Single nucleotide extension technology for quantitative site-specific evaluation of (met)C/C in GC-rich regions

The development and use of high throughput technologies for detailed mapping of methylated cytosines ((met)C) is becoming of increasing importance for the expanding field of epigenetics. The single nucleotide primer extension reaction used for genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms has been recently adapted to interrogate the bisulfite modification induced ‘quantitative’ C/T polymorphism that corresponds to (met)C/C in the native DNA. In this study, we explored the opportunity to investigate C/T (and G/A) ratios using the Applied Biosystems (ABI) SNaPshot technology. The main effort of this study was dedicated to addressing the complexities in the analysis of DNA methylation in GC-rich regions where interrogation of the target cytosine can be confounded by variable degrees of methylation in other cytosines (resulting in variable C/T or G/A ratios after treatment with bisulfite) in the annealing site of the interrogating primer. In our studies, the mismatches of the SNaPshot primer with the target DNA sequence resulted in a biasing effect of up to 70% while these effects decreased as the location of the polymorphic site moved upstream of the target cytosine. We demonstrated that the biasing effect can be corrected with the SNaPshot primers containing degenerative C/T and G/A nucleotides. A series of experiments using various permutations of quantitative C/T and G/A polymorphisms at various positions of the target DNA sequence demonstrated that SNaPshot is able to accurately report cytosine methylation levels with <5% average SD from the true values. Given the relative simplicity of the method and the possibility to multiplex C/T and G/A interrogations, the SNaPshot approach may become a useful tool for large-scale mapping of (met)C

Microarray-based DNA methylation profiling: technology and applications

This work is dedicated to the development of a technology for unbiased, high-throughput DNA methylation profiling of large genomic regions. In this method, unmethylated and methylated DNA fractions are enriched using a series of treatments with methylation sensitive restriction enzymes, and interrogated on microarrays. We have investigated various aspects of the technology including its replicability, informativeness, sensitivity and optimal PCR conditions using microarrays containing oligonucleotides representing 100 kb of genomic DNA derived from the chromosome 22 COMT region in addition to 12 192 element CpG island microarrays. Several new aspects of methylation profiling are provided, including the parallel identification of confounding effects of DNA sequence variation, the description of the principles of microarray design for epigenomic studies and the optimal choice of methylation sensitive restriction enzymes. We also demonstrate the advantages of using the unmethylated DNA fraction versus the methylated one, which substantially improve the chances of detecting DNA methylation differences. We applied this methodology for fine-mapping of methylation patterns of chromosomes 21 and 22 in eight individuals using tiling microarrays consisting of over 340 000 oligonucleotide probe pairs. The principles developed in this work will help to make epigenetic profiling of the entire human genome a routine procedure

Intra- and Interindividual Epigenetic Variation in Human Germ Cells

Epigenetics represents a secondary inheritance system that has been poorly investigated in human biology. The objective of this study was to perform a comprehensive analysis of DNA methylation variation between and within the germlines of normal males. First, methylated cytosines were mapped using bisulphite modification–based sequencing in the promoter regions of the following disease genes: presenilins (PSEN1 and PSEN2), breast cancer (BRCA1 and BRCA2), myotonic dystrophy (DM1), and Huntington disease (HD). Major epigenetic variation was detected within samples, since the majority of sperm cells of the same individual exhibited unique DNA methylation profiles. In the interindividual analysis, 41 of 61 pairwise comparisons revealed distinct DNA methylation profiles (P=.036 to 6.8 × 10(−14)). Second, a microarray-based epigenetic profiling of the same sperm samples was performed using a 12,198-feature CpG island microarray. The microarray analysis has identified numerous DNA methylation–variable positions in the germ cell genome. The largest degree of variation was detected within the promoter CpG islands and pericentromeric satellites among the single-copy DNA fragments and repetitive elements, respectively. A number of genes, such as EED, CTNNA2, CALM1, CDH13, and STMN2, exhibited age-related DNA methylation changes. Finally, allele-specific methylation patterns in CDH13 were detected. This study provides evidence for significant epigenetic variability in human germ cells, which warrants further research to determine whether such epigenetic patterns can be efficiently transmitted across generations and what impact inherited epigenetic individuality may have on phenotypic outcomes in health and disease

Epigenomic Profiling Reveals DNA-Methylation Changes Associated with Major Psychosis

Epigenetic misregulation is consistent with various non-Mendelian features of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. To date, however, few studies have investigated the role of DNA methylation in major psychosis, and none have taken a genome-wide epigenomic approach. In this study we used CpG-island microarrays to identify DNA-methylation changes in the frontal cortex and germline associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In the frontal cortex we find evidence for psychosis-associated DNA-methylation differences in numerous loci, including several involved in glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission, brain development, and other processes functionally linked to disease etiology. DNA-methylation changes in a significant proportion of these loci correspond to reported changes of steady-state mRNA level associated with psychosis. Gene-ontology analysis highlighted epigenetic disruption to loci involved in mitochondrial function, brain development, and stress response. Methylome network analysis uncovered decreased epigenetic modularity in both the brain and the germline of affected individuals, suggesting that systemic epigenetic dysfunction may be associated with major psychosis. We also report evidence for a strong correlation between DNA methylation in the MEK1 gene promoter region and lifetime antipsychotic use in schizophrenia patients. Finally, we observe that frontal-cortex DNA methylation in the BDNF gene is correlated with genotype at a nearby nonsynonymous SNP that has been previously associated with major psychosis. Our data are consistent with the epigenetic theory of major psychosis and suggest that DNA-methylation changes are important to the etiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder