Date Time
Technique allows mapping of epigenetic information in single cells at scale
Decoding epigenomic information from individual cells from the mouse brain. Histones are attached to DNA as beads on a string, with different versions decorating the genome as “epigenetic stickers”, labelling which genes are turned on or off. The method single-cell CUT&Tag allows to examine tens of thousands of single cells at the same time to determine their histone profiles. Illustration by Amagoia Agirre.
Histones are tiny proteins that bind to DNA and hold information that can help turn on or off individual genes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a technique that makes it possible to examine how different versions of histones bind to the genome in tens of thousands of individual cells simultanously. The technique was applied to the mouse brain and can be used to study epigenetics at a single-cell level in other complex tissues. The study is published in Nature Biotechnology.