Project description:We assayed CpG methylation in cerebral cortex of neurologically and psychiatrically normal human postmortem specimens, as well as mouse forebrain specimens. Cross-species human-mouse DNA methylation conservation analysis shows that DNA methylation is not correlated with sequence conservation. Instead, greater DNA methylation conservation is correlated with increasing CpG density. We identified key genomic features that can be targeted for identification of epigenetic loci that may be developmentally and evolutionarily conserved and wherein aberrations in DNA methylation patterns can confer risk for disease. Characterization of evolutionary signatures of DNA methylation in the brain
Project description:We assayed CpG methylation in cerebral cortex of neurologically and psychiatrically normal human postmortem specimens, as well as mouse forebrain specimens. Cross-species human-mouse DNA methylation conservation analysis shows that DNA methylation is not correlated with sequence conservation. Instead, greater DNA methylation conservation is correlated with increasing CpG density. We identified key genomic features that can be targeted for identification of epigenetic loci that may be developmentally and evolutionarily conserved and wherein aberrations in DNA methylation patterns can confer risk for disease.
Project description:Tissue-resident macrophages (TRMs) acquire specialized identities through transcription factor (TF) networks operating in distinct chromatin environments. Early growth response 2 (EGR2) contributes both to alveolar macrophage (AM) identity and to interleukin (IL)-4-driven polarization of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs), yet the regulatory principles enabling its function across these contexts remain unclear. By integrating RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data from wild-type and Egr2-deficient macrophages, we show that macrophage identity is constrained by DNA methylation-dependent cis-regulatory landscapes. AM-specific enhancers are predominantly CpG-rich and hypomethylated, a feature shared with additional TRM populations, whereas BMDM-accessible regulatory regions are largely CpG-poor. Although IL-4 induces EGR2 together with KLF4 and DEC1 in BMDMs, this TF module fails to engage CpG-rich enhancers, indicating that the BMDM regulatory network lacks additional AM-specific components required for their activation. These findings identify CpG content as a determinant of enhancer competence and provide a mechanistic explanation for the context-dependent activity of EGR2 in macrophages, placing macrophage plasticity under the control of sequence-encoded epigenetic constraints.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE38560: CpG islands and GC content dictate nucleosome depletion in a transcription independent manner at mammalian promoters (RNA-seq) GSE38561: CpG islands and GC content dictate nucleosome depletion in a transcription independent manner at mammalian promoters (ChIP-seq) GSE38562: CpG islands and GC content dictate nucleosome depletion in a transcription independent manner at mammalian promoters (genomic SEQ) GSE38563: CpG islands and GC content dictate nucleosome depletion in a transcription independent manner at mammalian promoters (MNase-seq) GSE38564: CpG islands and GC content dictate nucleosome depletion in a transcription independent manner at mammalian promoters (5) Refer to individual Series
Project description:The genomes of many vertebrates show a characteristic variation in GC content. To explain its origin and evolution mainly three mechanisms have been proposed, selection for GC content, mutation bias and GC-biased gene conversion. At present the mechanism of GC-biased gene conversion, i.e. short-scale, unidirectional exchanges between homologous chromosomes in the neighborhood of recombination-initiating double-strand breaks in favor for GC nucleotides, is the most widely accepted hypothesis. We here suggest that DNA methylation also plays an important role in the evolution of GC content in vertebrate genomes. To test this hypothesis we investigated one mammalian (human; GSE30340) and one avian (chicken) genome. We used bisulfite sequencing to generate a whole-genome methylation map of chicken sperm. Human processed data files (spermdonor1, #reads>=1) were downloaded from the NGSmethDB database (http://bioinfo2.ugr.es/NGSmethDB/database.php). Inclusion of these methylation maps into a model of GC content evolution provided significant support for the impact of DNA methylation on the local equilibrium GC content. Moreover, two different estimates of equilibrium GC content, one which neglects and one which incorporates the impact of DNA methylation and the concomitant CpG hypermutability, give estimates that differ about 15% in both genomes, arguing for a strong impact of DNA methylation on the evolution of GC content. Thus, our results put forward that previous estimates of equilibrium GC content, which neglect the hypermutability of CpG dinucleotides, need to be reevaluated.
Project description:The genomes of many vertebrates show a characteristic variation in GC content. To explain its origin and evolution mainly three mechanisms have been proposed, selection for GC content, mutation bias and GC-biased gene conversion. At present the mechanism of GC-biased gene conversion, i.e. short-scale, unidirectional exchanges between homologous chromosomes in the neighborhood of recombination-initiating double-strand breaks in favor for GC nucleotides, is the most widely accepted hypothesis. We here suggest that DNA methylation also plays an important role in the evolution of GC content in vertebrate genomes. To test this hypothesis we investigated one mammalian (human; GSE30340) and one avian (chicken) genome. We used bisulfite sequencing to generate a whole-genome methylation map of chicken sperm. Human processed data files (spermdonor1, #reads>=1) were downloaded from the NGSmethDB database (http://bioinfo2.ugr.es/NGSmethDB/database.php). Inclusion of these methylation maps into a model of GC content evolution provided significant support for the impact of DNA methylation on the local equilibrium GC content. Moreover, two different estimates of equilibrium GC content, one which neglects and one which incorporates the impact of DNA methylation and the concomitant CpG hypermutability, give estimates that differ about 15% in both genomes, arguing for a strong impact of DNA methylation on the evolution of GC content. Thus, our results put forward that previous estimates of equilibrium GC content, which neglect the hypermutability of CpG dinucleotides, need to be reevaluated. Genomic DNA from chicken mature sperm was isolated, bisulfite converted and sequenced on a Illumina HiSeq instrument