in situ Visualization of Chromatin State

• Project/Area Number: 16K14745
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Sasaki Yasunori 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, バイオメディカル研究部門, 主任研究員 (30312242)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
• Keywords: エピゲノム情報 / 遺伝子発現制御 / 遺伝子

Outline of Final Research Achievements

in situ Visualization of Chromatin States, is a method with which chromatin immunoprecipitation data of choice are faithfully mapped onto its original location on the tissue source with a single-cell resolution. As a proof-of-principle we detected a protein-DNA interaction between a nuclear protein NONO and the upstream region of NEAT1 loci. NONO is an essential component of nuclear bodies built on the NEAT1 loci, therefore the above result is quite acceptable.
We applied the method to determine the type of epigenetic modification of a protein bound to a genomic region of interest. We yet have reached an ultimate goal to detect such an interaction between single molecules, because we are still unable to steadily specify a target genomic region with oligonucleotide probes. Another improvement program is currently underway.