北京优乐复生科技有限责任公司Yi Zhang团队利用时钟样染色质可及性位点追踪单细胞演化。相关论文于2024年5月9日在线发表在《自然—生物技术》杂志上。

附：英文原文

Title: Tracking single-cell evolution using clock-like chromatin accessibility loci

Author: Xiao, Yu, Jin, Wan, Ju, Lingao, Fu, Jie, Wang, Gang, Yu, Mengxue, Chen, Fangjin, Qian, Kaiyu, Wang, Xinghuan, Zhang, Yi

Issue&Volume: 2024-05-09

Abstract: Single-cell chromatin accessibility sequencing (scATAC-seq) reconstructs developmental trajectory by phenotypic similarity. However, inferring the exact developmental trajectory is challenging. Previous studies showed age-associated DNA methylation (DNAm) changes in specific genomic regions, termed clock-like differential methylation loci (ClockDML). Age-associated DNAm could either result from or result in chromatin accessibility changes at ClockDML. As cells undergo mitosis, the heterogeneity of chromatin accessibility on clock-like loci is reduced, providing a measure of mitotic age. In this study, we developed a method, called EpiTrace, that counts the fraction of opened clock-like loci from scATAC-seq data to determine cell age and perform lineage tracing in various cell lineages and animal species. It shows concordance with known developmental hierarchies, correlates well with DNAm-based clocks and is complementary with mutation-based lineage tracing, RNA velocity and stemness predictions. Applying EpiTrace to scATAC-seq data reveals biological insights with clinically relevant implications, ranging from hematopoiesis, organ development, tumor biology and immunity to cortical gyrification.

DOI: 10.1038/s41587-024-02241-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-024-02241-z