Genome-wide, high-resolution DNA methylation profiling using bisulfite-mediated cytosine conversion

Jon Reinders; Céline Delucinge Vivier; Grégory Theiler; Didier Chollet; Patrick Descombes; Jerzy Paszkowski

doi:10.1101/gr.7073008

Genome-wide, high-resolution DNA methylation profiling using bisulfite-mediated cytosine conversion

¹ Laboratory of Plant Genetics, Department of Plant Biology, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland;
² Genomics Platform, National Center of Competence in Research Frontiers in Genetics, University of Geneva/CMU, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland

Abstract

Methylation of cytosines (^mC) is essential for epigenetic gene regulation in plants and mammals. Aberrant ^mC patterns are associated with heritable developmental abnormalities in plants and with cancer in mammals. We have developed a genome-wide DNA methylation profiling technology employing a novel amplification step for DNA subjected to bisulfite-mediated cytosine conversion. The methylation patterns detected are not only consistent with previous results obtained with ^mC immunoprecipitation (mCIP) techniques, but also demonstrated improved resolution and sensitivity. The technology, named BiMP (for Bisulfite Methylation Profiling), is more cost-effective than mCIP and requires as little as 100 ng of Arabidopsis DNA.

Footnotes

↵3 Corresponding author.

↵3 E-mail jon.reinders{at}bioveg.unige.ch; fax 41-22-379-3107.
[Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org. The sequence data from this study have been submitted to the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) at NCBI under accession no. GSE9051.]
Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.7073008
- Received August 24, 2007.
- Accepted November 26, 2007.