Skip to main content

Single Base Resolution Analysis of 5-Methylcytosine and 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine by RRBS and TAB-RRBS

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Cancer Epigenetics

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1238))

Abstract

Sodium bisulfite-assisted deamination of cytosine forms the basis for conducting single base resolution analysis of 5-methylcytosine in DNA. The TET family of proteins represents a group of enzymes that can oxidize 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. A modification of the bisulfite-based DNA methylation mapping technique employs TET1-mediated oxidation of 5-methylcytosine (TET-assisted bisulfite sequencing) for single base analysis of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Whole genome analysis of cytosine modifications with bisulfite sequencing techniques still is challenging and expensive. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) has been used to limit the complexity of the analysis to mostly CpG-rich genomic fragments flanked by restriction enzyme cleavage sites, for example MspI (5′CCGG). In this chapter, we describe detailed methods used in our laboratory for analysis of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine combined (RRBS) and for specific analysis of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (TAB-RRBS).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Kriaucionis S, Heintz N (2009) The nuclear DNA base 5-hydroxymethylcytosine is present in Purkinje neurons and the brain. Science 324:929–930

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Tahiliani M, Koh KP, Shen Y, Pastor WA, Bandukwala H, Brudno Y, Agarwal S, Iyer LM, Liu DR, Aravind L, Rao A (2009) Conversion of 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in mammalian DNA by MLL partner TET1. Science 324:930–935

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Song CX, He C (2013) Potential functional roles of DNA demethylation intermediates. Trends Biochem Sci 38:480–484

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Gu TP, Guo F, Yang H, Wu HP, Xu GF, Liu W, Xie ZG, Shi L, He X, Jin SG, Iqbal K, Shi YG, Deng Z, Szabo PE, Pfeifer GP, Li J, Xu GL (2011) The role of Tet3 DNA dioxygenase in epigenetic reprogramming by oocytes. Nature 477:606–610

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Iqbal K, Jin SG, Pfeifer GP, Szabo PE (2011) Reprogramming of the paternal genome upon fertilization involves genome-wide oxidation of 5-methylcytosine. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:3642–3647

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ito S, D’Alessio AC, Taranova OV, Hong K, Sowers LC, Zhang Y (2010) Role of Tet proteins in 5mC to 5hmC conversion, ES-cell self-renewal and inner cell mass specification. Nature 466:1129–1133

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Song CX, Szulwach KE, Fu Y, Dai Q, Yi C, Li X, Li Y, Chen CH, Zhang W, Jian X, Wang J, Zhang L, Looney TJ, Zhang B, Godley LA, Hicks LM, Lahn BT, Jin P, He C (2011) Selective chemical labeling reveals the genome-wide distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Nat Biotechnol 29:68–72

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Hahn MA, Qiu R, Wu X, Li AX, Zhang H, Wang J, Jui J, Jin SG, Jiang Y, Pfeifer GP, Lu Q (2013) Dynamics of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and chromatin marks in Mammalian neurogenesis. Cell Rep 3(2):291–300

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Szulwach KE, Li X, Li Y, Song CX, Wu H, Dai Q, Irier H, Upadhyay AK, Gearing M, Levey AI, Vasanthakumar A, Godley LA, Chang Q, Cheng X, He C, Jin P (2011) 5-hmC-mediated epigenetic dynamics during postnatal neurodevelopment and aging. Nat Neurosci 14:1607–1616

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Jin SG, Jiang Y, Qiu R, Rauch TA, Wang Y, Schackert G, Krex D, Lu Q, Pfeifer GP (2011) 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine is strongly depleted in human cancers but its levels do not correlate with IDH1 mutations. Cancer Res 71:7360–7365

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Kinney SM, Chin HG, Vaisvila R, Bitinaite J, Zheng Y, Esteve PO, Feng S, Stroud H, Jacobsen SE, Pradhan S (2011) Tissue-specific distribution and dynamic changes of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in mammalian genomes. J Biol Chem 286:24685–24693

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Yu M, Hon GC, Szulwach KE, Song CX, Zhang L, Kim A, Li X, Dai Q, Shen Y, Park B, Min JH, Jin P, Ren B, He C (2012) Base-resolution analysis of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the mammalian genome. Cell 149:1368–1380

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Booth MJ, Ost TW, Beraldi D, Bell NM, Branco MR, Reik W, Balasubramanian S (2013) Oxidative bisulfite sequencing of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Nat Protoc 8:1841–1851

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Pastor WA, Pape UJ, Huang Y, Henderson HR, Lister R, Ko M, McLoughlin EM, Brudno Y, Mahapatra S, Kapranov P, Tahiliani M, Daley GQ, Liu XS, Ecker JR, Milos PM, Agarwal S, Rao A (2011) Genome-wide mapping of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in embryonic stem cells. Nature 473:394–397

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Jin SG, Wu X, Li AX, Pfeifer GP (2011) Genomic mapping of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the human brain. Nucleic Acids Res 39:5015–5024

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Meissner A, Gnirke A, Bell GW, Ramsahoye B, Lander ES, Jaenisch R (2005) Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing for comparative high-resolution DNA methylation analysis. Nucleic Acids Res 33:5868–5877

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Gu H, Smith ZD, Bock C, Boyle P, Gnirke A, Meissner A (2011) Preparation of reduced representation bisulfite sequencing libraries for genome-scale DNA methylation profiling. Nat Protoc 6:468–481

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Smallwood SA, Tomizawa S, Krueger F, Ruf N, Carli N, Segonds-Pichon A, Sato S, Hata K, Andrews SR, Kelsey G (2011) Dynamic CpG island methylation landscape in oocytes and preimplantation embryos. Nat Genet 43:811–814

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Huang Y, Pastor WA, Shen Y, Tahiliani M, Liu DR, Rao A (2010) The behaviour of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in bisulfite sequencing. PLoS One 5:e8888

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Jin SG, Kadam S, Pfeifer GP (2010) Examination of the specificity of DNA methylation profiling techniques towards 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Nucleic Acids Res 38:e125

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants CA084469, CA160965, and MH094599 (recipient G.P.P.).

Conflict of interest statement: G.P.P. is a paid consultant of Zymo Research; Irvine, CA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerd P. Pfeifer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Hahn, M.A., Li, A.X., Wu, X., Pfeifer, G.P. (2015). Single Base Resolution Analysis of 5-Methylcytosine and 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine by RRBS and TAB-RRBS. In: Verma, M. (eds) Cancer Epigenetics. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1238. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1804-1_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1804-1_14

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1803-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1804-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics