Unbiased Capture Hi-C reveals the potential targets of breast cancer susceptibility loci
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Genome-wide association studies have identified over 70 common variants that are associated with breast cancer risk. Most of these variants map to non-protein-coding regions; several map to gene deserts, regions of several hundred kb lacking protein-coding genes. We hypothesized that gene deserts harbour long-range regulatory elements that can physically interact with target genes to influence their expression. To test this, we developed Capture Hi-C (CHi-C), which by incorporating a sequence capture step into a Hi-C protocol, allows high-resolution analysis of targeted regions of the genome. We used CHi-C to investigate long-range interactions at three breast cancer gene deserts mapping to 2q35, 8q24.21 and 9q31.2. We identified interaction peaks between putative regulatory elements ("bait fragments") within the captured regions and "targets" that included both protein-coding genes and long non-coding (lnc)RNAs, over distances of 6.6 kb to 2.6 Mb. Target protein-coding genes were IGFBP5, KLF4, NSMCE2 and MYC; target lncRNAs included DIRC3, PVT1 and CCDC26. For two gene deserts we were able to define a set of SNPs that were correlated with the published risk variant and that clustered within the bait end of an interaction peak. Preliminary functional analyses implicate one SNP (rs12613955; 2q35) as a potentially functional variant.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE55634 | GEO | 2014/08/04
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA240252
REPOSITORIES: GEO
ACCESS DATA