RNA-seq & ATAC-seq of HMGN2-mKO cortical cells. Mus musculus strain:C57B6j | cultivar:HMGN2-tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi/WT

The surface area of human cerebral cortex undergoes dramatic expansion during late fetal development, leading to cortical folding, an evolutionary feature not present in rodents. Microcephaly, a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by an abnormally small brain, is often caused by abnormal development of radial glia.We found that a mouse model with deficient expression of HMGN2 (high mobility group nucleosomal binding domain 2), manifested microcephaly and postnatal death. Using ATAC-seq and RNA-seq, combined with published ChIP-seq data, we found that HMGN2 protected corticogenesis by maintaining global chromatin accessibility mainly at promoter regions, thus ensuring the correct regulation of the transcriptome.