B cell super-enhancers and regulatory clusters recruit AID tumorigenic activity

The antibody gene mutator AID promiscuously damages oncogenes and B cell identity genes leading to chromosomal translocations and tumorigenesis. Why non-immunoglobulin loci are susceptible to AID activity is unknown. Here we study AID-mediated lesions in the context of nuclear architecture and the B cell regulome. We show that AID targets are not randomly distributed across the genome, but are predominantly clustered within super-enhancers. Unexpectedly, in these domains AID deaminates highly active promoters and eRNA+ enhancers interconnected in some instances over megabases of linear chromatin. Using genome editing we demonstrate that 3D-linked targets cooperate to recruit AID-mediated breaks. Furthermore, a comparison of hypermutation in mouse B cells, AID-induced kataegis in human lymphomas, and translocations in MEFs reveals that AID damages different genes in different cell types. Yet, in all cases, the targets are predominantly associated with topological complex, highly transcribed super-enhancers, demonstrating that these compartments are key mediators of AID recruitment.