The fusion gene occurrence spectrum predicts the spatial structure of chromosomes

Abstract

Chromosome was "self-assembled" into a complex three-dimensional topology in the nucleus, which provided the structural basis for important biological processes such as gene expression regulation and cell differentiation. The current understanding of the three-dimensional organization of the genome is based on high-throughput sequencing and imaging technologies to visualize the conformation of chromatin in its native environment. This study proposes a new research perspective and technical means to use fusion genes to determine the interaction information and three-dimensional structure of chromosomes. This three-dimensional information provided by the fusion gene spectrum not only shows the universality of the spatial layout of chromosomes, but also increases the interpretability of the occurrence of fusion genes. The chromatin conformation capture data of multiple tissues and periods is significantly correlated with the strength of fusion genes. For example, the frequency of trans-interaction between chromosomes 11 and 17 was the highest, and the frequency of fusion gene occurrence corresponding to KMT2A on chromosome 11 was the highest. Therefore, we infer that this structural universality is a common feature of the human genome, which provides a theoretical basis and data for predicting chromosome fusion events.