Spatial Organization Of Genome Research Articles

Pervasive structural heterogeneity rewires glioblastoma chromosomes to sustain patient-specific transcriptional programs

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) encompasses brain malignancies marked by phenotypic and transcriptional heterogeneity thought to render these tumors aggressive, resistant to therapy, and inevitably recurrent. However, little is known about how the spatial organization of GBM genomes underlies this heterogeneity and its effects. Here, we compile a cohort of 28 patient-derived glioblastoma stem cell-like lines (GSCs) known to reflect the properties of their tumor-of-origin; six of these were primary-relapse tumor pairs from the same patient. We generate and analyze 5 kbp-resolution chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) data from all GSCs to systematically map thousands of standalone and complex structural variants (SVs) and the multitude of neoloops arising as a result. By combining Hi-C, histone modification, and gene expression data with chromatin folding simulations, we explain how the pervasive, uneven, and idiosyncratic occurrence of neoloops sustains tumor-specific transcriptional programs via the formation of new enhancer-promoter contacts. We also show how even moderately recurrent neoloops can relate to patient-specific vulnerabilities. Together, our data provide a resource for dissecting GBM biology and heterogeneity, as well as for informing therapeutic approaches.

The effect of trisomic chromosomes on spatial genome organization and global transcription in embryonic stem cells.

Aneuploidy frequently occurs in cancer and developmental diseases such as Down syndrome, with its functional consequences implicated in dosage effects on gene expression and global perturbation of stress response and cell proliferation pathways. However, how aneuploidy affects spatial genome organization remains less understood. In this study, we addressed this question by utilizing the previously established isogenic wild-type (WT) and trisomic mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). We employed a combination of Hi-C, RNA-seq, chromosome painting and nascent RNA imaging technologies to compare the spatial genome structures and gene transcription among these cells. We found that trisomy has little effect on spatial genome organization at the level of A/B compartment or topologically associating domain (TAD). Inter-chromosomal interactions are associated with chromosome regions with high gene density, active histone modifications and high transcription levels, which are confirmed by imaging. Imaging also revealed contracted chromosome volume and weakened transcriptional activity for trisomic chromosomes, suggesting potential implications for the transcriptional output of these chromosomes. Our data resources and findings may contribute to a better understanding of the consequences of aneuploidy from the angle of spatial genome organization.

Abstract 5676: Spatial 3D genome organization reveals intratumor heterogeneity in primary glioblastoma samples

Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM) represents the most prevalent malignant primary brain tumor with highly unfavorable prognosis. Currently, most genomic studies are conducted at a single site of a tumor, which do not reflect the complete genetic or epigenetic information across the whole tumor. Furthermore, the intra-tumoral heterogeneity (ITH) of 3D genome organization has also not been studied yet. To address these gaps, we performed Hi-C experiments in 21 samples obtained from 9 GBM patients, with 15 of them being spatially mapped based on their 3D coordinates from the same patients. We identified extensive inter-tumoral and intra-tumoral heterogeneity in genome compartmentalization and chromatin interactions. Notably, in a patient with 9 spatially mapped samples from both temporal and frontal regions, we accumulated over 6 billion reads and defined high-resolution region-specific chromatin interactions, regulatory networks, and key regulators within the same patient. We detected structural variation (SV) and enhancer hijacking across all the samples, and identified recurrent events that affect known cancer-related genes such as CDKN2A/B. Finally, we introduce the concept of 'enhancer amputation', defined as the loss of enhancers due to SVs which lead to decreased expression of their original target genes. To our knowledge, this study represents the first large-scale exploration of the 3D genome in primary GBM patients and the first investigation of 3D genome organization in multiple regions of the same tumor. Our findings provide unprecedented insights into the ITH of GBM at the 3D genomic level, opening new avenues for understanding and potentially targeting this devastating disease. Citation Format: Qixuan Wang, Juan Wang, Radhika Mathur, Mark W. Youngblood, Qiushi Jin, Ye Hou, Lena A. Stasiak, Yu Luan, Joseph F. Costello, Feng Yue. Spatial 3D genome organization reveals intratumor heterogeneity in primary glioblastoma samples [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 5676.

Not Only Editing: A Cas-Cade of CRISPR/Cas-Based Tools for Functional Genomics in Plants and Animals.

The advent of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has revolutionized genome editing, enabling the attainment of once-unimaginable goals. CRISPR/Cas's groundbreaking attributes lie in its simplicity, versatility, universality, and independence from customized DNA-protein systems, erasing the need for specialized expertise and broadening its scope of applications. It is therefore more and more used for genome modification including the generation of mutants. Beyond such editing scopes, the recent development of novel or modified Cas-based systems has spawned an array of additional biotechnological tools, empowering both fundamental and applied research. Precisely targeting DNA or RNA sequences, the CRISPR/Cas system has been harnessed in fields as diverse as gene regulation, deepening insights into gene expression, epigenetic changes, genome spatial organization, and chromatin dynamics. Furthermore, it aids in genome imaging and sequencing, as well as effective identification and countering of viral pathogens in plants and animals. All in all, the non-editing aspect of CRISPR/Cas exhibits tremendous potential across diverse domains, including diagnostics, biotechnology, and fundamental research. This article reviews and critically evaluates the primary CRISPR/Cas-based tools developed for plants and animals, underlining their transformative impact.

Non-random spatial organization of telomeres varies during the cell cycle and requires LAP2 and BAF

Spatial genome organization within the nucleus influences major biological processes and is impacted by the configuration of linear chromosomes. Here, we applied 3D spatial statistics and modeling on high-resolution telomere and centromere 3D-structured illumination microscopy images in cancer cells. We found a multi-scale organization of telomeres that dynamically evolved from a mixed clustered-and-regular distribution in early G1 to a purely regular distribution as cells progressed through the cell cycle. In parallel, our analysis revealed two pools of peripheral and internal telomeres, the proportions of which were inverted during the cell cycle. We then conducted a targeted screen using MadID to identify the molecular pathways driving or maintaining telomere anchoring to the nuclear envelope observed in early G1. Lamina-associated polypeptide (LAP) proteins were found transiently localized to telomeres in anaphase, a stage where LAP2α initiates the reformation of the nuclear envelope, and impacted telomere redistribution in the next interphase together with their partner barrier-to-autointegration factor (BAF).

Implications of the three-dimensional chromatin organization for genome evolution in a fungal plant pathogen

The spatial organization of eukaryotic genomes is linked to their biological functions, although it is not clear how this impacts the overall evolution of a genome. Here, we uncover the three-dimensional (3D) genome organization of the phytopathogen Verticillium dahliae, known to possess distinct genomic regions, designated adaptive genomic regions (AGRs), enriched in transposable elements and genes that mediate host infection. Short-range DNA interactions form clear topologically associating domains (TADs) with gene-rich boundaries that show reduced levels of gene expression and reduced genomic variation. Intriguingly, TADs are less clearly insulated in AGRs than in the core genome. At a global scale, the genome contains bipartite long-range interactions, particularly enriched for AGRs and more generally containing segmental duplications. Notably, the patterns observed for V. dahliae are also present in other Verticillium species. Thus, our analysis links 3D genome organization to evolutionary features conserved throughout the Verticillium genus.

Orchestrating chromosome conformation capture analysis with Bioconductor.

Genome-wide chromatin conformation capture assays provide formidable insights into the spatial organization of genomes. However, due to the complexity of the data structure, their integration in multi-omics workflows remains challenging. We present data structures, computational methods and visualization tools available in Bioconductor to investigate Hi-C, micro-C and other 3C-related data, in R. An online book ( https://bioconductor.org/books/OHCA/ ) further provides prospective end users with a number of workflows to process, import, analyze and visualize any type of chromosome conformation capture data.

Abstract B109: Reinforcing risk prediction for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas with AI-optimized nucleotide-to-amino acid analyses

Abstract Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) often precede invasive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, with each IPMN tumor carrying a 10-25% risk of progressing to cancer within 10 years of detection. The objective of this work is to employ AI-augmented analyses of single mutations occurring at specific tri-nucleotide sequences or codons and identify markers associated with the progression of cysts to pancreatic cancer. Despite being precursors of pancreatic cancer there is a lack of validated intervention targets for precision prevention for IPMNs. Currently cancer prevention for patients with IPMN is centered on surgery using a risk-tailored approach; the clinical ability to stratify risk of cancer progression of individual IPMN tumors is poor and essentially no effective non-surgical interventions exist. To advance the precision cancer prevention for IPMNs we develop an intelligent, machine learning (ML) derived framework addressing the challenge of IPMN stratification from samples with limited data space, e.g., somatic mutations. Our study incorporates the text-based statistical and ML analyses of the mutational profiles of patients’ genomes followed by an integration of codon sequence derived mutational features for biomarkers validation. Given the potential of genome spatial organization to understand mutagenesis and genomic instability, we also map the DNA sequence information onto the local spatial genome organization to elucidate intrinsic features and molecular mechanisms that potentially lead to mutations. Results of this study show that information extracted from mutational profiles with the proposed methods significantly improves performance of the ML models in stratification of IPMNs and biomarker identification. We also present how utilization of these ML tools for mutational data, spatial genome organization, and functional analyses from tumor samples, can aid understanding of the underlying mechanisms of mutations in IPMNs and pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Nam Nguyen, Jamie K. Teer, Margaret A. Park, Patricia McDonald, Jason B. Fleming, Jennifer B. Permuth, Kwang-Cheng Chen, Aleksandra Karolak. Reinforcing risk prediction for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas with AI-optimized nucleotide-to-amino acid analyses [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Pancreatic Cancer; 2023 Sep 27-30; Boston, Massachusetts. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B109.

Joint epigenome profiling reveals cell-type-specific gene regulatory programmes in human cortical organoids

Gene expression is regulated by multiple epigenetic mechanisms, which are coordinated in development and disease. However, current multiomics methods are frequently limited to one or two modalities at a time, making it challenging to obtain a comprehensive gene regulatory signature. Here, we describe a method—3D genome, RNA, accessibility and methylation sequencing (3DRAM-seq)—that simultaneously interrogates spatial genome organization, chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation genome-wide and at high resolution. We combine 3DRAM-seq with immunoFACS and RNA sequencing in cortical organoids to map the cell-type-specific regulatory landscape of human neural development across multiple epigenetic layers. Finally, we apply a massively parallel reporter assay to profile cell-type-specific enhancer activity in organoids and to functionally assess the role of key transcription factors for human enhancer activation and function. More broadly, 3DRAM-seq can be used to profile the multimodal epigenetic landscape in rare cell types and different tissues.

Evolutionary insights into 3D genome organization and epigenetic landscape of Vigna mungo.

Eukaryotic genomes show an intricate three-dimensional (3D) organization within the nucleus that regulates multiple biological processes including gene expression. Contrary to animals, understanding of 3D genome organization in plants remains at a nascent stage. Here, we investigate the evolution of 3D chromatin architecture in legumes. By using cutting-edge PacBio, Illumina, and Hi-C contact reads, we report a gap-free, chromosome-scale reference genome assembly of Vigna mungo, an important minor legume cultivated in Southeast Asia. We spatially resolved V. mungo chromosomes into euchromatic, transcriptionally active A compartment and heterochromatic, transcriptionally-dormant B compartment. We report the presence of TAD-like-regions throughout the diagonal of the HiC matrix that resembled transcriptional quiescent centers based on their genomic and epigenomic features. We observed high syntenic breakpoints but also high coverage of syntenic sequences and conserved blocks in boundary regions than in the TAD-like region domains. Our findings present unprecedented evolutionary insights into spatial 3D genome organization and epigenetic patterns and their interaction within the V. mungo genome. This will aid future genomics and epigenomics research and breeding programs of V. mungo.

Emerging roles of nuclear bodies in genome spatial organization.

Nuclear bodies (NBs) are biomolecular condensates that participate in various cellular processes and respond to cellular stimuli in the nucleus. The assembly and function of these protein- and RNA-rich bodies, such as nucleoli, nuclear speckles, and promyelocytic leukemia (PML) NBs, contribute to the spatial organization of the nucleus, regulating chromatin activities locally and globally. Recent technological advancements, including spatial multiomics approaches, have revealed novel roles of nucleoli in modulating ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and adjacent non-rDNA chromatin activity, nuclear speckles in scaffolding active genome architecture, and PML NBs in maintaining genome stability during stress conditions. In this review, we summarize emerging functions of these important NBs in the spatial organization of the genome, aided by recently developed spatial multiomics approaches toward this direction.

Remodeling of the 3D chromatin architecture in the marine microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica during lipid accumulation

BackgroundGenomic three-dimensional (3D) spatial organization plays a key role in shaping gene expression and associated chromatin modification, and it is highly sensitive to environmental stress conditions. In microalgae, exposure to nitrogen stress can drive lipid accumulation, yet the associated functional alterations in the spatial organization of the microalgal genome have yet to be effectively characterized.ResultsAccordingly, the present study employed RNA-seq, Hi-C, and ChIP-seq approaches to explore the relationship between 3D chromosomal architecture and gene expression during lipid accumulation in the marine microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica in response to nitrogen deprivation (ND). These analyses revealed that ND resulted in various changes in chromosomal organization, including A/B compartment transitions, topologically associating domain (TAD) shifts, and the disruption of short-range interactions. Significantly higher levels of gene expression were evident in A compartments and TAD boundary regions relative to B compartments and TAD interior regions, consistent with observed histone modification enrichment in these areas. ND-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were notably enriched in altered TAD-associated regions and regions exhibiting differential genomic contact. These DEGs were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) term analyses that indicated they were enriched in the ‘fatty acid metabolism’, ‘response to stress’, ‘carbon fixation’ and ‘photosynthesis’ functional categories, in line with the ND treatment conditions used to conduct this study. These data indicate that Nannochloropsis cells exhibit a clear association between chromatin organization and transcriptional activity under nitrogen stress conditions. Pronounced and extensive histone modifications were evident in response to ND. Observed changes in chromatin architecture were linked to shifts in histone modifications and gene expression.ConclusionsOverall, the reprogramming of many lipid metabolism-associated genes was evident under nitrogen stress conditions with respect to both histone modifications and chromosomal organization. Together these results revealed that higher-order chromatin architecture represents a new layer that can guide efforts to understand the transcriptional regulation of lipid metabolism in nitrogen-deprived microalgae.

Single-cell Hi-C data Enhancement with Deep Residual and Generative Adversarial Networks.

The spatial genome organization of a eukaryotic cell is important for its function. The development of single-cell technologies for probing the three-dimensional (3D) genome conformation, especially single-cell chromosome conformation capture techniques (ScHi-C), has enabled us to understand genome function better than before. However, due to extreme sparsity and high noise associated with single-cell Hi-C data, it is still difficult to study genome structure and function using the HiC-data of one single cell. In this work, we developed a deep learning method ScHiCEDRN based on deep residual networks and generative adversarial networks for the imputation and enhancement of Hi-C data of a single cell. In terms of both image evaluation and Hi-C reproducibility metrics, ScHiCEDRN outperforms the four deep learning methods (DeepHiC, HiCPlus, HiCSR, and Loopenhance) on enhancing the raw single-cell Hi-C data of human and Drosophila. The experiments also show that it can generate single-cell Hi-C data more suitable for identifying topologically associating domain (TAD) boundaries and reconstructing 3D chromosome structures than the existing methods. Moreover, ScHiCEDRN's performance generalizes well across different single cells and cell types, and it can be applied to improving population Hi-C data. The source code of ScHiCEDRN is available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/BioinfoMachineLearning/ScHiCEDRN. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

High-throughput Oligopaint screen identifies druggable 3D genome regulators.

The human genome functions as a three-dimensional chromatin polymer, driven by a complex collection of chromosome interactions1-3. Although the molecular rules governing these interactions are being quickly elucidated, relatively few proteins regulating this process have been identified. Here, to address this gap, we developed high-throughput DNA or RNA labelling with optimized Oligopaints (HiDRO)-an automated imaging pipeline that enables the quantitative measurement of chromatin interactions in single cells across thousands of samples. By screening the human druggable genome, we identified more than 300 factors that influence genome folding during interphase. Among these, 43 genes were validated as either increasing or decreasing interactions between topologically associating domains. Our findings show that genetic or chemical inhibition of the ubiquitous kinase GSK3A leads to increased long-range chromatin looping interactions in a genome-wide and cohesin-dependent manner. These results demonstrate the importance of GSK3A signalling in nuclear architecture and the use of HiDRO for identifying mechanisms of spatial genome organization.

Abstract A054: Accurate prediction of cohesin-mediated 3D genome organization using 2D chromatin features

Abstract The three-dimensional (3D) genome organization influences diverse nuclear processes. Chromatin interaction analysis by paired-end tag sequencing (ChIA-PET) and High-throughput chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) are powerful methods used to study the 3D genome organization. However, these two experiments are costly, time-consuming, require tens to hundreds of millions of cells, and challenging to optimize and analyze. Predicting ChIA-PET/Hi-C data using cheaper ChIP-Seq data and other easily obtainable features is a useful alternative. Also, it is well-established that the cohesin protein complex is a key determinant of 3D genome organization. Considering this, we present Chromatin Interaction Predictor (ChIPr), a suite of regression models based on deep neural networks (DNN), random forest, and gradient boosting. ChIPr predicts cohesin-mediated chromatin interaction strength between any two given loci in the genome. It was trained mainly using two top-tiered ENCODE cell lines GM12878 and K562 and tested on other cell lines (H1 and HepG2). Comprehensive tests showed that ChIPr predictions correlated well with the original ChIA-PET data at the peak-level resolution and at bin sizes 25kb and 5kb. In addition, ChIPr accurately captured most of the cell-type-dependent loops identified by both, ChIA-PET and Hi-C data, respectively. Extensive feature testing highlighted genomic distance and RAD21 (a cohesin component) ChIP-Seq signals as the most important inputs contributing to ChIPr, in determining the chromatin interaction strength. A standard ChIPr model requires three experimental inputs: ChIP-Seq signals for RAD21, H3K27ac (enhancer/active chromatin mark), and H3K27me3 (inactive chromatin mark). While a reduced model requires a single experiment input: ChIP-Seq signals for RAD21 and performs equally well. Additionally, the use of ChIPr was further extended to predict the contact maps for several prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines whose ChIA-PET data were not available on the ENCODE portal, for instance, RWPE1 and VCaP. We generated the necessary ChIP-seq data for these cell lines to use as input to the model to further examine the changes in the 3D interactions of PCa driver genes and also their isolated neighbourhoods and decipher useful biological insights about the gene regulatory networks involved. Integrative analysis revealed novel insights into the role of CTCF motif, its orientation, and CTCF binding on the prevalence and strength of cohesin-mediated chromatin interactions (~50% - 80% of the RAD21 interactions were enriched with CTCF, < 15% of the interactions had no CTCF ChIP-seq binding in both of the two peaks). Lastly, we also noticed a subset of RAD21 interactions with CTCF binding in only one or none of the two anchor peaks, which were significantly enriched with enhancers. Taken together, this study outlines the general features of genome folding and opens new avenues to analyze spatial genome organization in specimens with limited cell numbers. Citation Format: Khyati Chandratre. Accurate prediction of cohesin-mediated 3D genome organization using 2D chromatin features [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Advances in Prostate Cancer Research; 2023 Mar 15-18; Denver, Colorado. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A054.

Roles of adenine methylation in the physiology of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei

Lacticaseibacillus paracasei is an economically important bacterial species, used in the food industry and as a probiotic. Here, we investigate the roles of N6-methyladenine (6mA) modification in L. paracasei using multi-omics and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) analyses. The distribution of 6mA-modified sites varies across the genomes of 28 strains, and appears to be enriched near genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism. A pglX mutant, defective in 6mA modification, shows transcriptomic alterations but only modest changes in growth and genomic spatial organization.

SATB1 regulates 3D genome architecture in T cells by constraining chromatin interactions surrounding CTCF-binding sites

Special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1 (SATB1) has long been proposed to act as a global chromatin loop organizer in Tcells. However, the exact functions of SATB1 in spatial genome organization remain elusive. Here we show that the depletion of SATB1 in human and murine Tcells leads to transcriptional dysregulation for genes involved in Tcell activation, as well as alterations of 3D genome architecture at multiple levels, including compartments, topologically associating domains, and loops. Importantly, SATB1 extensively colocalizes with CTCF throughout the genome. Depletion of SATB1 leads to increased chromatin contacts among and across the SATB1/CTCF co-occupied sites, thereby affecting the transcription of critical regulators of Tcell activation. The loss of SATB1 does not affect CTCF occupancy but significantly reduces the retention of CTCF in the nuclear matrix. Collectively, our data show that SATB1 contributes to 3D genome organization by constraining chromatin topology surrounding CTCF-binding sites.

Influence of human peripheral blood samples preprocessing on the quality of Hi-C libraries.

The genome-wide variant of the chromatin conformation capture technique (Hi-C) is a powerful tool for revealing patterns of genome spatial organization, as well as for understanding the effects of their disturbance on disease development. In addition, Hi-C can be used to detect chromosomal rearrangements, including balanced translocations and inversions. The use of the Hi-C method for the detection of chromosomal rearrangements is becoming more widespread. Modern high-throughput methods of genome analysis can effectively reveal point mutations and unbalanced chromosomal rearrangements. However, their sensitivity for determining translocations and inversions remains rather low. The storage of whole blood samples can affect the amount and integrity of genomic DNA, and it can distort the results of subsequent analyses if the storage was not under proper conditions. The Hi-C method is extremely demanding on the input material. The necessary condition for successfully applying Hi-C and obtaining high-quality data is the preservation of the spatial chromatin organization within the nucleus. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal storage conditions of blood samples for subsequent Hi-C analysis. We selected 10 different conditions for blood storage and sample processing. For each condition, we prepared and sequenced Hi-C libraries. The quality of the obtained data was compared. As a result of the work, we formulated the requirements for the storage and processing of samples to obtain high-quality Hi-C data. We have established the minimum volume of blood sufficient for conducting Hi-C analysis. In addition, we have identified the most suitable methods for isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and their long-term storage. The main requirement we have formulated is not to freeze whole blood.

Hi-C analysis of genomic contacts revealed karyotype abnormalities in chicken HD3 cell line

BackgroundKaryotype abnormalities are frequent in immortalized continuous cell lines either transformed or derived from primary tumors. Chromosomal rearrangements can cause dramatic changes in gene expression and affect cellular phenotype and behavior during in vitro culture. Structural variations of chromosomes in many continuous mammalian cell lines are well documented, but chromosome aberrations in cell lines from other vertebrate models often remain understudied. The chicken LSCC-HD3 cell line (HD3), generated from erythroid precursors, was used as an avian model for erythroid differentiation and lineage-specific gene expression. However, karyotype abnormalities in the HD3 cell line were not assessed. In the present study, we applied high-throughput chromosome conformation capture to analyze 3D genome organization and to detect chromosome rearrangements in the HD3 cell line.ResultsWe obtained Hi-C maps of genomic interactions for the HD3 cell line and compared A/B compartments and topologically associating domains between HD3 and several other cell types. By analysis of contact patterns in the Hi-C maps of HD3 cells, we identified more than 25 interchromosomal translocations of regions ≥ 200 kb on both micro- and macrochromosomes. We classified most of the observed translocations as unbalanced, leading to the formation of heteromorphic chromosomes. In many cases of microchromosome rearrangements, an entire microchromosome together with other macro- and microchromosomes participated in the emergence of a derivative chromosome, resembling “chromosomal fusions'' between acrocentric microchromosomes. Intrachromosomal inversions, deletions and duplications were also detected in HD3 cells. Several of the identified simple and complex chromosomal rearrangements, such as between GGA2 and GGA1qter; GGA5, GGA4p and GGA7p; GGA4q, GGA6 and GGA19; and duplication of the sex chromosome GGAW, were confirmed by FISH.ConclusionsIn the erythroid progenitor HD3 cell line, in contrast to mature and immature erythrocytes, the genome is organized into distinct topologically associating domains. The HD3 cell line has a severely rearranged karyotype with most of the chromosomes engaged in translocations and can be used in studies of genome structure–function relationships. Hi-C proved to be a reliable tool for simultaneous assessment of the spatial genome organization and chromosomal aberrations in karyotypes of birds with a large number of microchromosomes.

Chromosome conformation capture approaches to investigate 3D genome architecture in Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory arthritis of the spine exhibiting a strong genetic background. The mechanistic and functional understanding of the AS-associated genomic loci, identified with Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), remains challenging. Chromosome conformation capture (3C) and derivatives are recent techniques which are of great help in elucidating the spatial genome organization and of enormous support in uncover a mechanistic explanation for disease-associated genetic variants. The perturbation of three-dimensional (3D) genome hierarchy may lead to a plethora of human diseases, including rheumatological disorders. Here we illustrate the latest approaches and related findings on the field of genome organization, highlighting how the instability of 3D genome conformation may be among the causes of rheumatological disease phenotypes. We suggest a new perspective on the inclusive potential of a 3C approach to inform GWAS results in rheumatic diseases. 3D genome organization may ultimately lead to a more precise and comprehensive functional interpretation of AS association, which is the starting point for emerging and more specific therapies.