Spatial chromatin architecture and accessibility co-profiling of mammalian tissues.

Spatial-ATAC-Hi-C reveals distinct chromatin architecture and gene regulation in neuronal and tumor tissues with spatial resolution in mammalian brains.

• Why it matters: Understanding how 3D genome organization influences cellular function within tissue microenvironments is crucial for insights into normal biology and disease mechanisms, yet spatially resolved genome profiling remains limited.
• What they did: The authors developed Spatial-ATAC-Hi-C, a microfluidic platform for genome-wide, spatially resolved joint profiling of 3D genome organization and chromatin accessibility on tissue slides, applied to mouse and human brain samples.
• The result: This method uncovered tissue-specific chromatin and gene regulation patterns, detected spatial genome alterations in tumors, and revealed oncogenic events and heterogeneity, enabling advanced studies of spatial gene regulation in health and disease.