Topologically associating domain

A topologically associating domain (TAD) is a self-interacting genomic region, meaning that DNA sequences within a TAD physically interact with each other more frequently than with sequences outside the TAD. These three-dimensional chromosome structures are present in animals as well as some plants, fungi, and bacteria. TADs can range in size from thousands to millions of DNA bases.

The functions of TADs are not fully understood, but in some cases, disrupting TADs leads to disease because changing the 3D organization of the chromosome disrupts gene regulation. The mechanisms underlying TAD formation are also complex and not yet fully elucidated, though a number of protein complexes and DNA elements are associated with TAD boundaries.

TADs are defined as regions whose DNA sequences preferentially contact each other. They were discovered in 2012 using chromosome conformation capture techniques including Hi-C. They have been shown to be present in fruit flies (Drosophila),mouse and human genomes, but not in the wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

TAD locations are defined by applying an algorithm to Hi-C data. For example, TADs are often called according to the method in Dixon et al. (2012), using the so-called "directionality index". The directionality index is calculated for individual 40kb bins, by collecting the reads that fall in the bin, and observing whether their paired reads map upstream or downstream of the bin (read pairs are required to span no more than 2Mb). A positive value indicates that more read pairs lie downstream than upstream, and a negative value indicates the reverse. Mathematically, the directionality index is a signed chi-square statistic.

A number of proteins are known to be associated with TAD formation including the protein CTCF and the protein complex cohesin. It is also unknown what components are required at TAD boundaries; however, in mammalian cells, it has been shown that these boundary regions have comparatively high levels of CTCF binding. In addition, some types of genes (such as transfer RNA genes and housekeeping genes) appear near TAD boundaries more often than would be expected by chance.

TADs have been reported to be relatively constant between different cell types (in stem cells and blood cells, for example), and even between species in specific cases.

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