Genome-wide occupancy of linker histone variant H1T2 in round/elongating spermatids of rats

Background: H1T2 is a germ cell specific linker histone variant, identified as critical for spermiogenesis based on knockout studies, shows a specialized localization at the apical pole of the spermatids and maintains an inherent polarity within the spermatid nucleus. However, the exact genomic loci bound to H1T2 in spermatids is unknown. Method: Genome-wide occupancy of the rat H1T2 protein was studied by ChIP-sequencing of pulldown DNA isolated from nuclei of 35-50 days old rat testis, using highly specific anti H1T2 antibody. Conclusion: Present study revealed that H1T2 is preferentially associated with the intergenic loci(majorly LINE L1 elements). Nuclei of elongating/condensing spermatids cell types of the Rat (Rattus norvegicus) testicular cells were used for this purpose. Two runs were made with two different samples having two replicates each with a control for the ChIP used in each run. Illumina HiSeq X Ten sequencing platform was used with 150bp read length and paired end read type.