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Higher eukaryotes need to systematically condense and compact a huge amount of genetic information in the minute 3D space of the nucleus1,2,3,4. Today, we know that the genome is spatially ordered in compartments and topologically associated domains5 and that the multiple levels of DNA folding generate contacts between different genomic regions that may involve chromatin loop formation6,7. The 3D dynamic looping of chromatin can influence many different biological processes such as transcription8,9, differentiation and development10,11, DNA repair12,13, while its perturbations are involved in various diseases14,15,16 and developmental defects15,17,18.
Many approaches have been developed to study the 3D genome organization. Chromosome conformation capture-based technologies (C-technologies, 3C, 4C, 5C, Hi-C and derivatives) have been developed to study genome organization in fixed cells3,4,19,20. Such approaches are based on the ability to capture the contact frequencies between genomic loci in physical proximity. C-technologies, depending on their complexity, catch the global 3D genome organization and nuclear topology of a cell population3,4,19,20. Nevertheless, 3D interactions are dynamic in time and space, highly variable between individual cells consisting of multiplex interactions, and are extensively heterogenous21,22.
3D multicolor DNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a technique that allows the visualization of specific genomic loci at a single cell level, enabling direct investigation of the 3D nuclear architecture in a complementary manner to C-technologies. It represents a technology currently used to unambiguously validate C-results. 3D multicolor DNA FISH uses fluorescently labeled probes complementary to the genomic loci of interests. The use of different fluorophores and suitable microscopy equipment allow contemporary visualization of multiple targets within the nuclear space23,24. In recent years, FISH has been combined with technological advances in microscopy to obtain the visualization of fine-scale structures at high resolution25,26 or with CRISPR-Cas approaches for the visualization of the nucleic acids in live imaging27,28. Despite wide adoption, the 3D multicolor DNA FISH approach is still considered difficult in many laboratories because the biological material used must be adapted.
Here, we provide a comprehensive protocol for 3D multicolor DNA FISH (from cell/probe preparation to data analysis) applicable to a wide range of human primary cells, enabling the visualization of multiple genomic loci and preserving the 3D structure of nuclei. In order to study nuclear architecture, the 3D structure of nuclei must be preserved. For this reason, contrasting from other existing protocols29,30,31, we avoid the use of an alcohol gradient and the storage of the coverslips in alcohol that can affect chromatin structure32. The method is adapted from preserved 3D DNA FISH protocols24,33 to be applied to a wide range of human primary cells, both isolated ex vivo or cultured in vitro. There are permeabilization and deproteinization parameters for different nuclear morphology and cytological characteristics (e.g., different degrees of nuclear compaction, cytoskeleton abundance)34. These parameters are often generally described in other protocols24,33, without providing a clear discrimination of the procedure within different cell types. Furthermore, we developed a specific tool named NuCLεD (nuclear contacts locator in 3D)16, providing principles for data analysis that will improve the 3D proximity between different loci and their nuclear topological distribution within the nuclear space in an automated way.