title: Individuality and variation of personal regulomes in primary human T cells.
abstract: Here we survey variation and dynamics of active regulatory elements genome-wide using longitudinal samples from human individuals. We applied Assay of Transposase Accessible Chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq) to map chromatin accessibility in primary CD4+ T cells isolated from standard blood draws of 12 healthy volunteers over time, from cancer patients, and during T cell activation. Over 4,000 predicted regulatory elements (7.2%) showed reproducible variation in accessibility between individuals. Gender was the most significant attributable source of variation. ATAC-seq revealed previously undescribed elements that escape X chromosome inactivation and predicted gender-specific gene regulatory networks across autosomes, which coordinately affect genes with immune function. Noisy regulatory elements with personal variation in accessibility are significantly enriched for autoimmune disease loci. Over one third of regulome variation lacked genetic variation in cis, suggesting contributions from environmental or epigenetic factors. These results refine concepts of human individuality and provide a foundational reference for comparing disease-associated regulomes.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Lisa C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Zaba
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Giresi
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Longmire
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Youn H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Greenleaf
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Howard Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chang