Identifying Novel Transcriptional and Epigenetic Features of Nuclear Lamina-associated Genes

Because a large portion of the mammalian genome is associated with the nuclear lamina (NL), it is interesting to study how native genes resided there are transcribed and regulated. In this study, we report unique transcriptional and epigenetic features of nearly 3,500 NL-associated genes (NL genes). Promoter regions of active NL genes are often excluded from NL-association, suggesting that NL-promoter interactions may repress transcription. Active NL genes with higher RNA polymerase II (Pol II) recruitment levels tend to display Pol II promoter-proximal pausing, while Pol II recruitment and Pol II pausing are not correlated among non-NL genes. At the genome-wide scale, NL-association and H3K27me3 distinguishes two large gene classes with low transcriptional activities. Notably, NL-association is anti-correlated with both transcription and active histone mark levels among genes not significantly enriched with H3K9me3 or H3K27me3, suggesting that NL-association may represent a novel gene repression pathway. Interestingly, an NL gene subgroup is not significantly enriched with H3K9me3 or H3K27me3 and is transcribed at higher levels than the rest of NL genes. Furthermore, we identified distal enhancers associated with active NL genes and reported their epigenetic features.