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Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora

BACKGROUND: In invertebrates, genes belonging to dynamically regulated functional categories appear to be less methylated than “housekeeping” genes, suggesting that DNA methylation may modulate gene expression plasticity. To date, however, experimental evidence to support this hypothesis across diff...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dixon, Groves B, Bay, Line K, Matz, Mikhail V
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378018/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25511458
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-1109
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author Dixon, Groves B
Bay, Line K
Matz, Mikhail V
author_facet Dixon, Groves B
Bay, Line K
Matz, Mikhail V
author_sort Dixon, Groves B
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In invertebrates, genes belonging to dynamically regulated functional categories appear to be less methylated than “housekeeping” genes, suggesting that DNA methylation may modulate gene expression plasticity. To date, however, experimental evidence to support this hypothesis across different natural habitats has been lacking. RESULTS: Gene expression profiles were generated from 30 pairs of genetically identical fragments of coral Acropora millepora reciprocally transplanted between distinct natural habitats for 3 months. Gene expression was analyzed in the context of normalized CpG content, a well-established signature of historical germline DNA methylation. Genes with weak methylation signatures were more likely to demonstrate differential expression based on both transplant environment and population of origin than genes with strong methylation signatures. Moreover, the magnitude of expression differences due to environment and population were greater for genes with weak methylation signatures. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support a connection between differential germline methylation and gene expression flexibility across environments and populations. Studies of phylogenetically basal invertebrates such as corals will further elucidate the fundamental functional aspects of gene body methylation in Metazoa. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-1109) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-43780182015-03-31 Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora Dixon, Groves B Bay, Line K Matz, Mikhail V BMC Genomics Research Article BACKGROUND: In invertebrates, genes belonging to dynamically regulated functional categories appear to be less methylated than “housekeeping” genes, suggesting that DNA methylation may modulate gene expression plasticity. To date, however, experimental evidence to support this hypothesis across different natural habitats has been lacking. RESULTS: Gene expression profiles were generated from 30 pairs of genetically identical fragments of coral Acropora millepora reciprocally transplanted between distinct natural habitats for 3 months. Gene expression was analyzed in the context of normalized CpG content, a well-established signature of historical germline DNA methylation. Genes with weak methylation signatures were more likely to demonstrate differential expression based on both transplant environment and population of origin than genes with strong methylation signatures. Moreover, the magnitude of expression differences due to environment and population were greater for genes with weak methylation signatures. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support a connection between differential germline methylation and gene expression flexibility across environments and populations. Studies of phylogenetically basal invertebrates such as corals will further elucidate the fundamental functional aspects of gene body methylation in Metazoa. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-1109) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2014-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4378018/ /pubmed/25511458 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-1109 Text en © Dixon et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dixon, Groves B
Bay, Line K
Matz, Mikhail V
Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora
title Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora
title_full Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora
title_fullStr Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora
title_full_unstemmed Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora
title_short Bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral Acropora millepora
title_sort bimodal signatures of germline methylation are linked with gene expression plasticity in the coral acropora millepora
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378018/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25511458
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-1109
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