Accurate simultaneous sequencing of genetic and epigenetic bases in DNA
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: We present a single-base-resolution sequencing methodology that will simultaneously sequence complete genetics and complete epigenetics in a single workflow. The approach is non-destructive to DNA and provides a digital readout of bases, which we exemplify by simultaneous sequencing of G, C, T, A, and 5mC/5hmC (5-letter sequencing) or 5mC and 5hmC (6-Letter sequencing). We demonstrate sequencing of human genomic DNA and also cell-free DNA taken from a blood sample of a cancer patient. The approach is accurate, requires low DNA input and has a simple workflow and analysis pipeline. We envisage it will be versatile across many applications in life sciences.
Project description:Cytosine DNA bases can be methylated by DNA methyltransferases and subsequently oxidized by TET proteins. The resulting 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) are considered demethylation intermediates as well as stable epigenetic marks. To dissect the contribution of these cytosine modifying enzymes, we generated combinations of Tet knockout (KO) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and systematically measured protein and DNA modification levels at the transition from naive to primed pluripotency. Whereas the increase of genomic 5-methylcytosine (5mC) levels during exit from pluripotency correlated with an upregulation of the de novo DNA methyltransferases DNMT3A and DNMT3B, the subsequent oxidation steps turned out to be far more complex. The strong increase of oxidized cytosine bases (5hmC, 5fC, and 5caC) was accompanied by a drop in TET2 levels, yet the analysis of KO cells suggested that TET2 is responsible for most 5fC formation. The comparison of modified cytosine and enzyme levels in Tet KO cells revealed distinct and differentiation-dependent contributions of TET1 and TET2 to 5hmC and 5fC formation arguing against a processive mechanism of 5mC oxidation. The apparent independent steps of 5hmC and 5fC formation suggest yet to be identified mechanisms regulating TET activity and may constitute another layer of epigenetic regulation.
Project description:DNA methylation (5mC) plays important roles in epigenetic regulation of genome function, and recently the TET1-3 hydroxylases have been found to oxidize 5mC to hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), formylcytosine (5fC), and carboxylcytosine (5caC) in DNA. These derivatives have a role in demethylation of DNA but in addition may have epigenetic signaling functions in their own right. A recent study identified proteins with preferential binding to 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and its oxidized forms where readers for 5mC and 5hmC (5-hydroxymethylcytosine) showed little overlap while further oxidation forms enriched for repair proteins and transcription regulators. We extend this study by using promoter sequences as baits and compare protein binding patterns to unmodified or modified cytosine containing DNA using mouse embryonic stem cell (mESCs) extracts. The dataset contains 3 biological replicates each of mouse ES cell nuclear proteins binding to Pax6 and FGF15 promoter sequences containing different modified forms of cytosine. Data analysis: Mass spectrometric data were processed using Proteome Discoverer v1.3 and searched against a mammalian entries in Uniprot 2011.09 using Mascot v2.3 with the following parameters: Enzyme - trypsin; max 1 missed cleavage; Precursor Mass Tolerance - 10 ppm; Fragment Mass Tolerance - 0.6 Da; Dynamic Modification - Oxidation (M); Static Modification - Carbamidomethyl at C.
Project description:Cytosine base modifications 5-methylcytosine (5mC), 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and 5-formylcytosine (5fC) are present in mammalian DNA. Here, reduced bisulfite sequencing is developed for quantitatively sequencing 5fC at single-base resolution. This method is then applied with oxidative bisulfite sequencing to gain a map of 5mC, 5hmC and 5fC in mouse embryonic stem cells. 12 samples, reduced representation bisulphite treatment: 4 replicates each for bisulphite (BS), oxidative BS (oxBS) and reduced BS (redBS) for the detection of 5mC, 5hmC and 5fC. Mouse (strain B6C) embryonic stem cells.
Project description:Oxidative modification of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) by TET DNA dioxygenases generates 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), the most abundant form of oxidized 5mC. Existing single-cell bisulfite sequencing methods cannot resolve 5mC and 5hmC, leaving the cell-type-specific regulatory mechanisms of TET and 5hmC largely unknown. Here we present Joint single-nucleus (hydroxy)methylcytosine sequencing (Joint-snhmC-seq), a scalable and quantitative approach that simultaneously profiles 5hmC and true 5mC in single cells by harnessing differential deaminase activity of APOBEC3A towards 5mC and chemically protected 5hmC. Joint-snhmC-seq profiling of single nuclei from the mouse brains reveals an unprecedented level of epigenetic heterogeneity of both 5hmC and true 5mC at single-cell resolution. We show that cell-type-specific profiles of 5hmC or true 5mC improve multi-modal single-cell data integration, enable accurate identification of neuronal subtypes, and uncover context-specific regulatory effects of cell-type-specific genes by TET enzymes.
Project description:Oxidative modification of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) by TET DNA dioxygenases generates 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), the most abundant form of oxidized 5mC. Existing single-cell bisulfite sequencing methods cannot resolve 5mC and 5hmC, leaving the cell-type-specific regulatory mechanisms of TET and 5hmC largely unknown. Here we present Joint single-nucleus (hydroxy)methylcytosine sequencing (Joint-snhmC-seq), a scalable and quantitative approach that simultaneously profiles 5hmC and true 5mC in single cells by harnessing differential deaminase activity of APOBEC3A towards 5mC and chemically protected 5hmC. Joint-snhmC-seq profiling of single nuclei from the mouse brains reveals an unprecedented level of epigenetic heterogeneity of both 5hmC and true 5mC at single-cell resolution. We show that cell-type-specific profiles of 5hmC or true 5mC improve multi-modal single-cell data integration, enable accurate identification of neuronal subtypes, and uncover context-specific regulatory effects of cell-type-specific genes by TET enzymes.
Project description:Oxidative modification of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) by TET DNA dioxygenases generates 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), the most abundant form of oxidized 5mC. Existing single-cell bisulfite sequencing methods cannot resolve 5mC and 5hmC, leaving the cell-type-specific regulatory mechanisms of TET and 5hmC largely unknown. Here we present Joint single-nucleus (hydroxy)methylcytosine sequencing (Joint-snhmC-seq), a scalable and quantitative approach that simultaneously profiles 5hmC and true 5mC in single cells by harnessing differential deaminase activity of APOBEC3A towards 5mC and chemically protected 5hmC. Joint-snhmC-seq profiling of single nuclei from the mouse brains reveals an unprecedented level of epigenetic heterogeneity of both 5hmC and true 5mC at single-cell resolution. We show that cell-type-specific profiles of 5hmC or true 5mC improve multi-modal single-cell data integration, enable accurate identification of neuronal subtypes, and uncover context-specific regulatory effects of cell-type-specific genes by TET enzymes.
Project description:Oxidative modification of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) by TET DNA dioxygenases generates 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), the most abundant form of oxidized 5mC. Existing single-cell bisulfite sequencing methods cannot resolve 5mC and 5hmC, leaving the cell-type-specific regulatory mechanisms of TET and 5hmC largely unknown. Here we present Joint single-nucleus (hydroxy)methylcytosine sequencing (Joint-snhmC-seq), a scalable and quantitative approach that simultaneously profiles 5hmC and true 5mC in single cells by harnessing differential deaminase activity of APOBEC3A towards 5mC and chemically protected 5hmC. Joint-snhmC-seq profiling of single nuclei from the mouse brains reveals an unprecedented level of epigenetic heterogeneity of both 5hmC and true 5mC at single-cell resolution. We show that cell-type-specific profiles of 5hmC or true 5mC improve multi-modal single-cell data integration, enable accurate identification of neuronal subtypes, and uncover context-specific regulatory effects of cell-type-specific genes by TET enzymes.
Project description:Although various methods have been developed for sequencing cytosine epigenetic modifications, specific and quantitative sequencing of the two major epigenetic modifications of cytosines, 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) at base-resolution is still challenging. Most times it requires subtraction of two methods to obtain both the true 5mC and 5hmC information, which increases noise and requires high sequencing depth. Recently we developed TET assisted pyridine borane sequencing (TAPS) for bisulfite-free direct sequencing of DNA methylation, which provides the sum of 5mC and 5hmC. Here we extend it to two sister methods, TAPSβ and CAPS (Chemical-Assisted Pyridine borane Sequencing), for whole-genome subtraction-free and specific sequencing of 5mC and 5hmC, respectively. We also demonstrated Pyridine borane Sequencing (PS) of whole-genome 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC), the further oxidized derivatives of 5mC and 5hmC. This completes the versatile borane reduction chemistry-based methods as a comprehensive suite for direct and quantitative sequencing of all four individual cytosine epigenetic modifications.
Project description:To elucidate the role of DNA glycosylase NEIL2 in regulation of DNA methylome, we performed genome sequencing of epigenetic marker 5mC and 5hmC in genome-wide using enyme-based library methods of TAPS and CAPS. The 5mC and 5hmC profile in CpG contect was further extracted and analysed.
Project description:Tet enzymes (Tet1/2/3) catalyze the conversion of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5-hydroxy-methylcytosine (5hmC) and are dynamically expressed in various embryonic and adult cell types. While loss of individual Tet enzymes or combined deficiency of Tet1/2 allows for embryogenesis, the effect of complete loss of Tet activity and 5hmC marks in development has not been established. To define the role of Tet enzymes and 5hmC in development we have generated Tet1, Tet2 and Tet3 triple knockout (TKO) mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and examined their developmental potential in vitro and in vivo. Combined deficiency of all three Tet enzymes led to complete depletion of 5hmC and impaired ESC differentiation as seen in poorly differentiated TKO embryoid bodies and teratomas. Consistent with impaired differentiation, TKO ES cells exhibited limited contribution to the chimeric embryos and could not support embryonic development in tetraploid complementation assays. Gene expression profiles and genome wide methylome analyses of TKO embryoid bodies revealed promoter hypermethylation and deregulation of genes implicated in embryonic development and differentiation. These findings suggest a requirement for Tet and 5hmC-mediated DNA demethylation in proper regulation of gene expression during differentiation of embryonic stem cells and development. Methylation patterns in tissue samples from a series of wt and Tet1/Tet2 DKO embryos, neonates and adults were generated using ethylated DNA immunoprecipitation with antibodies against 5mC (MeDIP) and 5hmC (hMeDIP) followed by deep sequencing.