Multicellular organisms are composed of diverse cell types that originate from a single cell. Cellular identities are orchestrated in part through action of key factors on regulatory elements. In diploid organisms, complexity of regulatory interactions, which influence gene expression, is increased due to the presence of homologous maternal and paternal chromosomes. However, as much of our current view of cell diversity is derived from genome organization and regulation of either single cells or groups of cells, much less is known how parental genomes contribute to achieve this diversity. Moreover, it is unclear how this diversity evolutionarily relates to health and disease states. To this end, we deploy haplotype-specific regulatory genomics, bioinformatics, quantitative imaging, and genetics.
