Histone modifications at the transcription start site of non-coding RNA revealed regulatory patterns of activation in Caenorhabditis elegans embryo

Abstract

Histone modifications play an essential role in regulating recruitment of RNA polymerase II and through this regulation of transcription itself. Which modifications are essential for regulating the transcription of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) species and how these patterns differ between the different types of ncRNA remains less studied compared to mRNA. We performed a principal component analysis (PCA) of histone modifications patterns surrounding the transcription start site (TSS) of ncRNA in an attempt to understand how histone modifications predict polymerase recruitment and transcription of ncRNA in early C. elegans development We found that our first PCA axis was a better predictor of polymerase recruitment and expression than any single histone modification for ncRNA and miRNA. This indicates an integrated analysis of many histone modifications is essential for predicting expression based on histone modifications and that each ncRNA species have unique regulation of RNA polymerase recruitment through histone modifications.