Enhancer Sequence Variants and Transcription Factor Deregulation Synergize to Construct Pathogenic Regulatory Circuits in B Cell Lymphoma (RNA-Seq)

Most B cell lymphomas arise in the germinal center (GC), where humoral immune responses evolve from potentially oncogenic cycles of mutation, proliferation, and clonal selection. Although lymphoma gene expression diverges significantly from GC-B cells, underlying mechanisms that alter the activities of corresponding regulatory elements (REs) remain elusive. Here we define the complete pathogenic circuitry of human follicular lymphoma (FL), which activates or decommissions transcriptional circuits from normal GC-B cells and commandeers enhancers from other lineages. Moreover, independent sets of transcription factors, whose expression is deregulated in FL, target commandeered versus decommissioned REs. Our approach reveals two distinct subtypes of low-grade FL, whose pathogenic circuitries resemble GC-B or activated B cells. Remarkably, FL-altered enhancers also are enriched for sequence variants, including somatic mutations, which disrupt transcription factor binding and expression of circuit-linked genes. Thus, the pathogenic regulatory circuitry of FL reveals distinct genetic and epigenetic etiologies for GC-B transformation. Expression profiles of follicular lymphoma, centrocyte and peripheral blood B cells were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina Hi-Seq 2000.