Deep learning identifies and quantifies recombination hotspot determinants

Recombination is one of the essential genetic processes for sexually reproducing organisms, which can happen more frequently in some regions, called recombination hotspots. Although several factors, such as PRDM9 binding motifs, are known to be related to the hotspots, their contributions to the recombination hotspots have not been quantified, and other determinants are yet to be elucidated. Here, we develop a computational method, RHSNet, based on deep learning and signal processing, to identify and quantify the hotspot determinants in a purely data-driven manner, utilizing datasets from various studies, populations, sexes, and species. In addition to being able to identify hotspot regions and the well-known determinants accurately, RHSNet is sensitive to the difference between different PRDM9 alleles and different sexes, and can generalize to PRDM9-lacking species. The cross-sex, cross-population, and cross-species studies suggest that the proposed method has the potential to identify and quantify the evolutionary determinant motifs.

Structural variation of the malaria-associated human glycophorin A-B-E region

Approximately 5% of the human genome consists of structural variants, which are enriched for genes involved in the immune response and cell-cell interactions. A well-established region of extensive structural variation is the glycophorin gene cluster, comprising three tandemly-repeated regions about 120kb in length, carrying the highly homologous genes GYPA, GYPB and GYPE. Glycophorin A and glycophorin B are glycoproteins present at high levels on the surface of erythrocytes, and they have been suggested to act as decoy receptors for viral pathogens. They act as receptors for invasion of a causative agent of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum. A particular complex structural variant (DUP4) that creates a GYPB/GYPA fusion gene is known to confer resistance to malaria. Many other structural variants exist, and remain poorly characterised. Here, we analyse sequences from 6466 genomes from across the world for structural variation at the glycophorin locus, confirming 15 variants in the 1000 Genomes project cohort, discovering 9 new variants, and characterising a selection using fibre-FISH and breakpoint mapping. We identify variants predicted to create novel fusion genes and a common inversion duplication variant at appreciable frequencies in West Africans. We show that almost all variants can be explained by unequal cross over events (non-allelic homologous recombination, NAHR) and. by comparing the structural variant breakpoints with recombination hotspot maps, show the importance of a particular meiotic recombination hotspot on structural variant formation in this region.

The impact of poly-A microsatellite heterologies in meiotic recombination

Meiotic recombination has strong, but poorly understood effects on short tandem repeat (STR) instability. Here, we screened thousands of single recombinant products with sperm typing to characterize the role of polymorphic poly-A repeats at a human recombination hotspot in terms of hotspot activity and STR evolution. We show that the length asymmetry between heterozygous poly-A’s strongly influences the recombination outcome: a heterology of 10 A’s (9A/19A) reduces the number of crossovers and elevates the frequency of non-crossovers, complex recombination products, and long conversion tracts. Moreover, the length of the heterology also influences the STR transmission during meiotic repair with a strong and significant insertion bias for the short heterology (6A/7A) and a deletion bias for the long heterology (9A/19A). In spite of this opposing insertion-/deletion-biased gene conversion, we find that poly-A’s are enriched at human recombination hotspots that could have important consequences in hotspot activation.

Length asymmetry and heterozygosity strongly influences the evolution of poly-A microsatellites at meiotic recombination hotspots

Meiotic recombination has strong, but poorly understood, effects on short tandem repeat (STR) instability. Here, we screened thousands of single recombinant products to characterize the transmission and evolution of polymorphic poly-A repeats at a human recombination hotspot. We show that length asymmetry between heterozygous poly-As plays a key role in the recombination outcome and their transmission. A difference of 10 As (9A/19A) elevates the frequency of non-crossovers, complex recombination products, and long conversion tracts. Moreover, asymmetry also influences STR transmission: the shorter allele is transmitted more frequently (deletion bias) at the asymmetric STR (9A/19A), while the longer allele is favored (insertion bias) at the site with a small STR length difference (6A/7A). Finally, potentially due to this opposing insertion/deletion driven evolution, we find that poly-As are enriched at human recombination hotspots predominantly with short poly-As, possibly influencing open chromatin regions that in turn can activate hotspots.

Recombination Located over 2A-2B Junction Ribosome Frameshifting Region of Saffold Cardiovirus

Here we report the nearly full-length genome of a recombinant Saffold virus strain (SAFV-BR-193) isolated from a child with acute gastroenteritis. Evolutionary analysis performed using all available near-full length Saffold picornavirus genomes showed that the breakpoint found in the Brazilian strain (SAFV-BR-193) is indeed a recombination hotspot. Notably, this hotspot is located just one nucleotide after the ribosomal frameshift GGUUUUU motif in the SAFV genome. Empirical studies will be necessary to determine if this motif also affects the binding affinity of RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp) and therefore increases the changes of RdRp swap between molecules during the synthesis of viral genomes.

cis- and trans- regulation controls of human meiotic recombination at a hotspot

PRDM9 plays a key role in specifying meiotic recombination hotspot locations in humans. To examine the effects of both the 13-bp sequence motif (cis-regulator) and trans-regulator PRDM9 on crossover frequencies and distribution, we studied Hotspot DA. This hotspot had the motif at its centre, and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that disrupts the motif. The crossover frequency showed Hotspot DA to be a regular hotspot with an average crossover rate (~8 X10-4) among hotspots assayed on autosomes. Our results show that, comparing the rates and distributions of sperm crossover events between donors heterozygous for the disrupting SNP showed that there was a huge asymmetry between the two alleles, with the derived, motif-disrupting allele completely suppressing hotspot activity. Intensive biased gene conversion, both in to crossovers and noncrossovers, has been found at Hotspot DA. Biased gene conversion that influences crossover and non-crossover hotspot activity correlates with PRDM9 allele A. In Hotspot DA, the lifetime of the hotspot mostly depends on the cis-regulatory disrupting SNP, and on the trans-regulatory factor PRDM9. Overall, our observation showed that Hotspot DA is the only evidence for human crossover hotspot regulation by a very strong cisregulatory disrupting SNP.