Identification of Key Histone Modifications and Their Regulatory Regions on Gene Expression Level Changes in Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a type of cancer with a series of characteristics that make it particularly suitable for observations on leukemogenesis. Research have exhibited that the occurrence and progression of CML are associated with the dynamic alterations of histone modification (HM) patterns. In this study, we analyze the distribution patterns of 11 HM signals and calculate the signal changes of these HMs in CML cell lines as compared with that in normal cell lines. Meanwhile, the impacts of HM signal changes on expression level changes of CML-related genes are investigated. Based on the alterations of HM signals between CML and normal cell lines, the up- and down-regulated genes are predicted by the random forest algorithm to identify the key HMs and their regulatory regions. Research show that H3K79me2, H3K36me3, and H3K27ac are key HMs to expression level changes of CML-related genes in leukemogenesis. Especially H3K79me2 and H3K36me3 perform their important functions in all 100 bins studied. Our research reveals that H3K79me2 and H3K36me3 may be the core HMs for the clinical treatment of CML.