Articles in 2017

A new study uses a Hi-C technique to demonstrate that condensin has a major role in remodeling interphase chromatin into mitotic chromosomes. This study provides insight into the mechanism whereby a centimeters-long DNA molecule is folded into a micrometers-long rod-shaped chromosome.

Lineage-tracing experiments in the mouse show that Lgr6, but not Lgr5, functions as a cancer stem marker in skin squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). The authors also show that Lgr6-knockout mice are predisposed to SCC development, through a mechanism that includes compensatory upregulation of Lgr5.

High-resolution contact maps of active enhancers and target genes generated by H3K27ac HiChIP in primary human cells provide rational guides to link noncoding disease-associated risk variants to candidate causal genes. Genes are validated by CRISPR activation and interference at connected enhancers and eQTL analysis, leading to a fourfold increase in the number of potential target genes for autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases.

Loss of BAF47 destabilizes the BAF complex on chromatin, and reintroduction of BAF47 leads to enhancer activation and Polycomb opposition at bivalent promoters. BAF47 loss affects BAF and PBAF complexes, which have distinct functions in regulation of enhancers and promoters.

Graphtyper is a fast and scalable method for variant genotyping that aligns short-read sequence data to a pangenome. Graphtyper was able to accurately genotype ∼90 million sequence variants in the whole genomes of ∼28,000 Icelanders, including those in six HLA genes.

Missense mutations affecting lysine 91 in the histone H4 core cause a developmental syndrome marked by growth delay, microcephaly and intellectual disability. These mutations cause genomic instability by interfering with H4K91 ubiquitination, leading to abnormal cell cycle progression and apoptosis during early development.

Robert Graham and colleagues carried out a GWAS meta-analysis for Parkinson's disease (PD) and report 17 new risk loci. Their analyses support a key role for autophagy and lysosomal biology in PD risk.

Melissa Gymrek and colleagues estimate mutation parameters for each short tandem repeat (STR) in the human genome. They find that local sequence features impact these estimates and they create a framework for measuring constraint at STRs by comparing observed and expected mutation rates, providing a tool for prioritizing pathogenic variants.

Steven Gazal, Alkes Price and colleagues extend stratified LD score regression to continuous annotations. They analyze summary statistics from 56 complex diseases and traits and find that SNPs with low levels of linkage disequilibrium have larger per-SNP heritability, consistent with the action of negative selection on deleterious variants that affect complex traits.

Eric Schadt and colleagues present a predictive causal model of the immune component of inflammatory bowel disease through integration of genetic, regulatory and transcriptional data. They prioritize and validate 12 of the top key drivers experimentally in mouse colitis models and human macrophages.

Yoichiro Kamatani and colleagues perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for body mass index using data from 173,430 Japanese individuals. They find 85 significant loci, 51 of which are novel, and use trans-ancestral meta-analysis of GWAS from European samples to identify 61 additional new loci.

David Evans, Brent Richards and colleagues carried out a genome-wide association study in 142,487 individuals from the UK Biobank and identified 153 new loci associated with heel bone mineral density. They also conducted in vivo studies that implicated GPC6 and several other genes in osteoporosis.

Kevin Yip and colleagues report a method for determining the target genes of enhancers in specific cells and tissues by combining global trends across many samples with sample-specific information, and considering the joint effect of multiple enhancers. They apply their method to reconstruct enhancer–target networks in 935 samples of human primary cells, tissues and cell lines.

Danish Saleheen, Benjamin Voight and colleagues perform genome-wide analysis of multi-ancestry cohorts to identify genetic associations with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and coronary heart disease (CHD). They find novel loci and show that 24% of T2D loci are also associated with CHD and that greater genetic risk of T2D increases risk of CHD.

A solution to screening for recessive heritable disorders and identifying genetic influences on common diseases is to be found in the history of one of the world's most populous regions. Large South Asian populations are a mosaic of smaller populations, many of which have founder effects as extreme as those in the European isolates that first inspired genetic medicine.

Genetic and functional analyses of 120 mouse strains have identified a heart regeneration candidate gene that modulates the contractile sarcomeric apparatus. This gene, Tnni3k, controls the frequency of the mononuclear, diploid cardiomyocyte population, which affects cardiomyocyte proliferative potential after injury.

ERG overexpression in prostate cancers promotes the development of widespread changes in gene expression and chromatin landscapes, leading to redistribution of key transcription factors in prostate cancers positive for the TMPRSS2-ERG fusion gene. The overexpression of ERG is further assisted by the development of a super-enhancer in the ERG locus.

An innovative study analyzing genetic association across tree-structured routine healthcare data in the UK Biobank represents a new branch on a tree that is poised to grow rapidly and offer new kinds of insights on how genome variation relates to human health and disease. Indeed, this tree is likely to offer new kinds of insights into the very nature of human disease.