Characterizing 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in human prefrontal cortex at single base resolution

The recent discovery that methylated cytosines are converted to 5-hydroxymethylated cytosines (5hmC) by the family of ten-eleven translocation enzymes has sparked significant interest on the genomic location, the abundance in different tissues, the putative functions, and the stability of this epige...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inBMC genomics Vol. 16; no. 1; p. 672
Main Authors Gross, Jeffrey A, Pacis, Alain, Chen, Gary G, Barreiro, Luis B, Ernst, Carl, Turecki, Gustavo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England BioMed Central Ltd 03.09.2015
BioMed Central
Subjects
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

Loading…
More Information
Summary:The recent discovery that methylated cytosines are converted to 5-hydroxymethylated cytosines (5hmC) by the family of ten-eleven translocation enzymes has sparked significant interest on the genomic location, the abundance in different tissues, the putative functions, and the stability of this epigenetic mark. 5hmC plays a key role in the brain, where it is particularly abundant and dynamic during development. Here, we comprehensively characterize 5hmC in the prefrontal cortices of 24 subjects. We show that, although there is inter-individual variability in 5hmC content among unrelated individuals, approximately 8 % of all CpGs on autosomal chromosomes contain 5hmC, while sex chromosomes contain far less. Our data also provide evidence suggesting that 5hmC has transcriptional regulatory properties, as the density of 5hmC was highest in enhancer regions and within exons. Furthermore, we link increased 5hmC density to histone modification binding sites, to the gene bodies of actively transcribed genes, and to exon-intron boundaries. Finally, we provide several genomic regions of interest that contain gender-specific 5hmC. Collectively, these results present an important reference for the growing number of studies that are interested in the investigation of the role of 5hmC in brain and mental disorders.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1471-2164
1471-2164
DOI:10.1186/s12864-015-1875-8