Differential DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic signal for gene regulation, development, and disease processes. low levels of activating epigenetic marks like H3K4 methylation and H3K9 and K14 acetylation. Utilizing the single base pair and single allele resolution of our data, we found that i) amplicons from different parts of a CpG island frequently differ in their DNA methylation level, ii) methylation levels of individual cells in one tissue are very similar, and iii) methylation patterns follow a relaxed site-specific distribution. Furthermore, iv) GZ-793A we identified three cases of allele-specific DNA methylation on chromosome 21. Our data shed new light on the nature of methylation patterns in human cells, the sequence dependence of DNA methylation, and its function as epigenetic signal in gene regulation. Further, we illustrate genotypeCepigenotype interactions by showing novel examples of allele-specific methylation. Author Summary Epigenetics is defined as the inheritance of changes in gene function without changing the DNA sequence. Epigenetic signals comprise methylation of cytosine bases of the DNA and chemical modifications of the histone proteins. DNA methylation plays important roles in development and disease processes. To investigate the biological role of DNA methylation, we analyzed DNA methylation patterns of 190 gene promoter regions on chromosome 21 in five human cell types. Our results show that average DNA methylation levels are distributed bimodally with enrichment of highly methylated and unmethylated sequences, indicating that DNA methylation acts in a switch-like manner. Consistent with the well-established role of DNA methylation in gene silencing, we found DNA methylation in promoter regions strongly correlated with absence of gene expression and low levels of additional activating epigenetic marks. Although methylation levels of individual cells in one tissue are very similar, we observed differences in DNA methylation when comparing different cell types in 43% of all regions analyzed. This GZ-793A finding is in agreement with a role of DNA methylation in cellular development. We identified three cases of genes that are differentially methylated in both alleles that illustrate the tight interplay of genetic and epigenetic processes. Introduction After deciphering the sequence of the human genome, the study of epigenetic processes which initiate and maintain heritable patterns of gene expression and gene function without changing the DNA sequence, has moved into the center of research [1]. The epigenome comprises different modifications of histone proteins including acetylation, ubiquitination, phosphorylation and methylation working in concert with methylation of the DNA [2],[3]. In mammals, DNA methylation predominantly occurs at CpG dinucleotides, the majority of which are methylated under normal cell conditions [4]. CpG sites are underrepresented in the human genome but cluster in CpG-islands which overlap with the annotated transcriptional start sites (TSS) of about 70% of all human genes [5] and mostly are unmethylated in normal differentiated cells [6]. DNA methylation has been shown to play important roles in the regulation of gene expression, development, genomic imprinting, X chromosome inactivation, and genome stability [7]C[9]. Erroneous DNA methylation contributes to the development of human cancer and multifactorial diseases [10]C[12]. Various high-throughput technologies for the analysis of DNA methylation in human genomes have been GZ-793A developed recently [13],[14]. Rabbit Polyclonal to SFRP2 In principle, these technologies are based on three approaches to discriminate the methylated and unmethylated cytosines in CpG sites. 1) Digestion of genomic DNA with methylation sensitive restriction enzymes to discriminate and/or enrich methylated and unmethylated DNA and employ two-dimensional electrophoresis [15], PCR [16], microarray [17] or paired-end sequencing [18] for analysis. These methods only provide methylation data related to the restriction enzyme recognition sites. 2) Enrichment of methylated or unmethylated fractions of genomic DNA with antibodies GZ-793A against methylated cytosine, methyl-CpG binding domains or other protein domains and readout by microarray or DNA sequencing [19]C[23]. The resolution of this approach is limited by the fragment size. 3) Bisulfite conversion of DNA leading to the selective deamination of cytosine but not 5-methyl cytosine [24],[25] and the sequencing of subsequently generated PCR products either directly [26] or after subcloning as done here. Next generation ultra-deep sequencing methods were recently used for the analysis of the bisulfite converted genomic DNA from Arabidopsis [27],[28], as well as for analysis of bisulfite converted DNA.