Investigating SMCHD1 binding in neural vs non-neural tissues

SMCHD1 binding has been examined in neural stem cells but never in mature neurons. This study was interested in the binding patterns of SMCHD1 in mature neurons and so we used tissue from the cortex of 25 day-old mice to perform ChIP-seq for SMCHD1 binding.

We used thymus as a control tissue. This data showed markedly more binding sites for SMCHD1 genome-wide in cortex compared with thymus tissue. We were also able to look allele specifically at the imprinted PWS cluster on chromosome 7 where we know removal of Smchd1 leads to loss of imprinting on the maternal allele.