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Article
Dissecting the chromatin interactome of microRNA genes.
Faculty Research 2014
  • Dijun Chen
  • Liang-Yu Fu
  • Zhao Zhang
  • Guoliang Li, The Jackson Laboratory
  • Hang Zhang
  • Li Jiang
  • Andrew P Harrison
  • Hugh P Shanahan
  • Christian Klukas
  • Hong-Yu Zhang
  • Yijun Ruan, The Jackson Laboratory
  • Ling-Ling Chen
  • Ming Chen
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2014
JAX Source
Nucleic Acids Res 2014 Mar 1; 42(5):3028-43.
PMID
24357409
Abstract

Our knowledge of the role of higher-order chromatin structures in transcription of microRNA genes (MIRs) is evolving rapidly. Here we investigate the effect of 3D architecture of chromatin on the transcriptional regulation of MIRs. We demonstrate that MIRs have transcriptional features that are similar to protein-coding genes. RNA polymerase II-associated ChIA-PET data reveal that many groups of MIRs and protein-coding genes are organized into functionally compartmentalized chromatin communities and undergo coordinated expression when their genomic loci are spatially colocated. We observe that MIRs display widespread communication in those transcriptionally active communities. Moreover, miRNA-target interactions are significantly enriched among communities with functional homogeneity while depleted from the same community from which they originated, suggesting MIRs coordinating function-related pathways at posttranscriptional level. Further investigation demonstrates the existence of spatial MIR-MIR chromatin interacting networks. We show that groups of spatially coordinated MIRs are frequently from the same family and involved in the same disease category. The spatial interaction network possesses both common and cell-specific subnetwork modules that result from the spatial organization of chromatin within different cell types. Together, our study unveils an entirely unexplored layer of MIR regulation throughout the human genome that links the spatial coordination of MIRs to their co-expression and function. Nucleic Acids Res 2014 Mar 1; 42(5):3028-43.

Citation Information
Dijun Chen, Liang-Yu Fu, Zhao Zhang, Guoliang Li, et al.. "Dissecting the chromatin interactome of microRNA genes." Vol. 42 Iss. 5 (2014) p. 3028 - 3043 ISSN: 1362-4962
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/zhao-zhang/1/