Establishment, Dynamic Change, and Functional Implications of Three-Dimensional Genome Structure

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 2034

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China
Interests: the establishment mechanisms and dynamic changes of 3D genome architectures during embryo development and cell differentiation; the functional characterization of cis-regulatory elements (the enhancer, silencer, insulator, and promoter), the delineation of their genetic and epigenetic features, and the investigation of their functional mechanisms; the roles of 3D genome architecture and different types of CREs in development and pathogenesis; how CREs and 3D genome structures expand their diversity and functions through evolution and contribute to an increasingly sophisticated control of the gene network

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Guest Editor
College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: methodologies of chromatin conformation data mining and prediction, including the compartment, TAD, and loop

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Three-dimensional genome architectures (including A/B compartments, topologically associating domains (TADs), and chromatin interactions) provide a spatial frame that guides genome organization, dynamic chromatin interaction, and the regulation of gene expression. Disruptions of 3D genome architectures cause the misexpression of genes, leading to developmental disorders and tumorigenesis. Such structural alterations have been observed in many types of cancer. Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in the understanding of 3D chromatin organization principles and their critical roles in gene regulation. Extensive investigations across a wide range of research models revealed that 3D chromatin architectures are relatively conserved; however, they can dynamically reorganize through embryo development, cell division, cell differentiation, pathogenesis, and even evolution as well. In addition, technical innovation and advancements in genetic engineering have allowed for the dissection of the roles of regulatory elements and architectural proteins in establishing, maintaining, and remodelling the 3D chromatin conformation. Although the importance of 3D genome organization in gene regulation is widely accepted, many questions regarding its functional role in transcription control, genome stability maintenance, development, and other important biological activities remain incompletely understood.

This Special Issue aims to focus on the establishment mechanisms (including, but not limited to, the establishment of TADs, compartments, chromatin loops, and chromosome territories) and functional roles of 3D chromatin organization in transcriptional regulation, nuclear positioning effects, selective cisregulatory element targeting, chromatin remodelling, epigenetic modifications, genome stability, and other processes related to the genome. We also welcome manuscripts addressing experimental and computational methods and the latest advancements in chromatin structure analysis, modelling, and engineering.

Prof. Dr. Chunhui Hou
Prof. Dr. Li Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • three-dimensional genome establishment
  • structure change
  • cisregulatory elements
  • transcription regulation
  • genome stability maintenance
  • development
  • differentiation
  • pathogenesis
  • evolution
  • 3D structure engineering

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2926 KiB  
Article
EpiMCI: Predicting Multi-Way Chromatin Interactions from Epigenomic Signals
by Jinsheng Xu, Ping Zhang, Weicheng Sun, Junying Zhang, Wenxue Zhang, Chunhui Hou and Li Li
Biology 2023, 12(9), 1203; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091203 - 3 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1761
Abstract
The recently emerging high-throughput Pore-C (HiPore-C) can identify whole-genome high-order chromatin multi-way interactions with an ultra-high output, contributing to deciphering three-dimensional (3D) genome organization. However, it also brings new challenges to relevant data analysis. To alleviate this problem, we proposed the EpiMCI, a [...] Read more.
The recently emerging high-throughput Pore-C (HiPore-C) can identify whole-genome high-order chromatin multi-way interactions with an ultra-high output, contributing to deciphering three-dimensional (3D) genome organization. However, it also brings new challenges to relevant data analysis. To alleviate this problem, we proposed the EpiMCI, a model for multi-way chromatin interaction prediction based on a hypergraph neural network with epigenomic signals as the input. The EpiMCI integrated separate hyperedge representations with coupling hyperedge information and obtained AUCs of 0.981 and 0.984 in the GM12878 and K562 datasets, respectively, which outperformed the current available method. Moreover, the EpiMCI can be applied to denoise the HiPore-C data and improve the data quality efficiently. Furthermore, the vertex embeddings extracted from the EpiMCI reflected the global chromatin architecture accurately. The principal component analysis suggested that it was well aligned with the activities of genomic regions at the chromatin compartment level. Taken together, the EpiMCI can accurately predict multi-way chromatin interactions and can be applied to studies relying on chromatin architecture. Full article
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