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Enhanced Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing for Assessment of DNA Methylation at Base Pair Resolution
Published on: February 24, 2015
Profiling the genome-wide DNA methylation pattern of porcine ovaries using reduced representation bisulfite
Xiao-Long Yuan1, Ning Gao1, Yan Xing1
1Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, National Engineering Research Centre for Breeding Swine Industry, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Abstract:
Substantial evidence has shown that DNA methylation regulates the initiation of ovarian and sexual maturation. Here, we investigated the genome-wide profile of DNA methylation in porcine ovaries at single-base resolution using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. The biological variation was minimal among the three ovarian replicates. We found hypermethylation frequently occurred in regions with low gene abundance, while hypomethylation in regions with high gene abundance. The DNA methylation around transcriptional start sites was negatively correlated with their own CpG content. Additionally, the methylation level in the bodies of genes was higher than that in their 5' and 3' flanking regions. The DNA methylation pattern of the low CpG content promoter genes differed obviously from that of the high CpG content promoter genes. The DNA methylation level of the porcine ovary was higher than that of the porcine intestine. Analyses of the genome-wide DNA methylation in porcine ovaries would advance the knowledge and understanding of the porcine ovarian methylome.

