Covering all the Bases with Genome-Wide 5-mC and 5-hmC Sequencing
By Dr Keith Booher, PhD. Manager of Epigenetic Services at Zymo Research
Abstract: There is an ever-increasing appreciation for the remarkable ability of epigenetic modifications, such as the methylation of cytosines in DNA (5-mC), to respond to environmental cues and influence gene expression in biological processes as diverse as development, aging, human disease, and more. However, despite the burgeoning interest amongst scientists, there are still a growing number of questions that remain unresolved in the sphere of epigenetics research. The recent discovery that TET enzymes can further modify 5-mC into a stable hydroxymethylated form (5-hmC) only served to emphasize the necessity for highly specialized techniques able to specifically, sensitively, and accurately detect epigenetic modifications to DNA.
Innovative new methods able to enrich for and identify modified cytosines, coupled with the power of NGS, means that there are now more tools available to study epigenetic patterns at single-base resolution on a genomic scale than ever before. Such advances promise to have a lasting impact on elucidating some of the outstanding mysteries in the epigenetics field.
In this webinar, the current state of research on epigenetic modifications to DNA will be discussed, current next-generation sequencing based protocols that are supplanting classical arrays and PCR-based methods will be highlighted, and tools used by bioinformaticians to interpret genome-wide sequence data and compare how 5-mC and 5-hmC levels might change between samples will be reviewed.