Emerging frontiers of cell-free DNA fragmentomics

Analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in the blood has shown promise for monitoring a variety biological processes. Plasma cfDNA is mixture comprising molecules released from various bodily tissues, mediated by characteristic fragmentations occurring during cell death. Fragmentation non-random and contains tissue-of-origin information, which been demonstrated circulating fetal, tumoral, transplanted organ-derived molecules. Many studies have elucidated plurality fragmentomic markers noninvasive prenatal, cancer, organ transplantation assessment, such as fragment sizes, ends, end motifs, nucleosome footprints. Recently, researchers further revealed large population previously unidentified long (kilobases size) plasma pool. This review focuses on emerging properties cfDNA, together with discussion its potential clinical implications.