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Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zuber, V; Bettella, F; Witoelar, A; PRACTICAL Consortium, ; CRUK GWAS, ; BCAC Consortium, ; TRICL Consortium, ; Andreassen, OA; Mills, IG ...
Published in: BMC Genomics
March 31, 2017

BACKGROUND: Epigenetic information can be used to identify clinically relevant genomic variants single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of functional importance in cancer development. Super-enhancers are cell-specific DNA elements, acting to determine tissue or cell identity and driving tumor progression. Although previous approaches have been tried to explain risk associated with SNPs in regulatory DNA elements, so far epigenetic readers such as bromodomain containing protein 4 (BRD4) and super-enhancers have not been used to annotate SNPs. In prostate cancer (PC), androgen receptor (AR) binding sites to chromatin have been used to inform functional annotations of SNPs. RESULTS: Here we establish criteria for enhancer mapping which are applicable to other diseases and traits to achieve the optimal tissue-specific enrichment of PC risk SNPs. We used stratified Q-Q plots and Fisher test to assess the differential enrichment of SNPs mapping to specific categories of enhancers. We find that BRD4 is the key discriminant of tissue-specific enhancers, showing that it is more powerful than AR binding information to capture PC specific risk loci, and can be used with similar effect in breast cancer (BC) and applied to other diseases such as schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to evaluate the enrichment of epigenetic readers in genome-wide associations studies for SNPs within enhancers, and provides a powerful tool for enriching and prioritizing PC and BC genetic risk loci. Our study represents a proof of principle applicable to other diseases and traits that can be used to redefine molecular mechanisms of human phenotypic variation.

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Published In

BMC Genomics

DOI

EISSN

1471-2164

Publication Date

March 31, 2017

Volume

18

Issue

1

Start / End Page

270

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Transcription Factors
  • Receptors, Androgen
  • Quantitative Trait Loci
  • Protein Binding
  • Prostatic Neoplasms
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Organ Specificity
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Male
  • Humans
 

Citation

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Chicago
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Zuber, V., Bettella, F., Witoelar, A., PRACTICAL Consortium, ., CRUK GWAS, ., BCAC Consortium, ., … Urbanucci, A. (2017). Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer. BMC Genomics, 18(1), 270. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-017-3620-y
Zuber, Verena, Francesco Bettella, Aree Witoelar, Aree PRACTICAL Consortium, Aree CRUK GWAS, Aree BCAC Consortium, Aree TRICL Consortium, Ole A. Andreassen, Ian G. Mills, and Alfonso Urbanucci. “Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer.BMC Genomics 18, no. 1 (March 31, 2017): 270. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-017-3620-y.
Zuber V, Bettella F, Witoelar A, PRACTICAL Consortium, CRUK GWAS, BCAC Consortium, et al. Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer. BMC Genomics. 2017 Mar 31;18(1):270.
Zuber, Verena, et al. “Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer.BMC Genomics, vol. 18, no. 1, Mar. 2017, p. 270. Pubmed, doi:10.1186/s12864-017-3620-y.
Zuber V, Bettella F, Witoelar A, PRACTICAL Consortium, CRUK GWAS, BCAC Consortium, TRICL Consortium, Andreassen OA, Mills IG, Urbanucci A. Bromodomain protein 4 discriminates tissue-specific super-enhancers containing disease-specific susceptibility loci in prostate and breast cancer. BMC Genomics. 2017 Mar 31;18(1):270.
Journal cover image

Published In

BMC Genomics

DOI

EISSN

1471-2164

Publication Date

March 31, 2017

Volume

18

Issue

1

Start / End Page

270

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Transcription Factors
  • Receptors, Androgen
  • Quantitative Trait Loci
  • Protein Binding
  • Prostatic Neoplasms
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Organ Specificity
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Male
  • Humans