VULCAN integrates ChIP-seq with patient-derived co-expression networks to identify GRHL2 as a key co-regulator of ERa at enhancers in breast cancer

Genome Biol. 2019 May 13;20(1):91. doi: 10.1186/s13059-019-1698-z.

Abstract

Background: VirtUaL ChIP-seq Analysis through Networks (VULCAN) infers regulatory interactions of transcription factors by overlaying networks generated from publicly available tumor expression data onto ChIP-seq data. We apply our method to dissect the regulation of estrogen receptor-alpha activation in breast cancer to identify potential co-regulators of the estrogen receptor's transcriptional response.

Results: VULCAN analysis of estrogen receptor activation in breast cancer highlights the key components of the estrogen receptor complex alongside a novel interaction with GRHL2. We demonstrate that GRHL2 is recruited to a subset of estrogen receptor binding sites and regulates transcriptional output, as evidenced by changes in estrogen receptor-associated eRNA expression and stronger estrogen receptor binding at active enhancers after GRHL2 knockdown.

Conclusions: Our findings provide new insight into the role of GRHL2 in regulating eRNA transcription as part of estrogen receptor signaling. These results demonstrate VULCAN, available from Bioconductor, as a powerful predictive tool.

Keywords: Breast cancer; ChIP-seq; Dynamics; ER; GRHL2; H3K27ac; Master regulator; Network analysis; P300; VULCAN.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism*
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Genetic Techniques*
  • Humans
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism*

Substances

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha
  • GRHL2 protein, human
  • Transcription Factors