Mass spectrometry-based profiling of single-cell histone post-translational modifications to dissect chromatin heterogeneity.
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| Abstract | Single-cell proteomics confidently quantifies cellular heterogeneity, however quantification of post-translational modifications, such as those deposited on histone proteins, remains elusive. Here, we develop a robust mass spectrometry-based method for the unbiased analysis of single-cell histone post-translational modifications (sc-hPTM). sc-hPTM identifies both single- and combinatorial histone post-translational modifications (67 peptidoforms in total), which includes nearly all frequently studied histone post-translational modifications with comparable reproducibility to traditional bulk experiments. As a proof of concept, we treat cells with sodium butyrate, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, and demonstrate that our method can i) distinguish between treated and untreated cells, ii) identify sub-populations of cells with heterogeneous response to the treatment, and iii) reveal differential co-regulation of histone post-translational modifications in the context of drug treatment. The sc-hPTM method enables comprehensive investigation of chromatin heterogeneity at single-cell resolution and provides a further understanding of the histone code. |
| Year of Publication | 2025
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| Journal | Nature communications
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| Volume | 16
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| Issue | 1
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| Pages | 11100
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| Date Published | 12/2025
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| ISSN | 2041-1723
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| DOI | 10.1038/s41467-025-66031-0
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| PubMed ID | 41387402
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