Nucleotide distance influences co-methylation between nearby CpG sites.
Genomics 2019;
112:144-150. [PMID:
31078719 DOI:
10.1016/j.ygeno.2019.05.007]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2019] [Revised: 04/18/2019] [Accepted: 05/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The tendency of individual CpG sites to be methylated is distinctive, non-random and well-regulated throughout the genome. We investigated the structural and spatial factors influencing CpGs methylation by performing an ultra-deep targeted methylation analysis on human, mouse and zebrafish genes. We found that methylation is not a random process and that closer neighboring CpG sites are more likely to share the same methylation status. Moreover, if the distance between CpGs increases, the degree of co-methylation decreases. We set up a simulation model to analyze the contribution of both the intrinsic susceptibility and the distance effect on the probability of a CpG to be methylated. Our finding suggests that the establishment of a specific methylation pattern follows a universal rule that must take into account of the synergistic and dynamic interplay of these two main factors: the intrinsic methylation susceptibility of specific CpG and the nucleotide distance between two CpG sites.
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