Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. Connecting genetic variation with gene expression and other phenotypes is a major goal of genomic science. Gene expression patterns vary widely among different cell and tissue types, and also regionally within a tissue. The impact of genetic variation on gene expression patterns is thus expected to differ substantially between tissues. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) is establishing resource databases to enable comprehensive analysis of tissue gene expression profiles and their connection with individual genotypes. Most variants linked to individual variation in human gene expression lie in non-coding regions of the genome;of these, a proportion is expected to directly impact gene regulation through perturbation of regulatory DNA regions. Systematic understanding of the impact of genetic variation on gene expression will thus require both comprehensive delineation of regulatory DNA, and an understanding of the degree to which actuation of individual regulatory regions varies at the population level. In this proposal we aim to empower the central goal of GTEx -- connecting genotype to gene expression patterns -- for diverse human tissues by comprehensively delineating regulatory DNA at very high resolution, and systematically identifying genetic variants that impact its function through abrogation of regulatory factor binding and perturbation of local chromatin architecture. We will apply high-resolution genome-scale mapping of DNaseI hypersensitive sites to comprehensively delineate regulatory DNA within tissue samples from a multi-ethnic population accrued by the GTEx project. We will also apply genomic DNaseI footprinting at genome-scale and in a targeted fashion to map transcription factor occupancy within regulatory DNA at nucleotide resolution.
How changes in genome sequence affect the function of genes and the production of protein products is one of the most important and intensive areas of investigation in modern biology. It is expected that more detailed knowledge of this connection will lead to a greater ability to read and interpret the human genome sequence and enable diverse applications related to human health, including improved ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent many common and rare diseases. The focus of this project is on gaining such an understanding for diverse human tissue types.
| Mercer, Tim R; Edwards, Stacey L; Clark, Michael B et al. (2013) DNase I-hypersensitive exons colocalize with promoters and distal regulatory elements. Nat Genet 45:852-9 |
