Open AccessMethods in DNA methylation profiling
Author(s) -
Tao Zuo,
Benjamin Tycko,
Ta-Ming Liu,
Juey-Jen L Lin,
Tim H-M. Huang
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
epigenomics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.265
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1750-1911
pISSN - 1750-192X
DOI - 10.2217/epi.09.31
Subject(s) - dna methylation , epigenomics , biology , computational biology , epigenetics , profiling (computer programming) , genome , genomics , genetics , computer science , gene , gene expression , operating system
Metastable and somatically heritable patterns of DNA methylation provide an important level of genomic regulation. In this article, we review methods for analyzing these genome-wide epigenetic patterns and offer a perspective on the ever-expanding literature, which we hope will be useful for investigators who are new to this area. The historical aspects that we cover will be helpful in interpreting this literature and we hope that our discussion of the newest analytical methods will stimulate future progress. We emphasize that no single approach can provide a complete view of the overall methylome, and that combinations of several modalities applied to the same sample set will give the clearest picture. Given the unexpected epigenomic patterns and new biological principles, as well as new disease markers, that have been uncovered in recent studies, it is likely that important discoveries will continue to be made using genome-wide DNA methylation profiling.