Bidirectional transcription initiation marks accessible chromatin and is not specific to enhancers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Enhancers are modular regulatory elements that are central to the spatial and temporal regulation of gene expression. Bidirectional transcription initiating at enhancers has been proposed to mark active enhancers and as such has been utilized to experimentally identify active enhancers de novo.

Results

Here, we show that bidirectional transcription initiation is a pervasive feature of accessible chromatin, including at enhancers, promoters, and other DNase hypersensitive regions not marked with canonical histone modification profiles. Transcription is less predictive for enhancer activity than epigenetic modifications such as H3K4me1 or the accessibility of DNA when measured both in enhancer assays and at endogenous loci. The stability of enhancer initiated transc

SUBMITTER: Young RS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5747114 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature