Abstract: Objective To explore the role of ATRX on gene expression in a liver cancer cell line. Methods CRISPR/Cas9 system was employed to construct a ATRX knockout cell line. Gene expression data was generated by RNA-seq, and a differential gene expression analysis was performed using DESeq2. At last, ATAC-seq was used to assess the chromatin accessibilities of differentially expressed gene. Results 2,754 genes with differential expression level were identified in this study. Both MUC16 and CXCL8 had increased chromatin accessibilities and were significantly up-regulated in the absence of ATRX. Conclusion ATRX regulated a large number of genes in liver cancer cells, and might be required for the direct inhibition of MUC16 and CXCL8.

Key words: ATRX, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq