4me3 and total RNA) do. Moreover, inter-TADs correspond to decompacted interbands of polytene chromosomes, whereas TADs mostly correspond to densely packed bands. Collectively, our results suggest that TADs are condensed chromatin domains depleted in active chromatin marks, separated by regions of active chromatin that cannot be organized into compact structures, possibly due to high levels of histone acetylation. Finally, we test this hypothesis by polymer simulations, and find that TAD partitioning can be explained by different modes of inter-nucleosomal interactions for active and inactive chromatin. Hi-C experiments, PolyA+ RNA profiling and mapping of chromosomal rearrangements in four Drosophila melanogaster cell lines.
Project description:Chromosome rearrangements in small apes are up to 20 times more frequent than in most mammals. Because of their complexity, the full extent of chromosome evolution in these hominoids is not yet fully documented. However, previous work with array painting, BAC-FISH and selective sequencing in two of the four karyomorphs, has shown that high resolution methods can precisely define chromosome breakpoints and map the complex flow of evolutionary chromosome rearrangements. Here we use these tools to precisely define the rearrangements that have occurred in the remaining two karyomorphs, genera Symphalangus (2n=50), and Hoolock (2n=38). This research provides the most comprehensive insight into the evolutionary origins of chromosome rearrangements involved in transforming small apes genome. Bioinformatics analyses of the human-gibbon synteny breakpoints revealed association with transposable elements and segmental duplications providing some insight into the mechanisms that might have promoted rearrangements in small apes. In the near future, the comparison of gibbon genome sequences will provide novel insights to test hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of chromosome evolution. The precise definition of synteny block boundaries and orientation, chromosomal fusions, and centromere repositioning event presented here will facilitate genome sequence assembly for these close relatives of humans.
Project description:Mammalian genomes are organized into megabase-scale topologically associated domains (TADs) that have been proposed to represent large regulatory units. Here we demonstrate that disruption of TADs can cause rewiring of long-range regulatory architecture and result in pathogenic phenotypes. We show that distinct human limb malformations are caused by deletions, inversions, or duplications altering the structure of the TAD-spanning WNT6/IHH/EPHA4/PAX3 locus. Using CRISPR/Cas genome editing, we generated mice with corresponding rearrangements. Both in mouse limb tissue and patient-derived fibroblasts, disease-relevant structural changes cause ectopic interactions between promoters and non-coding DNA, and a cluster of limb enhancers normally associated with Epha4 is misplaced relative to TAD boundaries and drives ectopic limb expression of another gene in the locus. Our results demonstrate the functional importance of TADs for orchestrating gene expression via genome architecture and indicate criteria for predicting the pathogenicity of human structural variants, particularly in non-coding regions of the human genome. RNA-seq profile of developing distal limbs of mutants and WT animals at E11.5
Project description:Mammalian genomes are organized into megabase-scale topologically associated domains (TADs) that have been proposed to represent large regulatory units. Here we demonstrate that disruption of TADs can cause rewiring of long-range regulatory architecture and result in pathogenic phenotypes. We show that distinct human limb malformations are caused by deletions, inversions, or duplications altering the structure of the TAD-spanning WNT6/IHH/EPHA4/PAX3 locus. Using CRISPR/Cas genome editing, we generated mice with corresponding rearrangements. Both in mouse limb tissue and patient-derived fibroblasts, disease-relevant structural changes cause ectopic interactions between promoters and non-coding DNA, and a cluster of limb enhancers normally associated with Epha4 is misplaced relative to TAD boundaries and drives ectopic limb expression of another gene in the locus. Our results demonstrate the functional importance of TADs for orchestrating gene expression via genome architecture and indicate criteria for predicting the pathogenicity of human structural variants, particularly in non-coding regions of the human genome. Circular Chromosome Conformation Capture (4C seq) at the WNT6/IHH/EPHA4/PAX3 locus in human adult fibroblasts (HAF) of adult patients and controls
Project description:Mammalian genomes are organized into megabase-scale topologically associated domains (TADs) that have been proposed to represent large regulatory units. Here we demonstrate that disruption of TADs can cause rewiring of long-range regulatory architecture and result in pathogenic phenotypes. We show that distinct human limb malformations are caused by deletions, inversions, or duplications altering the structure of the TAD-spanning WNT6/IHH/EPHA4/PAX3 locus. Using CRISPR/Cas genome editing, we generated mice with corresponding rearrangements. Both in mouse limb tissue and patient-derived fibroblasts, disease-relevant structural changes cause ectopic interactions between promoters and non-coding DNA, and a cluster of limb enhancers normally associated with Epha4 is misplaced relative to TAD boundaries and drives ectopic limb expression of another gene in the locus. Our results demonstrate the functional importance of TADs for orchestrating gene expression via genome architecture and indicate criteria for predicting the pathogenicity of human structural variants, particularly in non-coding regions of the human genome. Circular Chromosome Conformation Capture (4C seq) at the Wnt6/Ihh/Epha4/Pax3 locus in developing distal limbs of mutants and WT animals at E11.5
Project description:Topological associating domains (TADs) are self-interacting genomic units crucial for shaping gene regulation patterns. Despite their importance, the extent of their evolutionary conservation and its functional implications remain largely unknown. In this study, we generate Hi-C and ChIP-seq data and compare TAD organization across four primate and four rodent species, and characterize the genetic and epigenetic properties of TAD boundaries in correspondence to their evolutionary conservation. We find 14% of all human TAD boundaries to be shared among all eight species (ultraconserved), while 15% are human-specific. Ultraconserved TAD boundaries have stronger insulation strength, CTCF binding, and enrichment of older retrotransposons, compared to species-specific boundaries. CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts of two ultraconserved boundaries in mouse models leads to tissue-specific gene expression changes and morphological phenotypes. Deletion of a human-specific boundary near the autism-related AUTS2 gene results in upregulation of this gene in neurons. Overall, our study provides pertinent TAD boundary evolutionary conservation annotations, and showcase the functional importance of TAD evolution.
Project description:The spatial arrangement of interphase chromosomes in the nucleus is important for gene expression and genome function in animals and in plants. The recently developed Hi-C technology is an efficacious method to investigate genome packing. Here we present a detailed Hi-C map of the three-dimensional genome organization of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We find that local chromatin packing differs from the patterns seen in animals, with kilobasepair-sized segments that have much higher intra-chromosome interaction rates than neighboring regions and which represent a dominant local structural feature of genome conformation in A. thaliana. These regions appear as positive strips on two-dimensional representations of chromatin interaction and they are enriched in epigenetic marks H3K27me3, H3.1 and H3.3. We also identify over 400 insulator-like regions. Furthermore, although topologically associating domains (TADs), which are prominent in animals, are not the dominant feature of A. thaliana genome packing, we found over 1,000 regions that have properties of TAD boundaries, and a similar number of regions similar to the interior of TADs. These insulator-like, TAD-boundary-like, and TAD-interior-like regions show strong enrichment for distinct epigenetic marks, and correlate with gene transcription levels. We conclude that epigenetic modifications, gene density, and transcriptional activity all contribute to shaping the local structure of the A. thaliana nuclear genome.
Project description:Three-dimensional genome structure plays an important role in gene regulation. Globally chromosomes are organized into active and inactive compartments, while at the gene level looping interactions connect promoters to regulatory elements. Topologically Associating Domains (TADs), typically several hundred kilobases in size form an intermediate level of organization. Major questions include how TADs are formed and what their relation is with looping interactions between genes and regulatory elements. Here we performed a focused 5C analysis of a 2.8 Mb region on chromosome 7 surrounding CFTR in a panel of cell types. We find that the same TAD boundaries are present in all cell types, indicating that TADs represent a universal chromosome architecture. Further, we find that these TAD boundaries are present irrespective of expression and looping of genes located between them. In contrast looping interactions between promoters and regulatory elements are cell-type specific and occur mostly within TADs. This is exemplified by the CFTR promoter that in different cell types interacts with distinct sets of distal cell type-specific regulatory elements that are all located within the same TAD. Finally, we find that long-range associations between loci located in different TADs are also detected but these display much lower interaction frequencies than looping interactions within TADs. Interestingly, interactions between TADs are also highly cell type-specific and often involve loci clustered around TAD boundaries. These data point to key roles of invariant TAD boundaries in constraining as well as mediating cell type-specific long-range interactions and gene regulation. We investigated a 2.8 Mb region on Chromosome 7 (hg18 chr7: 115797757-118405450) containing the ENCODE region ENm001 42. The 5C experiment was designed to interrogate looping interactions between HindIII fragments containing transcription start sites (TSSs) and any other HindIII restriction fragment (distal fragments) in the target region. Libraries were generated for five cell lines: Caco2, Calu3, Capan1, GM12878 and HepG2, with two biological replicates for each line. 5C probes were designed at HindIII restriction sites (AAGCTT) using 5C primer design tools previously developed and made publicly available online at our My5C website (http://my5C.umassmed.edu). Probes were designed based on the ENCODE manual region 1 (ENM001) design 25 with additional probes placed throughout the region when appropriate. We also added probes to extend the analysis to include a 700 Kb gene desert region located directly adjacent to ENM001. Probe settings were: U-BLAST, 3; S-BLAST, 100; 15-MER, 3,000; MIN_FSIZE, 250; MAX_FSIZE, 20,000; OPT_TM, 65; OPT_PSIZE, 40. We designed 74 reverse 5C probes, and 605 forward 5C probes.