Chromatin profiling at locus resolution uncovers gene regulatory features that define cell types and developmental trajectories, but it remains challenging to map and compare different chromatin-associated proteins in the same sample. Here we describe Multiple Target Identification by Tagmentation (MulTI-Tag), an antibody barcoding approach for profiling multiple chromatin features simultaneously in single cells. We optimized MulTI-Tag to retain high sensitivity and specificity, and we demonstrate detection of up to three histone modifications in the same cell: H3K27me3, H3K4me1/2 and H3K36me3. We apply MulTI-Tag to resolve distinct cell types and developmental trajectories; to distinguish unique, coordinated patterns of active and repressive element regulatory usage associated with differentiation outcomes; and to uncover associations between histone marks. Multifactorial epigenetic profiling holds promise for comprehensively characterizing cell-specific gene regulatory landscapes in development and disease.

Chromatin profiling at locus resolution uncovers gene regulatory features that define cell types and developmental trajectories, but it remains challenging to map and compare distinct chromatin-associated proteins within the same sample. Here we describe a scalable antibody barcoding approach for profiling multiple chromatin features simultaneously in the same individual cells, Multiple Target Identification by Tagmentation (MulTI-Tag). MulTI-Tag is optimized to retain high sensitivity and specificity of enrichment for multiple chromatin targets in the same assay. We use MulTI-Tag to resolve distinct cell types using multiple chromatin features on a commercial single-cell platform, and to distinguish unique, coordinated patterns of active and repressive element regulatory usage in the same individual cells. Multifactorial profiling allows us to detect novel associations between histone marks in single cells and holds promise for comprehensively characterizing cell-specific gene regulatory landscapes in development and disease.