Project description:Mammalian embryonic stem (ES) cells and sperm exhibit unusual chromatin packaging that plays important roles in cellular function. Here, we extend a recently developed technique, based on deep paired-end sequencing of lightly digested chromatin, to assess footprints of nucleosomes and other DNA-binding proteins genome-wide in murine ES cells and sperm. In ES cells, we recover well-characterized features of chromatin such as promoter nucleosome depletion, and further identify widespread footprints of sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins such as CTCF, which we validate in knockdown studies. We document global differences in nuclease accessibility between ES cells and sperm, finding that the majority of histone retention in sperm preferentially occurs in large gene-poor genomic regions, with only a small subset of nucleosomes being retained over promoters of developmental regulators. Finally, we describe evidence that CTCF remains associated with the genome in mature sperm, where it could play a role in organizing the sperm genome. We use Micrococcal Nuclease (MNase) to map chromatin structure in mouse ES cells and sperm. Specifically, we generate paired-end deep-sequencing libraries that are able to distinguish DNA digestion products by size, thus allowing us to simultaneously map nucleosomes as well as other DNA-binding proteins such as transcription factors.
Project description:Genome wide of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine profiling of normal and abnormal, and globozoospermia sperm genomes.Two semen samples were collected from a healthy man and a globozoospermia patient who had consulted a physician at ShengJing Hospital of China Medical University. Other semen samples obtained from two volunteers who were good health generally. 5-hmC enriched genomic DNA libraries were generated following the Illumina protocol for M-bM-^@M-^\Preparing Samples for CHIP sequencing of DNAM-bM-^@M-^]. 100bp single end sequencing on Illumina Hiseq2000 to get 5-hmC-enriched DNA fragment sequence was performed. Examination of 5hmC levels in normal, abnormal, and globozoospermia sperm genomes
Project description:There is a growing body of evidence that inadequate maternal nutrition during gestation can have immediate and life-long effects on offspring. However, little is known about the reproductive effects of maternal gestational nutrition in offspring males. Here, using a sheep model of poor maternal nutrition (restricted- or over-feeding) during gestation, we found that poor maternal gestational nutrition does not affect semen characteristics (i.e. volume, sperm concentration, pH, sperm motility, sperm morphology) and scrotal circumference in offspring. However, by evaluating associations between poor maternal gestational nutrition and altered small non-cording RNAs (sncRNAs) and DNA methylation in offspring sperm, we demonstrated that poor maternal gestational nutrition alters sperm sncRNA composition and expression. Whole genome bisulfite sequencing further identified genomic regions with increased or decreased DNA methylation in sperm in response to poor maternal gestational nutrition. These findings imply that maternal diet-induced epigenetic errors can accumulate in sperm to worsen developmental outcomes of future generations.
Project description:We report the application of whole genome bisulfite sequencing technology for high-throughput profiling of DNA methylation in mice sperm at young and aging stages. By obtaining over 500 billion bases of sequence from genomic DNA, we generated genome-wide methylation-state maps of sperm from young and aging stages. We find that 2984 differetial methylation regions(DMR) in whole genome, including 916 DMR in promoter regions betweenin sperm from young and aging stages. 591 of DMR in promoter regions were significantly hypomethylated (~59.82%) and 397 significantly hypermethylated (~40.18%) in sperm of old males.