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Background The plasticity along the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) spectrum has been shown to be regulated by various epigenetic repertoires. Emerging evidence of local chromatin conformation changes suggests that regulation of EMT may occur at a higher order of three-dimensional genome level. Results We perform Hi-C analysis and combine ChIP-seq data across cancer cell lines representing different EMT states. We demonstrate that the epithelial and mesenchymal genes are regulated distinctively. We find that EMT genes are regulated within their topologically associated domains (TADs), with only a subset of mesenchymal genes being influenced by A/B compartment switches, indicating topological remodeling is required in the transcriptional regulation of these genes. At the TAD level, epithelial and mesenchymal genes are associated with different regulatory trajectories. The epithelial gene-residing TADs are enriched with H3K27me3 marks in the mesenchymal-like states. The mesenchymal gene-residing TADs, which do not show enrichment of H3K27me3 in epithelial-like states, exhibit increased interaction frequencies with regulatory elements in the mesenchymal-like states. Conclusions We propose a novel workflow coupling immunofluorescence and dielectrophoresis to unravel EMT heterogeneity at single-cell resolution. The predicted three-dimensional structures of chromosome 10, harboring Vimentin, identify cell clusters of different states. Our results pioneer a novel avenue to decipher the complexities underlying the regulation of EMT and may infer the barriers of plasticity in the 3D genome context.

Studies have shown that the genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) differ substantially between Asian and Caucasian populations. Even among Asian populations, the genetic contributions of NLRP1 , PTPN22 and PADI4 have been controversial. Consequently, we sought to address these separate findings and determine whether any of these proposed risk variants are associated with RA susceptibility, onset, DAS activity and erosion in a Singaporean Chinese cohort. We genotyped five SNPs within NLRP1 (rs878329 and rs6502867), PTPN22 (rs2488457 and rs6665194), and PADI4 (rs2240340) in 500 anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody-positive (ACPA) patients with RA and 500 healthy controls using TaqMan assays. The CC genotype of NLRP1 rs878329 and TT genotype of PADI4 rs2240340 were associated with RA susceptibility. The risk association of the T allele of PADI4 rs2240340 with RA was confirmed through a meta-analysis based on previous reports in Asian populations. The GG genotype of PTPN22 rs6665194 (−3508A>G) was associated with significantly reduced risk of RA. No significant association was found for NLRP1 rs6502867 T/C and PTPN22 rs2488457 G/C polymorphisms. None of the five SNPs was associated with RA’s clinical features. This work supports the association of the T allele of PADI4 rs2240340 with RA in Asians. The roles of NLRP1 rs878329 G/C and PTPN22 rs6665194 A/G polymorphisms were demonstrated for the first time. We also propose rs6665194 to be a promising candidate for RA risk evaluation between ethnicities.