Applying the INTACT method to purify endosperm nuclei and to generate parental-specific epigenome profiles

The early endosperm tissue of dicot species is very difficult to isolate by manual dissection. This protocol details how to apply the INTACT (isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell types) system for isolating early endosperm nuclei of Arabidopsis at high purity and how to generate parental-specific epigenome profiles. As a Protocol Extension, this article describes an adaptation of an existing Nature Protocol that details the use of the INTACT method for purification of root nuclei. We address how to obtain the INTACT lines, generate the starting material and purify the nuclei. We describe a method that allows purity assessment, which has not been previously addressed. The purified nuclei can be used for ChIP and DNA bisulfite treatment followed by next-generation sequencing (seq) to study histone modifications and DNA methylation profiles, respectively. By using two different Arabidopsis accessions as parents that differ by a large number of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we were able to distinguish the parental origin of epigenetic modifications. Our protocol describes the only working method to our knowledge for generating parental-specific epigenome profiles of the early Arabidopsis endosperm. The complete protocol, from silique collection to finished libraries, can be completed in 2 d for bisulfite-seq (BS-seq) and 3 to 4 d for ChIP-seq experiments.