ISSAAC-seq enables sensitive and flexible multimodal profiling of chromatin accessibility and gene expression in single cells

Joint profiling of chromatin accessibility and gene expression from the same single cell provides critical information about cell types in a tissue and cell states during a dynamic process. Here, we develop in situ sequencing hetero RNA–DNA-hybrid after assay for transposase-accessible chromatin-sequencing (ISSAAC-seq), a highly sensitive and flexible single-cell multi-omics method to interrogate chromatin accessibility and gene expression from the same single nucleus. We demonstrated that ISSAAC-seq is sensitive and provides high quality data with orders of magnitude more features than existing methods. Using the joint profiles from over 10,000 nuclei from the mouse cerebral cortex, we uncovered major and rare cell types and cell-type specific regulatory elements and identified heterogeneity at the chromatin level within established cell types defined by gene expression. Finally, we revealed distinct dynamics and relationships of gene expression and chromatin accessibility during an oligodendrocyte maturation trajectory.