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Chromosome-level organization of the regulatory genome in the Drosophila nervous system

ABSTRACT: Past studies have identified topologically associating domains (TADs) as basic units of genome organization. Here, we present evidence for a new level of genome folding, whereby distant TAD pairs megabases apart interact to form meta-domains. Within meta-domains, gene promoters and structural intergenic elements present in distant TADs are specifically paired. The associated genes encode neuronal determinants, including those engaged in axonal guidance and adhesion. These long-range associations occur in a large fraction of neurons but support transcription in only a subset of neurons. Meta-domains are formed by diverse transcription factors that are able to pair over long and flexible distances. We present evidence that two such factors, GAF and CTCF, play direct roles in this process. The relative simplicity of higher-order meta-domain interactions in Drosophila, compared with those previously described in mammals, allowed the demonstration that genomes can fold into highly specialized cell type-specific scaffolds that enable megabase-scale regulatory associations.

ORGANISM(S): Drosophila melanogaster

PROVIDER: GSE228095 | GEO | 2023/08/01

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Three-dimensional genome structure plays an important role in gene regulation. Globally chromosomes are organized into active and inactive compartments, while at the gene level looping interactions connect promoters to regulatory elements. Topologically Associating Domains (TADs), typically several hundred kilobases in size form an intermediate level of organization. Major questions include how TADs are formed and what their relation is with looping interactions between genes and regulatory elements. Here we performed a focused 5C analysis of a 2.8 Mb region on chromosome 7 surrounding CFTR in a panel of cell types. We find that the same TAD boundaries are present in all cell types, indicating that TADs represent a universal chromosome architecture. Further, we find that these TAD boundaries are present irrespective of expression and looping of genes located between them. In contrast looping interactions between promoters and regulatory elements are cell-type specific and occur mostly within TADs. This is exemplified by the CFTR promoter that in different cell types interacts with distinct sets of distal cell type-specific regulatory elements that are all located within the same TAD. Finally, we find that long-range associations between loci located in different TADs are also detected but these display much lower interaction frequencies than looping interactions within TADs. Interestingly, interactions between TADs are also highly cell type-specific and often involve loci clustered around TAD boundaries. These data point to key roles of invariant TAD boundaries in constraining as well as mediating cell type-specific long-range interactions and gene regulation. We investigated a 2.8 Mb region on Chromosome 7 (hg18 chr7: 115797757-118405450) containing the ENCODE region ENm001 42. The 5C experiment was designed to interrogate looping interactions between HindIII fragments containing transcription start sites (TSSs) and any other HindIII restriction fragment (distal fragments) in the target region. Libraries were generated for five cell lines: Caco2, Calu3, Capan1, GM12878 and HepG2, with two biological replicates for each line. 5C probes were designed at HindIII restriction sites (AAGCTT) using 5C primer design tools previously developed and made publicly available online at our My5C website (http://my5C.umassmed.edu). Probes were designed based on the ENCODE manual region 1 (ENM001) design 25 with additional probes placed throughout the region when appropriate. We also added probes to extend the analysis to include a 700 Kb gene desert region located directly adjacent to ENM001. Probe settings were: U-BLAST, 3; S-BLAST, 100; 15-MER, 3,000; MIN_FSIZE, 250; MAX_FSIZE, 20,000; OPT_TM, 65; OPT_PSIZE, 40. We designed 74 reverse 5C probes, and 605 forward 5C probes.

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Chromosome-level organization of the regulatory genome in the Drosophila nervous system

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