The loopy placenta: defining higher-order chromatin contacts in this essential developmental tissue

先前的工作已经揭示，与体细胞组织相比，人类胎盘具有独特的表观基因组。这个发育重要的器官具有相对较低的DNA甲基化水平，这在妊娠期间是动态的。为了了解这种全局低甲基化对其他表观遗传层的影响，解剖不同细胞中的染色质可及性谱并将其与组蛋白修饰和DNA甲基化进行比较至关重要。该项目将涉及使用RNA-seq和ATAC-seq技术以批量和单细胞分辨率在胎盘样本中生成全局表达和染色质可及性谱。转录组和可访问性数据集的生物信息学解卷积，结合单细胞多组学分析，将有助于解决整个妊娠期间存在于该组织中的异质性，并且对于了解健康和疾病中的组织功能至关重要。

Previous work has revealed that the human placenta has a unique epigenome compared with somatic tissues. This developmentally important organ has relatively low levels of DNA methylation which is dynamic during gestations. In order to understand the consequence of such global hypomethylation on additional epigenetic layers, it is crucial to dissect chromatin accessibility profiles in different cells and compare them with histone modifications and DNA methylation. This project will involve generating global expression and chromatin accessibility profiles in placenta samples at both bulk and at single-cell resolution using RNA-seq and ATAC-seq technologies. Bioinformatic deconvolution of transcriptome and accessibility datasets, combined with single-cell multi-omic analysis, will help resolve the heterogeneity that exists in this tissue across gestation and is crucial to appreciating tissue function in health and disease.