ATAC-seq profiling of of cell lines derived from primary human cornea epithelial cells (hTCEpi) and human primary corneal keratocyte cells ( hTK)

We generated novel genomic resources by mapping regions of open-chromatin, indicators of cis-regulatory activity, in immortalized corneal epithelial and stromal cell lines, using the assay for transposase accessible chromatin followed by sequencing (ATAC-seq). Overlaying these data with the well-powered UK Biobank CRF-GWAS study demonstrates the keratocyte cells to be a suitable system to guide future functional characterisation of, at least some, regulatory networks modulated by CRF-associated variants. ATAC-seq to chart genome-wide chromatin accessibility.