Deciphering High-Resolution 3D Chromatin Organization via Capture Hi-C.

The spatial organization of the genome contributes to its function and regulation in many contexts, including transcription, replication, recombination, and repair. Understanding the exact causality between genome topology and function is therefore crucial and increasingly the subject of intensive research. Chromosome conformation capture technologies (3C) allow inferring the 3D structure of chromatin by measuring the frequency of interactions between any region of the genome. Here we describe a fast and simple protocol to perform Capture Hi-C, a 3C-based target enrichment method that characterizes the allele-specific 3D organization of megabased-sized genomic targets at high-resolution. In Capture Hi-C, target regions are captured by an array of biotinylated probes before downstream high-throughput sequencing. Thus, higher resolution and allele-specificity are achieved while improving the time-effectiveness and affordability of the technology. To demonstrate its strengths, the Capture Hi-C protocol was applied to the mouse X-inactivation center (Xic), the master regulatory locus of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI).