Genome wide mapping of native R-loops using a targeted nuclease approach in HCT116 cells after DDX41 siRNA knockdown (MapR)

Purpose: Investigation of genome-wide changes in R-loop levels after knockdown of DDX41 HCT116 cells in comparison to a control knockdown. Method: Concanavalin A-coated beads were activated in Binding Buffer (20 mM Hepes-KOH pH 7.9, 10 mM KCl, 1mM CaCl2, 1 mM MnCl2). 1*10^6HCT116 cells were washed twice with Wash Buffer (Hepes-NaOH pH7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 0.5 mM Spermidine, 1 mM protease inhibitor) at room temperature and afterwards immobilized on the activated beads in 50 µl Wash Buffer containing 0.05% Digitonin. Either pA-MNase or RH?-MNase were added to the cells overnight at 4°C on a rotating wheel. After three washes with Wash Buffer containing 0.05% Digitonin, samples resuspended in 100 µl Dig-Wash-Buffer were equilibrated on ice. Activity of the MNase was triggered by adding 2mM CaCl2 to the samples for 30 minutes. 2x Stop Buffer (68 µl 5M NaCl, 40 µl 0.5 M EDTA, 20 µl 0.2 M EGTA, 10 µl 5% digitonin, 5 µl 10mg/ml RnaseA, 20 pg/ml spike-in Drosophila DNA (Active Motif)) was mixed with the samples to stop the reaction. Chromatin fragments were released by incubating the samples for 20 minutes at 37°C and centrifugation at 16.000×g for 10 minutes at 4°C. Supernatants were incubated at 70°C in the presence of 0.1% SDS and 5 µg proteinase K. Before library preparation, the DNA was recovered by phenol-chloroform extraction Results: We were able to map R-loop dynamics genome-wide in HCT116 cells in biological triplicates. MapR signal was significantly increased around the transcription start site in the absence of DDX41 Overall design: R-loop mapping using MapR after 48h knockdown with a control siRNA or a DDX41 siRNA