染色体靶向切割和标签化(clevage under target and tagment, CUT&Tag)技术利用Tn5转座酶与Protein A/G的融合蛋白,引导Tn5酶至与靶蛋白结合的抗体附近,对靶蛋白结合的附近染色质区域进行切割,随后通过标签化处理对片段化染色质进行文库制备,并利用高通量测序技术获取特定位点或蛋白质结合位置的染色质信息。CUT&Tag技术在蛋白质和DNA相互作用的研究领域起到了重大作用,不仅可以了解组蛋白修饰发生的位置,而且可以明确转录因子结合的区域。相较于传统的染色质免疫沉淀高通量测序(chromatin immunoprecipitation- sequencing, ChIP-seq)技术,CUT&Tag技术具有信噪比高、可重复性好、实验周期短、细胞投入量低等优点,在早期胚胎发育、干细胞、肿瘤以及表观遗传学等研究领域体现出巨大优势。本文将针对CUT&Tag在代谢组织细胞(以小鼠原代胰岛细胞为例)的具体操作步骤进行描述,以提供一种研究代谢细胞的表观遗传学方法。

Cleavage under target and tagment (CUT&Tag) is a technology that utilizes the fusion protein of Tn5 transposase and protein A/G which can guide Tn5 enzyme to the antibody bound to target protein and cleave the chromatin regions adjacent to target protein. Chromatin libraries are then tagged and sequenced by the high-throughput sequencing to obtain chromatin information at specific sites or protein binding locations. CUT&Tag technology plays an important role in the research of DNA and protein interactions. It can be used to understand the modifications of histone and the bindings of transcription factors. Compared with the traditional chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing (ChIP-seq) technology, the CUT&Tag has the strengths of high signal-to-noise ratio, good repeatability, short experimental period, and low cell input. It shows great advantages in early embryonic development, stem cells, cancer, epigenetics and other research fields. In this article, we described the protocol of CUT&Tag for metabolic tissue cells (mouse primary islet cells), to provide an epigenetic method for studying metabolic cells.