Recent Advances in the Genomic Profiling of Bacterial Epigenetic Modifications

Bacterial epigenetic modifications play key roles in cellular processes such as stress responses, DNA replication, segregation, antimicrobial resistance, etc. In recent years, emerging new sequencing technologies, including single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing, and nanopore sequencing, have enabled the directed reading of epigenetic modifications without pre-treatment of DNA or DNA amplification. The applications of SMRT and nanopore sequencing open the door for the identification of more diverse epigenetic modifications of DNA bases and backbones and potentially facilitate the understanding of the novel functions of these epigenetic markers in cell physiology. With ongoing improvements in throughput and accuracy, new-generation sequencing has become a contender as an alternative to second-generation sequencing technologies. Here, the authors review recent advances in bacterial epigenetic analysis using SMRT sequencing and nanopore sequencing to provide insights regarding the detection and analysis of DNA epigenetic modifications in bacterial genomes.