Project description:5-methylcytosine (5mC) is the most important DNA modification in mammalian genomes as a lineage-defining mark dynamically altered in development and disease. The ideal method for 5mC localization would be both non-destructive of DNA and direct, without requiring inference based on detection of unmodified cytosines. Here, we present Direct Methylation Sequencing (DM-Seq), a bisulfite-free method for profiling 5mC at single-base resolution, using nanogram quantities of input DNA. DM-Seq employs two key DNA modifying enzymes: a neomorphic DNA methyltransferase engineered to generate the unnatural base 5-carboxymethylcytosine, and a DNA deaminase capable of precise discrimination between cytosine modification states. Coupling these activities requires a novel adapter strategy employing 5-propynylcytosine, ultimately resulting in the accurate and direct detection of only 5mC via a C-to-T transition in sequencing. In performing comparisons to DM-Seq, we uncover a systematic bias in 5mC detection seen with the hybrid enzymatic-chemical TAPS sequencing approach. Furthermore, by applying DM-Seq to a human glioblastoma tumor, we demonstrate that DM-Seq, unlike bisulfite-sequencing, detects 5mC at prognostically-important CpGs, without confounding by 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. DM-Seq thus leverages unnatural DNA modifications to create the first method for direct 5mC profiling entirely using enzymes rather than chemical reagents.
Project description:5-methylcytosine (5mC) is the most important DNA modification in mammalian genomes as a lineage-defining mark dynamically altered in development and disease. The ideal method for 5mC localization would be both non-destructive of DNA and direct, without requiring inference based on detection of unmodified cytosines. Here, we present Direct Methylation Sequencing (DM-Seq), a bisulfite-free method for profiling 5mC at single-base resolution, using nanogram quantities of input DNA. DM-Seq employs two key DNA modifying enzymes: a neomorphic DNA methyltransferase engineered to generate the unnatural base 5-carboxymethylcytosine, and a DNA deaminase capable of precise discrimination between cytosine modification states. Coupling these activities requires a novel adapter strategy employing 5-propynylcytosine, ultimately resulting in the accurate and direct detection of only 5mC via a C-to-T transition in sequencing. In performing comparisons to DM-Seq, we uncover a systematic bias in 5mC detection seen with the hybrid enzymatic-chemical TAPS sequencing approach. Furthermore, by applying DM-Seq to a human glioblastoma tumor, we demonstrate that DM-Seq, unlike bisulfite-sequencing, detects 5mC at prognostically-important CpGs, without confounding by 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. DM-Seq thus leverages unnatural DNA modifications to create the first method for direct 5mC profiling entirely using enzymes rather than chemical reagents.
Project description:5-methylcytosine (5mC) is the most important DNA modification in mammalian genomes as a lineage-defining mark dynamically altered in development and disease. The ideal method for 5mC localization would be both non-destructive of DNA and direct, without requiring inference based on detection of unmodified cytosines. Here, we present Direct Methylation Sequencing (DM-Seq), a bisulfite-free method for profiling 5mC at single-base resolution, using nanogram quantities of input DNA. DM-Seq employs two key DNA modifying enzymes: a neomorphic DNA methyltransferase engineered to generate the unnatural base 5-carboxymethylcytosine, and a DNA deaminase capable of precise discrimination between cytosine modification states. Coupling these activities requires a novel adapter strategy employing 5-propynylcytosine, ultimately resulting in the accurate and direct detection of only 5mC via a C-to-T transition in sequencing. In performing comparisons to DM-Seq, we uncover a systematic bias in 5mC detection seen with the hybrid enzymatic-chemical TAPS sequencing approach. Furthermore, by applying DM-Seq to a human glioblastoma tumor, we demonstrate that DM-Seq, unlike bisulfite-sequencing, detects 5mC at prognostically-important CpGs, without confounding by 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. DM-Seq thus leverages unnatural DNA modifications to create the first method for direct 5mC profiling entirely using enzymes rather than chemical reagents.
Project description:5-methylcytosine (5mC) is the most important DNA modification in mammalian genomes as a lineage-defining mark dynamically altered in development and disease. The ideal method for 5mC localization would be both non-destructive of DNA and direct, without requiring inference based on detection of unmodified cytosines. Here, we present Direct Methylation Sequencing (DM-Seq), a bisulfite-free method for profiling 5mC at single-base resolution, using nanogram quantities of input DNA. DM-Seq employs two key DNA modifying enzymes: a neomorphic DNA methyltransferase engineered to generate the unnatural base 5-carboxymethylcytosine, and a DNA deaminase capable of precise discrimination between cytosine modification states. Coupling these activities requires a novel adapter strategy employing 5-propynylcytosine, ultimately resulting in the accurate and direct detection of only 5mC via a C-to-T transition in sequencing. In performing comparisons to DM-Seq, we uncover a systematic bias in 5mC detection seen with the hybrid enzymatic-chemical TAPS sequencing approach. Furthermore, by applying DM-Seq to a human glioblastoma tumor, we demonstrate that DM-Seq, unlike bisulfite-sequencing, detects 5mC at prognostically-important CpGs, without confounding by 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. DM-Seq thus leverages unnatural DNA modifications to create the first method for direct 5mC profiling entirely using enzymes rather than chemical reagents.
Project description:5-Methylcytosine (5mC) is a crucial epigenetic modification plays a significant role in the regulation of gene expression. Accurate and quantitative detection of 5mC at single-base resolution is essential for understanding its epigenetic functions within genomes. In this study, we develop a novel nTET-assisted deaminase sequencing (TAD-seq) method for the base-resolution and quantitative detection of 5mC in genomic DNA. The TAD-seq method utilizes a Naegleria TET-like dioxygenase (nTET) to oxidize 5mC, generating 5-methylcytosine oxidation products (5moC). We also engineered a variant of the human apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing catalytic polypeptide-like 3A (A3A), creating an A3A mutant (A3Am). Treatment with A3Am results in the conversion of cytosine to uracil, while 5moC remains unchanged. Consequently, TAD-seq enables the direct deamination of cytosine to uracil by A3Am, which is sequenced as thymine, whereas 5mC, once oxidized to 5moC by nTET, resists deamination and is sequenced as cytosine. Therefore, the cytosines that persist in the sequencing data represent the original 5mC sites. We applied TAD-seq to HEK293T cells, generating a base-resolution map of 5mC that exhibits strong concordance with maps generated by conventional BS-seq. TAD-seq emerges as a powerful, bisulfite-free approach for the single-base resolution mapping of 5mC stoichiometry in genomic DNA.