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In vivo characterization of regulatory polymorphisms by allele-specific quantification of RNA polymerase loading

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Abstract

In vivo characterization of regulatory polymorphisms is a key requirement for next-generation human genetic analysis. Here we describe haploChIP, a method that uses chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and mass spectrometry to identify differential protein–DNA binding in vivo associated with allelic variants of a gene. We demonstrate this approach with the imprinted gene SNRPN. HaploChIP showed close correlation between the level of bound phosphorylated RNA polymerase II at the SNRPN locus and allele-specific expression. Application of the approach to the TNF/LTA locus identified functionally important haplotypes that correlate with allele-specific transcription of LTA. The haploChIP method may be useful in high-throughput screening for common DNA polymorphisms that affect gene regulation in vivo.

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Figure 1: Allele-specific loading of phosphorylated Pol II at imprinted gene SNRPN.
Figure 2: Quantification of differential protein–DNA binding in vivo between two alleles of a gene in a cell that is heterozygous with respect to a marker SNP using haploChIP.
Figure 3: In vivo loading of phosphorylated Pol II at TNF.
Figure 4: Allele-specific loading of phosphorylated Pol II analyzed for the SNP at nt −308 of TNF by PE/MS.
Figure 5: Haplotypes at the TNF/LTA locus.
Figure 6: Allele-specific loading of phosphorylated Pol II in vivo at LTA.

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  1. NOTE: In the version of this article initially published online, the graphs in Fig. 6 were unclear. It has been replaced with a revised Fig. 6 in the HTML and print versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Maniatis for support and critical comments on this work and J. Rayman, B. Dynlacht and B. Ren for helpful technical advice regarding chromatin immunoprecipitation. This work was funded by Medical Research Council, UK.

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Correspondence to Julian C. Knight.

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Knight, J., Keating, B., Rockett, K. et al. In vivo characterization of regulatory polymorphisms by allele-specific quantification of RNA polymerase loading. Nat Genet 33, 469–475 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1124

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