High-throughput pyrosequencing of forum domains termini (FT) isolated and amplified from human HEK293T cells

Forum domains are stretches of chromosomal DNA that are excised from eukaryotic chromosomes during their spontaneous non-random fragmentation. Mostly forum domains are of 50-200 kb in length, although larger domains, up to 500 - 700 kb, are also observed. We performed a genome-wide mapping of forum domains termini in human HEK293T cells cultured cells using deep sequencing of the termini. We found that forum domains termini correspond to the fragile sites in human chromosomes and forum domains contain clusters of several or many genes inside. The largest forum domains correspond to the coordinately expressed main clusters of HOX genes genes. Our results indicate that forum domains correspond to big multi-gene chromosomal units some of which could be co-coordinately activated or repressed. Overall design: 2 sample examined: forum termini from HEK293T cells in two independent experiments