Single-nucleus transcriptomics and chromatin accessibility of cell type-specific contributions to the epileptogenic cortex of focal cortical dysplasia type IIIa [snATAC-seq]

Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a heterogeneous group of cortical developmental malformations that constitute a common cause of medically intractable epilepsy. Multiomic integration was conducted via single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and single-nucleus assays for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (snATAC-seq) to analyse cell type-specific alterations in chromatin accessibility and correlate them with gene expression changes in the epileptogenic cortex of FCD type IIIa (FCD IIIa). Overall design: Highly epileptogenic temporal neocortical tissue from the FCD IIIa patients (n=4) and controls (n=3) was analysed via snRNA-seq and snATAC-seq. Transcriptomic and epigenetic datasets were specifically generated from equally divided samples from the same brain tissue.