RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Dissecting super-enhancer hierarchy based on chromatin interactions JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 149583 DO 10.1101/149583 A1 Jialiang Huang A1 Kailong Li A1 Wenqing Cai A1 Xin Liu A1 Yuannyu Zhang A1 Stuart H. Orkin A1 Jian Xu A1 Guo-Cheng Yuan YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/18/149583.abstract AB Recent studies have highlighted super-enhancers (SEs) as important regulatory elements for gene expression, but their intrinsic properties remain incompletely characterized. Through an integrative analysis of Hi-C and ChIP-seq data, we find that a significant fraction of SEs are hierarchically organized, containing both hub and non-hub enhancers. Hub enhancers share similar histone marks with non-hub enhancers, but are distinctly associated with cohesin and CTCF binding sites and disease-associated genetic variants. Genetic ablation of hub enhancers results in profound defects in gene activation and local chromatin landscape. As such, hub enhancers are the major constituents responsible for SE functional and structural organization.