Editor's Summary

13 March 2008

Mapping the methylome

A newly developed method of characterizing an organism's 'methylome', that is the pattern of DNA methylation in the genome, has been used to generate a map of methylated cytosines in Arabidopsis to single base-pair resolution. The procedure, termed BS-Seq, combines bisulphite treatment of genomic DNA with ultra-high-throughput DNA sequencing to achieve a more precise and comprehensive result than previously possible. DNA methylation is an important factor in regulating gene expression, and this method, which can be applied to larger genomes like the mouse as well as to Arabidopsis, could prove a significant advance in the study of this form of gene regulation.

Letter: Shotgun bisulphite sequencing of the Arabidopsis genome reveals DNA methylation patterning

Shawn J. Cokus, Suhua Feng, Xiaoyu Zhang, Zugen Chen, Barry Merriman, Christian D. Haudenschild, Sriharsa Pradhan, Stanley F. Nelson, Matteo Pellegrini & Steven E. Jacobsen

doi:10.1038/nature06745

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