An efficient targeted nuclease strategy for high-resolution mapping of DNA binding sites
Abstract
We describe Cleavage Under Targets and Release Using Nuclease (CUT&RUN), a chromatin profiling strategy in which antibody-targeted controlled cleavage by micrococcal nuclease releases specific protein-DNA complexes into the supernatant for paired-end DNA sequencing. Unlike Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP), which fragments and solubilizes total chromatin, CUT&RUN is performed in situ, allowing for both quantitative high-resolution chromatin mapping and probing of the local chromatin environment. When applied to yeast and human nuclei, CUT&RUN yielded precise transcription factor profiles while avoiding cross-linking and solubilization issues. CUT&RUN is simple to perform and is inherently robust, with extremely low backgrounds requiring only ~1/10th the sequencing depth as ChIP, making CUT&RUN especially cost-effective for transcription factor and chromatin profiling. When used in conjunction with native ChIP-seq and applied to human CTCF, CUT&RUN mapped long range contacts at high resolution. We conclude that in situ mapping of protein-DNA interactions by CUT&RUN is an attractive alternative to ChIP-seq.
Data availability
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Cut-and-Run in situ factor profiling maps DNA binding and 3D contact sites at high resolutionPublicly available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (accession no: GSE84474).
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High-resolution mapping of transcription factor binding sites on native chromatin.Publicly available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (accession no: GSE45672).
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CTCF-Mediated Human 3D Genome Architecture Reveals Chromatin Topology for TranscriptionPublicly available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (accession no: GSE72816).
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Henikoff)
- Peter J Skene
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Henikoff)
- Steven Henikoff
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2017, Skene & Henikoff
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Chromosomes and Gene Expression
A new technique called CUT&RUN can map the distribution of proteins on the genome with higher resolution and accuracy than existing approaches.
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- Cell Biology
- Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Meiotic crossover recombination is essential for both accurate chromosome segregation and the generation of new haplotypes for natural selection to act upon. This requirement is known as crossover assurance and is one example of crossover control. While the conserved role of the ATPase, PCH-2, during meiotic prophase has been enigmatic, a universal phenotype when pch-2 or its orthologs are mutated is a change in the number and distribution of meiotic crossovers. Here, we show that PCH-2 controls the number and distribution of crossovers by antagonizing their formation. This antagonism produces different effects at different stages of meiotic prophase: early in meiotic prophase, PCH-2 prevents double-strand breaks from becoming crossover-eligible intermediates, limiting crossover formation at sites of initial double-strand break formation and homolog interactions. Later in meiotic prophase, PCH-2 winnows the number of crossover-eligible intermediates, contributing to the designation of crossovers and ultimately, crossover assurance. We also demonstrate that PCH-2 accomplishes this regulation through the meiotic HORMAD, HIM-3. Our data strongly support a model in which PCH-2’s conserved role is to remodel meiotic HORMADs throughout meiotic prophase to destabilize crossover-eligible precursors and coordinate meiotic recombination with synapsis, ensuring the progressive implementation of meiotic recombination and explaining its function in the pachytene checkpoint and crossover control.