Characterization of network hierarchy reflects cell state specificity in genome organization

  1. Yi Qin Gao1,2,3
  1. 1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China;
  2. 2Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China;
  3. 3Changping Laboratory, Beijing, 102206, China
  1. 4 These authors contributed equally to this work.

  • Corresponding author: gaoyq{at}pku.edu.cn
  • Abstract

    Dynamic chromatin structure acts as the regulator of transcription program in crucial processes including cancer and cell development, but a unified framework for characterizing chromatin structural evolution remains to be established. Here, we performed graph inferences on Hi-C data sets and derived the chromatin contact networks. We discovered significant decreases in information transmission efficiencies in chromatin of colorectal cancer (CRC) and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) compared to corresponding normal controls through graph statistics. Using network embedding in the Poincaré disk, the hierarchy depths of chromatin from CRC and T-ALL patients were found to be significantly shallower compared to their normal controls. A reverse trend of change in chromatin structure was observed during early embryo development. We found tissue-specific conservation of hierarchy order in chromatin contact networks. Our findings reveal the top-down hierarchy of chromatin organization, which is significantly attenuated in cancer.

    Footnotes

    • Received August 15, 2022.
    • Accepted January 31, 2023.

    This article is distributed exclusively by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the first six months after the full-issue publication date (see https://genome.cshlp.org/site/misc/terms.xhtml). After six months, it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

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