Project description:5-methylcytosine (5-mC) can be oxidized to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC). Genome-wide profiling of 5-hmC thus far indicated 5-hmC may not only be an intermediate form of DNA demethylation but could also constitute an epigenetic mark per se. We describe a cost-effective and selective method to detect both the hydroxymethylation and methylation status of cytosines in more than 1.8 million MspI sites in the human genome. This method involves the selective glucosylation of 5-hmC residues, short-sequence tag generation and high-throughput sequencing. We tested this method by screening H9 human embryonic stem cells and their differentiated embroid body cells, and found that differential hydroxymethylation preferentially occur in bivalent genes during cellular differentiation. Especially, our results support hydroxymethylation can regulate key transcription regulators with bivalent marks through demethylation and affect cellular decision on choosing active or inactive state of these genes upon cellular differentiation. We developed a cost-effective and selective method to detect both the hydroxymethylation and methylation status of cytosines in more than 1.8 million MspI sites in the human genome. In this method, we took advantage of the differential enzymatic sensitivities of the isoschizomers MspI and HpaII. HpaII cleaves only a completely unmodified site, any modification at either cytosine blocks the cleavage, while MspI recognizes and cleaves both 5-mC and 5-hmC, but not the newly discovered 5-formylcytosine (5-fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5-caC). Furthermore, beta-glucosyltransferase (beta-GT) can transfer a glucose to the hydroxyl group of 5-hmC and generate beta-glucosyl-5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-ghmC) that blocks MspI digestion. Thus, either by combining beta-GT treatment with MspI digestion or simply applying MspI/HpaII digestion, short sequence tags generated can be used for inferring hydroxymethylation or methylation status in around 1.8 million cytosine sites in the human genome. We tested this method by screening H9 human embryonic stem cells and their differentiated embroid body cells.

Project description:Background: Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have been widely applied to identify methylation CpG sites associated with human disease. To date, the Infinium Methylation EPIC array (EPIC) is commonly used for high-throughput DNA methylation profiling. However, the EPIC array covers only 30% of the human methylome. Methylation Capture bisulfite sequencing (MC-seq) captures target regions of methylome and has advantages of extensive coverage in the methylome at an affordable price. Methods: Epigenome-wide DNA methylation in four peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples was profiled by using SureSelectXT Methyl-Seq for MC-seq and EPIC platforms separately. CpG site-based reproducibility of MC-seq was assessed with DNA sample inputs ranging in quantity of high (> 1000ng), medium (300-1000ng), and low (150ng-300ng). To compare the performance of MC-seq and the EPIC arrays, we conducted a Pearson correlation and methylation value difference at each CpG site that was detected by both MC-seq and EPIC. We compared the percentage and counts in each CpG island and gene annotation between MC-seq and the EPIC array. Results: After quality control, an average of 3,708,550 CpG sites per sample was detected by MC-seq with DNA quantity >1000ng. Reproducibility of MC-seq detected CpG sites was high with strong correlation estimates for CpG methylation among samples with high, medium, and low DNA inputs (r > 0.96). The EPIC array captured an average of 846,464 CpG sites per sample. Compared with the EPIC array, MC-seq detected more CpGs in coding regions and CpG islands. Among the 472,540 CpG sites captured by both platforms, methylation of a majority of CpG sites was highly correlated in the same sample (r: 0.98~0.99). However, methylation for a small proportion of CpGs (N=235) differed significantly between the two platforms, with differences in beta values of greater than 0.5. Conclusions: Our results show that MC-seq is an efficient and reliable platform for methylome profiling with a broader coverage of the methylome than the array-based platform. Although methylation measurements in majority of CpGs are highly correlated, a number of CpG sites show large discrepancy between the two platforms, which warrants further investigation and needs cautious interpretation.

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Array-based assay detects genome-wide 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethlycytosine in non-human primates and mice

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