G-quadruplex DNA contributes to RNA polymerase II-mediated 3D chromatin architecture [HiChIP]

High-order chromatin organization plays an important role in biological processes and disease development. Previous studies revealed a widespread occurrence of guanine quadruplex (G4) structures in the human genome, with enrichment in gene regulatory regions, especially in promoters. However, it remains unclear if G4 structures contribute to RNA polymerase II (RNAPII)-mediated long-range DNA interactions and transcription activity. In this study, we conducted an intuitive overlapping analysis of previously published data of RNAPII ChIA-PET (chromatin interaction analysis with paired-end tag) and BG4 ChIP-seq (chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing with the use of a G4 structure-specific antibody). We observed a strong positive correlation between RNAPII-mediated DNA loops and G4 structures in chromatin. Additionally, our RNAPII HiChIP-seq (in situ Hi-C followed by ChIP-seq) results showed that treatment of HepG2 cells with pyridostatin (PDS), a small-molecule G4-stabilization ligand, could diminish RNAPII-linked long-range DNA contacts, with more pronounced decreases being observed for those contacts involving G4 structure loci. We performed the HiChIP for POLR2A with or without PDS treatment. At least two replicates were done for each experiments.