scholarly journals Determining cellular CTCF and cohesin abundances to constrain 3D genome models

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Cattoglio ◽  
Iryna Pustova ◽  
Nike Walther ◽  
Jaclyn J. Ho ◽  
Merle Hantsche-Grininger ◽  
...  

Achieving a quantitative and predictive understanding of 3D genome architecture remains a major challenge, as it requires quantitative measurements of the key proteins involved. Here we report the quantification of CTCF and cohesin, two causal regulators of topologically associating domains (TADs) in mammalian cells. Extending our previous imaging studies (Hansen et al., 2017), we estimate bounds on the density of putatively DNA loop-extruding cohesin complexes and CTCF binding site occupancy. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation studies of an endogenously tagged subunit (Rad21) suggest the presence of cohesin dimers and/or oligomers. Finally, based on our cell lines with accurately measured protein abundances, we report a method to conveniently determine the number of molecules of any Halo-tagged protein in the cell. We anticipate that our results and the established tool for measuring cellular protein abundances will advance a more quantitative understanding of 3D genome organization, and facilitate protein quantification, key to comprehend diverse biological processes.

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Cattoglio ◽  
Iryna Pustova ◽  
Nike Walther ◽  
Jaclyn J Ho ◽  
Merle Hantsche-Grininger ◽  
...  

Achieving a quantitative and predictive understanding of 3D genome architecture remains a major challenge, as it requires quantitative measurements of the key proteins involved. Here, we report the quantification of CTCF and cohesin, two causal regulators of topologically associating domains (TADs) in mammalian cells. Extending our previous imaging studies (Hansen et al., 2017), we estimate bounds on the density of putatively DNA loop-extruding cohesin complexes and CTCF binding site occupancy. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation studies of an endogenously tagged subunit (Rad21) suggest the presence of cohesin dimers and/or oligomers. Finally, based on our cell lines with accurately measured protein abundances, we report a method to conveniently determine the number of molecules of any Halo-tagged protein in the cell. We anticipate that our results and the established tool for measuring cellular protein abundances will advance a more quantitative understanding of 3D genome organization, and facilitate protein quantification, key to comprehend diverse biological processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Braccioli ◽  
Elzo de Wit

Abstract Orchestrating vertebrate genomes require a complex interplay between the linear composition of the genome and its 3D organization inside the nucleus. This requires the function of specialized proteins, able to tune various aspects of genome organization and gene regulation. The CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is a DNA binding factor capable of regulating not only the 3D genome organization, but also key aspects of gene expression, including transcription activation and repression, RNA splicing, and enhancer/promoter insulation. A growing body of evidence proposes that CTCF, together with cohesin contributes to DNA loop formation and 3D genome organization. CTCF binding sites are mutation hotspots in cancer, while mutations in CTCF itself lead to intellectual disabilities, emphasizing its importance in disease etiology. In this review we cover various aspects of CTCF function, revealing the polyvalence of this factor as a highly diversified tool for vertebrate genome organization and transcription regulation.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam G Diehl ◽  
Ningxin Ouyang ◽  
Alan P Boyle

AbstractBackgroundChromatin looping is exceedingly important to gene regulation and a host of other nuclear processes. Many recent insights into 3D chromatin structure across species and cell types have contributed to our understanding of the principles governing chromatin looping. However, 3D genome evolution and how it relates to Mendelian selection remain largely unexplored. CTCF, an insulator protein found at most loop anchors, has been described as the “master weaver” of mammalian genomes, and variations in CTCF occupancy are known to influence looping divergence. A large fraction of mammalian CTCF binding sites fall within transposable elements (TEs) but their contributions to looping variation are unknown. Here we investigated the effect of TE-driven CTCF binding site expansions on chromatin looping in human and mouse.ResultsTEs have broadly contributed to CTCF binding and loop boundary specification, primarily forming variable loops across species and cell types and contributing nearly 1/3 of species-specific and cell-specific loops.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that TE activity is a major source of looping variability across species and cell types. Thus, TE-mediated CTCF expansions explain a large fraction of population-level looping variation and may play a role in adaptive evolution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscillia Lhoumaud ◽  
Sana Badri ◽  
Javier Rodriguez-Hernaez ◽  
Theodore Sakellaropoulos ◽  
Gunjan Sethia ◽  
...  

Abstract CTCF and cohesin play a key role in organizing chromatin into topologically associating domain (TAD) structures. Disruption of a single CTCF binding site is sufficient to change chromosomal interactions leading to alterations in chromatin modifications and gene regulation. However, the extent to which alterations in chromatin modifications can disrupt 3D chromosome organization leading to transcriptional changes is unknown. In multiple myeloma, a 4;14 translocation induces overexpression of the histone methyltransferase, NSD2, resulting in expansion of H3K36me2 and shrinkage of antagonistic H3K27me3 domains. Using isogenic cell lines producing high and low levels of NSD2, here we find oncogene activation is linked to alterations in H3K27ac and CTCF within H3K36me2 enriched chromatin. A logistic regression model reveals that differentially expressed genes are significantly enriched within the same insulated domain as altered H3K27ac and CTCF peaks. These results identify a bidirectional relationship between 2D chromatin and 3D genome organization in gene regulation.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscillia Lhoumaud ◽  
Sana Badri ◽  
Javier Rodriguez Hernaez ◽  
Theodore Sakellaropoulos ◽  
Gunjan Sethia ◽  
...  

AbstractCTCF and cohesin play a key role in organizing chromatin into TAD structures. Disruption of a single CTCF binding site is sufficient to change chromosomal interactions leading to alterations in chromatin modifications and gene regulation. However, the extent to which alterations in chromatin modifications can disrupt 3D chromosome organization leading to transcriptional changes is unknown. In multiple myeloma a 4;14 translocation induces overexpression of the histone methyltransferase, NSD2 resulting in expansion of H3K36me2 and shrinkage of antagonistic H3K27me3 domains. Using isogenic cell lines producing high and low levels of NSD2, we find oncogene activation is linked to alterations in H3K27ac and CTCF within H3K36me2 enriched chromatin. A linear regression model reveals that changes in both CTCF and/or H3K27ac significantly increase the probability that a gene sharing the same insulated domain will be differentially expressed. These results identify a bidirectional relationship between 2D chromatin and 3D genome organization in gene regulation.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayank NK Choudhary ◽  
Ryan Z Friedman ◽  
Julia T Wang ◽  
Hyo Sik Jang ◽  
Xiaoyu Zhuo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTTransposable elements (TEs) make up half of mammalian genomes and shape genome regulation by harboring binding sites for regulatory factors. These include architectural proteins—such as CTCF, RAD21 and SMC3—that are involved in tethering chromatin loops and marking domain boundaries. The 3D organization of the mammalian genome is intimately linked to its function and is remarkably conserved. However, the mechanisms by which these structural intricacies emerge and evolve have not been thoroughly probed. Here we show that TEs contribute extensively to both the formation of species-specific loops in humans and mice via deposition of novel anchoring motifs, as well as to the maintenance of conserved loops across both species via CTCF binding site turnover. The latter function demonstrates the ability of TEs to contribute to genome plasticity and reinforce conserved genome architecture as redundant loop anchors. Deleting such candidate TEs in human cells leads to a collapse of such conserved loop and domain structures. These TEs are also marked by reduced DNA methylation and bear mutational signatures of hypomethylation through evolutionary time. TEs have long been considered a source of genetic innovation; by examining their contribution to genome topology, we show that TEs can contribute to regulatory plasticity by inducing redundancy and potentiating genetic drift locally while conserving genome architecture globally, revealing a paradigm for defining regulatory conservation in the noncoding genome beyond classic sequence-level conservation.One-sentence summaryCo-option of transposable elements maintains conserved 3D genome structures via CTCF binding site turnover in human and mouse.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Musaddeque Ahmed ◽  
Fraser Soares ◽  
Ji-Han Xia ◽  
Yue Yang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
...  

AbstractProstate cancer (PCa) risk-associated SNPs are enriched in noncoding cis-regulatory elements (rCREs), yet their modi operandi and clinical impact remain elusive. Here, we perform CRISPRi screens of 260 rCREs in PCa cell lines. We find that rCREs harboring high risk SNPs are more essential for cell proliferation and H3K27ac occupancy is a strong indicator of essentiality. We also show that cell-line-specific essential rCREs are enriched in the 8q24.21 region, with the rs11986220-containing rCRE regulating MYC and PVT1 expression, cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in a cell-line-specific manner, depending on DNA methylation-orchestrated occupancy of a CTCF binding site in between this rCRE and the MYC promoter. We demonstrate that CTCF deposition at this site as measured by DNA methylation level is highly variable in prostate specimens, and observe the MYC eQTL in the 8q24.21 locus in individuals with low CTCF binding. Together our findings highlight a causal mechanism synergistically driven by a risk SNP and DNA methylation-mediated 3D genome architecture, advocating for the integration of genetics and epigenetics in assessing risks conferred by genetic predispositions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene de Cesare ◽  
Criseida G. Zamora-Chimal ◽  
Lorena Postiglione ◽  
Mahmoud Khazim ◽  
Elisa Pedone ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTExtracting quantitative measurements from time-lapse images is necessary in external feedback control applications, where segmentation results are used to inform control algorithms. While such image segmentation applications have been previously reported, there is in the literature a lack of open-source and documented code for the community. We describe ChipSeg, a computational tool to segment bacterial and mammalian cells cultured in microfluidic devices and imaged by time-lapse microscopy. The method is based on thresholding and uses the same core functions for both cell types. It allows to segment individual cells in high cell-density microfluidic devices, to quantify fluorescence protein expression over a time-lapse experiment and to track individual cells. ChipSeg enables robust segmentation in external feedback control experiments and can be easily customised for other experimental settings and research aims.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michi Miura ◽  
Paola Miyazato ◽  
Yorifumi Satou ◽  
Yuetsu Tanaka ◽  
Charles R.M. Bangham

Background:The human retrovirus HTLV-1 inserts the viral complementary DNA of 9 kb into the host genome. Both plus- and minus-strands of the provirus are transcribed, respectively from the 5′ and 3′ long terminal repeats (LTR). Plus-strand expression is rapid and intense once activated, whereas the minus-strand is transcribed at a lower, more constant level. To identify how HTLV-1 transcription is regulated, we investigated the epigenetic modifications associated with the onset of spontaneous plus-strand expression and the potential impact of the host factor CTCF.Methods:Patient-derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in vitro HTLV-1-infected T cell clones were examined. Cells were stained for the plus-strand-encoded viral protein Tax, and sorted into Tax+and Tax–populations. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and methylated DNA immunoprecipitation were performed to identify epigenetic modifications in the provirus. Bisulfite-treated DNA fragments from the HTLV-1 LTRs were sequenced. Single-molecule RNA-FISH was performed, targeting HTLV-1 transcripts, for the estimation of transcription kinetics. The CRISPR/Cas9 technique was applied to alter the CTCF-binding site in the provirus, to test the impact of CTCF on the epigenetic modifications.Results:Changes in the histone modifications H3K4me3, H3K9Ac and H3K27Ac were strongly correlated with plus-strand expression. DNA in the body of the provirus was largely methylated except for the pX and 3′ LTR regions, regardless of Tax expression. The plus-strand promoter was hypomethylated when Tax was expressed. Removal of CTCF had no discernible impact on the viral transcription or epigenetic modifications.Conclusions:The histone modifications H3K4me3, H3K9Ac and H3K27Ac are highly dynamic in the HTLV-1 provirus: they show rapid change with the onset of Tax expression, and are reversible. The HTLV-1 provirus has an intrinsic pattern of epigenetic modifications that is independent of both the provirus insertion site and the chromatin architectural protein CTCF which binds to the HTLV-1 provirus.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Himadewi ◽  
Xue Qing David Wang ◽  
Fan Feng ◽  
Haley Gore ◽  
Yushuai Liu ◽  
...  

Mutations in the adult β-globin gene can lead to a variety of hemoglobinopathies, including sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia. An increase in fetal hemoglobin expression throughout adulthood, a condition named Hereditary Persistence of Fetal Hemoglobin (HPFH), has been found to ameliorate hemoglobinopathies. Deletional HPFH occurs through the excision of a significant portion of the 3 prime end of the β-globin locus, including a CTCF binding site termed 3'HS1. Here, we show that the deletion of this CTCF site alone induces fetal hemoglobin expression in both adult CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and HUDEP-2 erythroid progenitor cells. This induction is driven by the ectopic access of a previously postulated distal enhancer located in the OR52A1 gene downstream of the locus, which can also be insulated by the inversion of the 3'HS1 CTCF site. This suggests that genetic editing of this binding site can have therapeutic implications to treat hemoglobinopathies.


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