Dovetail Micro-C Libraries Are Enriched For Desirable Hi-C Properties

The MNase enzyme possesses both sequence-independent endonuclease and exonuclease activities so generated fragments are nucleosome length (146 bp). The proximity ligation portion of the protocol is optimized to maximize long-range interactions. The resulting highly uniform, short fragments enable nucleosome-level resolution of chromatin contacts, a theoretical resolution maximum.

Improved calling of topological features

The ability to detect higher-order features, such as chromatin loops, in proximity ligation data is dependent on enriching long-range informative reads to capture chromatin interaction frequency. The increased chromosome conformation informative reads combined with ultra-high-resolution improves loop calling compared to RE-based methods.

Dovetail Micro-C uniquely captures nucleosome positioning

Chromatin digested with MNase reveals a genome-wide nucleosome map that is visible in the Dovetail™ Micro-C libraries. The map consists of sequence read peaks correlating to DNA that is protected by the nucleosome and troughs representing intervening DNA that is accessible to MNase digestion. This oscillation occurs at a frequency of ~146 bp (the length of DNA wrapped around a mono-nucleosome). This feature is unique to Micro-C data as it is absent from RE-based approaches. The combined genome-wide nucleosome positioning and ultra-resolution chromosome topology enabled by Dovetail™ Micro-C facilitates mapping from nucleosome-to-nucleosome chromatin contacts.