Rapidly evolving in humans topologically associating domains

TL;DR

This study reveals that human-specific regulatory sequences are concentrated in certain TADs, driving rapid evolution of chromatin structure and regulatory networks in humans compared to other species.

Contribution

It uncovers the extent and impact of human-specific regulatory sequences on TAD and super-enhancer architecture, highlighting their role in chromatin evolution.

Findings

HSGRL are enriched in specific TADs called revTADs.

HSGRL influence the number and size of super-enhancers and TADs.

Chromatin structures in humans show increased regulatory complexity compared to mice.

Abstract

Genome-wide proximity placement analysis of 10,598 HSGRL within the context of the principal regulatory structures of the interphase chromatin, namely topologically-associating domains (TADs) and specific sub-TAD structures termed super-enhancer domains (SEDs) revealed that 0.8%-10.3% of TADs contain more than half of HSGRL. Of the 3,127 TADs in the hESC genome, 24 (0.8%); 53 (1.7%); 259 (8.3%); and 322 (10.3%) harbor 1,110 (52.4%); 1,936 (50.9%); 1,151 (59.6%); and 1,601 (58.3%) HSGRL sequences from four distinct families, respectively. TADs that are enriched for HSGRL and termed rapidly-evolving in humans TADs (revTADs) manifest distinct correlation patterns between HSGRL placements and recombination rates. There are significant enrichment within revTAD boundaries of hESC-enhancers, primate-specific CTCF-binding sites, human-specific RNAPII-binding sites, hCONDELs, and H3K4me3 peaks with human-specific enrichment at TSS in prefrontal cortex neurons (p < 0.0001 in all instances). In hESC genome, 331 of 504 (66%) of SE-harboring TADs contain HSGRL and 68% of SEs co-localize with HSGRL, suggesting that HSGRL rewired SE-driven GRNs within revTADs by inserting novel and/or erasing existing regulatory sequences. Consequently, markedly distinct features of chromatin structures evolved in hESC compared to mouse: the SE quantity is 3-fold higher and the median SE size is significantly larger; concomitantly, the TAD number is increased by 42% while the median TAD size is decreased (p=9.11E-37). Present analyses revealed a global role for HSGRL in increasing both quantity and size of SEs and increasing the number and size reduction of TADs, which may facilitate a convergence of TAD and SED architectures of interphase chromatin and define a trend of increasing regulatory complexity during evolution of GRNs.