Transcription imparts architecture, function and logic to enhancer units.

ABSTRACT: Distal enhancers play pivotal roles in development and disease yet remain one of the least understood regulatory elements. We used massively parallel reporter assays to perform functional comparisons of two leading enhancer models and find that gene-distal transcription start sites are robust predictors of active enhancers with higher resolution than histone modifications. We show that active enhancer units are precisely delineated by active transcription start sites, validate that these boundaries are sufficient for capturing enhancer function, and confirm that core promoter sequences are necessary for this activity. We assay adjacent enhancers and find that their joint activity is often driven by the stronger unit within the cluster. Finally, we validate these results through functional

SUBMITTER: Tippens ND 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7541647 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature