Project description:Nuclear organization is a fundamental feature of cell identity and cell fate determination. Compared with differentiated cells, pluripotent stem cells exhibit markedly distinct nuclear architecture at multiple levels, including chromosome folding, lamina association, histone modification landscapes and nuclear body organization. Although individual aspects of this reorganization have been characterized, how and in what order these features are remodeled as cells commit to a lineage remains poorly understood. Here, we temporally map nuclear reorganization across five stages of an in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through definitive endoderm and hepatoblast intermediates into hepatocytes. By integrating Hi-C, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and CUT&RUN data, we establish a genome-wide framework linking structural, epigenetic, and transcriptional changes across differentiation. Combined with immunofluorescence imaging, chromosome painting, liquid chromatin Hi-C (LC-Hi-C) and physical modeling, we show that nuclear reorganization proceeds in a stepwise and temporally ordered manner through three major transitions. In the first transition, chromosomes condense into defined territories concurrent with anchoring of centromere-proximal regions to the nuclear periphery. In a second transition, active and inactive chromatin segregate, leading to stronger compartmentalization. This coincides with deposition and peripheralization of H3K9me2-marked chromatin and morphological changes in nuclear speckles, while chromatin conformation at speckle-associated regions stabilizes. In a third transition, after lineage-specific genes are activated, chromatin interactions globally stabilize by LC-Hi-C, establishing a more stable nuclear architecture on top of these earlier large-scale structural rearrangements. Together, our results define a stepwise framework for nuclear reorganization during human embryonic stem cell differentiation and reveal that the transition from pluripotency to a differentiated state proceeds through coordinated, temporally ordered structural events.
Project description:Nuclear organization is a fundamental feature of cell identity and cell fate determination. Compared with differentiated cells, pluripotent stem cells exhibit markedly distinct nuclear architecture at multiple levels, including chromosome folding, lamina association, histone modification landscapes and nuclear body organization. Although individual aspects of this reorganization have been characterized, how and in what order these features are remodeled as cells commit to a lineage remains poorly understood. Here, we temporally map nuclear reorganization across five stages of an in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through definitive endoderm and hepatoblast intermediates into hepatocytes. By integrating Hi-C, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and CUT&RUN data, we establish a genome-wide framework linking structural, epigenetic, and transcriptional changes across differentiation. Combined with immunofluorescence imaging, chromosome painting, liquid chromatin Hi-C (LC-Hi-C) and physical modeling, we show that nuclear reorganization proceeds in a stepwise and temporally ordered manner through three major transitions. In the first transition, chromosomes condense into defined territories concurrent with anchoring of centromere-proximal regions to the nuclear periphery. In a second transition, active and inactive chromatin segregate, leading to stronger compartmentalization. This coincides with deposition and peripheralization of H3K9me2-marked chromatin and morphological changes in nuclear speckles, while chromatin conformation at speckle-associated regions stabilizes. In a third transition, after lineage-specific genes are activated, chromatin interactions globally stabilize by LC-Hi-C, establishing a more stable nuclear architecture on top of these earlier large-scale structural rearrangements. Together, our results define a stepwise framework for nuclear reorganization during human embryonic stem cell differentiation and reveal that the transition from pluripotency to a differentiated state proceeds through coordinated, temporally ordered structural events.
Project description:Nuclear organization is a fundamental feature of cell identity and cell fate determination. Compared with differentiated cells, pluripotent stem cells exhibit markedly distinct nuclear architecture at multiple levels, including chromosome folding, lamina association, histone modification landscapes and nuclear body organization. Although individual aspects of this reorganization have been characterized, how and in what order these features are remodeled as cells commit to a lineage remains poorly understood. Here, we temporally map nuclear reorganization across five stages of an in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through definitive endoderm and hepatoblast intermediates into hepatocytes. By integrating Hi-C, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and CUT&RUN data, we establish a genome-wide framework linking structural, epigenetic, and transcriptional changes across differentiation. Combined with immunofluorescence imaging, chromosome painting, liquid chromatin Hi-C (LC-Hi-C) and physical modeling, we show that nuclear reorganization proceeds in a stepwise and temporally ordered manner through three major transitions. In the first transition, chromosomes condense into defined territories concurrent with anchoring of centromere-proximal regions to the nuclear periphery. In a second transition, active and inactive chromatin segregate, leading to stronger compartmentalization. This coincides with deposition and peripheralization of H3K9me2-marked chromatin and morphological changes in nuclear speckles, while chromatin conformation at speckle-associated regions stabilizes. In a third transition, after lineage-specific genes are activated, chromatin interactions globally stabilize by LC-Hi-C, establishing a more stable nuclear architecture on top of these earlier large-scale structural rearrangements. Together, our results define a stepwise framework for nuclear reorganization during human embryonic stem cell differentiation and reveal that the transition from pluripotency to a differentiated state proceeds through coordinated, temporally ordered structural events.
Project description:Nuclear organization is a fundamental feature of cell identity and cell fate determination. Compared with differentiated cells, pluripotent stem cells exhibit markedly distinct nuclear architecture at multiple levels, including chromosome folding, lamina association, histone modification landscapes and nuclear body organization. Although individual aspects of this reorganization have been characterized, how and in what order these features are remodeled as cells commit to a lineage remains poorly understood. Here, we temporally map nuclear reorganization across five stages of an in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through definitive endoderm and hepatoblast intermediates into hepatocytes. By integrating Hi-C, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and CUT&RUN data, we establish a genome-wide framework linking structural, epigenetic, and transcriptional changes across differentiation. Combined with immunofluorescence imaging, chromosome painting, liquid chromatin Hi-C (LC-Hi-C) and physical modeling, we show that nuclear reorganization proceeds in a stepwise and temporally ordered manner through three major transitions. In the first transition, chromosomes condense into defined territories concurrent with anchoring of centromere-proximal regions to the nuclear periphery. In a second transition, active and inactive chromatin segregate, leading to stronger compartmentalization. This coincides with deposition and peripheralization of H3K9me2-marked chromatin and morphological changes in nuclear speckles, while chromatin conformation at speckle-associated regions stabilizes. In a third transition, after lineage-specific genes are activated, chromatin interactions globally stabilize by LC-Hi-C, establishing a more stable nuclear architecture on top of these earlier large-scale structural rearrangements. Together, our results define a stepwise framework for nuclear reorganization during human embryonic stem cell differentiation and reveal that the transition from pluripotency to a differentiated state proceeds through coordinated, temporally ordered structural events.
Project description:Nuclear organization is a fundamental feature of cell identity and cell fate determination. Compared with differentiated cells, pluripotent stem cells exhibit markedly distinct nuclear architecture at multiple levels, including chromosome folding, lamina association, histone modification landscapes and nuclear body organization. Although individual aspects of this reorganization have been characterized, how and in what order these features are remodeled as cells commit to a lineage remains poorly understood. Here, we temporally map nuclear reorganization across five stages of an in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through definitive endoderm and hepatoblast intermediates into hepatocytes. By integrating Hi-C, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, and CUT&RUN data, we establish a genome-wide framework linking structural, epigenetic, and transcriptional changes across differentiation. Combined with immunofluorescence imaging, chromosome painting, liquid chromatin Hi-C (LC-Hi-C) and physical modeling, we show that nuclear reorganization proceeds in a stepwise and temporally ordered manner through three major transitions. In the first transition, chromosomes condense into defined territories concurrent with anchoring of centromere-proximal regions to the nuclear periphery. In a second transition, active and inactive chromatin segregate, leading to stronger compartmentalization. This coincides with deposition and peripheralization of H3K9me2-marked chromatin and morphological changes in nuclear speckles, while chromatin conformation at speckle-associated regions stabilizes. In a third transition, after lineage-specific genes are activated, chromatin interactions globally stabilize by LC-Hi-C, establishing a more stable nuclear architecture on top of these earlier large-scale structural rearrangements. Together, our results define a stepwise framework for nuclear reorganization during human embryonic stem cell differentiation and reveal that the transition from pluripotency to a differentiated state proceeds through coordinated, temporally ordered structural events.
Project description:The three-dimensional organization of chromosomes within the nucleus and its dynamics during differentiation are largely unknown. We present a genome-wide analysis of the interactions between chromatin and the nuclear lamina during differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into lineage-committed neural precursor cells (NPCs) and terminally differentiated astrocytes. Chromatin in each of these cell types shows a similar organization into large lamina associated domains (LADs), which represent a transcriptionally repressive environment. During sequential differentiation steps, lamina interactions are progressively modified at hundreds of genomic locations. This remodeling is typically confined to individual transcription units and involves many genes that determine cellular identity. From ESCs to NPCs, the majority of genes that move away from the lamina are concomitantly activated. Strikingly, a significant amount remain inactive yet become primed for activation by further differentiation. These results suggest that lamina-genome interactions are widely involved in the control of gene expression programs during lineage commitment and terminal differentiation. laminB1-chromatin interactions were assayed in 4 different mouse cell-types. For each cell-type there were 2 biological replicates, that were hybridized in a dye-swap design.
Project description:During corticogenesis, neural gene expression is tightly coordinated by changes in chromatin state and epigenetic regulation. However, the role of spatial genome organization—particularly interactions with the nuclear lamina—during these developmental programs remains poorly understood. Here, we combined in utero electroporation with scDam&T-seq to jointly profile genome-lamina contacts and transcriptomes in single cells of the mouse embryonic cortex. We uncover a large cohort of long, neuronal function-related genes that undergo spatial genome-lamina repositioning during neurogenesis. Notably, detachment of these genes frequently precedes transcriptional activation, positioning lamina disengagement as an early gene regulatory event. We further identify the methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2)—mutated in Rett syndrome—as a candidate mediator of this process. MeCP2 binds lamina-associated, hydroxymethylated long genes before their repositioning, suggesting that MeCP2 may prime genome-lamina reorganization. These findings suggest a link between prevalent genome-lamina reorganization and MeCP2 regulation to ensure proper spatiotemporal activation of neuronal genes during corticogenesis.