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SHIELD: A platform for high-throughput screening of barrier DNA elements in human cells

ABSTRACT: Chromatin boundary elements contribute to the partitioning of mammalian genomes into topological domains to regulate gene expression. Certain boundary elements are adopted as DNA insulators for safe and stable transgene expression in mammalian cells. These elements, however, are ill-defined and less characterized in the non-coding genome, partially due to the lack of a platform to readily evaluate boundary-associated activities of putative DNA sequences. Here we report SHIELD (Site-specific Heterochromatin Insertion of Elements at Lamina-associated Domains), a novel platform tailored for the high-throughput screening of barrier-type DNA elements in human cells. SHIELD takes advantage of the high specificity of serine integrase at heterochromatin, and exploits the natural heterochromatin spreading inside LADs for the discovery of potent barrier elements. We adopted SHIELD to evaluate the barrier activity of 1000 DNA elements in a high-throughput manner and identified 8 novel elements with barrier activities comparable to the core region of cHS4 element. SHIELD should greatly facilitate the discovery of novel barrier DNA elements from the non-coding genome in human cells.

ORGANISM(S): synthetic construct Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE236198 | GEO | 2023/08/01

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Abstract: In the yeast S. pombe, multiple chromatin-modifying enzymes are required for heterochromatin formation, yet how their actions alter chromatin structure to block access to DNAby the transcriptional machinery is unknown. We constructed high-resolution nucleosome occupancy maps of heterochromatic regions in wild-type strains and in mutants lacking the H3K9 methyltransferase Clr4 or one of the two activities of the silencing effector complex SHREC. Fourier analysis reveals that these enzymes do not increase the regularity of nucleosome spacing. Rather, their principal effect was to induce the elimination of nucleosome-free regions (NFRs). Both NFRs associated with transcription initiation sites as well as those not associated with promoters are affected. As in S. cerevisiae, repressed genes in euchromatin retain their NFRs. Thus, NFR elimination cannot be explained as a secondary consequence of repression. The maps also show that TFIIIC boundary elements have NFRs resistant to silencing, suggesting a potential role in preventing lateral spread of heterochromatin. NFR elimination offers a mechanism by which heterochromatin restricts access of the transcriptional machinery to DNA. Nucleosome positions in either heterochromatin or euchromatin were mapped in various mutants to determine whether chromatin structure is altered upon heterochromatic silencing. Eight strains were assayed for nucleosome positioning in heterochromatin while two strains were assayed for nucleosome positioning in euchromatin. Two biological replicates were assayed for each strain. No dye swaps were done. RNA transcripts were also mapped using the heterochromatin tiling arrays to determine where RNA transcripts accumulate in heterochromatin. Three strains were assayed for transcripts in heterochromatin by hybridizing cy5-labeled cDNA created from total RNA against cy3-labeled cDNA created from RNA synthesized from sonicated genomic DNA. Two biological replicates were assayed for each strain.

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SHIELD: A platform for high-throughput screening of barrier DNA elements in human cells

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