Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Nanopore sequencing meets epigenetics

Nature Methods volume 14, pages 347–348 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Advanced signal processing techniques enable the genome-wide analysis of methylation in native DNA using nanopore sequencing.

Most DNA sequencing technologies cannot directly distinguish between methylated and unmethylated bases in native DNA. But a pair of papers1,2 in this issue describe computational methods for doing just that using the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer. These advances make it possible to sequence this important regulatory mark without special sample preparation and, combined with the long-read single-molecule nature of the instrument, offer the potential to study allele-specific methylation in heterogeneous cancer samples and other important research settings.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: DNA methylation can be read out directly by nanopore sequencing.

References

  1. Rand, A.C. et al. Nat. Methods 14, 411–413 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Simpson, J.T. et al. Nat. Methods 14, 407–410 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jones, P.A. Nat. Rev. Genet. 13, 484–492 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Robertson, K.D. Nat. Rev. Genet 6, 597–610 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Lister, R. & Ecker, J.R. Genome Res 19, 959–966 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lister, R. et al. Nature 462, 315–322 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Flusberg, B.A. et al. Nat. Methods 7, 461–465 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Schreiber, J. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 18910–18915 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Laszlo, A.H. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 18904–18909 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael C. Schatz is in the Departments of Computer Science and Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and at the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.,

    Michael C Schatz

Authors
  1. Michael C Schatz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael C Schatz.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Schatz, M. Nanopore sequencing meets epigenetics. Nat Methods 14, 347–348 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4240

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4240

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer