ZNF143 is a ubiquitously expressed transcription factor conserved in vertebrates and might regulate the expression of numerous genes. But its function in mediating chromatin interactions remains elusive. By integrated analysis of public datasets, we provided evidence that a majority of ZNF143 binding sites (BSs) were involved in CTCF-mediated chromatin interaction networks (CTCF-CINs) by overlapping with cohesin-BSs and CTCF-BSs. We further showed that only a very few CTCF-CINs were associated with ZNF143 alone, whereas those associated with ZNF143 and cohesin simultaneously were highly overlapped with constitutive, conserved CTCF-BSs and enriched at boundaries of chromatin topologically associating domains. These observations implicate that as an important partner of CTCF, ZNF143 helps it establish the conserved chromatin structure by cooperating with cohesin.
Keywords: CTCF; ZNF143; chromatin interactions; cohesin.