Navigation auf zora.uzh.ch

Search ZORA

ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive)

Cell Type-specific Genome Scans of DNA Methylation Diversity Indicate an Important Role for Transposable Elements

Kartal, Önder; Schmid, Marc W; Grossniklaus, Ueli (2019). Cell Type-specific Genome Scans of DNA Methylation Diversity Indicate an Important Role for Transposable Elements. bioRxiv 801233, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Abstract

The epigenome modulates the activity of genes and supports the stability of the genome. The epigenome can also contain phenotypically relevant, heritable marks that may vary at the organismic and population level. Such non-genetic standing variation may be relevant to ecological and evolutionary processes. To identify loci susceptible to selection, it is common to profile large populations at the genome scale, yet methods to perform such scans for epigenetic diversity are barely tapped. Here, we develop a scalable, information-theoretic approach to assess epigenome diversity based on Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD) and demonstrate its practicality by measuring cell type-specific methylation diversity in the model plant <jats:italic>Arabidopsis thaliana</jats:italic>. DNA methylation diversity tends to be increased in the CG as compared to the non-CG (CHG and CHH) sequence context but the tissue or cell type has an impact on diversity at non-CG sites. Less accessible, more heterochromatic states of chromatin exhibit increased diversity. Genes tend to carry more single-methylation polymorphisms when they harbor gene body-like chromatin signatures and flank transposable elements (TEs). In conclusion, the analysis of DNA methylation with JSD in <jats:italic>Arabidopsis</jats:italic> demonstrates that the genomic location of a gene dominates its methylation diversity, in particular the proximity to TEs which are increasingly viewed as drivers of evolution. Importantly, the JSD-based approach we implemented here is applicable to any population-level epigenomic data set to analyze variation in epigenetic marks among individuals, tissues, or cells of any organism, including the epigenetic heterogeneity of cells in healthy or diseased organs such as tumors.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Working Paper
Communities & Collections:07 Faculty of Science > Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
07 Faculty of Science > Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center
Dewey Decimal Classification:580 Plants (Botany)
Language:English
Date:10 October 2019
Deposited On:05 Feb 2020 16:28
Last Modified:27 May 2024 15:24
Series Name:bioRxiv
ISSN:2164-7844
OA Status:Green
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1101/801233
Download PDF  'Cell Type-specific Genome Scans of DNA Methylation Diversity Indicate an Important Role for Transposable Elements'.
Preview
  • Content: Published Version

Metadata Export

Statistics

Citations

Dimensions.ai Metrics

Altmetrics

Downloads

34 downloads since deposited on 05 Feb 2020
7 downloads since 12 months
Detailed statistics

Authors, Affiliations, Collaborations

Similar Publications