PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hao Li
AU  - Feng Liu
AU  - Chao Ren
AU  - Xiaochen Bo
AU  - Wenjie Shu
TI  - Genome-wide identification and characterization of HOT regions in the human genome
AID  - 10.1101/036152
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 036152
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/01/07/036152.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/01/07/036152.full
AB  - HOT (high-occupancy target) regions, which are bound by surprisingly large number of transcription factors, are considered to be among the most intriguing findings of recent years. Improved understanding of the roles that HOT regions play in biology would be afforded by knowing the constellation of factors that constitute these domains and by identifying HOT regions across the spectrum of human cell types. We describe here the population of transcription factors, cofactors, chromatin regulators, and transcription apparatus occupying HOT regions in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and demonstrate that HOT regions are highly transcribed. We produce a catalogue of HOT regions in a broad range of human cell types and find that HOT regions are associated with genes that control and define the developmental processes of the respective cell and tissue types. We also show evidence of the developmental persistence of HOT regions at primitive enhancers and demonstrate unique signatures of HOT regions that distinguish them from typical enhancers and super-enhancers. Thus, HOT regions play key roles in human cell development and differentiation.