Reversible Histone Glycation Drives Disease-Associated Changes in Chromatin Architecture

Glycation is a covalent protein modification that accumulates in the cellular environment. Histone proteins are particularly susceptible to glycation due to their extremely long half-lives and nucleophilic disordered tails. Here, we performed ATAC-seq on 293T cells cultured in the presence or absence of 0.5mM methylglioxal, a reactive glycolytic intermediate, for 12 hours. We demonstrate that methylglioxal treatment is associated with changes in histone occupancy and chromatin architecture globally. Overall design: 293T cells were cultured in the presence or absence of 0.5 mM MGO for 12 hours. ATAC-seq libraries were generated from 50,000 cells from each condition.