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Chromatin insulator elements and associated proteins have been proposed to partition eukaryotic genomes into sets of independently regulated domains. Here we test this hypothesis by quantitative genome-wide analysis of insulator protein binding to Drosophila chromatin. We find distinct combinatorial binding of insulator proteins to different classes of sites and uncover a novel type of insulator element that binds CP190 but not any other known insulator proteins. Functional characterization of different classes of binding sites indicates that only a small fraction act as robust insulators in standard enhancer-blocking assays. We show that insulators restrict the spreading of the H3K27me3 mark but only at a small number of Polycomb target regions and only to prevent repressive histone methylation within adjacent genes that are already transcriptionally inactive. RNAi knockdown of insulator proteins in cultured cells does not lead to major alterations in genome expression. Taken together, these observations argue against the concept of a genome partitioned by specialized boundary elements and suggest that insulators are reserved for specific regulation of selected genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NUT midline carcinoma (NMC), a subtype of squamous cell cancer, is one of the most aggressive human solid malignancies known. NMC is driven by the creation of a translocation oncoprotein, BRD4-NUT, which blocks differentiation and drives growth of NMC cells. BRD4-NUT forms distinctive nuclear foci in patient tumors, which we found correlate with ~100 unprecedented, hyperacetylated expanses of chromatin that reach up to 2 Mb in size. These "megadomains" appear to be the result of aberrant, feed-forward loops of acetylation and binding of acetylated histones that drive transcription of underlying DNA in NMC patient cells and naïve cells induced to express BRD4-NUT. Megadomain locations are typically cell lineage-specific; however, the cMYC and TP63 regions are targeted in all NMCs tested and play functional roles in tumor growth. Megadomains appear to originate from select pre-existing enhancers that progressively broaden but are ultimately delimited by topologically associating domain (TAD) boundaries. Therefore, our findings establish a basis for understanding the powerful role played by large-scale chromatin organization in normal and aberrant lineagespecific gene transcription. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eukaryotic genomes are packaged in two basic forms, euchromatin and heterochromatin. We have examined the composition and organization of Drosophila melanogaster heterochromatin in different cell types using ChIP-array analysis of histone modifications and chromosomal proteins. As anticipated, the pericentric heterochromatin and chromosome 4 are on average enriched for the "silencing" marks H3K9me2, H3K9me3, HP1a, and SU(VAR)3-9, and are generally depleted for marks associated with active transcription. The locations of the euchromatin?"heterochromatin borders identified by these marks are similar in animal tissues and most cell lines, although the amount of heterochromatin is variable in some cell lines. Combinatorial analysis of chromatin patterns reveals distinct profiles for euchromatin, pericentric heterochromatin, and the 4th chromosome. Both silent and active protein-coding genes in heterochromatin display complex patterns of chromosomal proteins and histone modifications; a majority of the active genes exhibit both "activation" marks (e.g., H3K4me3 and H3K36me3) and "silencing" marks (e.g., H3K9me2 and HP1a). The hallmark of active genes in heterochromatic domains appears to be a loss of H3K9 methylation at the transcription start site. We also observe complex epigenomic profiles of intergenic regions, repeated transposable element (TE) sequences, and genes in the heterochromatic extensions. An unexpectedly large fraction of sequences in the euchromatic chromosome arms exhibits a heterochromatic chromatin signature, which differs in size, position, and impact on gene expression among cell types. We conclude that patterns of heterochromatin/euchromatin packaging show greater complexity and plasticity than anticipated. This comprehensive analysis provides a foundation for future studies of gene activity and chromosomal functions that are influenced by or dependent upon heterochromatin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1a) has conserved roles in gene silencing and heterochromatin and is also implicated in transcription, DNA replication, and repair. Here we identify chromatin-associated protein and RNA interactions of HP1a by BioTAP-XL mass spectrometry and sequencing from Drosophila S2 cells, embryos, larvae, and adults. Our results reveal an extensive list of known and novel HP1a-interacting proteins, of which we selected three for validation. A strong novel interactor, dADD1 (Drosophila ADD1) (CG8290), is highly enriched in heterochromatin, harbors an ADD domain similar to human ATRX, displays selective binding to H3K9me2 and H3K9me3, and is a classic genetic suppressor of position-effect variegation. Unexpectedly, a second hit, HIPP1 (HP1 and insulator partner protein-1) (CG3680), is strongly connected to CP190-related complexes localized at putative insulator sequences throughout the genome in addition to its colocalization with HP1a in heterochromatin. A third interactor, the histone methyltransferase MES-4, is also enriched in heterochromatin. In addition to these protein-protein interactions, we found that HP1a selectively associated with a broad set of RNAs transcribed from repetitive regions. We propose that this rich network of previously undiscovered interactions will define how HP1a complexes perform their diverse functions in cells and developing organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA replication initiates from thousands of start sites throughout the Drosophila genome and must be coordinated with other ongoing nuclear processes such as transcription to ensure genetic and epigenetic inheritance. Considerable progress has been made toward understanding how chromatin modifications regulate the transcription program; in contrast, we know relatively little about the role of the chromatin landscape in defining how start sites of DNA replication are selected and regulated. Here, we describe the Drosophila replication program in the context of the chromatin and transcription landscape for multiple cell lines using data generated by the modENCODE consortium. We find that while the cell lines exhibit similar replication programs, there are numerous cell line-specific differences that correlate with changes in the chromatin architecture. We identify chromatin features that are associated with replication timing, early origin usage, and ORC binding. Primary sequence, activating chromatin marks, and DNA-binding proteins (including chromatin remodelers) contribute in an additive manner to specify ORC-binding sites. We also generate accurate and predictive models from the chromatin data to describe origin usage and strength between cell lines. Multiple activating chromatin modifications contribute to the function and relative strength of replication origins, suggesting that the chromatin environment does not regulate origins of replication as a simple binary switch, but rather acts as a tunable rheostat to regulate replication initiation events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterization of intratumoral heterogeneity is critical to cancer therapy, as the presence of phenotypically diverse cell populations commonly fuels relapse and resistance to treatment. Although genetic variation is a well-studied source of intratumoral heterogeneity, the functional impact of most genetic alterations remains unclear. Even less understood is the relative importance of other factors influencing heterogeneity, such as epigenetic state or tumor microenvironment. To investigate the relationship between genetic and transcriptional heterogeneity in a context of cancer progression, we devised a computational approach called HoneyBADGER to identify copy number variation and loss of heterozygosity in individual cells from single-cell RNA-sequencing data. By integrating allele and normalized expression information, HoneyBADGER is able to identify and infer the presence of subclone-specific alterations in individual cells and reconstruct the underlying subclonal architecture. By examining several tumor types, we show that HoneyBADGER is effective at identifying deletions, amplifications, and copy-neutral loss-of-heterozygosity events and is capable of robustly identifying subclonal focal alterations as small as 10 megabases. We further apply HoneyBADGER to analyze single cells from a progressive multiple myeloma patient to identify major genetic subclones that exhibit distinct transcriptional signatures relevant to cancer progression. Other prominent transcriptional subpopulations within these tumors did not line up with the genetic subclonal structure and were likely driven by alternative, nonclonal mechanisms. These results highlight the need for integrative analysis to understand the molecular and phenotypic heterogeneity in cancer., (© 2018 Fan et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.)

Intra-tumoral genetic heterogeneity has been characterized across cancers by genome sequencing of bulk tumors, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In order to more accurately identify subclones, define phylogenetic relationships, and probe genotype-phenotype relationships, we developed methods for targeted mutation detection in DNA and RNA isolated from thousands of single cells from five CLL samples. By clearly resolving phylogenic relationships, we uncovered mutated LCP1 and WNK1 as novel CLL drivers, supported by functional evidence demonstrating their impact on CLL pathways. Integrative analysis of somatic mutations with transcriptional states prompts the idea that convergent evolution generates phenotypically similar cells in distinct genetic branches, thus creating a cohesive expression profile in each CLL sample despite the presence of genetic heterogeneity. Our study highlights the potential for single-cell RNA-based targeted analysis to sensitively determine transcriptional and mutational profiles of individual cancer cells, leading to increased understanding of driving events in malignancy., (© 2017 Wang et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.)

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by high-throughput DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) has become a valuable and widely used approach for mapping the genomic location of transcription-factor binding and histone modifications in living cells. Despite its widespread use, there are considerable differences in how these experiments are conducted, how the results are scored and evaluated for quality, and how the data and metadata are archived for public use. These practices affect the quality and utility of any global ChIP experiment. Through our experience in performing ChIP-seq experiments, the ENCODE and modENCODE consortia have developed a set of working standards and guidelines for ChIP experiments that are updated routinely. The current guidelines address antibody validation, experimental replication, sequencing depth, data and metadata reporting, and data quality assessment. We discuss how ChIP quality, assessed in these ways, affects different uses of ChIP-seq data. All data sets used in the analysis have been deposited for public viewing and downloading at the ENCODE (http://encodeproject.org/ENCODE/) and modENCODE (http://www.modencode.org/) portals.