Comparative methylomics reveals gene-body H3K36me3 in Drosophila predicts DNA methylation and CpG landscapes in other invertebrates
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ABSTRACT: Here, we demonstrate that Nematostella vectensis, Ciona intestinalis, Apis mellifera, and B. mori, show two distinct populations of genes differentiated by gene-body CpG density. Genome-scale DNA methylation profiles for A. mellifera spermatozoa reveal CpG-poor genes are methylated in the germ line, as predicted by the depletion of CpGs. We find an evolutionarily conserved distinction between CpG-poor and -rich genes: the former are associated with basic biological processes, the latter with more specialized functions. This distinction is strikingly similar to that recently observed between euchromatin-associated genes in Drosophila that contain intragenic histone 3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3) and those that do not, even though Drosophila doesnât display CpG density bimodality or methylation. We confirm that a significant number of CpG-poor genes in N. vectensis, C. intestinalis, A. mellifera and B. mori are orthologs of H3K36me3- rich genes in Drosophila. We propose that over evolutionary time, gene-body H3K36me3 has influenced gene-body DNA methylation levels, and consequently the gene-body CpG density bimodality characteristic of invertebrates that harbor CpG methylation.
ORGANISM(S): Apis mellifera
PROVIDER: GSE29982 | GEO | 2011/06/16
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA140771
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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