High-throughput sequencing of EcoWI restriction fragments maps the genome-wide landscape of phosphorothioate modification at base resolution

Phosphorothioation (PT), in which a non-bridging oxygen is replaced by a sulfur, is one of the rare modifications discovered in bacteria and archaea that occurs on the sugar-phosphate backbone as opposed to the nucleobase moiety of DNA. While PT modification is widespread in the prokaryotic kingdom, how PT modifications are distributed in the genomes and their exact roles in the cell remain to be defined. In this study, we developed a simple and convenient technique called EcoWI-seq based on a modification-dependent restriction endonuclease to identify genomic positions of PT modifications. EcoWI-seq shows similar performance than other PT modification detection techniques and additionally, is easily scalable while requiring little starting material. As a proof of principle, we applied EcoWI-seq to map the PT modifications at base resolution in the genomes of both the Salmonella enterica cerro 87 and E. coli expressing the dnd+ gene cluster. Specifically, we address whether the partial establishment of modified PT positions is a stochastic or deterministic process. EcoWI-seq reveals a systematic usage of the same subset of target sites in clones for which the PT modification has been independently established.