Transcription factor networks disproportionately enrich for heritability of blood cell phenotypes

Abstract

Most phenotype-associated genetic variants map to noncoding regulatory regions of the human genome, but their mechanisms remain elusive in most cases. We developed a highly efficient strategy, Perturb-multiome, to simultaneously profile chromatin accessibility and gene expression in single cells with CRISPR-mediated perturbation of master transcription factors (TFs). We examined the connection between TFs, accessible regions, and gene expression across the genome throughout hematopoietic differentiation. We discovered that variants within TF-sensitive accessible chromatin regions in erythroid differentiation, although representing <0.3% of the genome, show a ~100-fold enrichment for blood cell phenotype heritability, which is substantially higher than that for other accessible chromatin regions. Our approach facilitates large-scale mechanistic understanding of phenotype-associated genetic variants by connecting key cis-regulatory elements and their target genes within gene regulatory networks.