Discovery and functional interrogation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-host protein interactions.

SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of a pandemic with growing global mortality. Using comprehensive identification of RNA-binding proteins by mass spectrometry (ChIRP-MS), we identified 309 host proteins that bind the SARS-CoV-2 RNA during active infection. Integration of this data with ChIRP-MS data from three other RNA viruses defined viral specificity of RNA-host protein interactions. Targeted CRISPR screens revealed that the majority of functional RNA-binding proteins protect the host from virus-induced cell death, and comparative CRISPR screens across seven RNA viruses revealed shared and SARS-specific antiviral factors. Finally, by combining the RNA-centric approach and functional CRISPR screens, we demonstrated a physical and functional connection between SARS-CoV-2 and mitochondria, highlighting this organelle as a general platform for antiviral activity. Altogether, these data provide a comprehensive catalog of functional SARS-CoV-2 RNA-host protein interactions, which may inform studies to understand the host-virus interface and nominate host pathways that could be targeted for therapeutic benefit.

Coupled Single-Cell CRISPR Screening and Epigenomic Profiling Reveals Causal Gene Regulatory Networks.

Here, we present Perturb-ATAC, a method that combines multiplexed CRISPR interference or knockout with genome-wide chromatin accessibility profiling in single cells based on the simultaneous detection of CRISPR guide RNAs and open chromatin sites by assay of transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq). We applied Perturb-ATAC to transcription factors (TFs), chromatin-modifying factors, and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in ∼4,300 single cells, encompassing more than 63 genotype-phenotype relationships. Perturb-ATAC in human B lymphocytes uncovered regulators of chromatin accessibility, TF occupancy, and nucleosome positioning and identified a hierarchy of TFs that govern B cell state, variation, and disease-associated cis-regulatory elements. Perturb-ATAC in primary human epidermal cells revealed three sequential modules of cis-elements that specify keratinocyte fate. Combinatorial deletion of all pairs of these TFs uncovered their epistatic relationships and highlighted genomic co-localization as a basis for synergistic interactions. Thus, Perturb-ATAC is a powerful strategy to dissect gene regulatory networks in development and disease.

Promoter of lncRNA Gene PVT1 Is a Tumor-Suppressor DNA Boundary Element.

Noncoding mutations in cancer genomes are frequent but challenging to interpret. PVT1 encodes an oncogenic lncRNA, but recurrent translocations and deletions in human cancers suggest alternative mechanisms. Here, we show that the PVT1 promoter has a tumor-suppressor function that is independent of PVT1 lncRNA. CRISPR interference of PVT1 promoter enhances breast cancer cell competition and growth in vivo. The promoters of the PVT1 and the MYC oncogenes, located 55 kb apart on chromosome 8q24, compete for engagement with four intragenic enhancers in the PVT1 locus, thereby allowing the PVT1 promoter to regulate pause release of MYC transcription. PVT1 undergoes developmentally regulated monoallelic expression, and the PVT1 promoter inhibits MYC expression only from the same chromosome via promoter competition. Cancer genome sequencing identifies recurrent mutations encompassing the human PVT1 promoter, and genome editing verified that PVT1 promoter mutation promotes cancer cell growth. These results highlight regulatory sequences of lncRNA genes as potential disease-associated DNA elements.

Transcriptome-wide mapping reveals widespread dynamic-regulated pseudouridylation of ncRNA and mRNA.

Pseudouridine is the most abundant RNA modification, yet except for a few well-studied cases, little is known about the modified positions and their function(s). Here, we develop Ψ-seq for transcriptome-wide quantitative mapping of pseudouridine. We validate Ψ-seq with spike-ins and de novo identification of previously reported positions and discover hundreds of unique sites in human and yeast mRNAs and snoRNAs. Perturbing pseudouridine synthases (PUS) uncovers which pseudouridine synthase modifies each site and their target sequence features. mRNA pseudouridinylation depends on both site-specific and snoRNA-guided pseudouridine synthases. Upon heat shock in yeast, Pus7p-mediated pseudouridylation is induced at >200 sites, and PUS7 deletion decreases the levels of otherwise pseudouridylated mRNA, suggesting a role in enhancing transcript stability. rRNA pseudouridine stoichiometries are conserved but reduced in cells from dyskeratosis congenita patients, where the PUS DKC1 is mutated. Our work identifies an enhanced, transcriptome-wide scope for pseudouridine and methods to dissect its underlying mechanisms and function.

A Mutation in the Transcription Factor Foxp3 Drives T Helper 2 Effector Function in Regulatory T Cells.

Regulatory T (Treg) cells maintain immune tolerance through the master transcription factor forkhead box P3 (FOXP3), which is crucial for Treg cell function and homeostasis. We identified an IPEX (immune dysregulation polyendocrinopathy enteropathy X-linked) syndrome patient with a FOXP3 mutation in the domain swap interface of the protein. Recapitulation of this Foxp3 variant in mice led to the development of an autoimmune syndrome consistent with an unrestrained T helper type 2 (Th2) immune response. Genomic analysis of Treg cells by RNA-sequencing, Foxp3 chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput DNA sequencing (ChIP-sequencing), and H3K27ac-HiChIP revealed a specific de-repression of the Th2 transcriptional program leading to the generation of Th2-like Treg cells that were unable to suppress extrinsic Th2 cells. Th2-like Treg cells showed increased intra-chromosomal interactions in the Th2 locus, leading to type 2 cytokine production. These findings identify a direct role for Foxp3 in suppressing Th2-like Treg cells and implicate additional pathways that could be targeted to restrain Th2 trans-differentiated Treg cells.

High-resolution mapping reveals a conserved, widespread, dynamic mRNA methylation program in yeast meiosis.

N(6)-methyladenosine (m(6)A) is the most ubiquitous mRNA base modification, but little is known about its precise location, temporal dynamics, and regulation. Here, we generated genomic maps of m(6)A sites in meiotic yeast transcripts at nearly single-nucleotide resolution, identifying 1,308 putatively methylated sites within 1,183 transcripts. We validated eight out of eight methylation sites in different genes with direct genetic analysis, demonstrated that methylated sites are significantly conserved in a related species, and built a model that predicts methylated sites directly from sequence. Sites vary in their methylation profiles along a dense meiotic time course and are regulated both locally, via predictable methylatability of each site, and globally, through the core meiotic circuitry. The methyltransferase complex components localize to the yeast nucleolus, and this localization is essential for mRNA methylation. Our data illuminate a conserved, dynamically regulated methylation program in yeast meiosis and provide an important resource for studying the function of this epitranscriptomic modification.

Oncogenic Notch Promotes Long-Range Regulatory Interactions within Hyperconnected 3D Cliques.

Chromatin loops enable transcription-factor-bound distal enhancers to interact with their target promoters to regulate transcriptional programs. Although developmental transcription factors such as active forms of Notch can directly stimulate transcription by activating enhancers, the effect of their oncogenic subversion on the 3D organization of cancer genomes is largely undetermined. By mapping chromatin looping genome-wide in Notch-dependent triple-negative breast cancer and B cell lymphoma, we show that beyond the well-characterized role of Notch as an activator of distal enhancers, Notch regulates its direct target genes by instructing enhancer repositioning. Moreover, a large fraction of Notch-instructed regulatory loops form highly interacting enhancer and promoter spatial clusters termed "3D cliques." Loss- and gain-of-function experiments show that Notch preferentially targets hyperconnected 3D cliques that regulate the expression of crucial proto-oncogenes. Our observations suggest that oncogenic hijacking of developmental transcription factors can dysregulate transcription through widespread effects on the spatial organization of cancer genomes.

A distal enhancer at risk locus 11q13.5 promotes suppression of colitis by Treg cells.

Genetic variations underlying susceptibility to complex autoimmune and allergic diseases are concentrated within noncoding regulatory elements termed enhancers1. The functions of a large majority of disease-associated enhancers are unknown, in part owing to their distance from the genes they regulate, a lack of understanding of the cell types in which they operate, and our inability to recapitulate the biology of immune diseases in vitro. Here, using shared synteny to guide loss-of-function analysis of homologues of human enhancers in mice, we show that the prominent autoimmune and allergic disease risk locus at chromosome 11q13.52-7 contains a distal enhancer that is functional in CD4+ regulatory T (Treg) cells and required for Treg-mediated suppression of colitis. The enhancer recruits the transcription factors STAT5 and NF-κB to mediate signal-driven expression of Lrrc32, which encodes the protein glycoprotein A repetitions predominant (GARP). Whereas disruption of the Lrrc32 gene results in early lethality, mice lacking the enhancer are viable but lack GARP expression in Foxp3+ Treg cells, which are unable to control colitis in a cell-transfer model of the disease. In human Treg cells, the enhancer forms conformational interactions with the promoter of LRRC32 and enhancer risk variants are associated with reduced histone acetylation and GARP expression. Finally, functional fine-mapping of 11q13.5 using CRISPR-activation (CRISPRa) identifies a CRISPRa-responsive element in the vicinity of risk variant rs11236797 capable of driving GARP expression. These findings provide a mechanistic basis for association of the 11q13.5 risk locus with immune-mediated diseases and identify GARP as a potential target in their therapy.

Author Correction: Discovery of stimulation-responsive immune enhancers with CRISPR activation.

In this Letter, analysis of steady-state regulatory T (Treg) cell percentages from Il2ra enhancer deletion (EDEL) and wild-type (WT) mice revealed no differences between them (Extended Data Fig. 9d). This analysis included two mice whose genotypes were incorrectly assigned. Even after correction of the genotypes, no significant differences in Treg cell percentages were seen when data across experimental cohorts were averaged (as was done in Extended Data Fig. 9d). However, if we normalize the corrected data to account for variation among experimental cohorts, a subtle decrease in EDEL Treg cell percentages is revealed and, using the corrected and normalized data, we have redrawn Extended Data Fig. 9d in Supplementary Fig. 1. The Supplementary Information to this Amendment contains the corrected and reanalysed Extended Data Fig. 9d. The sentence "This enhancer deletion (EDEL) strain also had no obvious T cell phenotypes at steady state (Extended Data Fig. 9)." should read: "This enhancer deletion (EDEL) strain had a small decrease in the percentage of Treg cells (Extended Data Fig. 9).". This error does not affect any of the main figures in the Letter or the data from mice with the human autoimmune-associated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) knocked in or with a 12-base-pair deletion at the site (12DEL). In addition, we stated in the Methods that we observed consistent immunophenotypes of EDEL mice across three founders, but in fact, we observed consistent phenotypes in mice from two founders. This does not change any of our conclusions and the original Letter has not been corrected.

Dynamic chromatin regulatory landscape of human CAR T cell exhaustion.

Dysfunction in T cells limits the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. We profiled the epigenome, transcriptome, and enhancer connectome of exhaustion-prone GD2-targeting HA-28z chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and control CD19-targeting CAR T cells, which present less exhaustion-inducing tonic signaling, at multiple points during their ex vivo expansion. We found widespread, dynamic changes in chromatin accessibility and three-dimensional (3D) chromosome conformation preceding changes in gene expression, notably at loci proximal to exhaustion-associated genes such as PDCD1, CTLA4, and HAVCR2, and increased DNA motif access for AP-1 family transcription factors, which are known to promote exhaustion. Although T cell exhaustion has been studied in detail in mice, we find that the regulatory networks of T cell exhaustion differ between species and involve distinct loci of accessible chromatin and cis-regulated target genes in human CAR T cell exhaustion. Deletion of exhaustion-specific candidate enhancers of PDCD1 suppress the expression of PD-1 in an in vitro model of T cell dysfunction and in HA-28z CAR T cells, suggesting enhancer editing as a path forward in improving cancer immunotherapy.

Multi-omic profiling reveals early immunological indicators for identifying COVID-19 Progressors.

We sought to better understand the immune response during the immediate post-diagnosis phase of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by identifying molecular associations with longitudinal disease outcomes. Multi-omic analyses identified differences in immune cell composition, cytokine levels, and cell subset-specific transcriptomic and epigenomic signatures between individuals on a more serious disease trajectory (Progressors) as compared to those on a milder course (Non-progressors). Higher levels of multiple cytokines were observed in Progressors, with IL-6 showing the largest difference. Blood monocyte cell subsets were also skewed, showing a comparative decrease in non-classical CD14-CD16+ and intermediate CD14+CD16+ monocytes. In lymphocytes, the CD8+ T effector memory cells displayed a gene expression signature consistent with stronger T cell activation in Progressors. These early stage observations could serve as the basis for the development of prognostic biomarkers of disease risk and interventional strategies to improve the management of severe COVID-19. BACKGROUND: Much of the literature on immune response post-SARS-CoV-2 infection has been in the acute and post-acute phases of infection. TRANSLATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE: We found differences at early time points of infection in approximately 160 participants. We compared multi-omic signatures in immune cells between individuals progressing to needing more significant medical intervention and non-progressors. We observed widespread evidence of a state of increased inflammation associated with progression, supported by a range of epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic signatures. The signatures we identified support other findings at later time points and serve as the basis for prognostic biomarker development or to inform interventional strategies.

Discovery of stimulation-responsive immune enhancers with CRISPR activation.

The majority of genetic variants associated with common human diseases map to enhancers, non-coding elements that shape cell-type-specific transcriptional programs and responses to extracellular cues. Systematic mapping of functional enhancers and their biological contexts is required to understand the mechanisms by which variation in non-coding genetic sequences contributes to disease. Functional enhancers can be mapped by genomic sequence disruption, but this approach is limited to the subset of enhancers that are necessary in the particular cellular context being studied. We hypothesized that recruitment of a strong transcriptional activator to an enhancer would be sufficient to drive target gene expression, even if that enhancer was not currently active in the assayed cells. Here we describe a discovery platform that can identify stimulus-responsive enhancers for a target gene independent of stimulus exposure. We used tiled CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) to synthetically recruit a transcriptional activator to sites across large genomic regions (more than 100 kilobases) surrounding two key autoimmunity risk loci, CD69 and IL2RA. We identified several CRISPRa-responsive elements with chromatin features of stimulus-responsive enhancers, including an IL2RA enhancer that harbours an autoimmunity risk variant. Using engineered mouse models, we found that sequence perturbation of the disease-associated Il2ra enhancer did not entirely block Il2ra expression, but rather delayed the timing of gene activation in response to specific extracellular signals. Enhancer deletion skewed polarization of naive T cells towards a pro-inflammatory T helper (TH17) cell state and away from a regulatory T cell state. This integrated approach identifies functional enhancers and reveals how non-coding variation associated with human immune dysfunction alters context-specific gene programs.

HiChIRP reveals RNA-associated chromosome conformation.

Modular domains of long non-coding RNAs can serve as scaffolds to bring distant regions of the linear genome into spatial proximity. Here, we present HiChIRP, a method leveraging bio-orthogonal chemistry and optimized chromosome conformation capture conditions, which enables interrogation of chromatin architecture focused around a specific RNA of interest down to approximately ten copies per cell. HiChIRP of three nuclear RNAs reveals insights into promoter interactions (7SK), telomere biology (telomerase RNA component) and inflammatory gene regulation (lincRNA-EPS).

An improved ATAC-seq protocol reduces background and enables interrogation of frozen tissues.

We present Omni-ATAC, an improved ATAC-seq protocol for chromatin accessibility profiling that works across multiple applications with substantial improvement of signal-to-background ratio and information content. The Omni-ATAC protocol generates chromatin accessibility profiles from archival frozen tissue samples and 50-µm sections, revealing the activities of disease-associated DNA elements in distinct human brain structures. The Omni-ATAC protocol enables the interrogation of personal regulomes in tissue context and translational studies.

HiChIP: efficient and sensitive analysis of protein-directed genome architecture.

Genome conformation is central to gene control but challenging to interrogate. Here we present HiChIP, a protein-centric chromatin conformation method. HiChIP improves the yield of conformation-informative reads by over 10-fold and lowers the input requirement over 100-fold relative to that of ChIA-PET. HiChIP of cohesin reveals multiscale genome architecture with greater signal-to-background ratios than those of in situ Hi-C.

Expression of the transcription factor ZBTB46 distinguishes human histiocytic disorders of classical dendritic cell origin.

Distinguishing classical dendritic cells from other myeloid cell types is complicated by the shared expression of cell surface markers. ZBTB46 is a zinc finger and BTB domain-containing transcription factor, which is expressed by dendritic cells and committed dendritic cell precursors, but not by plasmacytoid dendritic cells, monocytes, macrophages, or other immune cell populations. In this study, we demonstrate that expression of ZBTB46 identifies human dendritic cell neoplasms. We examined ZBTB46 expression in a range of benign and malignant histiocytic disorders and found that ZBTB46 is able to clearly define the dendritic cell identity of many previously unclassified histiocytic disease subtypes. In particular, all examined cases of Langerhans cell histiocytosis and histiocytic sarcoma expressed ZBTB46, while all cases of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, juvenile xanthogranuloma, Rosai-Dorfman disease, and Erdheim-Chester disease failed to demonstrate expression of ZBTB46. Moreover, ZBTB46 expression clarified the identity of diagnostically challenging neoplasms, such as cases of indeterminate cell histiocytosis, classifying a fraction of these entities as dendritic cell malignancies. These findings clarify the lineage origins of human histiocytic disorders and distinguish dendritic cell disorders from all other myeloid neoplasms.

Shade avoidance components and pathways in adult plants revealed by phenotypic profiling.

Shade from neighboring plants limits light for photosynthesis; as a consequence, plants have a variety of strategies to avoid canopy shade and compete with their neighbors for light. Collectively the response to foliar shade is called the shade avoidance syndrome (SAS). The SAS includes elongation of a variety of organs, acceleration of flowering time, and additional physiological responses, which are seen throughout the plant life cycle. However, current mechanistic knowledge is mainly limited to shade-induced elongation of seedlings. Here we use phenotypic profiling of seedling, leaf, and flowering time traits to untangle complex SAS networks. We used over-representation analysis (ORA) of shade-responsive genes, combined with previous annotation, to logically select 59 known and candidate novel mutants for phenotyping. Our analysis reveals shared and separate pathways for each shade avoidance response. In particular, auxin pathway components were required for shade avoidance responses in hypocotyl, petiole, and flowering time, whereas jasmonic acid pathway components were only required for petiole and flowering time responses. Our phenotypic profiling allowed discovery of seventeen novel shade avoidance mutants. Our results demonstrate that logical selection of mutants increased success of phenotypic profiling to dissect complex traits and discover novel components.

Transcriptome-wide mapping of 5-methylcytidine RNA modifications in bacteria, archaea, and yeast reveals m5C within archaeal mRNAs.

The presence of 5-methylcytidine (m(5)C) in tRNA and rRNA molecules of a wide variety of organisms was first observed more than 40 years ago. However, detection of this modification was limited to specific, abundant, RNA species, due to the usage of low-throughput methods. To obtain a high resolution, systematic, and comprehensive transcriptome-wide overview of m(5)C across the three domains of life, we used bisulfite treatment on total RNA from both gram positive (B. subtilis) and gram negative (E. coli) bacteria, an archaeon (S. solfataricus) and a eukaryote (S. cerevisiae), followed by massively parallel sequencing. We were able to recover most previously documented m(5)C sites on rRNA in the four organisms, and identified several novel sites in yeast and archaeal rRNAs. Our analyses also allowed quantification of methylated m(5)C positions in 64 tRNAs in yeast and archaea, revealing stoichiometric differences between the methylation patterns of these organisms. Molecules of tRNAs in which m(5)C was absent were also discovered. Intriguingly, we detected m(5)C sites within archaeal mRNAs, and identified a consensus motif of AUCGANGU that directs methylation in S. solfataricus. Our results, which were validated using m(5)C-specific RNA immunoprecipitation, provide the first evidence for mRNA modifications in archaea, suggesting that this mode of post-transcriptional regulation extends beyond the eukaryotic domain.

Chromatin activity identifies differential gene regulation across human ancestries.

BACKGROUND: Current evidence suggests that cis-regulatory elements controlling gene expression may be the predominant target of natural selection in humans and other species. Detecting selection acting on these elements is critical to understanding evolution but remains challenging because we do not know which mutations will affect gene regulation. RESULTS: To address this, we devise an approach to search for lineage-specific selection on three critical steps in transcriptional regulation: chromatin activity, transcription factor binding, and chromosomal looping. Applying this approach to lymphoblastoid cells from 831 individuals of either European or African descent, we find strong signals of differential chromatin activity linked to gene expression differences between ancestries in numerous contexts, but no evidence of functional differences in chromosomal looping. Moreover, we show that enhancers rather than promoters display the strongest signs of selection associated with sites of differential transcription factor binding. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our study indicates that some cis-regulatory adaptation may be more easily detected at the level of chromatin than DNA sequence. This work provides a vast resource of genomic interaction data from diverse human populations and establishes a novel selection test that will benefit future study of regulatory evolution in humans and other species.

Multi-omic Profiling Reveals Early Immunological Indicators for Identifying COVID-19 Progressors.

The pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to a rapid response by the scientific community to further understand and combat its associated pathologic etiology. A focal point has been on the immune responses mounted during the acute and post-acute phases of infection, but the immediate post-diagnosis phase remains relatively understudied. We sought to better understand the immediate post-diagnosis phase by collecting blood from study participants soon after a positive test and identifying molecular associations with longitudinal disease outcomes. Multi-omic analyses identified differences in immune cell composition, cytokine levels, and cell subset-specific transcriptomic and epigenomic signatures between individuals on a more serious disease trajectory (Progressors) as compared to those on a milder course (Non-progressors). Higher levels of multiple cytokines were observed in Progressors, with IL-6 showing the largest difference. Blood monocyte cell subsets were also skewed, showing a comparative decrease in non-classical CD14-CD16+ and intermediate CD14+CD16+ monocytes. Additionally, in the lymphocyte compartment, CD8+ T effector memory cells displayed a gene expression signature consistent with stronger T cell activation in Progressors. Importantly, the identification of these cellular and molecular immune changes occurred at the early stages of COVID-19 disease. These observations could serve as the basis for the development of prognostic biomarkers of disease risk and interventional strategies to improve the management of severe COVID-19.