Epigenetic evolution and regulation during Whole Genome Duplication

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25830128
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Genome biology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: QU WEI 東京大学, 新領域創成科学研究科, 特任講師 (00631566)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: DNAメチル化 / エピゲノム進化 / 次世代シーケンサ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Epigenetic information has been considered to be the primary driver for evolution. In this research, we collected epigenetic information of medaka fish and studied epigenetic evolution in depth. One of our findings is methylation level conservation rates of paralogue gene pairs seem to be uncorrelated with DNA sequence conservation rates of them. Another one is that we designed a new efficient approach to study cell-to-cell variability of cytosine methylation, which is essential for deeply understanding inherent cellular perturbation. Comparing methylation status of coexisting CpG sites on long sequencing reads, we observed repressed methylation variability in hypomethylated regions across the entire genome, and a first gradational change of methylation status on boundaries of hypomethylated regions. This approach allows a concise and comprehensive assessment of cell-to-cell DNA methylation variability.

Free Research Field

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