Topologically associating domains are ancient features that coincide with Metazoan clusters of extreme noncoding conservation.

ABSTRACT: Developmental genes in metazoan genomes are surrounded by dense clusters of conserved noncoding elements (CNEs). CNEs exhibit unexplained extreme levels of sequence conservation, with many acting as developmental long-range enhancers. Clusters of CNEs define the span of regulatory inputs for many important developmental regulators and have been described previously as genomic regulatory blocks (GRBs). Their function and distribution around important regulatory genes raises the question of how they relate to 3D conformation of these loci. Here, we show that clusters of CNEs strongly coincide with topological organisation, predicting the boundaries of hundreds of topologically associating domains (TADs) in human and Drosophila. The set of TADs that are associated with high levels of noncodin

SUBMITTER: Harmston N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5585340 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature