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Genomics for statisticians 1: Enhancers

Enhancers are segments of DNA that increase the expression of a nearby gene. This post provides an overview enhancer biology and detection of enhancers at scale.


Author

Affiliation

Tim Barry

 

Published

May 27, 2020

DOI


Table of Contents


This is the first post in a series called Genomics for Statisticians. In this series I will explore some important ideas in modern genomics from the perspective of a non-biologist. When I began research in statistical genomics, I quickly discovered that my knowledge of genomics was not quite up to par. This series is the result of my effort to fill that gap. I hope other researchers in genomics who do not have extensive formal training in biology (e.g., statisticians, computer scientists) will find this series helpful as well. The posts should be reasonably self-contained. My goal is to explore concepts at the level of a college biology class, roughly. The first post in the series in on enhancers.

Introduction

Review of chromatin and transcription

Structure of DNA, chromatin, and chromosomes


A nucleosome, which consists of an 8-histone core, a strand of DNA wrapped twice around the histone core, and an H1 histone to help anchor the DNA in place.



Nucleosomes are arranged to form chromosomes.


Changes in chromatin structure

Transcription of genes

Review of enhancer biology


An enhancer modulating the expression of a gene.


Methods for enhancer identification at scale

CRISPR-based methods for enhancer identification at scale

References

  1. Toward a comprehensive catalog of validated and target-linked human enhancers (Gasperini, Tome, and Shendure 2020).

  2. Genetics: A conceptual approach (Pierce 2014).

  3. Image 1 source.

  4. Image 2 source.

  5. Image 3 source.

Footnotes