Xueqiu Lin, Yanxia Liu, Shuai Liu, Xiang Zhu, Lingling Wu, Yanyu Zhu, Dehua Zhao, Xiaoshu Xu, Augustine Chemparathy, Haifeng Wang, Yaqiang Cao, Muneaki Nakamura, Jasprina N Noordermeer, Marie La Russa, Wing Hung Wong, Keji Zhao, Lei S Qi
Mammalian genomes possess multiple enhancers spanning an ultralong distance (>megabases) to modulate important genes, yet it is unclear how these enhancers coordinate to achieve this task. Here, we combine multiplexed CRISPRi screening with machine learning to define quantitative enhancer-enhancer interactions. We find that the ultralong distance enhancer network possesses a nested multi-layer architecture that confers functional robustness of gene expression. Experimental characterization reveals that enhancer epistasis is maintained by three-dimensional chromosomal interactions and BRD4 condensation...
August 11, 2022: Science