Project description:Purpose: We characterized genome-wide DNA methylation profiles (methylome) in purified peripheral blood monocytes (PBMs) from 18 healthy postmenopausal Caucasian females aged 50-56 years. Methods: DNA methylome of Human Peripheral Blood Monocytes were generated by methylated DNA immunoprecipitation combined with high-throughput sequencing (MeDIP-seq), using Illumina GAIIx. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed using MEDIPS package. Targeted methylation validation analysis was performed by using MassARRAY EpiTYPER assays. Genome-wide gene expression profiles have been obtained for 7 of the 18 subjects by using Affymetrix 1.0 Human Exon ST arrays following the manufacturer's recommended protocols. Results: Using MeDIP-seq,a total of approximately 283 million reads were uniquely aligned to human genome (Build NCBI37, HG19), resulting in average ~16 million uniquely aligned high quality reads per sample. Distinct patterns were revealed at different genomic features. For instance, promoters were commonly (~58%) found to be unmethylated; whereas protein coding regions were largely (~84%) methylated. We found that approximately 24% CpG islands (CGIs) were highly methylated in PBMs. Further characterization of CGIs with respect to their relative locations to RefSeq genes revealed that the highly methylated CGIs were largely enriched (~89%) in CGIs located in gene bodies and intergenic regions. By integration of the methylome data with genome-wide PBM gene expression data, we found negative correlation between promoter methylation levels and gene transcription levels when comparing groups of genes with different expression levels, and this relationship was consistently observed across promoters with high to low CpG densities. Furthermore, we observed a modest but significant excess (permutation p<0.0001) of genes showing negative correlation between inter-individual promoter methylation and transcription levels, particularly for genes associated with CpG-rich promoters. Across the 18 individual PBM methylomes, we also identified genomic regions that were constitutively highly methylated in PBMs as well as regions showing large inter-individual variability. Conclusions: This study represents a comprehensive analysis of the PBM methylome and our data provides a valuable resource for future epigenomic and multi-omic studies exploring biological and disease-related regulatory mechanisms in PBMs.

Project description:Purpose: We characterized genome-wide DNA methylation profiles (methylome) in purified peripheral blood monocytes (PBMs) from 18 healthy postmenopausal Caucasian females aged 50-56 years. Methods: DNA methylome of Human Peripheral Blood Monocytes were generated by methylated DNA immunoprecipitation combined with high-throughput sequencing (MeDIP-seq), using Illumina GAIIx. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed using MEDIPS package. Targeted methylation validation analysis was performed by using MassARRAY EpiTYPER assays. Genome-wide gene expression profiles have been obtained for 7 of the 18 subjects by using Affymetrix 1.0 Human Exon ST arrays following the manufacturer's recommended protocols. Results: Using MeDIP-seq,a total of approximately 283 million reads were uniquely aligned to human genome (Build NCBI37, HG19), resulting in average ~16 million uniquely aligned high quality reads per sample. Distinct patterns were revealed at different genomic features. For instance, promoters were commonly (~58%) found to be unmethylated; whereas protein coding regions were largely (~84%) methylated. We found that approximately 24% CpG islands (CGIs) were highly methylated in PBMs. Further characterization of CGIs with respect to their relative locations to RefSeq genes revealed that the highly methylated CGIs were largely enriched (~89%) in CGIs located in gene bodies and intergenic regions. By integration of the methylome data with genome-wide PBM gene expression data, we found negative correlation between promoter methylation levels and gene transcription levels when comparing groups of genes with different expression levels, and this relationship was consistently observed across promoters with high to low CpG densities. Furthermore, we observed a modest but significant excess (permutation p<0.0001) of genes showing negative correlation between inter-individual promoter methylation and transcription levels, particularly for genes associated with CpG-rich promoters. Across the 18 individual PBM methylomes, we also identified genomic regions that were constitutively highly methylated in PBMs as well as regions showing large inter-individual variability. Conclusions: This study represents a comprehensive analysis of the PBM methylome and our data provides a valuable resource for future epigenomic and multi-omic studies exploring biological and disease-related regulatory mechanisms in PBMs. DNA methylome of human peripheral blood monocytes were generated by MeDIP-seq, using Illumina GAIIx.

Project description:DNA methylation plays a vital role in genome dynamics and, in the human genome, occurs predominantly at cytosine guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites. The diploid haploid human genome analysed here contains around 2060 million CpG sites (methylome) where DNA methylation can vary, affecting many biological processes in health and disease. Using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, we report the essentially complete (92.6282%) methylome of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) which constitute an important source for clinical blood tests world-wide. We find the majority of CpG sites (68.4% at false positive rate of 0.46%) and only <0.2% of non-CpG sites to be methylated, demonstrating that non-CpG cytosine methylation is negligible in human PBMC. Analysis of the PBMC methylome revealed a rich landscape of epigenomic data for 20 distinct features including regulatory, protein-coding, RNA gene coding, non-coding and repeat sequences. Alu element mobility, for instance, was found to negatively correlate with their methylation levels, emphasizing the critical role of DNA methylation in genome stability. Integration of our methylome data with the previously determined genome sequence of the same Asian individual analysed here, enabled a first assessment of allele-specific methylation (ASM) differences between the two haploid methylomes of any individual. Using a conservative cut-off (p <0.001), we identified 599 haploid differentially methylated regions (hDMRs) covering 287 genes. Of these, 76 genes had hDMRs within 2kb of their transcriptional start sites of which >80% displayed allele-specific expression (ASE) after random testing using TA clone sequencing of the same PBMC sample. These data show, that ASM is a recurrent phenomenon and highly correlated with ASE, suggesting that imprinting may be more common than previously thought. Our study not only provides a comprehensive resource for future epigenomic research but also demonstrates a paradigm of large-scale epigenomics studies through new sequencing technology.

Project description:DNA methylation is critical for development and is strongly associated with gene regulation. Variation in the DNA methylome between closely related species may reveal unique functional adaptation. We have implemented a novel inter-primate DNA methylation genome-wide analysis between human, chimpanzee and rhesus macaque to identify human species-specific Differentially Methylated Regions (human s-DMRs) in orthologous loci. We analysed the peripheral blood cell DNA methylomes of these primates and identified 22,758 hypomethylated and 15,858 hypermethylated human s-DMRs. These s-DMRs are globally enriched within weak promoter, enhancer and transcribed regions via comparison with ChromHMM segmentation. Human s-DMRs, (both hypo- and hypermethylated) are found to be more prevalent in CpG Island shores than within the islands themselves (?2 P = 1.80 x 10-32). Examining human-specific Transcription Factor Binding Site motif change within CpG islands, we show gain and loss, in hypomethylated and hypermethylated s-DMRs, respectively, of CTCF motifs. Epigenetically the most divergent human-specific locus was the immunological Leukotriene B4 receptor (LTB4R, aka BLT1 receptor), due to collocating hypomethylated s-DMRs within the promoter CpG island and shore, as well as inverse increased gene body methylation. This gene is vital in host immune responses and associated with the pathogenesis of a wide range of human inflammatory diseases. This finding was supported by additional neutrophil-only DNA methylome and lymphoblastoid H3K4me3 chromatin comparative data. Functional investigation of the consequences of these epigenetic differences identified this receptor to have increased expression, and have a higher response to the LTB4 ligand in human versus rhesus macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This result further emphasises the exclusive nature of the human immunological system, its divergent adaptation even from closely related primates, and the power of comparative epigenomics to identify and understand human uniqueness.

Project description:DNA methylation is critical for development and is strongly associated with gene regulation. Variation in the DNA methylome between closely related species may reveal unique functional adaptation. We have implemented a novel inter-primate DNA methylation genome-wide analysis between human, chimpanzee and rhesus macaque to identify human species-specific Differentially Methylated Regions (human s-DMRs) in orthologous loci. We analysed the peripheral blood cell DNA methylomes of these primates and identified 22,758 hypomethylated and 15,858 hypermethylated human s-DMRs. These s-DMRs are globally enriched within weak promoter, enhancer and transcribed regions via comparison with ChromHMM segmentation. Human s-DMRs, (both hypo- and hypermethylated) are found to be more prevalent in CpG Island shores than within the islands themselves (?2 P = 1.80 x 10-32). Examining human-specific Transcription Factor Binding Site motif change within CpG islands, we show gain and loss, in hypomethylated and hypermethylated s-DMRs, respectively, of CTCF motifs. Epigenetically the most divergent human-specific locus was the immunological Leukotriene B4 receptor (LTB4R, aka BLT1 receptor), due to collocating hypomethylated s-DMRs within the promoter CpG island and shore, as well as inverse increased gene body methylation. This gene is vital in host immune responses and associated with the pathogenesis of a wide range of human inflammatory diseases. This finding was supported by additional neutrophil-only DNA methylome and lymphoblastoid H3K4me3 chromatin comparative data. Functional investigation of the consequences of these epigenetic differences identified this receptor to have increased expression, and have a higher response to the LTB4 ligand in human versus rhesus macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This result further emphasises the exclusive nature of the human immunological system, its divergent adaptation even from closely related primates, and the power of comparative epigenomics to identify and understand human uniqueness. DNA methylome analysis of pooled Human, Chimpanzee and Macaque

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Characterization of the DNA methylome and its interindividual variation in human peripheral blood monocytes.

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Characterization of the DNA methylome and its interindividual variation in human peripheral blood monocytes.

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