Dataset Information

Marmal-aid--a database for Infinium HumanMethylation450.

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation is indispensible for normal human genome function. Currently there is an increasingly large number of DNA methylomic data being released in the public domain allowing for an opportunity to investigate the relationships between the DNA methylome, genome function, and human phenotypes. The Illumina450K is one of the most popular platforms for assessing DNA methylation with over 10,000 samples available in the public domain. However, accessing all this data requires downloading each individual experiment and due to inconsistent annotation, accessing the right data can be a challenge.Here we introduce 'Marmal-aid', the first standardised database for DNA methylation (freely available at http://marmal-aid.org). In Marmal-aid, the majority of publicly available Illumina HumanMethylation450 data is incorporated into a single repository allowing for re-processing of data including normalisation and imputation of missing values. The database is accessible in two ways: (1) Using an R package to allow for incorporation into existing analysis pipelines which can then be easily queried to gain insight into the functionality of certain CpG sites. This is aimed at a bioinformatician with experience in R. (2) Using a graphical interface allowing general biologists to query a pre-defined set of tissues (currently 15) providing a reference database of the methylation state in these tissues for the 450,000 CpG sites profiled by the Illumina HumanMethylation450.Marmal-aid is the largest publicly available Illumina HumanMethylation450 methylation database combining Illumina HumanMethylation450 data from a number of sources into a single location with a single common annotation format. This allows for automated extraction using the R package and inclusion into existing analysis pipelines. Marmal-aid also provides a easy to use GUI to visualise methylation data in user defined genomic regions for various reference tissues.

SUBMITTER: Lowe R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3878775 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Marmal-aid--a database for Infinium HumanMethylation450.

Lowe Robert R Rakyan Vardhman K VK

BMC bioinformatics 20131212

<h4>Background</h4>DNA methylation is indispensible for normal human genome function. Currently there is an increasingly large number of DNA methylomic data being released in the public domain allowing for an opportunity to investigate the relationships between the DNA methylome, genome function, and human phenotypes. The Illumina450K is one of the most popular platforms for assessing DNA methylation with over 10,000 samples available in the public domain. However, accessing all this data requir ...[more]

PMID: 24330312

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Measurement of genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) has become an important avenue for investigating potential physiologically-relevant epigenetic changes. Illumina Infinium (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) is a commercially available microarray suite used to measure DNAm at many sites throughout the genome. However, it has been suggested that a subset of array probes may give misleading results due to issues related to probe design. To facilitate biologically significant data interpretation, we set out to enhance probe annotation of the newest Infinium array, the HumanMethylation450 BeadChip (450 k), with >485,000 probes covering 99% of Reference Sequence (RefSeq) genes (National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Bethesda, MD, USA). Annotation that was added or expanded on includes: 1) documented SNPs in the probe target, 2) probe binding specificity, 3) CpG classification of target sites and 4) gene feature classification of target sites. RESULTS: Probes with documented SNPs at the target CpG (4.3% of probes) were associated with increased within-tissue variation in DNAm. An example of a probe with a SNP at the target CpG demonstrated how sample genotype can confound the measurement of DNAm. Additionally, 8.6% of probes mapped to multiple locations in silico. Measurements from these non-specific probes likely represent a combination of DNAm from multiple genomic sites. The expanded biological annotation demonstrated that based on DNAm, grouping probes by an alternative high-density and intermediate-density CpG island classification provided a distinctive pattern of DNAm. Finally, variable enrichment for differentially methylated probes was noted across CpG classes and gene feature groups, dependant on the tissues that were compared. CONCLUSION: DNAm arrays offer a high-throughput approach for which careful consideration of probe content should be utilized to better understand the biological processes affected. Probes containing SNPs and non-specific probes may affect the assessment of DNAm using the 450 k array. Additionally, probe classification by CpG enrichment classes and to a lesser extent gene feature groups resulted in distinct patterns of DNAm. Thus, we recommend that compromised probes be removed from analyses and that the genomic context of DNAm is considered in studies deciphering the biological meaning of Illumina 450 k array data.

Dataset Information

Marmal-aid--a database for Infinium HumanMethylation450.

Publications

Marmal-aid--a database for Infinium HumanMethylation450.

Similar Datasets

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