Project description:Genome wide methylation profiling of gliomas is likely to provide important clues to improving treatment outcomes. Restriction enzyme based approaches have been widely utilized for methylation profiling of cancer genomes and will continue to have importance in combination with higher density microarrays. With the availability of the human genome sequence and microarray probe sequences, these approaches can be readily characterized and optimized via in silico modeling. We adapted the previously described HpaII/MspI based Methylation Sensitive Restriction Enzyme (MSRE) assay for use with two-color Agilent 244K CpG island microarrays. In this assay, fragmented genomic DNA is digested in separate reactions with isoschizomeric HpaII (methylation-sensitive) and MspI (methylation-insensitive) restriction enzymes. Using in silico hybridization, we found that genomic fragmentation with BfaI was superior to MseI, providing a maximum effective coverage of 22,362 CpG islands in the human genome. In addition, we confirmed the presence of an internal control group of fragments lacking HpaII/MspI sites which enable separation of methylated and unmethylated fragments. We used this method on genomic DNA isolated from normal brain, U87MG cells, and a glioblastoma patient tumor sample and confirmed selected differentially methylated CpG islands using bisulfite sequencing. Along with additional validation points, we performed a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to determine the optimal threshold (p ⤠0.001). Based on this threshold, we identified ~2400 CpG islands common to all three samples and 145 CpG islands unique to glioblastoma. These data provide general guidance to individuals seeking to maximize effective coverage using restriction enzyme based methylation profiling approaches. Five samples: normal human brain DNA, U87MG cell line, glioblastoma tumor, human DNA treated with SssI enzyme used as positive control, and Genomiphied human DNA used as negative control. Two technical replicates were performed on all samples except the negative control.
Project description:Genome wide methylation profiling of gliomas is likely to provide important clues to improving treatment outcomes. Restriction enzyme based approaches have been widely utilized for methylation profiling of cancer genomes and will continue to have importance in combination with higher density microarrays. With the availability of the human genome sequence and microarray probe sequences, these approaches can be readily characterized and optimized via in silico modeling. We adapted the previously described HpaII/MspI based Methylation Sensitive Restriction Enzyme (MSRE) assay for use with two-color Agilent 244K CpG island microarrays. In this assay, fragmented genomic DNA is digested in separate reactions with isoschizomeric HpaII (methylation-sensitive) and MspI (methylation-insensitive) restriction enzymes. Using in silico hybridization, we found that genomic fragmentation with BfaI was superior to MseI, providing a maximum effective coverage of 22,362 CpG islands in the human genome. In addition, we confirmed the presence of an internal control group of fragments lacking HpaII/MspI sites which enable separation of methylated and unmethylated fragments. We used this method on genomic DNA isolated from normal brain, U87MG cells, and a glioblastoma patient tumor sample and confirmed selected differentially methylated CpG islands using bisulfite sequencing. Along with additional validation points, we performed a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to determine the optimal threshold (p ≤ 0.001). Based on this threshold, we identified ~2400 CpG islands common to all three samples and 145 CpG islands unique to glioblastoma. These data provide general guidance to individuals seeking to maximize effective coverage using restriction enzyme based methylation profiling approaches.
Project description:We analyzed levels of 5-methyl cytosine nnnn CCCGGG target sites by sequential restriction digest by SmaI and XmaI enzymes, ligating Illumina adaptors to the restriction fragments and reading methylation-specific signatures at the ends of restriction fragments by paired ends Illumina high throughput sequencing. Digital restriction enzyme analysis of methylation (DREAM) was performed to determine the methylation profile of SW48 colon cancer cell line genomic DNA. Genomic DNA spiked in with unmethylated, partially methylated and fully methylated standards was sequentially cut at CCCGGG sites with the methylation-sensitive enzyme SmaI (blunt ends) and its methylation-tolerant neoschizomer XmaI (5'CCGG overhangs), creating different end sequences that represented methylation status of the CCCGGG sites. These end sequences were analyzed by Illumina high throughput sequencing. Methylation status at individual CCCGGG sites across the genome was determined by counting the methylated reads with the CCGGG signature and unmethylated reads with the GGG signature at the beginnings of the sequencing reads after alignment to the human genome.
Project description:Background: To perform epigenome-wide association studies in human disease, assays need to be comprehensive and quantitative while remaining cost-effective. We explored how the strengths of prior tag-based cytosine methylation assays based on massively-parallel sequencing can be maximised analytically. Results: We find that the use of the EcoP15I restriction enzyme to generate long tags and the normalisation of methylation-sensitive by methylation-insensitive restriction enzyme representations greatly improve assay performance. When exploring sources of bias, we find that the length of the restriction fragment has moderate effects on EcoP15I digestion, while base composition exerts minimal effects. We detail the analytical workflow that maximises the quantitative capabilities of this modified assay. Also revealed are polymorphic sequences in the genome that could confound microarray, bisulphite sequencing or mass spectrometry-based assays, and a position effect causing hypomethylation of transposable elements near gene promoters. Conclusions: The new combined assay, referred to as HELP-tagging, interrogates over 1.8 million loci in the human genome quantitatively with a single lane of Illumina sequencing. When the goal is to study not only CG-dense sequence but also the CG-depleted majority of the genome, this assay system should be suitable. Three MspI reference, one HpaII test
Project description:DNA methylation in CpG context is fundamental to the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in high eukaryotes. Disorganization of methylation status is implicated in many diseases, cellular differentiation, imprinting, and other biological processes. Techniques that enrich for biologically relevant CpG-rich genomic regions are desired since, depending on the size of an oragnism's methylome, the depth of sequencing required to cover all CpGs can be prohibitively expensive. Currently, restriction-enzyme based Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing and its modified protocols are widely used to study methylation differences. Recently, Agilent Technologies and Roche NimbleGen have aimed to both reduce sequencing costs and capture CpGs of known biological relevance by marketing in-solution custom-capture hybridization platforms. These three methods target approximately 10-13% of the human methylome. For each platform - restriction-enzyme based enhanced reduced representation (ERRBS), capture based Agilent SureSelect Methyl-seq (SSMethylseq), and capture based Roche NimbleGen SeqCap Epi CpGiant (CpGiant) - we used human lung fibroblast cell line IMR90 DNA to make libraries according to each protocol and sequenced to equivalent depth. Overall, SSMethylSeq and CpGiant covered >95% of their designed capture regions whereas ERRBS covered 70% of its expected MspI regions. Methylation levels were concordant across the platforms. The concordance of annotations of CpG units for genomic features, displayed roughly the same proportions of genomic features. SSMethylSeq and CpGiant are most similar and cover marginally more annotated regions than ERRBS. However, the number of CpG units shared by all methods was low, ~26% of any platform. We conclude that captured based methods are largely consistent in terms of covered CpG loci although ERRBS provides comparable data at a significantly reduced price. Furthermore, library preparation for ERRBS can be performed with as little as 75ngs of starting material, whereas micrograms are needed for the capture hybridization techniques. Libraries were made from human lung fibroblast cell line IMR90 DNA for each protocol of ERRBS, Agilent SureSelect Methyl-seq, Roche NimbleGen SeqCap Epi CpGiant, and WGBS, then sequenced as paired-end 100bp on an Illumina HiSeq 2500.
Project description:Background: To perform epigenome-wide association studies in human disease, assays need to be comprehensive and quantitative while remaining cost-effective. We explored how the strengths of prior tag-based cytosine methylation assays based on massively-parallel sequencing can be maximised analytically. Results: We find that the use of the EcoP15I restriction enzyme to generate long tags and the normalisation of methylation-sensitive by methylation-insensitive restriction enzyme representations greatly improve assay performance. When exploring sources of bias, we find that the length of the restriction fragment has moderate effects on EcoP15I digestion, while base composition exerts minimal effects. We detail the analytical workflow that maximises the quantitative capabilities of this modified assay. Also revealed are polymorphic sequences in the genome that could confound microarray, bisulphite sequencing or mass spectrometry-based assays, and a position effect causing hypomethylation of transposable elements near gene promoters. Conclusions: The new combined assay, referred to as HELP-tagging, interrogates over 1.8 million loci in the human genome quantitatively with a single lane of Illumina sequencing. When the goal is to study not only CG-dense sequence but also the CG-depleted majority of the genome, this assay system should be suitable.