Browse Articles

The three-dimensional organization of mammalian chromosomes can regulate transcription. Whether transcription itself influences genome structure has remained a source of debate. Using sensitive genome-wide readouts, two recent studies describe the involvement of transcription on genome architecture by different mechanisms.

Identifying the ways that a study sample is not representative is essential for maximizing the generalizability of findings to the population. A new method proposes discerning non-representativeness in large-scale genetic studies by comparing the genotypes of closely related participants.

Polygenic Priority Score (PoPS) prioritizes candidate effector genes at complex trait loci by integrating genome-wide association summary statistics with other data types. Combining PoPS with methods that leverage local genetic signals further improves the performance.

A new methodology to study participation genetics via analyzing shared and unshared genotypes is applied to the UK Biobank, suggesting that participating in genetic studies is a complex trait with a meaningful genetic component.

Perturbation of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) via chemical inhibition or dTAG-induced degradation and analysis using Micro-C and run-on sequencing show that enhancer–promoter contacts are dependent on transcription and stabilized by paused RNA Pol II.

Slide-seq profiling of mouse embryos at the onset of organogenesis (embryonic days 8.5–9.5) coupled with a new three-dimensional reconstruction and visualization tool (sc3D) provides high-resolution maps of spatiotemporal gene expression dynamics.

A comparison of fetal hemoglobin gene editing strategies using human sickle cell disease donor cells and in vivo transplantation finds that adenine base editing of the –175A>G site in the γ-globin gene promoters results in durable and potent expression.

G4access is a nuclease-based method for identifying DNA G-quadruplex forming regions genome-wide in open chromatin using sequencing. Application across a range of cell types and species highlights associations of G-quadruplexes with various epigenetic and regulatory features.

Single large-scale mitochondrial DNA deletions cause a spectrum of disease with differing severities and tissue expressivity. Quantification of single-cell deletion levels with multi-modal cellular readouts provides insights into hematopoietic cell fate and disease manifestation.

GLIMPSE2 is an improved method using sparse models for accurate, efficient and cost-effective genotype imputation in low-coverage whole-genome sequencing data.

Single-cell analyses of immune cells from patients with pathogenic, single large-scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions including Pearson syndrome describe heteroplasmy dynamics consistent with purifying selection, as well as T-cell state-specific regulatory mechanisms and metabolic vulnerabilities.

GATA2 regulatory mutations are associated with hereditary congenital facial paresis in humans. A genetically engineered mouse model recapitulates the human phenotype, showing altered neuron-specific Gata2 expression and a bias in formation of inner-ear efferent neurons over facial branchial motor neurons.

SHAPEIT5, a phasing method that accurately processes large sequencing datasets, was applied on the UK Biobank whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing data to generate reference panels of haplotypes that boost imputation accuracy and enable the detection of compound heterozygous loss-of-function events for 549 genes.

Multitrait genome-wide association analyses identify hundreds of risk loci for primary open-angle glaucoma. Integration with other data types highlights potential new drug targets, including proteins likely to act via the optic nerve.

Cross-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analyses of neuroimaging genetics data from European and East Asian populations identified 339 genetic variant–hippocampal volumetric trait associations (23 new). Further cross-ancestry analyses revealed similar genetic effects on hippocampal volumetric traits between ancestries, with improved fine-mapping precision and predictive accuracy of polygenic scores in the under-represented East Asian population.

Transcriptomic analysis of BCR-ABL1 lymphoblastic leukemia identifies three subgroups, each associated with a maturation arrest at a specific stage of B-cell progenitor differentiation and distinct genetic and clinical features.

Genome-wide association analyses identify 30 risk loci for IgA nephropathy. Functional annotations of putative causal genes converge on inflammatory signaling pathways and cytokine ligand–receptor pairs, prioritizing potential new drug targets.