Genome Architecture from a Different Angle

Abstract

The study of genome architecture has recently been advanced by new techniques combining nuclear proximity ligation and high-throughput sequencing, but independent methods to validate them have been lacking. Reporting in Nature, Beagrie et al. (2017) describe such an orthogonal technique, called genome architecture mapping, to map genomes in 3D space.

Figure 1.. Schematics of Methodology of Genome Architecture Mapping and C-methods

In genome architecture mapping: physically proximal regions are selected by taking a thin section of the nuclei; individual cells are selected via microdissection; whole genomes of each nuclear section are sequenced; and interaction frequency is approximated by the number of times two loci were found in the same slice. In C-methods: physically proximal regions are selected by crosslinking, digest, and subsequent ligation; the ligation junctions are then sequenced; and interaction frequency is approximated by the number of times a given ligation junction is observed. While individual cell-level data can be generated after FACS sorting, this is not routinely done in standard C-methods.