scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag: a long-read single-cell CUT&Tag sequencing method for efficient chromatin modification profiling within individual cells

We developed scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag, a streamlined method by adapting a modified CUT&Tag protocol to Oxford Nanopore sequencing platform for efficient chromatin modification profiling at single-cell resolution. We firstly tested the performance of scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag on six human cell lines: K562, 293T, GM12878, HG002, H9, HFF1 and adult mouse blood cells, it showed that scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag can accurately distinguish different cell types in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag enables to effectively map the allele-specific epigenomic modifications in the human genome andallows to analyze co-occupancy of histone modifications. Taking advantage of long-read sequencing,scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag can sensitively detect epigenomic state of repetitive elements. In addition, by applying scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag to testicular cells of adult mouse B6D2F1, we demonstrated that scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag maps dynamic epigenetic state changes during mouse spermatogenesis. Finally, we exploited the epigenetic changes of human leukemia cell line K562 during DNA demethylation, it showed that NanoSeq-CUT&Tag can capture H3K27ac signals changes along DNA demethylation. Overall, we prove that scNanoSeq-CUT&Tag is a valuable tool for efficiently probing chromatin state changes within individual cells.