Complementary Alu sequences mediate enhancer-promoter selectivity

Enhancers determine spatiotemporal gene expression programs by engaging with long-range promoters. However, it remains unknown how enhancers find their cognate promoters. We recently developed a RIC-seq technology to identify enhancer-promoter connectivity using pairwise interacting enhancer RNAs and promoter-derived noncoding RNAs in HeLa cells. Here, we apply this technology to generate high-confidence enhancer-promoter RNA interaction (EPRI) maps in six additional cell lines. Using these maps, we discover that 37.9% of the enhancer-promoter RNA interaction sites are overlapped with Alu sequences. These pairwise interacting Alu and non-Alu RNA sequences tend to be complementary and potentially form duplexes. Knockout of Alu elements compromises enhancer-promoter looping, whereas Alu insertion or CRISPR-dCasRx-mediated Alu tethering to unregulated promoter RNAs can create new loops to homologous enhancers. Importantly, mapping 535,404 noncoding risk variants back to the EPRI maps enabled us to construct variant-to-function maps for interpreting their molecular functions, including 15,318 deletions or insertions in 11,677 Alu elements that affect 6,497 protein-coding genes. We further demonstrate that polymorphic Alu insertion at PTK2 enhancer can promote tumorigenesis. Our study uncovers a principle for determining enhancer-promoter pairing specificity and provides a framework to link noncoding risk variants to their molecular functions. Overall design: We applied RIC-seq technology to construct high-resolution enhancer-promoter RNA interaction maps in HeLa and additional six cell lines representing three distinct germ layers, and Chromatin-associated nascent RNA sequencing (ChromRNA-seq) to confirm the decreased transcription of SE351-linked genes after knocking down the corresponding eRNA.