A human cell atlas of fetal chromatin accessibility

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aba7612
• Publication Date: 2020-11-13T00:05:24Z
• Authors: Silvia Domcke; Andrew J. Hill; Riza M. Daza; Junyue Cao; Diana R. O’Day; Hannah A. Pliner; Kimberly A. Aldinger; Dmitry Pokholok; Fan Zhang; Jennifer H. Milbank; Michael A. Zager; Ian A. Glass; Frank J. Steemers; Dan Doherty; Cole Trapnell; Darren A. Cusanovich; Jay Shendure
• Keywords: Neurons; 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; Atlases as Topic; Fetus; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Humans; Single-Cell Analysis; Chromatin; Transcription Factors

The genomics of human development

Understanding the trajectory of a developing human requires an understanding of how genes are regulated and expressed. Two papers now present a pooled approach using three levels of combinatorial indexing to examine the single-cell gene expression and chromatin landscapes from 15 organs in fetal samples. Cao et al. focus on measurements of RNA in broadly distributed cell types and provide insights into organ specificity. Domcke et al. examined the chromatin accessibility of cells from these organs and identify the regulatory elements that regulate gene expression. Together, these analyses generate comprehensive atlases of early human development.

Science , this issue p. eaba7721 , p. eaba7612