Project description:The presence of DNA methylation in beetles (Coleoptera) has only been investigated with bisulfite sequencing of Tribolium castaneum, which produced no evidence of DNA methylation. Here, we used whole genome bisulfite sequencing to assay if DNA methylation was present in another beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. We used T. castaneum as a negative control.
Project description:We report the application of Chromatraps® Solid-State Chromatin Immunoprecipitation technology for epigenetic profiling of histone modifications in insects. Here, we present the optimised protocol and conditions of Chromatrap® kits for successful ChIP and high-throughput sequencing of established model species, Drosophila melanogaster and the emerging model for behavioural plasticity Nicrophorus vespilloides. We highlight successful ChIP-seq of Drosophila melanogaster (Oregon-R) of comparable quality to modENCODE data and present successful enrichment of histone marks for Nicrophorus vespilloides. The addition of this insect-based ChIP-seq protocol provides a set of optimal guidelines to aid streamline end-users epigenetic research focus and reduce experimental time.
