Project description:This data includes regulatory factor profiling using ChIP-seq. Cells were grown according to the approved ENCODE cell culture protocols. Cells were crosslinked with 1% formaldehyde, and the reaction was quenched by the addition of glycine. Fixed cells were rinsed with PBS, lysed in nuclei lysis buffer, and the chromatin was sheared to 200-500 bp fragments using Fisher Dismembrator (model 500). Sheared chromatin fragments were immunoprecipitated with specific polyclonal antibodies at 4 degrees C with gentle rotation. Antibody-chromatin complexes were washed and eluted. The cross linking in immunoprecipitated DNA was reversed and treated with RNase-A. Following proteinase K treatment, the DNA fragments were purified by phenol-chloroform-isoamyl alcohol extraction and ethanol precipitation. 20-50 ng of ChIP DNA was end-repaired, adenine ligated to Illumina adapters was added, and then a Solexa library was made for sequencing. ChIP-seq affinity is directly reflected in raw tag density (Raw Signal), which is shown in the track as density of tags mapping within a 150 bp sliding window (at a 20 bp step across the genome). ChIP-seq affinity zones (HotSpots) were identified using the HotSpot algorithm described in Sabo et al. (2004). 1.0% false discovery rate thresholds (FDR 0.01) were computed for each cell type by applying the HotSpot algorithm to an equivalent number of random uniquely mapping 36mers. ChIP-seq affinity (Peaks) were identified as signal peaks within FDR 1.0% hypersensitive zones using a peak-finding algorithm.
Project description:Regulation of gene expression during cell development and differentiation is chiefly orchestrated by distal noncoding regulatory elements that precisely modulate cell selective gene activity. Gene therapy vectors rely on the cellular and context specificity of regulatory DNA elements to express therapeutic transgenes in the correct location and time. Here, we develop a straight-forward, one-shot approach to screen putative regulatory sequences identified in large-scale epigenomics profiling experiments for precise and programmable control of transgenes encoded within gene therapy viral vectors. We designed a library of 15,000 short sequences (~200bp) derived from a set of developmentally active DHS elements during human ex vivo erythropoiesis and cloned them into a GFP reporter lentiviral vector. In an erythroid progenitor cell line, these elements display a gradient of transcriptional enhancer activity, with some demonstrating equivalent activity to the canonical β-globin μLCR despite a 9-fold smaller size. We show that these elements are both highly cell type restricted and developmental stage specific both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we replace the μLCR element with one of the novel short enhancers in a β-thalassemia lentiviral therapeutic vector and efficiently correct the thalassemic phenotype in patient-derived HSPCs. More broadly, our approach provides further insights into enhancer biology with wider implications into the development of highly cell type specific and efficacious viral vectors for human gene therapy.
Project description:Regulation of gene expression during cell development and differentiation is chiefly orchestrated by distal noncoding regulatory elements that precisely modulate cell selective gene activity. Gene therapy vectors rely on the cellular and context specificity of regulatory DNA elements to express therapeutic transgenes in the correct location and time. Here, we develop a straight-forward, one-shot approach to screen putative regulatory sequences identified in large-scale epigenomics profiling experiments for precise and programmable control of transgenes encoded within gene therapy viral vectors. We designed a library of 15,000 short sequences (~200bp) derived from a set of developmentally active DHS elements during human ex vivo erythropoiesis and cloned them into a GFP reporter lentiviral vector. In an erythroid progenitor cell line, these elements display a gradient of transcriptional enhancer activity, with some demonstrating equivalent activity to the canonical β-globin μLCR despite a 9-fold smaller size. We show that these elements are both highly cell type restricted and developmental stage specific both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we replace the μLCR element with one of the novel short enhancers in a β-thalassemia lentiviral therapeutic vector and efficiently correct the thalassemic phenotype in patient-derived HSPCs. More broadly, our approach provides further insights into enhancer biology with wider implications into the development of highly cell type specific and efficacious viral vectors for human gene therapy.
Project description:Regulation of gene expression during cell development and differentiation is chiefly orchestrated by distal noncoding regulatory elements that precisely modulate cell selective gene activity. Gene therapy vectors rely on the cellular and context specificity of regulatory DNA elements to express therapeutic transgenes in the correct location and time. Here, we develop a straight-forward, one-shot approach to screen putative regulatory sequences identified in large-scale epigenomics profiling experiments for precise and programmable control of transgenes encoded within gene therapy viral vectors. We designed a library of 15,000 short sequences (~200bp) derived from a set of developmentally active DHS elements during human ex vivo erythropoiesis and cloned them into a GFP reporter lentiviral vector. In an erythroid progenitor cell line, these elements display a gradient of transcriptional enhancer activity, with some demonstrating equivalent activity to the canonical β-globin μLCR despite a 9-fold smaller size. We show that these elements are both highly cell type restricted and developmental stage specific both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we replace the μLCR element with one of the novel short enhancers in a β-thalassemia lentiviral therapeutic vector and efficiently correct the thalassemic phenotype in patient-derived HSPCs. More broadly, our approach provides further insights into enhancer biology with wider implications into the development of highly cell type specific and efficacious viral vectors for human gene therapy.
Project description:Regulation of gene expression during cell development and differentiation is chiefly orchestrated by distal noncoding regulatory elements that precisely modulate cell selective gene activity. Gene therapy vectors rely on the cellular and context specificity of regulatory DNA elements to express therapeutic transgenes in the correct location and time. Here, we develop a straight-forward, one-shot approach to screen putative regulatory sequences identified in large-scale epigenomics profiling experiments for precise and programmable control of transgenes encoded within gene therapy viral vectors. We designed a library of 15,000 short sequences (~200bp) derived from a set of developmentally active DHS elements during human ex vivo erythropoiesis and cloned them into a GFP reporter lentiviral vector. In an erythroid progenitor cell line, these elements display a gradient of transcriptional enhancer activity, with some demonstrating equivalent activity to the canonical β-globin μLCR despite a 9-fold smaller size. We show that these elements are both highly cell type restricted and developmental stage specific both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we replace the μLCR element with one of the novel short enhancers in a β-thalassemia lentiviral therapeutic vector and efficiently correct the thalassemic phenotype in patient-derived HSPCs. More broadly, our approach provides further insights into enhancer biology with wider implications into the development of highly cell type specific and efficacious viral vectors for human gene therapy.
Project description:Insulators help separate active chromatin domains from silenced ones. In yeast, gene promoters act as insulators to block the spread of Sir and HP1 mediated silencing while in metazoans most insulators are multipartite autonomous entities. tDNAs are repetitive sequences dispersed throughout the human genome and we now show that some of these tDNAs can function as insulators in human cells. Using computational methods, we identified putative human tDNA insulators. Using silencer blocking, transgene protection and repressor blocking assays we show that some of these tDNA-containing fragments can function as barrier insulators in human cells. We find that these elements also have the ability to block enhancers from activating RNA pol II transcribed promoters. Characterization of a putative tDNA insulator in human cells reveals that the site possesses chromatin signatures similar to those observed at other better-characterized eukaryotic insulators. Enhanced 4C analysis demonstrates that the tDNA insulator makes long-range chromatin contacts with other tDNAs and ETC sites but not with intervening or flanking RNA pol II transcribed genes.
Project description:A growing body of evidence suggests that insulators have a primary role in orchestrating the topological arrangement of higher-order chromatin architecture. Insulator-mediated long-range interactions can influence the epigenetic status of the genome and, in certain contexts, may have important effects on gene expression. Here we discuss higher-order chromatin organization as a unifying mechanism for diverse insulator actions across the genome.
Project description:We trained Segway, a dynamic Bayesian network method, simultaneously on chromatin data from multiple experiments, including positions of histone modifications, transcription-factor binding and open chromatin, all derived from a human chronic myeloid leukemia cell line. In an unsupervised fashion, we identified patterns associated with transcription start sites, gene ends, enhancers, transcriptional regulator CTCF-binding regions and repressed regions. Software and genome browser tracks are at http://noble.gs.washington.edu/proj/segway/.
Project description:Chromatin insulators are functionally conserved DNA-protein complexes that are situated throughout the genome and organize independent transcriptional domains. Previous work implicated RNA as an important cofactor in chromatin insulator activity, although the mechanisms by which RNA affects insulator activity are not yet understood. Here we identify the exosome, the highly conserved major cellular 3’ to 5’ RNA degradation machinery, as a physical interactor of CP190-dependent chromatin insulator complexes in Drosophila. High resolution genome-wide profiling of exosome by ChIP-seq in two different embryonic cell lines reveals extensive and specific overlap with the CP190, BEAF-32, and CTCF insulator proteins. Colocalization occurs mainly at promoters but also well-characterized boundary elements, such as scs, scs’, Mcp, and Fab-8. Surprisingly, exosome associates primarily with promoters but not gene bodies, arguing against simple cotranscriptional recruitment to RNA substrates. We find that exosome is recruited to chromatin in a transcription dependent manner, preferentially to highly transcribed genes. Similar to insulator proteins, exosome is also significantly enriched at divergently transcribed promoters. Directed ChIP of exosome in cell lines depleted of insulator proteins shows that CTCF is specifically required for exosome association at Mcp and Fab-8 but not other sites, suggesting that alternate mechanisms must also contribute to exosome chromatin recruitment. Taken together, our results reveal a novel relationship between exosome and chromatin insulators throughout the genome. ChIP-seq of exosome components. RNA-seq after control and exosome subunit knockdown in Drosophila cell lines.