Profiling chromatin state in porcine PFF and PTr2 cells with CUT&RUN

Epigenetics involves the study of the genome-wide presence of heritable gene expression modifiers that are capable of influencing transcription without changing the existing DNA sequence. Histone modifications such as methylation and acetylation represent a major group of epigenetic features within the epigenome, and together with chromatin remodeling complexes, they contribute to the precise control of chromatin architecture and, by extension, the accessibility of genes to transcriptional machinery. In this study, we used CUT&RUN followed by next-generation sequencing to evaluate the state of the histone modifications H3K4me3, H3K27ac, H3K27me3, and the evolutionarily-conserved SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex central ATPase BRG1 (also known as SMARCA4) in porcine fetal fibroblast (PFF) and porcine trophoblast (PTr2) cells. PFF cells are used in various molecular biology applications, including somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), while PTr2 cells are used in many studies evaluating porcine placental function in vitro. This research enhances our understanding of chromatin state during two discrete developmental time points in the pig and will add to the foundation of epigenetic knowledge in a cell type commonly used in SCNT experiments and in a cell line that continues to be used for studies of placental function.