Comparative analysis of genome-scale, base-resolution DNA methylation profiles across 580 animal species

作者：Johanna Klughammer, Daria Romanovskaia, Amelie Nemc, Annika Posautz, Charlotte A. Seid, Linda C. Schuster, Melissa C. Keinath, Juan S. Lugo Ramos, Lindsay Kosack, Annie Evankow, Dieter Prinz, Stefanie Kirchberger, Bekir Ergüner, Paul Datlinger, Nikolaus Fortelny, Christian Schmidl, Matthias Farlik, Kaja H. Skjærven, Andreas Bergthaler, Miriam Liedvogel, Denise Thaller, Pamela A. Burger, Marcela Hermann, Martin Distel, Daniel L. Distel, Anna Kübber‐Heiss, Christoph Bock · 发表于：bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1101/2022.06.18.496602 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Epigenetics and DNA Methylation、RNA modifications and cancer

Abstract Methylation of cytosines is the prototypic epigenetic modification of the DNA. It has been implicated in various regulatory mechanisms throughout the animal kingdom and particularly in vertebrates. We mapped DNA methylation in 580 animal species (535 vertebrates, 45 invertebrates), resulting in 2443 genome-scale, base-resolution DNA methylation profiles of primary tissue samples from various organs. Reference-genome independent analysis of this comprehensive dataset quantified the association of DNA methylation with the underlying genomic DNA sequence throughout vertebrate evolution. We observed a broadly conserved link with two major transitions – once in the first vertebrates and again with the emergence of reptiles. Cross-species comparisons focusing on individual organs supported a deeply conserved association of DNA methylation with tissue type, and cross-mapping analysis of DNA methylation at gene promoters revealed evolutionary changes for orthologous genes with conserved DNA methylation patterns. In summary, this study establishes a large resource of vertebrate and invertebrate DNA methylomes, it showcases the power of reference-free epigenome analysis in species for which no reference genomes are available, and it contributes an epigenetic perspective to the study of vertebrate evolution.