Publications
bioRxivJan 2020 DOI:
10.1101/2020.01.20.906701

Genome-wide discovery of SLE genetic risk variant allelic enhancer activity

Lu, Xiaoming; Chen, Xiaoting; Forney, Carmy; Donmez, Omer; Miller, Daniel; Parameswaran, Sreeja; Hong, Ted; Huang, Yongbo; Pujato, Mario; Cazares, Tareian; Miraldi, Emily R.; Ray, John P.; de Boer, Carl G.; Harley, John B.; Weirauch, Matthew T.; Kottyan, Leah C.
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Abstract
Genome-wide association studies of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) nominate 3,073 genetic variants at 91 risk loci. To systematically screen these variants for allelic transcriptional enhancer activity, we constructed a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) library comprising 12,396 DNA oligonucleotides containing the genomic context around every allele of each SLE variant. Transfection into EBV-infected B cells revealed 482 variants with enhancer activity, with 51 variants showing genotype-dependent (allelic) enhancer activity at 27 risk loci. In-depth analysis of allelic transcription factor (TF) binding at and around these 51 variants identified one class of TFs whose DNA-binding motif tends to be directly altered by the risk variant and a second, larger class of TFs that also bind allelically but do not have their motifs directly altered by the variant. Collectively, our approach provides a blueprint for the discovery of allelic gene regulation at risk loci for any disease and offers insight into the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms underlying SLE.
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