NanoTag - an IgG-free method for mapping DNA-protein interactions

Abstract

Genome-wide profiling of DNA-protein interactions in cells can provide important information about mechanisms of gene regulation. Most current methods for genome-wide profiling of DNA-bound proteins, such as ChIP-seq and CUT&Tag, use conventional IgG antibodies to bind target protein(s), which limits their applicability to targets for which high affinity and high specificity antibodies are available. Here we describe NanoTag, a novel method derived from CUT&Tag that is IgG-free and uses a nanobody to profile DNA-protein interactions. NanoTag is based on an anti-GFP nanobody-Tn5 transposase fusion that allows mapping GFP-tagged proteins associated with chromatin in a fast and cost-effective manner. We demonstrate the utility of NanoTag by profiling the histone mark H3K4me3 via its binding partner TATA box-binding protein-associated factor 3 (TAF3) and the transcription factors Nanog and CTCF in mouse embryonic stem cells expressing GFP-tagged targets. For the targets examined, NanoTag data shows high correlation to CUT&Tag data and displays a similarly high signal-to-noise ratio. Overall, NanoTag provides a flexible, IgG-free and cost-effective method to generate high resolution DNA-binding profiles in cells or tissues.