Project description:5-methylcytosine (5-mC) can be oxidized to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC). Genome-wide profiling of 5-hmC thus far indicated 5-hmC may not only be an intermediate form of DNA demethylation but could also constitute an epigenetic mark per se. We describe a cost-effective and selective method to detect both the hydroxymethylation and methylation status of cytosines in more than 1.8 million MspI sites in the human genome. This method involves the selective glucosylation of 5-hmC residues, short-sequence tag generation and high-throughput sequencing. We tested this method by screening H9 human embryonic stem cells and their differentiated embroid body cells, and found that differential hydroxymethylation preferentially occur in bivalent genes during cellular differentiation. Especially, our results support hydroxymethylation can regulate key transcription regulators with bivalent marks through demethylation and affect cellular decision on choosing active or inactive state of these genes upon cellular differentiation. We developed a cost-effective and selective method to detect both the hydroxymethylation and methylation status of cytosines in more than 1.8 million MspI sites in the human genome. In this method, we took advantage of the differential enzymatic sensitivities of the isoschizomers MspI and HpaII. HpaII cleaves only a completely unmodified site, any modification at either cytosine blocks the cleavage, while MspI recognizes and cleaves both 5-mC and 5-hmC, but not the newly discovered 5-formylcytosine (5-fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5-caC). Furthermore, beta-glucosyltransferase (beta-GT) can transfer a glucose to the hydroxyl group of 5-hmC and generate beta-glucosyl-5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-ghmC) that blocks MspI digestion. Thus, either by combining beta-GT treatment with MspI digestion or simply applying MspI/HpaII digestion, short sequence tags generated can be used for inferring hydroxymethylation or methylation status in around 1.8 million cytosine sites in the human genome. We tested this method by screening H9 human embryonic stem cells and their differentiated embroid body cells.

Project description:5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), a derivative of 5-methylcytosine (5-mC), is abundant in the brain for unknown reasons. We mapped the genomic distribution of 5-hmC and 5-mC in human and mouse tissues using glucosylation of 5-hmC coupled with restriction enzyme digestion, and interrogation on microarrays. We detected 5-hmC enrichment in genes with synapse-related functions in the brain. We also identified significant, tissue-specific differential distributions of these DNA modifications at the exon-intron boundary, in both human and mouse. This boundary change was mainly due to 5-hmC in the brain, but due to 5-mC in non-neural contexts. This pattern was replicated in multiple independent datasets, and the brain-specific change in 5-hmC was validated using single-molecule sequencing. Moreover, in the brain, constitutive exons contained higher levels of 5-hmC, relative to alternatively-spliced exons. Our study suggests a novel role for 5-hmC in RNA splicing and synaptic function in the brain The M-NM-2-glucosyltransferase (BGT) enzyme transfers a glucose molecule specifically to the hydroxymethyl group of 5-hmC, thus rendering it resistant to digestion by the methylation insensitive MspI enzyme at the ChmCGG target site; 5-hmC is thus detected by differential resistance to MspI-digestion with and without glucosylation of genomic DNA (gDNA). HpaII (targets the same site, CCGG) cannot cut CmCGG or ChmCGG, and conceptually its difference with MspI digestion is a measure of both 5-mC and 5-hmC. Subtraction of 5-hmC from the HpaII-based estimate therefore measures 5-mC. These estimates were measured on respective Affymetrix whole-genome tiling arrays (2.0 R ) MspI - APRIL_fc1.ch02_coverage.bed Undigested DNA - APRIL_fc1.ch01_coverage.bed GluMspI - APRIL_fc1.ch04_coverage_NONTARGET.bed GluMspI - APRIL_fc1.ch04_coverage.bed MspI - APRIL_fc1.ch02_coverage_NONTARGET.bed Undigested DNA - APRIL_fc1.ch01_coverage_NONTARGET.bed MspI - MARCH_fc1.ch02_coverage_NONTARGET.bed Undigested DNA - MARCH_fc1.ch01_coverage_NONTARGET.bed GluMspI - MARCH_fc1.ch04_coverage_NONTARGET.bed GluMspI - MARCH_fc1.ch04_coverage.bed MspI - MARCH_fc1.ch02_coverage.bed Undigested DNA - MARCH_fc1.ch01_coverage.bed MspI - MAY_fc1.ch02_coverage.bed GluMspI - MAY_fc1.ch04_coverage_NONTARGET.bed GluMspI - MAY_fc1.ch04_coverage.bed Undigested DNA - MAY_fc1.ch01_coverage.bed MspI - MAY_fc1.ch02_coverage_NONTARGET.bed Undigested DNA - MAY_fc1.ch01_coverage_NONTARGET.bed

Project description:Purpose: Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood. We previously showed that circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and tumor biopsy derived 5-hydroxymethylcytosime (5-hmC) profiles identified patients with neuroblastoma who experienced subsequent relapse. Here, we hypothesized that 5-hmC modifications selectively enriched in cfDNA compared with tumor biopsy samples would identify epigenetic changes associated with aggressive tumor behavior and identify novel biomarkers of outcome in patients with high- risk neuroblastoma. Methods: 5-hmC profiles from cfDNA (n = 64) and tumor biopsies (n = 48) were compared. Two neuroblastoma cell lines underwent chromatin immunopre- cipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-Seq) for H3K27me3, H3K4me3, and H3K27ac; kethoxal-associated single-stranded DNA sequencing; hmC-Seal for 5-hmC; and RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq). Genes enriched for both H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 in the included cell lines were defined as bivalent. Using bivalent genes defined in vitro, a bivalent signature was established in three publicly available cohorts of patients with neuroblastoma through gene set variation analysis. Differences between tumors with high or low bivalent signatures were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models. Results: In cfDNA compared with tumor biopsy derived 5-hmC profiles, we found in- creased 5-hmC deposition on Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 target genes, a finding previously described in the context of bivalent genes. We identified 313 genes that bore bivalent chromatin marks, were enriched for mediators of neuronal differentiation, and were transcriptionally repressed across a panel of heterogeneous neuroblastoma cell lines. In three distinct clinical cohorts, low bivalent signature was significantly and independently associated with worse clinical outcome in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. Conclusion: Low expression of bivalent genes is a biomarker of worse outcome in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma.

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Integrated detection of both 5-mC and 5-hmC by high-throughput tag sequencing technology highlights methylation reprogramming of bivalent genes during cellular differentiation [DGE]

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