Learning induces persistent chromatin loops underlying robust gene expression during memory recall

Long-term memories are stored in neuronal ensembles called engrams, but the existence of persistent molecular traces in nuclei of engram neurons remain unknown. Using activity-dependent nuclear tagging in vivo, we profiled higher-order chromatin folding and DNA methylation in thousands of single hippocampal neurons up to a month after contextual fear conditioning (CFC). We find CFC-induced chromatin loop plasticity genome-wide, including persistently gained and lost loops with enduring traces in vivo. DNA methylation showed minimal CFC-induced persistence at promoters and enhancers. Persistently gained and lost loops connect distinct enhancers and promoters in excitatory and inhibitory subtypes and correlate with robust CFC-upregulated and -downregulated gene expression, respectively, upon recall. Synaptic genes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and autism anchor neuronal subtype-specific persistent loops, suggesting relevance to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. We harness the power and sensitivity of multi-modal single-cell measurements to find enduring chromatin traces linked to robust gene expression during fear memory recall.