Identification of Active Regulatory Elements in Atlantic Salmon Using ATAC-STARR-seq

In this study, we employed the ATAC-STARR-seq method to identify and characterize active cis-regulatory elements in salmon liver cells. Open chromatin regions were extracted using the OmniATAC protocol and cloned into a modified pSTARR-seq reporter plasmid containing the Atlantic salmon elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1a) core promoter. The resulting plasmid library was transfected into primary salmon hepatocytes. After 24 hours, total RNA was isolated, and polyadenylated RNA was extracted for cDNA synthesis. High-throughput sequencing of both the input plasmid library and the transcribed cDNA allowed us to identify genomic regions with enhancer activity in liver.