Biology subjects

Tullius, T. W.

Publications and source records attributed to Tullius, T. W..

7 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

FiberBrowser: a unified framework for single-molecule genomics

Single-molecule footprinting methods are rapidly transforming chromatin biology. They resolve nucleosome positioning, regulatory-factor occupancy, and accessibility on individual DNA fibers, revealing combinatorial heterogeneity that bulk measurements average away. Emerging footprinting methods leverage diverse enzyme systems and sequencing platforms, necessitating tools that can accommodate these systems. We present FiberBrowser, a unified platform that converts these diverse datasets into a common per-molecule representation of nucleosomes, accessible DNA, and subnucleosomal footprints for interactive and scripted analyses. Its inference engine, FiberHMM, weighs each observation against the assay's informative sites and sequence-specific modification probabilities, separating missing information from protection in four assays. FiberBrowser clusters, sorts and compares these calls across thousands of molecules in seconds, linking chromatin architecture to haplotype, CpG methylation and non-reference structural variants on the same molecules. Because the representation is independent of chemistry, models also transfer between assays. A classifier trained on Fiber-seq footprints identifies 12 scDAF-seq cells as lymphoblastoid without retraining, whereas models trained on raw modification patterns fail to transfer. FiberBrowser thus provides a unified, expandable analytical framework for single-molecule chromatin footprinting.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Haplotype-Resolved Genomics Reveals Conserved Chromatin Architecture and Epigenetic Constraints of Human Neocentromeres

Human neocentromeres are functional centromeres demarcated by CENP-A nucleosomes that form ectopically at alpha satellite-free loci. How neocentromeres reshape local chromatin and which features of native centromeric chromatin are preserved are unknown. We generated gapless, haplotype-resolved assemblies of native and neocentromeres from three patient-derived cell lines. Integrating CpG methylation, CENP-A profiling, and single-molecule chromatin fiber sequencing, we reveal chromatin features that define the essential centromeric architecture reconstituted during neocentromere establishment. We find that a deletion within the satellite array encompassing the hypo-CpG methylation centromere dip regions (CDRs) led to native centromere inactivation, that neocentromeres harbor CDRs and a dichromatin architecture, recapitulating features of alpha-satellite centromeres, and that LINEs demarcate neocentromere boundaries, implicating transposable elements in restricting CENP-A domain spreading. Moreover, neocentromeric chromatin is incompatible with promoter-like chromatin states, redefining the regulatory landscape within genic regions. Finally, using haplotype-specific chromatin footprinting, we resolve CENP-A nucleosome chromatin architecture of active centromeres.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Comprehensive Single Molecule View of Transcriptional Dynamics in Development

Dynamic patterns of gene expression drive animal development. These transcriptional dynamics depend on the interplay of diverse developmental enhancers within complex regulatory landscapes. Here, we employ a single-molecule genomic method, Fiber-Seq, to capture the simultaneous transcriptional and regulatory states of millions of 20-30 kb chromatin fibers in the 2-4hr Drosophila embryo. These snapshots of genes and their surrounding regulatory context reveal that the basic unit of transcription at highly transcribed genes is a convoy of 2-14 tightly spaced polymerases (Pol II). Further, a subset of templates exhibits hyperbursting, whereby most or all nucleosomes are evicted from the gene body facilitating maximum rates of transcription. We demonstrate that hyperbursting is achieved through cooperation of numerous cis-regulatory elements, and that the resulting nucleosome eviction appears to trigger a novel silencer in the ftz 3 UTR. We anticipate that similar mechanisms are used by vertebrate processes requiring intense transcription like somitogenesis and erythropoiesis.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Protamine lacunae preserve the paternal chromatin landscape in sperm

The transmission of the paternal genome requires extensive chromatin reorganization, in which nucleosomes are largely replaced by protamines that drive extreme condensation of the genome in the sperm head. Using Fiber-seq, we resolve patterns of paternal chromatin repackaging in sperm at single-molecule resolution, revealing the interplay between protamination and nucleosome retention. We find that nucleosome retention is probabilistic, with no locus universally occupied. Although promoters of spermatogenic genes preferentially harbor retained nucleosomes, the predominant carrier of paternal epigenetic information is protamine lacunae, accessible discontinuities in the protamine coat that preferentially mark critical regulatory elements. By contrast, centromere kinetochore binding regions robustly retain CENP-A mono-nucleosomes, providing a mechanism for the focal transmission of paternal centromeres. Finally, we find that paternal chromatin repackaging is altered in low-motility sperm. Together, these findings reveal distinct modes of paternal chromatin epigenetic inheritance with broad implications for development and infertility.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Principles and functional consequences of plasmid chromatinization in mammalian cells

Plasmids have fundamentally transformed how we resolve regulatory grammar across the tree of life. However, although chromatin plays an integral role in regulating the function of regulatory elements along the nuclear genome, our understanding of how, or whether, similar chromatin structures form on plasmids transfected into mammalian cells remains limited. We demonstrate that plasmid single-molecule chromatin fiber sequencing (plasmid Fiber-seq) can accurately map chromatin architectures along individual, full-length transfected plasmid molecules at near single-nucleotide resolution. Application of plasmid Fiber-seq to diverse plasmids and cell lines demonstrates that plasmids are chromatinized in a sequence-dependent organized manner and adopt a heterogeneous and incomplete chromatin architecture relative to nuclear-encoded chromatin fibers. We show that the focal occupancy of nucleosomes and transcription factors along transfected plasmids is central to their transcriptional activity within mammalian cells, and demonstrate that plasmids indeed are capable of recapitulating nuclear genome-encoded chromatin architectures, although not always. Finally, we demonstrate that combining plasmid Fiber-seq with high-throughput reporter assays can establish the molecular mechanisms underlying pathogenic non-coding variants, including disentangling the effects of transcriptional activators and repressors with near-single-nucleotide resolution. Overall, our findings reveal the principles by which plasmid-based assays can be used for accurate fine-scale mapping of chromatin-dependent regulatory grammar.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

RNA polymerases reshape chromatin and coordinate transcription on individual fibers

During eukaryotic transcription, RNA polymerases must initiate and pause within a crowded, complex environment, surrounded by nucleosomes and other transcriptional activity. This environment creates a spatial arrangement along individual chromatin fibers ripe for both competition and coordination, yet these relationships remain largely unknown owing to the inherent limitations of traditional structural and sequencing methodologies. To address these limitations, we employed long-read chromatin fiber sequencing (Fiber-seq) to visualize RNA polymerases within their native chromatin context at single-molecule and near single-nucleotide resolution along up to 30 kb fibers. We demonstrate that Fiber-seq enables the identification of single-molecule RNA Polymerase (Pol) II and III transcription associated foot-prints, which, in aggregate, mirror bulk short-read sequencing-based measurements of transcription. We show that Pol II pausing destabilizes downstream nucleosomes, with frequently paused genes maintaining a short-term memory of these destabilized nucleosomes. Furthermore, we demonstrate pervasive direct coordination and anti-coordination between nearby Pol II genes, Pol III genes, transcribed enhancers, and insulator elements. This coordination is largely limited to spatially organized elements within 5 kb of each other, implicating short-range chromatin environments as a predominant determinant of coordinated polymerase initiation. Overall, transcription initiation reshapes surrounding nucleosome architecture and coordinates nearby transcriptional machinery along individual chromatin fibers.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2022

Single-nucleoid architecture reveals heterogeneous packaging of mitochondrial DNA

Cellular metabolism relies on the regulation and maintenance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Hundreds to thousands of copies of mtDNA exist in each cell, yet because mitochondria lack histones or other machinery important for nuclear genome compaction, it remains unresolved how mtDNA is packaged into individual nucleoids. In this study, we used long-read single-molecule accessibility mapping to measure the compaction of individual full-length mtDNA molecules at nucleotide resolution. We found that, unlike the nuclear genome, human mtDNA largely undergoes all-or-none global compaction, with the majority of nucleoids existing in an inaccessible, inactive state. Highly accessible mitochondrial nucleoids are co-occupied by transcription and replication machinery and selectively form a triple-stranded D-loop structure. In addition, we showed that the primary nucleoid-associated protein TFAM directly modulates the fraction of inaccessible nucleoids both in vivo and in vitro and acts via a nucleation-and-spreading mechanism to coat and compact mitochondrial nucleoids. Together, these findings reveal the primary architecture of mtDNA packaging and regulation in human cells.

molecular biology↗