Identification of CAGE Transcriptome Signatures that Influence Chromosome Structure

The three-dimensional (3D) structure of the genome is known to play an important role in the regulatory activities of a cell. The genome itself may be vast (~3.2 billion nucleotides), but only a small fraction (approximately 1.5%) encodes for proteins. In the last decade, non-coding regions of the genome have been shown to produce molecules (expression of “transcripts”) that impact the regulation of proteins. In this project, we explore the effect that these molecules have on regulatory events within the cell by identifying patterns (“signatures”) of expression linked to changes in genomic structure. This study is made possible by integrating two powerful techniques for studying both the expression and conformation of the genome. We believe this
work represents the most advanced approach to understanding how changes in chromatin structure are influence by gene regulation.

Faculty Supervisor:

Mathieu Blanchette

Student:

Partner:

RIKEN (Center for Life Science Technologies)

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

University:

McGill University

Program:

Globalink Research Award