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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
Targeted DNA Methylation Analysis by Next-generation Sequencing
Published on: February 24, 2015
Simultaneous determination of genomic DNA methylation and uracil misincorporation
Abalo Chango1, Afif M Abdel Nour, Celine Niquet
1Unit EGEAL and Laboratory of Nutritional Genomics, Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, Agrohealth, Beauvais, France. abalo.chango@isab.fr
Objective:
To develop a method for the simultaneous measurement of 5-methylcytosine (5-metC) and 2'-deoxyuridine monophosphate (dU).
Materials And Methods:
Genomic DNA was extracted from the HepG2 cell line grown in experimental complete medium or in folate-depleted medium. Samples were treated with RNAse A and RNAse T1 to avoid any RNA contamination. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/electrospray ionization mass spectrometric (ESI-MS) method was used to separate nucleotides after enzymatic hydrolysis of DNA with nuclease P1, phosphodiesterase I and alkaline phosphatase.
Results:
Using this sensitive new methodology, we were able to quantify simultaneously the concentration of DNA-5-metC and DNA-uracil in DNA. The linear correlation coefficient (R(2)) between the MS signal and the concentration of 5-metC in a range of 0.5-5 microM or dU in a range of 10-100 microM was 0.9954 and 0.9999, respectively. The coefficient of variation was 16.94 and 14.77%, respectively. The applicability of this assay is demonstrated by detection of a decrease in 5-metC% and elevation of dU/thymidylate (dT) into genomic DNA extracted from the HepG2 cell line grown in a folate-depleted medium.
Conclusion:
Our results confirm that the HPLC/ESI-MS method reported earlier for measuring 5-metC allows measurement of uracil misincorporation into DNA.
