1.CoBRA: Containerized Bioinformatics Workflow for Reproducible ChIP/ATAC-seq Analysis
Qiu XINTAO ; S.Feit AVERY ; Feiglin ARIEL ; Xie YINGTIAN ; Kesten NIKOLAS ; Taing LEN ; Perkins JOSEPH ; Gu SHENGQING ; Li YIHAO ; Cejas PALOMA ; Zhou NINGXUAN ; Jeselsohn RINATH ; Brown MYLES ; Liu X.SHIRLEY ; W.Long HENRY
Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics 2021;19(4):652-661
Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) and the Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) have become essential technologies to effectively measure protein–DNA interactions and chromatin accessibility. However, there is a need for a scalable and reproducible pipeline that incorporates proper normalization between samples, correction of copy number variations, and integration of new downstream analysis tools. Here we present Containerized Bioinformatics workflow for Reproducible ChIP/ATAC-seq Analysis (CoBRA), a modularized computational workflow which quantifies ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq peak regions and performs unsupervised and supervised analyses. CoBRA provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq analysis pipeline that can be used by scientists with limited computational experience. This enables researchers to gain rapid insight into protein–DNA interactions and chromatin accessibility through sample clustering, differential peak calling, motif enrichment, comparison of sites to a reference database, and pathway analysis. CoBRA is publicly available online at https://bitbucket. org/cfce/cobra.
2.CRISPR Screens Identify Essential Cell Growth Mediators in BRAF Inhibitor-resistant Melanoma.
Ziyi LI ; Binbin WANG ; Shengqing GU ; Peng JIANG ; Avinash SAHU ; Chen-Hao CHEN ; Tong HAN ; Sailing SHI ; Xiaoqing WANG ; Nicole TRAUGH ; Hailing LIU ; Yin LIU ; Qiu WU ; Myles BROWN ; Tengfei XIAO ; Genevieve M BOLAND ; X SHIRLEY LIU
Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics 2020;18(1):26-40
BRAF is a serine/threonine kinase that harbors activating mutations in ∼7% of human malignancies and ∼60% of melanomas. Despite initial clinical responses to BRAF inhibitors, patients frequently develop drug resistance. To identify candidate therapeutic targets for BRAF inhibitor resistant melanoma, we conduct CRISPR screens in melanoma cells harboring an activating BRAF mutation that had also acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitors. To investigate the mechanisms and pathways enabling resistance to BRAF inhibitors in melanomas, we integrate expression, ATAC-seq, and CRISPR screen data. We identify the JUN family transcription factors and the ETS family transcription factor ETV5 as key regulators of CDK6, which together enable resistance to BRAF inhibitors in melanoma cells. Our findings reveal genes contributing to resistance to a selective BRAF inhibitor PLX4720, providing new insights into gene regulation in BRAF inhibitor resistant melanoma cells.