Characterisation of endogenous i-motif and G-quadruplex DNA structures in human chromatin and their relationship with cancer-associated genomic landscapes

This thesis focused on establishing a technique to map genome-wide physiological iM formation sites in a chromatin context. Through the development of iM ChIP-seq, iM structures were found to be prevalent genomic features enriched within regulatory regions of the human genome, including active gene promoters. Promoter iMs correlate with higher transcription levels compared to genes without a promoter iM. The development of this technique allowed for the parallel mapping of endogenous iM and G4 structures, allowing for the distinction between functional features associated with the independent and overlapping structures.