Genomic Landscape of Methylation Islands in Hymenopteran Insects.

ABSTRACT: Recent genome-wide DNA methylation analyses of insect genomes accentuate an intriguing contrast compared with those in mammals. In mammals, most CpGs are heavily methylated, with the exceptions of clusters of hypomethylated sites referred to as CpG islands. In contrast, DNA methylation in insects is localized to a small number of CpG sites. Here, we refer to clusters of methylated CpGs as "methylation islands (MIs)," and investigate their characteristics in seven hymenopteran insects with high-quality bisulfite sequencing data. Methylation islands were primarily located within gene bodies. They were significantly overrepresented in exon-intron boundaries, indicating their potential roles in splicing. Methylated CpGs within MIs exhibited stronger evolutionary conservation compared with thos

SUBMITTER: Jeong H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6195173 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature