Single Cell Multi-Omics Profiling Using ISSAAC-seq

Joint profiling of chromatin accessibility and gene expression from the same single cell provides critical information about cell types in a tissue and cell states during a dynamic process. These emerging multi-omics techniques help the investigation of cell-type resolved gene regulatory mechanisms. Here, we developed in situ SHERRY after ATAC-seq (ISSAAC-seq), a highly sensitive and flexible single cell multi-omics method to interrogate chromatin accessibility and gene expression from the same single cell. We demonstrated that ISSAAC-seq is sensitive and provides high quality data with orders of magnitude more features than existing methods. Using the joint profiles from thousands of nuclei from the mouse cerebral cortex, we uncovered major and rare cell types together with their cell-type specific regulatory elements and expression profiles. Finally, we revealed distinct dynamics and relationships of transcription and chromatin accessibility during an oligodendrocyte maturation trajectory.