Improved reduced representation bisulfite sequencing for epigenomic profiling of clinical samples.

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation plays crucial roles in epigenetic gene regulation in normal development and disease pathogenesis. Efficient and accurate quantification of DNA methylation at single base resolution can greatly advance the knowledge of disease mechanisms and be used to identify potential biomarkers. We developed an improved pipeline based on reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) for cost-effective genome-wide quantification of DNA methylation at single base resolution. A selection of two restriction enzymes (TaqαI and MspI) enables a more unbiased coverage of genomic regions of different CpG densities. We further developed a highly automated software package to analyze bisulfite sequencing results from the Solexa GAIIx system. RESULTS: With two sequencing lanes, we were able to quantify ~1.8 million individual CpG sites at a minimum sequencing depth of 10. Overall, about 76.7% of CpG islands, 54.9% of CpG island shores and 52.2% of core promoters in the human genome were covered with at least 3 CpG sites per region. CONCLUSIONS: With this new pipeline, it is now possible to perform whole-genome DNA methylation analysis at single base resolution for a large number of samples for understanding how DNA methylation and its changes are involved in development, differentiation, and disease pathogenesis.

DNMT1 and AIM1 Imprinting in human placenta revealed through a genome-wide screen for allele-specific DNA methylation.

BACKGROUND: Genomic imprinting is an epigenetically regulated process wherein genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin specific manner. Many imprinted genes were initially identified in mice; some of these were subsequently shown not to be imprinted in humans. Such discrepancy reflects developmental, morphological and physiological differences between mouse and human tissues. This is particularly relevant for the placenta. Study of genomic imprinting thus needs to be carried out in a species and developmental stage-specific manner. We describe here a new strategy to study allele-specific DNA methylation in the human placenta for the discovery of novel imprinted genes. RESULTS: Using this methodology, we confirmed 16 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with known imprinted genes. We chose 28 genomic regions for further testing and identified two imprinted genes (DNMT1 and AIM1). Both genes showed maternal allele-specific methylation and paternal allele-specific transcription. Imprinted expression for AIM1 was conserved in the cynomolgus macaque placenta, but not in other macaque tissues or in the mouse. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that while there are many genomic regions with allele-specific methylation in tissues like the placenta, only a small sub-set of them are associated with allele-specific transcription, suggesting alternative functions for such genomic regions. Nonetheless, novel tissue-specific imprinted genes remain to be discovered in humans. Their identification may help us better understand embryonic and fetal development.

Global DNA hypermethylation in down syndrome placenta.

Down syndrome (DS), commonly caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 (chr21), occurs in approximately one out of 700 live births. Precisely how an extra chr21 causes over 80 clinically defined phenotypes is not yet clear. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) analysis at single base resolution revealed DNA hypermethylation in all autosomes in DS samples. We hypothesize that such global hypermethylation may be mediated by down-regulation of TET family genes involved in DNA demethylation, and down-regulation of REST/NRSF involved in transcriptional and epigenetic regulation. Genes located on chr21 were up-regulated by an average of 53% in DS compared to normal villi, while genes with promoter hypermethylation were modestly down-regulated. DNA methylation perturbation was conserved in DS placenta villi and in adult DS peripheral blood leukocytes, and enriched for genes known to be causally associated with DS phenotypes. Our data suggest that global epigenetic changes may occur early in development and contribute to DS phenotypes.

Tet1 regulates adult hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition.

DNA hydroxylation catalyzed by Tet dioxygenases occurs abundantly in embryonic stem cells and neurons in mammals. However, its biological function in vivo is largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that Tet1 plays an important role in regulating neural progenitor cell proliferation in adult mouse brain. Mice lacking Tet1 exhibit impaired hippocampal neurogenesis accompanied by poor learning and memory. In adult neural progenitor cells deficient in Tet1, a cohort of genes involved in progenitor proliferation were hypermethylated and downregulated. Our results indicate that Tet1 is positively involved in the epigenetic regulation of neural progenitor cell proliferation in the adult brain.

Measuring the methylome in clinical samples: improved processing of the Infinium Human Methylation450 BeadChip Array.

The Infinium Human Methylation450 BeadChip Array (TM) (Infinium 450K) is an important tool for studying epigenetic patterns associated with disease. This array offers a high-throughput, low cost alternative to more comprehensive sequencing-based methodologies. Here we compare data generated by interrogation of the same seven clinical samples by Infinium 450K and reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). This is the largest data set comparing Infinium 450K array to the comprehensive RRBS methodology reported so far. We show good agreement between the two methodologies. A read depth of four or more reads in the RRBS data was sufficient to achieve good agreement with Infinium 450K. However, we observe that intermediate methylation values (20-80%) are more variable between technologies than values at the extremes of the bimodal methylation distribution. We describe careful processing of Infinium 450K data to correct for known limitations and batch effects. Using methodologies proposed by others and newly implemented and combined in this report, agreement of Infinium 450K data with independent techniques can be vastly improved.

Genome-wide dynamics of chromatin binding of estrogen receptors alpha and beta: mutual restriction and competitive site selection.

Estrogen receptors ERalpha and ERbeta, members of the nuclear receptor superfamily, exert profound effects on the gene expression and biological response programs of their target cells. Herein, we explore the dynamic interplay between these two receptors in their selection of chromatin binding sites when present separately or together in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Treatment of cells (containing ERalpha only, ERbeta only, or ERalpha and ERbeta) with estradiol or ER subtype-selective ligands was followed by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis with a custom-designed tiling array for ER binding sites across the genome to examine the effects of ligand-occupied and unoccupied ERalpha and ERbeta on chromatin binding. There was substantial overlap in binding sites for these estradiol-liganded nuclear receptors when present alone, but many fewer sites were shared when both ERs were present. Each ER restricted the binding site occupancy of the other, with ERalpha generally being dominant. Binding sites of both receptors were highly enriched in estrogen response element motifs, but when both ERs were present, ERalpha displaced ERbeta, shifting it into new sites less enriched in estrogen response elements. Binding regions of the two ERs also showed differences in their enrichments for other transcription factor binding motifs. Studies with ER subtype-specific ligands revealed that it was the liganded subtype that principally determined the spectrum of chromatin binding. These findings highlight the dynamic interplay between the two ERs in their selection of chromatin binding sites, with competition, restriction, and site shifting having important implications for the regulation of gene expression by these two nuclear receptors.

An oestrogen-receptor-alpha-bound human chromatin interactome.

Genomes are organized into high-level three-dimensional structures, and DNA elements separated by long genomic distances can in principle interact functionally. Many transcription factors bind to regulatory DNA elements distant from gene promoters. Although distal binding sites have been shown to regulate transcription by long-range chromatin interactions at a few loci, chromatin interactions and their impact on transcription regulation have not been investigated in a genome-wide manner. Here we describe the development of a new strategy, chromatin interaction analysis by paired-end tag sequencing (ChIA-PET) for the de novo detection of global chromatin interactions, with which we have comprehensively mapped the chromatin interaction network bound by oestrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha) in the human genome. We found that most high-confidence remote ER-alpha-binding sites are anchored at gene promoters through long-range chromatin interactions, suggesting that ER-alpha functions by extensive chromatin looping to bring genes together for coordinated transcriptional regulation. We propose that chromatin interactions constitute a primary mechanism for regulating transcription in mammalian genomes.

Germ-line variation at a functional p53 binding site increases susceptibility to breast cancer development.

UNLABELLED: Multiple lines of evidence suggest regulatory variation to play an important role in phenotypic evolution and disease development, but few regulatory polymorphisms have been characterized genetically and molecularly. Recent technological advances have made it possible to identify bona fide regulatory sequences experimentally on a genome-wide scale and opened the window for the biological interrogation of germ-line polymorphisms within these sequences. In this study, through a forward genetic analysis of bona fide p53 binding sites identified by a genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequence analysis, we discovered a SNP (rs1860746) within the motif sequence of a p53 binding site where p53 can function as a regulator of transcription. We found that the minor allele (T) binds p53 poorly and has low transcriptional regulation activity as compared to the major allele (G). Significantly, the homozygosity of the minor allele was found to be associated with an increased risk of ER negative breast cancer (OR = 1.47, P = 0.038) from the analysis of five independent breast cancer samples of European origin consisting of 6,127 breast cancer patients and 5,197 controls. rs1860746 resides in the third intron of the PRKAG2 gene that encodes the γ subunit of the AMPK protein, a major sensor of metabolic stress and a modulator of p53 action. However, this gene does not appear to be regulated by p53 in lymphoblastoid cell lines nor in a cancer cell line. These results suggest that either the rs1860746 locus regulates another gene through distant interactions, or that this locus is in linkage disequilibrium with a second causal mutation. This study shows the feasibility of using genomic scale molecular data to uncover disease associated SNPs, but underscores the complexity of determining the function of regulatory variants in human populations. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11568-010-9138-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Whole-genome cartography of estrogen receptor alpha binding sites.

Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation-paired end diTag cloning and sequencing strategy, we mapped estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) binding sites in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We identified 1,234 high confidence binding clusters of which 94% are projected to be bona fide ERalpha binding regions. Only 5% of the mapped estrogen receptor binding sites are located within 5 kb upstream of the transcriptional start sites of adjacent genes, regions containing the proximal promoters, whereas vast majority of the sites are mapped to intronic or distal locations (>5 kb from 5' and 3' ends of adjacent transcript), suggesting transcriptional regulatory mechanisms over significant physical distances. Of all the identified sites, 71% harbored putative full estrogen response elements (EREs), 25% bore ERE half sites, and only 4% had no recognizable ERE sequences. Genes in the vicinity of ERalpha binding sites were enriched for regulation by estradiol in MCF-7 cells, and their expression profiles in patient samples segregate ERalpha-positive from ERalpha-negative breast tumors. The expression dynamics of the genes adjacent to ERalpha binding sites suggest a direct induction of gene expression through binding to ERE-like sequences, whereas transcriptional repression by ERalpha appears to be through indirect mechanisms. Our analysis also indicates a number of candidate transcription factor binding sites adjacent to occupied EREs at frequencies much greater than by chance, including the previously reported FOXA1 sites, and demonstrate the potential involvement of one such putative adjacent factor, Sp1, in the global regulation of ERalpha target genes. Unexpectedly, we found that only 22%-24% of the bona fide human ERalpha binding sites were overlapping conserved regions in whole genome vertebrate alignments, which suggest limited conservation of functional binding sites. Taken together, this genome-scale analysis suggests complex but definable rules governing ERalpha binding and gene regulation.