Enhancing sensitivity and versatility of Tn5-based single cell omics I
The analysis of chromatin features in single cells centers around the use of Tn5 transposase and exploits its activity to simultaneously fragment target DNA and integrate adapter sequences of choice. This reaction provides a direct readout in the transposase-accessible chromatin in single cells (scATAC-seq) assay to map open chromatin regions. Furthermore, by targeting Tn5 to antibody-bound chromatin epitopes, features like histone modifications can be mapped in single cells. Thus, enhancing Tn5 activity to improve genomic coverage for scATAC-seq or facilitating multi-omics readout of chromatin features via Tn5 together with the transcriptome is of great interest. Here, we address these issues by optimizing scATAC-seq for an increased number of integrations per cell. In addition, we provide a protocol that combines mapping of histone modification with scRNA-seq from the same cell. Our experimental workflows improve the results obtained from the downstream data analysis and serve to better resolve epigenetic heterogeneity and transcription regulation in single cells. Overall design: MEFs treated with interferon beta for 6 hours were analyzed by scATAC-seq using 10xTn5 or Tn5hc.