ATAC-ing the mechanisms of renin regulation
Steven D. Crowley
Steven D. Crowley
Published October 2, 2018
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2018;128(11):4748-4750. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI124177.
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Commentary

ATAC-ing the mechanisms of renin regulation

Abstract

Renin-expressing cells have been conserved through evolution and maintain blood pressure and fluid homeostasis. Lack of availability of tools to study the specifics of renin regulation has limited advances in this field. In the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Martinez and colleagues used the genome-wide assessment of the chromatin status of cells and uncovered a unique set of super-enhancers that determine the identity of renin cells. The renin super-enhancers play a key role in the molecular memory of renin cell function, a mechanism at the core of preserving homeostasis.

Authors

Steven D. Crowley

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Figure 1

Strategy to identify super-enhancers via complementary methodologies.

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Strategy to identify super-enhancers via complementary methodologies. AT...
ATAC-Seq identifies regulatory sequences with heightened chromatin accessibility. Sites of association with H3K27ac histones mark regions of enhancer activation. ChIP-Seq analysis localizes sites for Med1 and RNA Pol II attachment. These characteristics are analyzed via ROSE software to identify super-enhancer regions that can be interrogated for their inclusion of novel regulatory genes that influence transcription of a putative target gene.