Mapping the epigenome of neural progenitors in the embryonic mouse forebrain using cell sorting and single cell transcriptomics to characterize inter neuron diversity
Presented by SelectScience
The epigenetic landscape is continually changing during cell proliferation and differentiation throughout development. Many neurological and psychiatric disease-associated genes are expressed during embryonic development, and numerous neurological disorders have been linked to polymorphisms in enhancer and non-coding regions of the genome. A comprehensive characterization of epigenomic organization in the embryonic mouse forebrain will enhance our understanding of normal development and provide insight into mechanisms of neurological disease.
In this webinar, Timothy Petros, PhD, discusses his research on how intrinsic genetic programs and environmental signals interact to generate interneuron diversity. His group used the SH800 Cell Sorter to enrich cells and nuclei suspensions from brain dissections. Then using single-cell chromatin accessibility (snATAC-seq) and transcriptome (scRNA-seq) profiles from four regions of the embryonic mouse forebrain, researchers generated distinct neuronal populations (MGE, LGE, CGE, and cortex). Using this approach, thousands of differentially accessible peaks, many restricted to distinct progenitor cell types and/or brain regions are identified. This dataset defines a “ground truth” epigenomic landscape and reveals a diverse chromatin landscape. The data can be used to explore how perturbation of gene regulation in GABAergic inhibitory interneuron progenitors affects gene expression, chromatin organization, and ultimately cell fate.
Join this webinar to:
- Understand how to characterize changes of chromatin accessibility at enhancers and promoters that are tightly coupled to transcript abundance during neurodevelopment.
- Learn how a single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing (scATAC-Seq), in combination with Cut&Tag and Hi-C/Capture-C, can be used to generate an “Epigenome Atlas” of the embryonic mouse brain.
- Identify strategies for rapid isolation of single cells or nuclei from embryonic mouse brain with microfluidics-based cell sorting for use in transcriptional profiling of the brain progenitor cells.
Who should attend
This webinar will provide insights for researchers who want to learn about the strategies for characterization of the epigenetic landscape during embryonic neurogenesis and the methodologies used for successfully generating an Epigenome Atlas.
Speaker
Timothy Petros, PhD
Unit on Cellular and Molecular Neurodevelopment
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Dr. Timothy Petros received his BS from Brown University, where he began his scientific endeavors in the laboratory of J. Michael Walker, utilizing mass spectrometry to identify cannabinoid-like compounds and explore their role in the suppression of pain signaling. He obtained his PhD from Columbia University, working with Carol Mason, where he investigated the guidance factors that regulate retinal ganglion cell projections in the mouse visual system, most notably the laterality decision at the optic chiasm. From there Dr. Petros moved on to Stewart Anderson’s lab at Weill Cornell Medical College and used both in vitro stem cell techniques and genetic manipulations in vivo to explore the mechanisms that regulate interneuron differentiation.
He continued these pursuits in Gord Fishell’s lab at New York University, where he began to untangle the intrinsic genetic programs and extrinsic environmental factors that direct interneuron diversity and maturation. He joined the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) as an investigator in 2017. His lab continues to explore the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that regulate initial interneuron fate decisions during neurogenesis.