TY - JOUR T1 - Assessing eRNAs associated with a cytokine-sensing mammary super-enhancer JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/174953 SP - 174953 AU - Chaochen Wang AU - Tyler Kuhns AU - Christian Reinbold AU - Michaela Willi AU - Lothar Hennighausen Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/10/174953.abstract N2 - Enhancers are transcription factor platforms that also bind RNA polymerase II and generate enhancer RNAs (eRNA). Although eRNAs have been suggested as predictors of enhancer activities and possibly key components facilitating transcription, there is little genetic evidence to support this. We address the biology of eRNAs in vivo and investigate eRNA patterns, expression levels and possible functions within a mammary-specific super-enhancer that is composed of three units with distinct transcriptional capacities. We show that eRNA levels do not correspond with the activities of their respective enhancer units. However, changes in eRNA expression upon deletion of individual enhancer units reflect the change in overall super-enhancer activity. These data provide genetic evidence that eRNA levels are not a reliable readout of individual enhancers, but they predict super-enhancer activity in the absence of constituent elements. ER -