Simultaneous profiling of multiple chromatin proteins in the same cells

Abstract

Methods derived from CUTandRUN and CUTandTag enable genome-wide mapping of the localization of proteins on chromatin from as few as one cell. These and other mapping approaches focus on one protein at a time, preventing direct measurements of co-localization of different chromatin proteins in the same cells and requiring prioritization of targets where samples are limiting. Here, we describe multi-CUTandTag, an adaptation of CUTandTag that overcomes these hurdles by using antibody-specific barcodes to simultaneously map multiple proteins in the same cells. Highly specific multi-CUTandTag maps of histone marks and RNA Polymerase II uncovered sites of co-localization in the same cells, active and repressed genes, and candidate cis-regulatory elements. Single-cell multi-CUTandTag profiling facilitated identification of distinct cell types from a mixed population and characterization of cell-type-specific chromatin architecture. In sum, multi-CUTandTag increases the information content per cell of epigenomic maps, facilitating direct analysis of the interplay of different chromatin proteins.