Olga Taryma-Leśniak, Jan Bińkowski, Patrycja Kamila Przybylowicz, Katarzyna Ewa Sokolowska, Konrad Borowski, Tomasz Kazimierz Wojdacz
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: It is generally accepted that methylation status of CpG sites spaced up to 50 bp apart is correlated, and accumulation of locally disordered methylation at adjacent CpG sites is involved in neoplastic transformation, acting in similar way as stochastic accumulation of mutations.
Results: We used EPIC microarray data from 596 samples, representing 12 healthy tissue and cell types, as well as 572 blood cancer specimens to analyze methylation status of adjacent CpG sites across human genome, and subsequently validated our findings with NGS and Sanger sequencing. Our analysis showed that there is a subset of the adjacent CpG sites in human genome, with cytosine at one CpG site methylated and the other devoid of methyl group. These loci map to enhancers that are targeted by families of transcription factors involved in cell differentiation. Moreover, our results suggest that the methylation at these loci differ between alleles within a cell, what allows for remarkable level of heterogeneity of methylation patterns. However, different types of specialized cells acquire only one specific and stable pattern of methylation at each of these loci and that pattern is to a large extent lost during neoplastic transformation.
Conclusions: We identified a substantial number of adjacent CpG loci in human genome that display remarkably stable and cell type specific methylation pattern. The methylation pattern at these loci appears to reflect different methylation of alleles in cells. Furthermore, we showed that changes of methylation status at those loci are likely to be involved in regulation of the activity of enhancers and contribute to neoplastic transformation.
期刊介绍:
Epigenetics & Chromatin is a peer-reviewed, open access, online journal that publishes research, and reviews, providing novel insights into epigenetic inheritance and chromatin-based interactions. The journal aims to understand how gene and chromosomal elements are regulated and their activities maintained during processes such as cell division, differentiation and environmental alteration.