Project description:DNA methylation plays important roles in foreign DNA defense, mismatch repair, and gene regulation in prokaryotic genomes. Existing methods for DNA methylation detection using next-generation sequencing (NGS) are incapable of simultaneously detecting multiple types of DNA methylation. Here, we present nitrite treatment followed by sequencing (NT-seq), a sequencing method to simultaneously detect adenine and cytosine methylation. We demonstrated that NT-seq reliably detects three types of methylation motifs in E. coli and H. pylori genomes. We further applied NT-seq to a microbial community standard for de novo methylation motif discovery. Finally, by coupling methyl DNA immunoprecipitation and NT-seq (DIP-NT-seq), we showed that 6mA could be accurately mapped at single-base resolution in the bacterial and eukaryotic genomes. NT-seq thus provides a simple and reliable solution for detecting multiple types of DNA methylations.
Project description:DNA methylation plays important roles in foreign DNA defense, mismatch repair, and gene regulation in prokaryotic genomes. Existing methods for DNA methylation detection using next-generation sequencing (NGS) are incapable of simultaneously detecting multiple types of DNA methylation. Here, we present nitrite treatment followed by sequencing (NT-seq), a sequencing method to simultaneously detect adenine and cytosine methylation. We demonstrated that NT-seq reliably detects three types of methylation motifs in E. coli and H. pylori genomes. We further applied NT-seq to a microbial community standard for de novo methylation motif discovery. Finally, by coupling methyl DNA immunoprecipitation and NT-seq (DIP-NT-seq), we showed that 6mA could be accurately mapped at single-base resolution in the bacterial and eukaryotic genomes. NT-seq thus provides a simple and reliable solution for detecting multiple types of DNA methylations.
Project description:Herein, graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) were obtained from the oxidative unzipping of multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Covalent coupling reaction of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS) with amine functional groups (-NH2) of the chitosan natural polymer (CH) was used for entrapping GONRs on the activated glassy carbon electrode (GCE/GONRs-CH). The nanocomposite was characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). In addition, the modification steps were monitored using FTIR. The nanocomposite-modified electrode was used for the simultaneous electrochemical determination of four DNA bases; guanine (G), adenine (A), thymine (T) and cytosine (C). The nanocomposite-modified GCE displayed a strong, stable and continuous four oxidation peaks during electrochemistry detection at potentials 0.63, 0.89, 1.13 and 1.27 V for G, A, T and C, respectively. The calibration curves were linear up to 256, 172, 855 and 342 ?M with detection limits of 0.002, 0.023, 1.330 and 0.641 ?M for G, A, T and C, respectively. The analytical performance of the GCE/GONRs-CH has been used for the determination of G, A, T and C in real samples and obtained a recovery percentage from 91.1%-104.7%. Our preliminary results demonstrated that GCE/GONRs-CH provided a promising platform to detect all four DNA bases for future studies on DNA damage and mutations.
Project description:The goal of this study is to comprehensively assess chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation dynamic in different cell cycle phases, we found DNA methylation is stable in different phases wherase chromatin accessibility underwent enormous changes, but local structure at NDR and NSR are well preserved to maintain cellular identity.
Project description:While cytosine methylation has been widely studied in extant populations, relatively few studies have analyzed methylation in ancient DNA. Most existing studies of epigenetic marks in ancient DNA have inferred patterns of methylation in highly degraded samples using post-mortem damage to cytosines as a proxy for cytosine methylation levels. However, this approach limits the inference of methylation compared with direct bisulfite sequencing, the current gold standard for analyzing cytosine methylation at single nucleotide resolution. In this study, we used direct bisulfite sequencing to assess cytosine methylation in ancient DNA from the skeletal remains of 30 Native Americans ranging in age from approximately 230 to 4500 years before present. Unmethylated cytosines were converted to uracils by treatment with sodium bisulfite, bisulfite products of a CpG-rich retrotransposon were pyrosequenced, and C-to-T ratios were quantified for a single CpG position. We found that cytosine methylation is readily recoverable from most samples, given adequate preservation of endogenous nuclear DNA. In addition, our results indicate that the precision of cytosine methylation estimates is inversely correlated with aDNA preservation, such that samples of low DNA concentration show higher variability in measures of percent methylation than samples of high DNA concentration. In particular, samples in this study with a DNA concentration above 0.015 ng/?L generated the most consistent measures of cytosine methylation. This study presents evidence of cytosine methylation in a large collection of ancient human remains, and indicates that it is possible to analyze epigenetic patterns in ancient populations using direct bisulfite sequencing approaches.
Project description:In this study, we provided the first genome-wide, base pair-resolution map of 6mA in Tetrahymena by applying single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing.
Project description:DNA methylation on N6-adenine (6mA), the most prevalent DNA modification in prokaryotes, has recently been found as a potentially new epigenetic mark in several unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes. However, the distribution patterns and potential functions of 6mA in land plants, which are primary producers for most ecosystems, remain completely unknown. Here we report global profiling of 6mA sites at single-nucleotide resolution in the genomes of Arabidopsis thaliana Columbia-0 (Col), using single-molecule real-time sequencing. DNA methylome analysis shows that 6mA sites are widely distributed across the Col genomes and enriched over the pericentromeric heterochromatin regions. Nearly 30% of 6mA sites are present in gene bodies with a trend of enrichment around the transcriptional start site. In addition to a common consensus 6mA site found in other eukaryotes, novel 6mA sites were found, indicating that 6mA could evolve new functions in land plants. Further analysis of 6mA methylome and RNA-sequencing data demonstrates that 6mA positively correlates with the gene expression level in Col plants. Consistently, DNA affinity chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry reveals that histone variants associated with actively expressed genes interact with 6mA DNA. Our results uncover 6mA as a DNA mark associated with actively expressed genes in Arabidopsis, indicating that 6mA could serve as a potentially novel epigenetic mark in land plants.