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Comment
. 2022 May;38(5):413-415.
doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2022.02.008. Epub 2022 Feb 24.

Cell type-specific chromatin topology and gene regulation

Affiliations
Comment

Cell type-specific chromatin topology and gene regulation

Douglas H Phanstiel et al. Trends Genet. 2022 May.

Abstract

Chromatin structure is critically involved in gene regulation and cell fate determination. How this structure is established and maintained in distinct, terminally differentiated cells remains elusive. Winick-Ng et al. address this puzzle by applying immunoGAM in different brain cell types and reveal cell type-specific chromatin topologies, long gene decompaction, and the involvement of transcription factors (TFs).

Keywords: chromatin looping; compartmentalization; loop extrusion; phase separation; three-dimensional chromatin structure; transcription factor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests No interests are declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Overview of the immunoGAM protocol.
Chemically fixed tissue is isolated and processed into ultra-thin slices. Cells of interest are identified by immunostaining and/or morphology and excised using laser microdissection. DNA is amplified, barcoded, pooled, and sequenced. The resulting data is aligned to the genome and co-segregation frequencies are calculated and used to infer 3D chromatin structure.

Comment on

  • Cell-type specialization is encoded by specific chromatin topologies.
    Winick-Ng W, Kukalev A, Harabula I, Zea-Redondo L, Szabó D, Meijer M, Serebreni L, Zhang Y, Bianco S, Chiariello AM, Irastorza-Azcarate I, Thieme CJ, Sparks TM, Carvalho S, Fiorillo L, Musella F, Irani E, Torlai Triglia E, Kolodziejczyk AA, Abentung A, Apostolova G, Paul EJ, Franke V, Kempfer R, Akalin A, Teichmann SA, Dechant G, Ungless MA, Nicodemi M, Welch L, Castelo-Branco G, Pombo A. Winick-Ng W, et al. Nature. 2021 Nov;599(7886):684-691. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04081-2. Epub 2021 Nov 17. Nature. 2021. PMID: 34789882 Free PMC article.

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